As COVID-19 forces more employees to work from home, companies are reevaluating their cybersecurity plans to place an increased emphasis on securing remote access, as well as phishing and ransomware prevention.
Here are some of the most important security basics to include in your COVID-19 cybersecurity plan.
Secure Remote Access
Employees working from home may be connecting to your network using personal devices and unsecured connections (or both), making endpoint security and data loss prevention more important than ever.
To help secure remote access, make sure employees use a virtual private network (VPN) and a patched company computer. For additional protection, enforce strong password policies, two-factor authentication, and strict limits on personal device use.
Monitor Phishing Attempts (and Other Forms of Social Engineering)
With companies sending regular COVID-19-related emails, hackers have used the opportunity to coordinate phishing attacks and other types of social engineering. In most cases, hackers send emails cleverly disguised as official communications, complete with company logos and personalized messages.
While these emails are fairly typical of most phishing attacks, their target’s newfound vulnerability during the pandemic has made these attacks more successful. With people more likely to fall for these attacks, cybersecurity teams should make an extra effort to educate company employees on how to detect and avoid phishing attempts and other forms of social engineering.
Update and Patch All Devices
While regular updates and patches are an important part of every cybersecurity plan, timing is becoming a crucial factor. With some IT staff now working from home, cybersecurity teams have become less responsive to zero days.
As a result, make sure your security plan reinforces regular and timely updates whenever they come in and monitor zero days as closely as possible.
Monitor Server Activity
As cyberattacks continue to rise as a result of COVID-19, cybersecurity teams should be keeping a closer eye on their servers. However, server monitoring is often difficult and time-consuming, and cybersecurity teams may not be as responsive as they were before the pandemic.
To help augment log review and other server monitoring tasks, cybersecurity teams should utilize server monitoring software and cybersecurity network monitoring. In doing so, teams will be better equipped to handle multiple types of cyberattacks.
Train Staff and Enforce Security Policies
Any cybersecurity plan is powerless without cooperation, especially when it comes to social engineering; even the most well-intentioned employee can fall for a social engineering attack, allowing hackers to bypass almost any form of authentication.
Of course, security policies and procedures extend to cybersecurity teams, too, encompassing everything from patch policies to server monitoring procedures. As a result, enforcing these policies and procedures might be your team’s best defense against ransomware and other cyberattacks.
Invest in the Right Security Tools
Even with good policies and procedures in place, you’ll need a strong suite of security tools to help protect against the many types of cyberattacks.
With Power Admin’s server monitoring software and secure data solutions, your cybersecurity team can rest assured that nothing goes unnoticed. For more information, call our team of security professionals at 1-800-401-2339.
