As the Covid-19 pandemic forced IT companies to shift work to homes, the Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs or equivalent executives) are burning the midnight oil to ensure secure transmission of information back and forth.
Finding chinks in the armour, patching them up with relevant fixes, protecting intellectual property (IP) rights and ensuring smooth flow of information ― it has been quite a task for CISOs over the three-week national lockdown.
Ross McKerchar, CISO of cyber security firm Sophos, said that cyber attackers move quickly to take advantage of a situation. “Covid-19 is no different. There is a huge amount of global uncertainty and change right now which criminals are seeking to capitalise on,” he said.
The risks are amplified by the immediate and unforeseen IT challenges that companies are facing, ensuring their staff can work from home.
Remote access and phishing can be two areas where most intrusions can happen.
Allowing employees to work from home is giving them access to the networks remotely, using tools such as virtual private networks (VPN), collaboration and virtual conferencing tools.
“The key risk is weak authentication of your remote…
