The extra security risks that come with working from home
The impact of COVID-19 has meant many of us have had to work from home resulting, in many employees having possession of sensitive company data which ranges from, financial data, client information, personal information and confidential data and documents.
Sensitive data is information which, must be protected against unauthorised access. This sensitive data should be managed through appropriate data security and information security processes designed to prevent any data breaches.
Along with the increasing rise of regulatory standards across many industries which, has now created more of a need for data management and cyber security.
Unauthorised access to your most sensitive data could damage your business reputation, ruin customer relationships and trust, not to mention a breach of customer privacy.
Cyber criminals, have become more advanced and are changing strategies and exploiting COVID-19 concerns, making working from home a new avenue for them to carry out data theft and cyber-attacks.
Being vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data theft is not only due to poor technological infrastructure but also inadequate cyber security. This is a risk to all businesses and recent studies show that it severely hinders the productivity of employees working from home.
A recent study from Deloitte found that ‘one quarter of all employees have noticed an increase in fraudulent emails, spam and phishing attempts in their corporate email since the start of the pandemic’. Almost ‘26% said they’re tempted to keep copies of valuable data in case “the worst comes to the worst” such as the company becomes insolvent or they lose their job’.
How to manage disciplining employees responsible for those data breaches?
Security breaches of personal information are an unfortunate consequence of the technological advances in communications. A company must arm itself with the tools to prevent these breaches before they even occur. In the event of a breach, a business should address it immediately. Beyond basic compliance, prudent companies should move to restore confidence, repair reputations and prevent further abuses by revisiting their internal processes and policies, and ensuring that these policies are well communicated, and easily visible and accessible to all employees no matter their place of work. Companies are also strongly advised to refresh their IT policy to ensure it is in line with remote working.