10 cybersecurity tips to fortify your devices while working from home

Countries are bracing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic by going into indefinite lock down, implying that most of the citizens are working from their home to control the spread of the coronavirus. Albeit, this change in work culture could benefit the spread of coronavirus, paradoxically it has increased the number of cyberattacks that are exploiting people’s anxiety about the pandemic.

European Union Agency for Cybesecurity (ENISA) and the Nation Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have identified a number of coronavirus clouting phishing scams, malicious and dubious websites, coronavirus ransomware affecting industries, including the healthcare organizations that are governing the COVID-19 victims.

Considering the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation we at The Cybersecurity Times, wanted to offer some tips to remote workers for improving their cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity tips for remote workers

1. Check the Wi-Fi connections, ensure the routers do have the right security configurations in place. Old routers do not come with essential security measures, an easy to hop in Wi-Fi connections can become gateway for hackers nearby. Make it a closed network, set a strong password, enable network encryption, filter MAC addresses, reduce the range of the router’s signal, update the router’s firmware periodically. 
2. Ensure the device does have an anti-virus solution and it is kept updated for new definitions.
3. Check whether the device has been updated to the latest operating system version, and other applications are updated with the latest patches. Moreover, do not forget to update the browser add-ons and plugins as these could be crucial.
4. Always backup files and essentials, a ransomware could encrypt make thing further worse. So do backup, and ensure that the backup tool is always updated.
5. Practise using a VPN to keep the communication encrypted and secured. It is the time like this when man-in-the-middle attack could be deployed clouting on the work from home culture of businesses.
6. In case of identifying malicious activities, the employees should know whom to contact, what to be disclosed and how to handle the situation. Detection awareness program has to be evangelized among the employees.
7. Request IT admins to employ new security policies like mandatory six days log out of the accounts, multi-factor authentication and zero trust security.
8. Organizations and employees need to adopt remote working tools to improve the productivity which plays a vital role in keeping the economy going but also making sure their security frameworks are solid.
9. Virtual events, signing of documents and conferences can be incorporated using free remote work tools that are being offered by numerous software vendors.
10. Restrict privileges based on the criticality and roles, do not give access to all the business sensitive documents.

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