COVID-19 Security Resource Centre

With many employees forced to work from home, the security protection that they would otherwise benefit from in the office is reduced. As a consequence, endpoint devices such as laptops and workstations are more vulnerable and more frequently targeted by criminals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are also accessing corporate systems and data en masse, often on personal devices and without having received security awareness training.

Homeworkers should be alert to a wide range of remote working security risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Users should be particularly aware of coronavirus-themed phishing attacks, designed to trick recipients into disclosing sensitive information and/or installing malware.

Employees also need to exercise caution when using third party applications such as video conferencing software, which could introduce security vulnerabilities and create privacy and compliance issues.

If many industry analysts are to be believed, mass remote working could become the new norm. As organisations are forced to embrace digital transformation to support new ways of working, security leaders will need to realign strategies to focus less on threat prevention and on-premises solutions, in favour of proactive detection and response and security in the cloud. More organisations may also try to move towards adopting a zero-trust security model.

Around the world, organisations are downsizing their workforce to streamline costs and improve efficiencies. Organisations that completely cut back on cyber security during this time are likely to face an increased level of risk. Attackers are targeting remote workers and organisations that don’t have suitable controls in place to protect them. A cyber security breach could be hugely damaging, inflicting extensive financial and reputational damage.

If your organisation is worried about its cyber security during the coronavirus outbreak, organisations such as the NCSC and SANS have published lots of free advice online. Security service providers are also good to turn to. Redscan, for instance, has published a COVID-19 Security Resource Centre to help share information and advice.

Protecting the safety and health of Redscan’s employees, customers and partners remains of utmost priority. To this end, we have initiated a number of business continuity measures that will ensure our security operations remain resilient and operational 24/7. This includes controls to enable our SOC to be managed remotely, without any adverse impact. Our security teams are monitoring the threat landscape closely and actively responding to the latest threat intelligence to better protect our clients.