Cybercriminals Target WFH Employees. Here’s How To Stop Them!

WFH employees are a dream target for cybercriminals. Home networks are not as well protected as businesses and it’s often the case that employees are not aware of the tactics employed by malicious actors.

Gaining access to your business’ information through a WFH employee is an easy way of stealing a lot of money. With lockdown bringing a 569% increase in attacks on WFH employees, cyber-security is something businesses can not afford to ignore.

What Can My WFH Employees Do To Protect Themselves From Cyber Attack?

The easiest way in for cybercriminals is usually human error. Cyber experts reveal that 90% of data breaches are caused by employees.

A typical error is setting passwords that are too easy to crack. Another frailty is using the same password across multiple platforms and applications. Encourage WFH employees to use complex passwords – change them regularly.

But human error also provides cybercriminals with a discreet backdoor into your business data. Personal devices can easily become riddled with viruses and spyware that can see everything you’re typing.

You should also encourage your employees to use a good VPN at all times. VPNs are not expensive, and more importantly, encrypt data. VPN’s make it much harder for cybercriminals to intercept and decipher information being passed between computers.

Investing in Cyber Security Services

Cyber-security services can be expensive, but cyber attacks are even more expensive. In the USA, the average small business loses $200,000 from an attack.

Your team may not be aware of the many strategies cybercriminals use – or the best to defend against them. Make it your business to raise the awareness of cybercrime among your employees. Failing to do so could be devastatingly costly.

Data protection laws stipulate that businesses are responsible for protecting the data of your customers. If you suffer a data breach you could be facing a hefty fine.

GDPR penalties for a data breach could cost you up to 2% of your annual global turnover or 10 million euro – whichever is higher.

Installing remote monitoring software to keeps tabs on all traffic and activity within your business systems will help you defend any claim aimed at you by the authorize.

As soon as cybersecurity software discovers suspicious behavior, the account trying to be accessed will be frozen until the user and location have been verified. Although inconvenient at the time, freezing systems rapidly might just save your business from extinction.

Investing in Hardware for your WFH Employees

You can limit cybersecurity errors by making sure your WFH employees use specific devices for work and different devices for personal use. The easiest way to create this separation is to provide your employees’ hardware.

Separation of work and pleasure effectively limits the time and activities which could lead to a company system being infected by debilitating malware.

A Cyber Secure Future

Cyber-security is no longer a consideration. It’s foundational. Encouraging good practice from your WFH employees will only get you so far and cyber-attacks can financially cripple your business. Invest in hardware and cyber-security solutions that keep malicious actors and data protection regulators at bay.