It’s little wonder that with so many people now working from home, more people clambering for government packages to rescue themselves personally and professionally, that there is an increase in attempts to scam someone online. However, statistics show that cyber crime is up 667% since the start of the pandemic in the UK.

More people are working from home than ever before which means that processes for connecting devices to digital assets has now changed. Many companies will have failed to assess this in their cyber security protocols. It has also increased the reliance of businesses on their online services such as websites, hosting and email.

But for small businesses either struggling to keep the wheels going with their business or businesses that have seen significant increase in demand for their services, it’s likely that cyber security is not even on their radar. But it should be, now more than ever.

Here are the key issues companies are experiencing with the cyber security during the coronavirus pandemic:

Security of apps – some companies run internal applications that are accessible with a controlled and secure office environment. With staff now working from home, VPN capabilities may not be put in place and secure access to applications may be vulnerable. 2 Factor Authentication is becoming more important and should be implemented where possible.

Use of Personal Devices – not all companies have the resource to send staff home armed with company laptops and devices to continue doing their job. As such, personal devices with potentially lower levels of security are being used to access company information and as such leads to a much greater level of threat to cyber security, particularly with phishing and malware infections.

Huge Increase in Email Phishing – this is the most significant increase that has been seen. More phishing, both by email and text messages (smishing), are being sent in the hope that untrained staff are susceptible, and they are! Unless staff have been correctly trained in dealing with phishing attacks, there is a high chance of a malware infection.

Weak Website Security – we have seen an increase in websites penetrated and infected with malicious downloads masquerading as useful documents to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Patching is essential for any size of company to minimise the risk of a security breach.

Public Sector vulnerabilities – there have been a lot of high profile cases in the US and EU of hospitals being attacked, websites brought down and personal data stolen during the coronavirus pandemic. Malware posing as coronavirus related documents are circulating and are infectious so necessary security steps need to be put in place. AZORult is one attack, the largest private hospital operator in Europe was also hit in May 2020 with a cyber attack.

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