Why is information security management important now? A year has passed since the start of the global lockdown.
But, we can still feel the consequences of information security threats. Read on to know about the importance of InfoSec management in these turbulent times.
Information Security Management: Why Important Amid COVID-19 Crisis
For the whole year of 2020, the world has been fighting the coronavirus pandemic. But, it affected not only our health and the countries’ economies.
In addition to its obvious effects, it also brought sudden and drastic changes in our daily lives. For one, work and study moved to the home. For another, videoconferencing tools replaced social meetings. But, the massive shift to digital worsened cybersecurity concerns.
In this article, we will cover some of the reasons why you need robust information security management.
Information security management prevents threats in home offices
The main change in companies is the forced transition to working from home. But like our health situation, we didn’t see this change coming. And that left us unprepared for its effects.
Still, surveys show that many employees had never worked from home before. Despite that fact, employers did not give any special training on being secure over the Internet. So, most of the security incidents were because of the human factor.
Home equipment
Another concern is the BYOD or Bring Your Own Device arrangements of companies. Most of them didn’t provide their employees with corporate equipment.
So, employees had to use their own devices, which are poorly protected. Cybercriminals can exploit these devices as they have no security tools.
Remote workers also use their personal devices for entertainment. For instance, they play online games or watch movies.
However, many of those who use company laptops use these for unintended purposes. For example, 18% of respondents used them to view adult content. And cybercriminals can lure them to fake sites and persuade them to download malware.
Unfortunately, many users admitted that they downloaded software from torrent websites. And as you likely know, they can be a place where malware is just waiting for you to be downloaded.
Unsecured channels
When employees work in the office, they are protected under IT admins on their channels. But at home, they have to use their own routers and networks. And it can be a way for cyberattacks to enter.
As such, many attacks from March to April 2020 were because of remote connections from those who WFH. In fact, reports show that unsecured channels increased tenfold in Russia alone.
Vulnerabilities in collaboration tools
Because of the health protocols, employees can’t meet together to collaborate. They also can’t do business meetings in their conference rooms.
So, there has been a rise in collaboration tools and videoconferencing apps. But, this growth attracted interest from cybercriminals.
For example, Microsoft Teams had a vulnerability in their messaging service. It unintentionally allowed attackers to gain access to all accounts in an organization.
Around the same time, Zoom developers also fixed bugs. This bug allowed outsiders to take control of a device by a user. And this instance can actually be scary.
For one, employees use one email for all of their accounts. And if one of their accounts is hacked, the hacker can access everything. That’s why information security management is important now.
