Covid-19: New Challenges in the World of Cyber-security | Free Antivirus Software

The COVID-19 pandemic has made its adjustments in the lives of each of us. Due to quarantine restrictions, companies are forced to organize remote work of their employees. However, while the whole world is focused on the problems of adaptation to "remote living", cybercriminals are undoubtedly trying to benefit from this crisis. According to Deloitte, the transition to remote work has increased phishing attacks, malicious spam emails and uploading virus code to the company's network in order to gain access to the customer database. With this in mind, there have been more appeals to specialized organizations to secure remote jobs and private information.

The transition of employees to remote operation is always accompanied by certain risks, including security protocol errors, which open access to the internal infrastructure to outsiders. Therefore, in order not to fall victim to attackers, we recommend that you pay attention to the cybersecurity of remote workplaces and the establishment of a secure connection to the network. 

First of all, we note the most common errors in the protection protocol, which can lead to fatal consequences. So Security Trails notes that from the end of February 2020, the number of available nodes under the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is growing rapidly. On average, 10% of such nodes are vulnerable to BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708). Potentially, this technology can be used to upload "network worms" to companies' cyberspace. In other words, with the launch of malicious code, attackers will gain remote access to company data. 

Citrix, or Remote Desktop, is increasingly being used to organize remote work. In other words, it is a protocol designed to work remotely with the service through the management of a working PC. In the event of an error in setting up this program, attackers will not only be able to connect to the company's cyberspace, but also to influence all vital processes. Do not forget about other vulnerabilities in the remote desktop protocol. In particular, CVE-2012-0002 is still found on the network. This vulnerability leads to remote code writing and execution in order to breed "network worms". In this way, attackers will not be able to access one or two files, but the entire system. 

It should be remembered that as a result of any unauthorized influence, the company will incur significant losses associated not only with the recovery of cyberspace and lost information but with the payment of fines for data leakage on the Internet. In addition, it is obvious that the correction of the consequences of cyberattacks may be delayed, which means that the company will not be able to normalize its work during this time. So a few days of downtime should be added to the cost. 

In view of all this, the results of a survey conducted by the British company ERNST & Young, which covered more than a thousand executives of companies around the world, including Ukrainian ones, seem more than real. In particular, three-quarters of Ukrainian companies are increasing their cybersecurity costs by at least 50% to protect remote workplaces and establish a secure connection to the work network. 

According to the report of the International Labor Organization on the organization of labour in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the case of a remote workplace, the employer is obliged to ensure the protection of any information. If remote work involves the processing of confidential information, the employer must ensure that the systems provide protection for such data during their transmission. 

So how do you resist intruders and protect your network from unauthorized intrusions during the Covid-19 pandemic?

It is extremely important to update operating systems, office products and free antivirus software. In addition, you need to warn employees about the dangers of using outdated browsers, such as the older version of Internet Explorer. Before upgrading your home computers, you should back up your system so that you can restore it if you lose any data. 

When it comes to creating passwords, it is recommended that you use passwords at least 12 characters long for personal accounts and at least 15 characters long for work accounts when connecting remotely. Also when creating code, use different types of characters (lowercase and uppercase letters, special characters, numbers). Forget about intuitive passwords, when using them, you will not be able to protect your data.  

You should also mention the possible problems associated with the organization of VPN access. System administrators may not have time to reconfigure the equipment in a short time and provide all users with proper access without violating the rules of differentiation. As a result, to ensure business continuity, IT professionals will have to choose the simplest option - to open access to the required network not to one employee, but to all VPN users. This approach significantly reduces security and opens opportunities not only for external cyberattacks but also significantly increases the risk of internal encroachment. With this in mind, we recommend that you contact specialists to securely organize remote VPN access.

In addition, we recommend paying attention to the electronic document management system. According to the Australian Information Security Association, access to documentation should be configured individually for each individual user. Otherwise, it can lead to unwanted data leakage on the Internet. 

Summing up, it should be noted that as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, humanity has faced radically new challenges in the field of cybersecurity. Given the latest news about the new strain of Covid-19, we can expect that in the coming months will again have to adapt to remote work. So you should make sure that such a transition is safe and turn to specialists in this field, such as Data.