With people sheltering in place and working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CMIT Solutions has put together some helpful cybersecurity tips to help you keep your information safe. Working from home presents a specific set of risks for your business information, so it is essential to use best practices when it comes to cybersecurity. Follow these tips for a safer working at home experience:
Keep an Eye Out for ScamsUnfortunately, during a crisis, cybercriminals will come out of the woodwork to take advantage of businesses that have been disrupted and are working to transition to a work-from-home environment.
These cybercriminals may use the COVID-19 pandemic to attempt to scam people out of their data money or to gain access to their systems. To protect yourself from these scams:
- Be vigilant and use critical thinking when you receive phone calls, messages, or emails from an unfamiliar address or phone number.
- Be cautious when opening attachments, messages, or clicking links from unknown senders.
- Be suspicious of any requests for personal details, passwords, or bank details, especially if the message comes across as urgent.
If you have any doubts about who the sender or caller is, avoid taking any immediate action. Wait until you can re-establish communication later through contact methods that you have vetted and sourced yourself.
To keep your information secure, be sure to allow automatic updates for your devices and systems such as your tablets, laptops, and mobile phones. In many cases, software updates for both applications and operating systems are developed to address any security issues. They will often feature new security measures that will protect your company’s data and devices.
Using a strong and unique passphrase is the top line of defense against cybercriminals and should be used on all portable devices you use for work, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.
It is recommended that you use a different passphrase for each app and website. This is especially important for those who store any personal information or credit card details. If you use the same email and passphrase for every account, you put all accounts at risk once one has been compromised.
With multi-factor authentication, you can effectively prevent unauthorized access to applications, online services, and computers that will help to keep your company’s data safe. With multiple layers of defense, it is much more difficult for some to hack into your systems. Even if a cybercriminal steals information such as your PIN, it will be difficult for them to steal all the information needed for any given account.
- Information you know, such as a passphrase, PIN, or an answer to a secret question
- Something that you physically possess, such as a card, security key, or token.
- Something that you inherently possess, such as your fingerprint or your retina pattern.
It is also essential to be careful about who you provide access to your device. You should avoid lending your laptops to family members or children using your work account or profile. This could lead to them deleting valuable information, unintentionally sharing sensitive information, or clicking a link and introducing malicious software to your device.
If you plan to share your devices and computers with family or members of your household, be sure to create a separate profile for each person to log in to with their own username and passphrase.
Free wireless internet is tempting to use, but it is crucial to avoid it, especially when working with company data or other private information. In most cases, free Wi-Fi is insecure and can easily expose your data to cybercriminals.
Some cybercriminals go as far as to set up “fake” Wi-Fi hotspots that have legitimate-sounding names and can steal your banking information, account passwords, communications, and other valuable information that could compromise your business operations.
As you continue to work from home, be sure to use a trusted connection such as mobile internet service or home internet from your provider.
If you have to transport work from the shop or office to your home, a portable storage device, such as a USB drive, can easily get misplaced. Without proper access control on these devices, you can harm your systems with malware. If you do have to use portable storage devices, be sure they are protected with passphrases and encryption.
At CMIT Solutions, we understand that this transition to working from home can be difficult for many Pittsburgh business owners. Fortunately, we have a variety of cybersecurity solutions that Pittsburgh business owners can take advantage of to protect their company’s data as their operations continue in a work-from-home environment.