The global COVID-19 pandemic caused plights in plenty of areas. It disrupted businesses, derailed long-term plans, and caused significant changes in everyone’s way of life – overall, it irrevocably changed the way business is done on a global scale.
The pandemic forced a lot of industries to turn to online operations and to utilize other means of doing business. The health threats caused a shift – from having people go to work to having people work remotely from home. Businesses transitioned their work to the cloud, facilitating remote work for employees.
Turning to online and remote work is a double-edged sword. On one side, many employees get better working conditions when working from home, but on the other side, many businesses suffer data risks and potential losses. The greatest risk with this practice is the exposure of business-critical systems to cyber threats.
This problem has been here for some time, but not as pronounced or dangerous as one would expect. Having a major part in the way businesses perform, the secure, reliable, online connections amid this global crisis are the foundation for any successful industry, no matter the respective niche.
This brings us to agree that on top of the health pandemic, we are also facing a cyber pandemic. The cyber pandemic rears its ugly head in many ways, from “simple” phishing scams to ransomware, data breaches, hacking, video hijacking, and more serious fraudulent activities. Thus, with the advances in cyber threats, the need for an appropriate cybersecurity response is evident.
Cyber attackers are adaptable to changes, so you need to be smart in finding ways of protecting your business and prevent sensitive information from leaving your company. We have listed some of the ways you can protect yourself, your employees, and precious data from becoming victims of a cyber-attack:
- Use VPN connections: The VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a way to add an extra layer of security when doing remote work. The VPN will protect against low-level threats, as it masks the location of the end users, making it more difficult for hackers to access your data.
- Update data security policies to the changing trends: The data security policies must keep in line with the changing trends and your employees need to know and uphold them. This is especially important when working from home, as the home networks usually don’t follow the same security standards as office networks.
- Limit access to confidential data: while most employees may have had access to sensitive and confidential data while at the office, this needs to change now. Restricting the access protects the company assets against attacks, while the employees need to have access to only the data necessary for their part of the work.
- Utilize a cloud based ERP to remotely manage & access data: A cloud based ERP System can allow you, your employees, and potentially your clients (depending on the type, and use of your system) to securely access files from anywhere. All while still maintaining the required level of cybersecurity in our current professional landscape.
- Remind employees of confidentiality: often people take the way we communicate online for granted, which can expose sensitive data to unwanted parties. This goes for online communication of any kind, like messages, video-conferences, and even cell phone communication. There are specific ways to secure each of these communication channels and update your cybersecurity.
To help protect your business and industry against such attacks, you need to be on top of your game and act immediately. Find out more here on how you can protect your business against impending threats, and ensure you are getting the most out of your existing tech stack and ERP.
