How Companies Can Protect Themselves From Cyberattacks During The Pandemic

The global pandemic is threatening the health of millions of people, and it is also indirectly compromising millions of businesses. As companies embrace working from home to protect their staff from virus contamination, they must address their susceptibility to cyberattacks, which this work model increases.

Cybercrime Is Increasing During The Pandemic

The International Criminal Police Organization reports a significant rise in cybercriminal activity, including phishing, ransomware attacks, and data harvesting attacks focusing on large corporations while remaining a threat to small businesses. 

According to cybersecurity veteran David Walsh Bronxville, browser-based attacks are the dominant threat to businesses’ cybersecurity because of criminals’ easy access to confidential data through browsers that remain open during the workday. Cybercriminals who have free access to web browsers can better undertake phishing attacks, which continue to be the top cybersecurity threat in recent years. 

Companies can protect themselves from various forms of cyber criminality by implementing key policies and strategies.

Raise Employees’ Awareness

The first step toward preventing cyberattacks is educating employees about how they may occur. Attackers use increasingly sophisticated tactics to target unsuspecting employees who do not recognize red flags. Ongoing training can help employees identify clues to the continually changing methods by which cybercriminals attempt to infiltrate private networks. Developing and establishing protocols for communicating breaches should be part of every company’s standard operating procedures.  

Monitor System Usage

Although working from home may prompt employees to access company networks during non-traditional hours, it is still possible to detect suspicious system usage that could indicate unauthorized access. Security systems that issue alerts about unusual login patterns can allow companies to thwart attacks before creating irreversible damage.

Prepare a Recovery Strategy

Despite significant measures to prevent cyber attacks, companies can not protect themselves from all cybercrime activities. Criminals’ tactics continue to evolve and grow more sophisticated, making protection against them increasingly challenging. As pandemic work accommodations continue, companies’ chances of experiencing attacks also increase. 

Cyber attack recovery protocols are vital for minimizing damage and instrumental to a company’s survival following a security breach. It is crucial to establish a team to anticipate various kinds of attacks and create a step-by-step plan for managing a wide range of potential scenarios. A typical strategy may include alerting appropriate managers, identifying, stopping, and eliminating the source and reassessing security measures. Some data breaches may warrant alerting the authorities or the public about the incident.

Cybercrime will continue to affect businesses in new ways as criminals revise their strategies. Companies face the challenge of staying one step ahead of criminals by anticipating their moves.