Remote Work Security Challenges Amidst COVID-19

Cyberattacks Have Grown During Pandemic

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020 and pandemic declaration in late March, organizations and federal agencies have been scrambling to secure their systems and create remote work contingency plans to keep continuity for their business matters.   

VMware Carbon Blackcomposed a June 2020 Global Threat Report to build on researchtaken in March and April where 1002 CIOs, CTOs, and CISOswere surveyed in global industries related to finance, healthcare, government authority, retail, manufacturing, engineering and more. The security professionals were surveyed on their IT infrastructure, secure systems management, increases in cybersecurity incidents, and their remote work readiness.

Based on the data in VMware Carbon Black’s report, companies have been hit hard with possible breaches to their networks which has shownsignificant gaps in their IT infrastructure. One of the questions the survey posed was: “which of the following threats associated with COVID-19 have been the biggest threat to your company so far?” 29% of the global respondents suggested that their major threat to the company was they could not establish multifactor authentication across their platforms..

90% of the global organizations that responded to the survey suggested that cyberattacks against their company have increased in 12 months from October 2019 to the present. 80% of those same respondents reported that the cyberattacks have grown more sophisticated during that same time frame.

The most alarming piece of data comes from the survey question: “has the overall number of typical cyber-attacks on your system changed as a result of more employees working from home?” The report suggests “91% of all global respondents stated that they had seen an increase in overall cyberattacks as a result of employees working from home.”

Hackers have taking advantage of an organization’s operating system onbusiness commissioned laptop computerson unprotected, “user-employee” ISP networks. These attacks have also involved data leaks, email compromising, and transaction fraud through COVID-19 related malware such as phishing, spear fishing, ransomware, and masquerading. These notable threats to your company’s infrastructure, employee and client data, and other confidential information assets can place your business at extreme risk. As your business continuity “revs up” in the coming months, you want to make sure that your company’s data is protected as your employees work from home.

Is Your Company Protected?

You should connect with our award-winning experts.

As an innovative, global cybersecurity and information technology consulting firm, Wilson Consulting Group recognizes that security is a top priority for businesses and federal agencies. We offer services we provide can identify vulnerabilities, detect potential threats, and successfully protect your information:  

• Cyber Security Services: Protecting sensitive and proprietary data from cyber threats is a constant challenge for organizations big and small. A company’s success depends on its ability to counter internal and external attacks, while staying one step ahead. Our highly skilled information security team has the expertise to identify, evaluate, minimize, and minimize cyber security threats to your network infrastructure. 

• Vulnerability Assessments: WCG assesses the resiliency of systems, networks, and devices that protect, process, store and transmit information. We also identify security issues that might compromise the organization’s information, systems, or devices to determine the weaknesses of your information systems.

• Comprehensive Security Assessment: To establish an effective security strategy, you must begin with an accurate evaluation of your current information security posture. This service evaluates all aspects of the organization to determine where there are risks. WCG supplies its clients with a comprehensive report on the findings from the test and includes recommendations. This is how WCG helps to mitigate all identified vulnerabilities for our clients.

• Penetration Testing: WCG’s Penetration Testing service is an application and network security assessment offered to government agencies and private organizations who want to evaluate any threats and vulnerabilities to their application and network environment. We conduct real-life testing of an organization’s applications, systems, and devices to identify vulnerable Internet Protocol (IP) access points and determine where resilience to internal and external attacks and breaches are weak. 

Connect with our experts.  

WCG is an innovative global cybersecurity consulting firm that aims to provide companies with solutions to keep their systems secure. We offer Cyber Security Assessment, Penetration Testing, Application Security Assessment, and Vulnerability Assessment services to evaluate any threats that your organization may face and provide solutions to combat them.