The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has undisputedly changed how we do things. One massive change is that more people have begun working from home than ever before. With the massive increase in remote work, along with the lack of cybersecurity there has been an explosion in cybercriminal activity like phishing. COVID-19 crisis scammers capitalized on chaos.
Phishing is defined as the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers. These scams happen everyday and with more people being online unfortunately continues to rise.
With a survey of 7,000 office workers in the US, UK, Australia/New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy and Japan gaining information about their understanding of phishing, their email and click habits, and how their online lives have changed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic a better understanding was created on how employees handle phishing.
1 in 5 people have received a phishing email related to COVID-19 and less than 3 out of 5 of workers worldwide think they know enough to keep themselves and their data safe from cyberattacks. The US has gotten more than any other country (1 in 4), suggesting phishers may be targeting the Americans more heavily which makes preparing employees in America very important.
If you are worried you or your employees could or already have fallen for one of these phishing campaigns call Acme Business. You will be set up with a full cyber security system custom to your business needs, don’t wait until next year to set up your system because the criminals surely won’t.
Below are some tips on how to stay cyber resilient:
- Know your risk factors and over prepare. Once you’ve assessed the risks, you can create a stronger data breach response plan.
- Ensure workers have clear distinctions between work and personal time, devices, and obligations. This helps reduce the amount of uncertainty that can ultimately lead to phishing-related breaches.
- Back up data and make sure employees can access and retrieve data no matter where they are. Accidents happen; what matters most is being able to recover quickly and effectively. Don’t forget to back up collaboration tools too, such as Microsoft® Teams and the Microsoft® 365 suite.
- Invest in your people. Empower your people with regular training to help them successfully avoid scams and exercise appropriate caution online.
- Update software and systems regularly. Hackers often exploit security holes in older software versions and operating systems. Updates help shut the door on malware.
- Stay on your toes. By being vigilant and maintaining a healthy dose of suspicion about all links and attachments in messages, you can significantly decrease your phishing risk.
- Use cybersecurity and backup software. Install antivirus on all your devices and make sure important data and files are backed up to secure cloud storage or an external hard drive.
- Educate yourself. Even if your company provides training, Dr. Rajivan recommends we all subscribe to cybersecurity-related content in the form of podcasts, social media, blogs, and reputable information sources to help keep strong, cyber resilient behavior top-of-mind.
Information from the pdf linked below, click to learn more.
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