The current global pandemic caused by COVID-19 also has a clear impact on the cybersecurity sector and more specifically on internal risk management .
Companies are faced with the need to decentralize their activity, sending their staff to work remotely from their homes, distributing work locations and, therefore, having to assume the increased risk that this entails for their assets: information leaks , loss of know-how or intellectual property and increases in digital fraud of multiple different types.
Although the work equipment, or terminals that the employees are going to use, are (or should be) perfectly secured, the same is not going to happen with networks, communication tools, file storage systems, etc. In addition, these measures will affect all employees equally, those who manage critical systems, strategic information, files protected by GDPR regulations, etc.
Companies must therefore be prepared to minimize as far as possible these risks, which we include in the following sections:
1.- Increased risk derived from the use of terminals, software, networks, communication systems, file sharing systems, etc. non-corporate and therefore outside the IT environment secured by the company. With the decentralization of the company’s activity, the security perimeter is blurred.
2.- Increase in threats and attacks from hackers, hacktivist groups and international organized crime in general that will try to fish in this troubled waters taking advantage of all the weaknesses explained in the previous point.
3.- Increased pressure of different stressors on employees. Under isolation conditions, companies need to know what the support, awareness, and psychological needs of their employees are, in order to minimize the level of risk to which they are exposed. In a quarantine situation such as the one we are experiencing, factors such as job uncertainty, demotivation, anguish or boredom increase, which depending on the psychological characteristics of each person may be handled in different ways. Therefore, knowing people and having the right tools to act in each case is essential to meet the challenge we face today.
For all the foregoing, it is clear that companies must take measures and stand by their employees, supporting them, to improve the cybersecurity posture.
Kymatio’s team of experts has started a series of articles in which to explain how Kymatio helps organizations and employees to be prepared against the increasing risks that are constantly appearing in an interconnected and globalized world, and especially in the exceptional case quarantine due to Covid-19.
Contact Kymatio now to strengthen the organization’s cybersecurity posture.
