What is the IT security risk from the COVID-19 pandemic?

by | Nov 19, 2020 | Security

The more public your network, The Higher the Risk

With the new measures that 2020 brought us and the need for long distance communication using technology, going public over the internet brings out a high severe IT security risk

Working from home can pose IT Security Risks                                                                                                                    Photo by NeONBRAND

The year 2020 has brought a new lifestyle to the world due to the Coronavirus spread reaching more than 50 million infections in a 10-month duration and killing over 1.2 million people worldwide. According to researchers, the virus can easily spread through the air within a 2-meter distance prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to shout out the severe impact of this virus and prompting the global move to work from home (WFH). 

Not only individuals were hit by this threat as businesses were also severely impacted with minimized product consumption to primary needs, declining stocks, loss of revenue, and another virus rising from Cyber Security attacks.

Is it really good to work from home?

The COVID-19 situation has pointed out a new lifestyle for the whole world making online activities key during this era. Stay at home. Order your needs online. Wait for delivery. All these have raised questions for businesses: How will I continue to sell? I can’t see my customer’s facial expressions – is this customer real or a fraud? 

Despite this decline, businesses have managed to forcefully cut back on costs. No more travel expenses. No more high office utility bills. Gaining high productivity from their employees. 

However, to implement this, organizations have had to allow access for the WFH users to internal resources in a very short period, opening doors for Cyber Security attackers to infiltrate their users’ machines, away from the office, and move laterally to reach internal networks. An example of such an attack is the increase of data sharing over the internet combined with usage of insecure networks at home which can lead to a devastating situation for the organization.

IT Security in the COVID Era

To outline what organizations have implemented to start the working from home journey, they implemented remote working connectors to their internal assets and forcefully changed their security devices configuration to allow these connections. They procured multiple solutions and configured them to maintain their business productivity ratio. However, all these major changes were mandated in a very short period bringing a high risk of error keeping a backdoor open for potential attackers. 

Well, with Octopus VAR, we are validating and analyzing the changes, alerting you of any security violations, and reporting to Risk Managers all the activities done during the migration phase in real-time, decreasing the probability of a cyber security attack on your network.

Contact us for a free consultation and to learn more how Octopus VAR will help you mitigate faster and secure your network proactively