Challenges and concerns with cyber attacks in the home office period

The COVID19 pandemic triggered a series of changes without having time for planning and changing the perspective for the future for everyone. The imposition of social isolation as a protective measure led to the adoption of remote work as a solution for business continuity. However, if essential activities were maintained, the home office revealed barriers to infrastructure, business models and planning for the new context and brought new challenges and concerns related to data security to organizations, given the significant increase in scams. observed digital. The lack of direct control by the IT departments, the different addresses of the employees, different IoT devices used in their homes (smartphones, video games, TV etc.), with simple and unified access passwords for Wi-FI networks, already outline a scenario of vulnerability. Proof of this are the numerous frauds carried out from the use of the word coronavirus to attract users, such as the phishing , the vishing, the smishing and pretexting.

Among the most frequent recommendations to increase IT security during home office periods are the use of VPNs to access corporate data; the application of two-factor authentication for access to internal networks, disk encryption, the constant updating of antivirus and antispam, the use of recent versions of browsers, secure e-mails and cloud application solutions. In addition to these measures, it is important that teams continue to follow the IT industry guidelines and report any suspicious facts.

Despite the concerns, however, there seems to be a consensus on some advantages of the home office, provided that the security systems are strengthened, authenticated processes for exchanging messages are developed, preventive training and tests are carried out and the teams are made aware of the fundamental role of security. on thee.