{"id":41807,"date":"2021-02-18T12:48:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T04:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=41807"},"modified":"2021-02-18T12:48:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T04:48:51","slug":"cybersecurity-experts-identify-threats-as-work-from-home-becomes-the-norm-calls-for-businesses-to-protect-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2021\/02\/18\/cybersecurity-experts-identify-threats-as-work-from-home-becomes-the-norm-calls-for-businesses-to-protect-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity experts identify threats as work-from-home becomes the norm, calls for businesses to protect themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic lurched businesses towards the digital space, and as work-from-home continues to be the norm, there is also an increased awareness in cybersecurity. Enterprises both big and small are faced with cyber threats, and the need to adopt security measures is more critical than ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlmost 97% of Asia Pacific organizations made changes to their policies to shift for remote working. All of a sudden we went from business continuity planning to execution,\u201d Kerry Singleton, Managing Director for Cybersecurity Cisco APJC, reported during the fourth episode of the tech company\u2019s webinar series, Navigating the Shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The series goes on a deep dive on the pandemic\u2019s impact across industries, and in this episode titled <a href=\"https:\/\/fb.watch\/334ZeWY-YP\/\"><em>Cybersecurity Today: Addressing the New Threat Landscape<\/em><\/a>, Singleton, along with other experts in the field, examined changes in the cybersecurity landscape as businesses went online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are a lot of breaches happening. There were breaches early [in 2020] and it increased with remote work,\u201d GIAC Information Security Expert DefCon Black Badge Raymond Nunez observed. The former Security Consultant of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) mentioned that these include SMS- and voice-based phishing, also known as smishing and vishing. While automated spam filters are available in emails, SMS and voice services rely on users to determine scams.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nunez also reported breaches due to weak credentials in user accounts, stating that attackers are still able to penetrate organizations using passwords as easy as \u201c1234\u201d. This shows a certain level of vulnerability currently present among the online community, including businesses that could be negatively impacted as work-from-home is foreseen to be here for the long haul.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to customers across the globe. They\u2019re all thinking about how do we return to work, and a common theme that I\u2019m seeing is that they are going to leave a percentage of their workforce working remotely,\u201d shared Singleton. He pointed out that a few large tech companies in the US have even gone for a 100% work-from-home policy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The remote setup had employees bringing home their workstations, taking devices out of the protection of cybersecurity systems found inside offices and leaving them vulnerable to threats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe threats are not getting any smaller&nbsp;\u2013 they&#8217;re getting bigger and more maverick,\u201d Emmanuel Caintic, Assistant Secretary of DICT, commented. \u201cNow more than ever is the time to invest in your network security. It\u2019s an insurance and it doesn\u2019t cost much. It\u2019s actually more expensive to remediate after an attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aside from cost implications, successful attacks can result to client loss and business shutdown due to bad reputation from having been breached. Thus, the speakers called for businesses to take security measures, with educating staff on cyber hygiene habits as the first line of defense. These include being vigilant when opening attachments, clicking links, and providing information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another recommendation is for businesses to invest in endpoint security and visibility now that endpoint devices like laptops and phones are deployed in employees\u2019 homes. Technologies such as multi-factor authentication or MFA was also raised as a way to ensure a person\u2019s identity. \u201cThat inconvenience of a few seconds of having to check your phone to log in to that two-factor authentication could spell a lot of difference,\u201d Caintic mentioned. According to Nunez, Google and Microsoft have also deployed MFA to prevent breaches and were rewarded with good success rates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve seen online banking, government applications, and a lot of social media and email platforms move down that path, but the corporate environment and businesses [also] need to look at multi-factor authentication as the first step in their process,\u201d Singleton agreed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cisco offers Duo MFA which requires users to push a token to their smartphones \u2013 a technology that the company uses itself for security. \u201cSo we&#8217;ve got the username and password, and then we&#8217;ve got the multi-factor authentication piece that sits over the top of it as well,\u201d Singleton added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The highly-esteemed tech company offers other cybersecurity solutions that are used by enterprises around the globe, but are still scalable from small- to large-sized businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a small business, if you can afford to invest in device systems and secure the devices that you give to your employees or you station in your business, that\u2019s the best solution,\u201d said Caintic. As an alternative, he suggested investing in a virtual private network (VPN) service and in malware protection programs \u2013 which have to be kept updated in order to safeguard systems from evolving cyber-attacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, for bigger enterprises and those in public service such as telco companies, Caintic recommended flawless business continuity programs on top of robust cybersecurity technologies to ensure minimal disruption in business and service when an attack occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Big or small, experts agree that businesses urgently need to look more into the cybersecurity landscape as industries continue to shift online in the new normal. It may seem intimidating and complicated with the various systems and jargon, but there are tools like Cisco SecureX that give businesses a single comprehensive platform to view threats and respond to them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[Cybersecurity] has to be foundational and has to be built into our digitization strategy and everything that we do today,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cIt doesn&#8217;t matter if you&#8217;re a one-person company or if you&#8217;ve got tens of thousands of people. Potentially, everybody is vulnerable; attackers don&#8217;t discriminate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The remote setup had employees bringing home their workstations, taking devices out of the protection of cybersecurity systems found inside offices and leaving them vulnerable to threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1779,19,22],"tags":[410,6498,6151,54,2103,4100,1145,2747,96,2727,1704,1656],"class_list":["post-41807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines-2","category-headlines","category-spotlight","tag-cisco","tag-good-tech","tag-high-tech","tag-security","tag-security-breach","tag-security-solutions","tag-tech-for-smbs","tag-tech-for-smes","tag-technology","tag-technology-adaption","tag-technology-at-home","tag-technology-investment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}