Month: November 2020

After several cyber incidents in the island nation, the Government of Sri Lanka proposed the CyberSecurity Act under the National Cyber Security Strategy of Sri Lanka, finalised by Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT). It is a comprehensive framework to prevent and mitigate cybersecurity threats effectively and safeguard critical information across various industries.

In order to ensure a strong and secure economy amid the global pandemic, Sri Lanka is not behind in Cybersecurity preparedness. ARCON has witnessed strong demand for data security solutions especially from the BFSI segment in Sri Lanka. ARCON has a good track record in the country with a flourishing partner ecosystem. As travel restrictions continued to limit our travel, ARCON thought to reach-out to the audience via info-sec focused webinar.

ARCON COO Mr. Lalit Popli, an Infosec veteran, decided to share his views on ‘Identity, Behaviour and InfoSec in BFSI domain’. The webinar was on 18th November 2020. The objective of the session was to disseminate how ARCON robust solutions play a key role in securing privileged identities, monitoring users, and preventing data breaches.

Here are the key takeaways from Mr. Popli’s presentation to the audience.

A] Identities
All of us have our own identities – there are separate names, gender, age, birth origin and so on. From an Information Security perspective, identities are the digital versions of real users in the form of accounts that grant access to the critical systems, applications or databases. The number of identities have grown over a period of time specially in the last decade after mobility, business automation, digitization and the recent WFH conditions are adopted by organizations.

Now, lots of ‘identity chaos’ happens when the number of users grows uncontrollably and there is hardly any track of the number of their activities. It leads to multiple repositories of identities, multiple IDs, multiple passwords and eventually security vulnerabilities. Adding to the concerns, if these are privileged IDs, then the risk is higher as these accounts are the gateways to confidential business information. On many occasions, privileged IDs are created on an ad hoc basis and are forgotten to revoke the rights even after the tasks are accomplished. This multiples the risks of breach incidents.

In a distributed environment, large scale enterprises are continuously communicating with the on-prem and remote employees, customers, suppliers and partners. Internal and outsourced business collaboration can happen only when there are different identities for different departments and roles of the users. The risk grows exponentially as chances of suspicious third party access and unauthorized access increases. To maintain business continuity, customer satisfaction and cost competitiveness, organizations end up compromising on IT security aspects which results in cyber catastrophe.

Challenges

The major types of challenges that organizations face in this scenario are as follows:

• IT administrators: Unsafe sync scripts and too many users and account admin rights requests
• Developer: Redundant code in each app and rework code too often
• End-users: Too many passwords to remember and long waiting hours for access to critical apps/ systems
• Security/ Compliance: Too many orphaned accounts and limited auditing ability
• Business Owners: No control over the day-to-day IT tasks

Solution

ARCON | Privileged Access Management is a best-in-class globally acknowledged solution Identity Management and Privileged Access Management. ARCON being a pioneer in this solution is trusted by more than 500 enterprises across the globe and Sri Lanka is also included in the list. ARCON | PAM (Privileged Access Management) builds a robust security shield around the IT ecosystem with an array of features. It includes Granular level access control, Single Sign-On, Auto-discovery of accounts, Onboarding of accounts, Multi-factor Authentication, Password Vault, Just-In-Time Privilege, PEDM (Privilege Elevation & Delegation Management), Session Monitoring, Audit trails, Virtual Grouping, Live Dashboard, Customized reporting with Text & Video logs.

B] Behaviour
Today, user behavioural security has transformed the definition of IT security altogether, especially after the advent of remote work conditions due to the global pandemic. The myth of risk-preventive security is busted and organizations have started to adopt risk-predictive technologies which are more convenient and result-oriented. Monitoring the trustworthiness of the users is the newest and sophisticated way of securing data assets. This has necessitated a Zero Trust Security framework in many global organizations.

The major challenges of user behavioural threats are malicious insiders, unauthorized third parties and suspicious business stakeholders. In the last few years, most of the global data breach incidents are happening due to malicious insiders. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics (UBA) has transformed the definition of IT security today. It has the ubiquitous AI-ML component that understands the behavior pattern of the end-users or any deviation from the baseline activities and considers it as anomalous behavior, and flags to the administrator immediately. In this pandemic situation, organizations are badly in need of a solution where there is seamless monitoring of the users and the activity patterns. ARCON | UBA is the best-fit solution with a school of features.

• Session Monitoring enables recording of all end-user activities in real-time
• User Restriction restricts any specific activity (apparently irrelevant and suspicious) of an user
• Privilege Elevation mitigates malicious activities and prevents data breach threats by avoiding large number of privileged users
• ARCON | UBA empowers enterprises to meet various compliance requirements such as EU GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOX, HIPAA, SWIFT and others
• Live dashboards help IT administrators to continuously supervise IT operations and governance
• Dynamic Report strengthens security and compliance framework by generating dynamic reports to detect misuse of privilege rights

C] Information Security: More solution
Information is omnipresent and ever-growing. Hence, it always allures malefactors to inflict more illegitimate activities on the IT environment to take hostage of enterprise data assets. Mr. Popli highlighted that for the last few years Sri Lanka has been subjected to several cyber incidents. At the same time, there has been a sharp decline in the attacks compared to the last 10 years. The organized cybercriminals, compromised third party users and malicious insiders are always behind sensitive information for unlawful purposes. ARCON | PAM and ARCON | UBA takes a pivotal role in reinforcing robust access control mechanisms and safeguard confidential business information from nefarious activities.

Besides, ARCON | Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) solution grants just-in-time privilege to access business critical information. It helps endpoint privileges to allow access only on a “need-to-know” and “need-to-do” basis. The access rights are revoked immediately after the task is accomplished. ARCON | EPM bridges the security gap between unmanaged endpoints and IT administrators and thereby helps to reinforce Zero Trust framework with the help of several features such as –

• Centralized Policy Enforcement
• Privileged Elevation on-demand
• Priority-wise profiling
• Application Security
• Fine-grained Control
• Audit Trails and Reporting

Conclusion
Today Sri Lanka has become one of the vibrant economies in the sub-continent. IT risks always linger around industries that are experiencing rapid digital growth. Modern technologies are appreciated and adopted as per circumstantial demands. Therefore cyber security preparedness is a must to mitigate cyber catastrophe.

Mr. Popli while drawing conclusions also answered the queries raised by the attendees and promised more Sri Lanka-specific webinars for the IT security community in the island nation looking forward.

Earlier in April, Interpol warned that there is going to be a considerable rise in ransomware threats in multiple sectors, including healthcare. Cybercriminals across the country are taking advantage of the vulnerable situation due to COVID-19. The Healthcare sector has always been vulnerable to cyber threats.

Hospitals contain a large amount of personal and valuable data, and they work on thin margins even prior to the pandemic. This implies that healthcare sectors have always been skimp on security resources. This has made hospitals an important target this year when the global health care sector is the focal point.

Why Attack the Health Sector?
The Healthcare sector is at the forefront of this pandemic. The government is directly focusing a lot of its efforts towards this sector to combat the pandemic. This makes the global healthcare sector a big target of cybercriminals. Herjavec Group Healthcare reports suggested that ransomware attacks on this sector will quadruple by the end of this year. In 2020, the security breaches are speculated to cost the healthcare sector $6 trillion.

Common Threats that are Prevalent during COVID Times
Among the many cybersecurity threats, these are the type of threats that are most prevalent in the times of COVID-19

Phishing Campaigns

Multiple phishing campaigns against the healthcare sector have launched that include.

Email

It is among the most common phishing attacks. These attacks generally have an attachment or link that, when downloaded, will automatically install ransomware or malware onto the computer. If the ransomware or malware is installed on the device, the hackers can access the private documents, steal important data, and ask for ransom against it. Moreover, cybercriminals leverage personal information like social security numbers or credit card information to commit fraud.

Physical mail phishing campaigns, while not as popular as online phishing but they are also seeing a rise. Healthcare organizations are the most common organizations that these attacks focus on. The criminals pretend to be from hospitals and ask for repayment of the bill. They focus on patients with larger healthcare bills.

Phone

After the email, phone phishing scams are the most popular. In this, cybercriminals research about the victim beforehand to gain information in order to sound convincing over the phone.

Fake News

Cybercriminals are exploiting fear of the people related to COVID-19 and preying on the community members, especially elderly and vulnerable individuals who are isolated from their loved ones. There have been tons of reports related to fake news scams related to coronavirus.

Email scams are tricking people into opening the malicious attachment, which puts their personal information such as passwords, bank details, contact information, etc. at risk. Moreover, online resources like false coronavirus maps come with malware that can infiltrate various sensitive data. Another big online scam is the emails that pretend to provide the Council Tax Reduction fund to get your bank details. The emails pretend to be from the government.

Privacy Breach

The Healthcare sector has always been vulnerable to privacy breaches. In fact, this industry witnesses 41.4 million patient record breaches. And amidst the COVID-19 crisis, criminals continue to exploit the biggest vulnerabilities of the sector. In the first half of this year, 3.8 million patients’ records were breached via IT and hacking incidents. The report also found email to be the main source of the breach, accounting for more than 3 million records in the first half. This percentage stood at 86% in the last half of 2019.

How to Cope with These Changing Threats?
Vulnerabilities associated with COVID-19 will continue to prevail for a while. And in situations like these, it is important for healthcare sectors to be cyber safe. Following are some steps that healthcare sectors can take to mitigate the implications of cyber threats that this sector experience-

The Financial Tug of War

Amidst the pandemic, some areas of operations have put at the backseat; in return, some have put at the forefront. Majorly healthcare organizations are working to promote digital platforms. Presently networks are complicated that are expanded into both private and public clouds.

While the footprint is growing, there is an evident financial struggle in the industry. Though there is financial aid, it is distributed across multiple sectors, resulting in a constant fight for resources. The sector has realized its vulnerability to cyber threats. Healthcare sectors have to be strategic and vigilant about how they invest the fund and address the present challenges.

The Drawback Of Connectivity

Over the years, medical devices are being designed to provide internet connectivity. This makes the collection, monitoring, and data sharing easier and cost-effective. While it helped in improving operational efficiency, the digital approach has also increased the risk of cyber-attacks if the systems are not protected properly.

These criminals look for IoT options to access sensitive information. IoT medical devices are important to monitor constantly because they are less visible to conventional firewall systems. Considering the devices have been operational for a long time, they are likely to integrate older protocols that are less secure.

And considering the influx of patients means that hospitals are a massive collective amount of information. So these organizations need the assistance of IT firms that can constantly monitor their activities and keep them safe from cyber threats.

Maintaining the Tele-medicine Health

Telemedicine has witnessed a massive boom amidst the pandemic. The system allows patients to get doctors’ consultation without physical contact.

In March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services relaxed some of its rigid regulations with regards to the use of telemedicine. These relaxed guidelines are necessary for this time of the pandemic. But the healthcare technology sector still needs to figure out a safer and more effective way to use telemedicine more expansively. While this shift towards telemedicine is temporary, many within the sector see this as a turning point towards a long-term adoption. And there is likely to be a lot of investment backing up this adoption.

Controlling The Threat Remotely

Not all healthcare staff are working on the side; many have given remote work. However, cybersecurity experts have warned against such expansion. It recommends that healthcare organizations should keep their activities inside the facility firewall.

But considering situations, working from home has become important, and organizations need to take important measures to make remote working safe. Integrating two-factor verification across the various boards, dividing networks, etc. are among some of the steps to imbibe.

Final Thoughts

Cybersecurity has always been a pain point for the healthcare industry. The technology in this sector continues to remain outdated, which makes it highly vulnerable to cyber threats. Every year the sector loses millions of dollars in cyber-attacks. And these vulnerabilities have increased manifolds amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Cyber threats in the industry have increased to a significant level. If healthcare organizations fail to take the right measure to prevent cyber threats, the implications will be detrimental. Hospitals need to collaborate with IT experts to secure their networks and system from multiple entry points.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool

The recent wave of shock caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic has left the working class paralyzed in many ways. However, lucky are those who have managed to hold on to their jobs or have lost and then again found one. This is almost like finding an oasis in a desert.

Yet, on the other hand, these same employees have become prisoners in their own homes and a slave to their own jobs. If you too belong to this category and are reading this, then you should train yourself with the DO’s and DON’T’s of ‘work from home’ or ‘remote working.’

What is the ‘new normal’?
Before you delve further into this writing, take a closer look at this concept of ‘remote access.’ Remote stands for ‘distant’ and access means ‘a way or a chance to enter.’ When put together, the phrase denotes ‘getting the access to do your official work while you are being stationed in your home.’

This has become the ‘new normal’ just like you would wear a mask or use a hand sanitizer to keep yourself safe. It is almost the seventh month running, with lockdown and pandemic, and most offices have granted remote access. How we all had silently and openly wished for this before the Coronavirus outbreak! It is a wish granted too soon, unfortunately.

But jokes apart, if you actually look into the two sides of this situation, you can easily weigh the merits and the demerits. Keeping these in mind, you shall head forth towards ‘what you must’ and ‘what you must not do’ until the ‘old normal’ work culture resumes.

DO’s for remote access
1. Indulge in individual work more

Concentrate on your goals and go about acquiring them. The moment your work time starts, it is wise to focus on what you are going to deal in. Leave behind yesterday’s worries and do not fret over them. Keep a positive mindset, and do what has to be done.

2. Eliminate disruptions and unnecessary interferences

Shut yourself up in your study and commence your work. Too much interference from family members hampers the pace of work and results in stretchy work hours. Do ask them not to disturb you while you are at work and communicate over the phone if needed. Put your phone on silent mode and only receive calls & answer texts that seek your assistance.

3. Complete all your household chores in time

One of the most significant setbacks of working from home is an additional pressure to fulfill household duties. So, make it a point to do them before or after your work hours and definitely not in between.

4. Control stress and burnout

As everyone is under ‘home arrest’ without a vent by moving out of home or indulging in some means of entertainment, feeling bored or pent up is natural. Speak to others about your stress, and do face your problems boldly. Controlling your anger, exhaustion, exertion, and burnout becomes mandatory in this tedious ‘new normal’ work culture.

5. Chalk out your plan of action

Make a daily schedule other than planning the entire week’s work in advance. There is a high possibility that pre-planning would not bear the desired results. So take one step at a time and achieve your daily deadlines.

6. Have a work schedule

Set strict working hours and restrict yourself from working beyond the set hours. This will increase your efficiency and will help you to deliver more productive work. Most often, it has been seen that with relaxed work hours, both productivity and efficiency suffer.

7. Take a break

Allot a particular time when you would take a break from work. Either you have a lunch or a tea break with a little walk around on the terrace. Help yourself to get some extra dose of energy and relax your limbs from continually sitting in one place.

DON’T’s for remote access
1. Refrain from leaving your office portal logged in

Maintain a strict vigil and do not leave your computer or laptop without supervision. Either put it on sleep mode or simply shut it down when you are not sitting at it. Forgetting to do so can make you face dire consequences if someone happens to fidget with it. You might just lose essential data as well.

2. Overstress or overburden

Believe in yourself and never underestimate your capabilities. Not doing so will only make you feel stressed out, and there will be an impending tension hovering in your mind. Consequently, your health will suffer, and your work will deteriorate.

3. Stop taking too many calls during work hours

A lot of time is wasted taking calls from friends, relatives, and colleagues while you are working. Checking the phone too often for social media posts or messages also hamper the flow of work. Make your mind strong and control your fingers from reaching out to the phone quite often.

4. Lying without a cause

The situation is such that everyone is going through a certain amount of mental stress and is lagging in work. It is an understandable problem, so you need not lie about not willing to work for a day. Maintaining transparency with your colleagues helps them to feel compassion towards you.

5. Create a spillover

Try to complete your day’s work as much as possible. Do not think, ‘Oh! I will finish it tomorrow. Let it be.’ Such thoughts can create a backlog, and finally, the work piles up so severely that you begin to drown under pressure.

6. Forget about team communications

Never miss out on an important meeting or briefing of a task. Being patient and present during the sessions will give you a clearer picture of what needs to be done. Thus, communicating with others should not be neglected.

7. Lose your potential or productivity

Avoid focusing on the bygones. Let the present be of more value to you as it will boost your zeal to work. Function with all your might and refrain from brooding over what ‘you could have done.’

Tips to keep the ‘show’ on
It takes a lot of effort to keep a sound mind while working remotely for longer durations. For this reason alone, you can try out these tips just to find your daily happiness that will for sure, increase your work efficiency.

Eat what you love, and it will keep your mood in a proper swing.
Opt for music therapy at your home. It is as simple as listening to some soulful tunes to help your mind relax.
While working on your laptop or desktop, keep a screensaver that radiates positivity.
Take a walk or indulge in a little workout to drain out exhaustion.
It would indeed be great if you could nurture a hobby. This helps to keep your work stress at bay and gives you enough time to sort out your work.
With these extra tips, you are bound to hold the reigns better than before. So what are you waiting for? Simply take the plunge and set about with your work. Keep in mind the DO’s and DON’T’s and add on to the lists your own points too.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies from all around the world have kept themselves shut. According to a report, almost 66% of people in the USA are currently working from home. And, you probably are following the same.

So, how are you going to avoid the nuisances of working from home and improve your productivity? Well, there are a few ways to be more efficient and avert the adversities skillfully.

Limitations of Remote Working
Before you know about the tips to improve your productivity, let’s learn a bit more about the limitations of remote working. This way, you will be able to connect the problem and the solutions.

Lack of Enthusiasm: Working at the office alongside your fellow employees can be pretty much energetic. You will get the pep talks constantly and be able to communicate with others as well. In turn, it will keep you engaged and make you feel motivated, even at the end of the day. However, when you are working away from them, you might not get the enthusiasm to keep going at all. You may sometimes feel a bit lazy as well, which prevents you from being productive.
Lack of Communication: Working as a freelancer and being employed in an office is quite different. With the former, you would not have to rely upon anyone. Conversely, in the latter, you will have to help others and, in return, require guidance from them as well. Nonetheless, when you are working from home, you cannot really do much in this aspect. Well, you may try them calling all day long. But, that would make you get distracted from your own assignments.
Distractions: Honestly, distraction is, indeed, one of the most prominent enemies of productivity. When you are staying at home, you may have to deal with it quite a lot. More so, if you are a father or a mother, then you will have even more responsibilities on your shoulder. Sounds like trouble, doesn’t it?
Security Concerns: Cybercrime has been highly prominent since the last few years. For example, in 2018, around 62% of organizations globally had experienced social engineering assails and phishing. Moreover, a study of the University of Maryland has also found out that at least one computer gets attacked by the same in 39 seconds. Unlike offices, most people usually do not use cybersecurity tools like UBA (which they definitely should employ to their system). Due to this reason, the chances of getting affected by the hackers’ attack increases massively for them.

How to Improve Overall Productivity?
There are several ways that can help you to improve your overall productivity, even when you are battling against the odds. Let’s know more about them.

Create a Dedicated Workstation: Well, it is, indeed, somewhat true that you can’t really get the feel of office at your home. But, you can definitely try your best by making a dedicated workstation. Make sure to find a room that is away from your dining and drawing space. Or you can go to your rooftop as well. It should be in a place where you can feel peaceful, stay away from the rackets, and work proficiently.
Opt for Some Productivity Management Tools: Aside from making a dedicated workstation, you will have to use some productivity management tools. For example, you can use Asana to keep track of your project and progression. You may also employ some video conferencing tools like Zoom to stay in touch with your colleagues and attend conferences.
Make a Habit of Doing Daily Check-ins: There are several different tools available out there that can help you to make daily check-ins. You can do the same by talking with your boss on a video-chat or sending a small text to your office’s WhatsApp group. It, in turn, will help you to follow a proper daily routine and maintain your schedule.
Use a Proper Security System: To avoid cyber-attacks, you can implement two different types of security system on your computer. The first one can be an outright security tool that can help you to keep the malware programs at bay. Or, you may use an access management system, like PAM. But how does it work? Well, for starters, it can monitor, manage, and operate all of your privileged accounts. It also changes the passwords frequently to keep the hackers confused. In addition, it also runs on different operating systems seamlessly.
Take Some Scheduled Breaks: Working for hours and hours all alone can be pretty tiring. So, you can freshen yourself up by taking some scheduled breaks. You can work for an hour and then take a walk for 10 minutes. It will improve your productivity even more.
Use a Separate Number of Office: Frankly, taking calls of the other members of your family or friends can be quite annoying. However, if you switch your phone off, then you may miss out on crucial calls from your workplace as well. So, you can use a separate number for this purpose and keep the other one on silence.
Choose a Proper System for Sharing Documents: Sharing documents on different platforms can be quite a hassle. So, make sure to avoid it by using only one system. For example, if you are using Google Docs for your purpose, then make sure to send all of your files through it.

Conclusion
In all honesty, working from home, especially when you have a pet or a toddler, can be quite distressing. So, make sure to follow all the aforementioned points thoroughly. Hopefully, they can help you to become much more productive and efficient.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

It wouldn’t be wrong to state that data has become the most crucial aspect of every organization nowadays. But with this increasing importance of information, its security has also transformed into a concerning factor. To ensure the data remains safe from any breaches, all the companies undertake different security measures on their office networks.

This set-up was successful until the remote working environment came into practice. With people working from their own places, organizations have lost control over networks’ security because everyone uses a different system. It gave the intruders a great opportunity, as they can quickly get access to the company’s confidential information.

In order to avoid this, new-age security measures and standard security compliance came into the role. Let’s see the importance of high data security today and how can we achieve it.

Is Your Network Secure?
Most of the organizations’ security is based on their on-premises network. So as soon as the employees leave the office, they enter into an unsecured zone. Moreover, a majority of people working from home don’t take their network security seriously. This leaves the company’s data almost open in front of invaders.

That is why the very first question all organizations should ask each of their employees working from home is: Is your network secure? Ensuring the staff’s network security will help the corporation keep their own information safe from any breaches.

The Impact of Data Breaches on Organizations
In case your organization still avoids these factors, they will be subjected to data breaches. It means an intruder will enter the corporation’s system and take out information that can harm the company somehow.

A few after-effects of data breaches seen on small and large organizations are:

1. Reputation Damage

This is the most common effect of a data breach. Once the customers know their information isn’t safe with the company, they lose trust in them. It leads them not to provide any further details to the specific organization, especially the confidential data related to their payments or privacy. Even if you practice the best security measures after the breach, it will take years of effort to bring back the same reliability and trust.

2. Revenue Drop and Other Losses

It has been noticed that a significant number of corporations drop their revenue post data breach. It can be due to numerous reasons, such as a non-functional website or a prolonged IT system downtime. This kind of problem gives space to the customer to explore other options and leave the platform altogether because no one has the time to wait for a particular site to work again.

However, these are only surface-level losses. There are several hidden costs like:

Cost related to redesigning the security set-up
Legal fees to deal with the breach
Investigation costs
PR expenditure to get the reputation back on track

3. Idea Theft

When an intruder enters your organization’s system, they can conveniently get whatever information they want. This includes all the blueprints and critical ideas you have kept protected for years. What makes the condition worse is that they won’t give it a second thought before using the data against you. So your entire business is put into danger irrespective of the scale on which it functions.

4. Other Unnoticeable Damages

Until now, all the damages and losses were clearly noticeable. However, some of the data breaches lead to online vandalisms that are difficult to observe and eliminate. For example, imagine someone gets into your organization’s website and changes their email address. While this seems harmless, all the relevant emails will be sent to the new address. This will ultimately turn into losses.

Plus, being difficult to notice, these damages will continue to happen until you change them. But usually, it is too late till then.

Comply with stringent Information Security Standards with ARCON | Privileged Access Management

Staying Secure and Compliant
Now that you know what a data breach can do to your business, it is crucial to take appropriate action while there is still some time. A few precautions that can be implemented for the same are:

1. A Private Space for Sensitive Data

Confidential or sensitive information is the first target for all intruders. They try to get as much data from these sections as possible. This can damage your organization on a much larger scale. That is why you need to implement a private space for all the sensitive data, which shouldn’t be open for all. Security concern will reduce as the access to information will reduce.

2. Be Vigilant Of Scams

Most of the damages accompany some warning signs with them. You need to keep your employees aware of these signs. As soon as they notice something not working, as usual, they should report it and get rid of the scams before it can create a significant loss.

3. Protecting All Operating Systems

Appropriate security measures should be taken on each operating system practiced by the employees, no matter how secure it is. Plus, different measures should be taken for distinct OS so that maximum security can be achieved.

4. Monitoring Sensitive Data At All Times

Keeping sensitive information in private spaces isn’t enough. Smart intruders can get access to that data as well. That is why you need to keep a check on the information every now and then. It will help you see any ongoing suspicious activities in the space.

5. Prevent the Spread of Shadow IT

While Shadow IT can be beneficial for your organization’s overall productivity, it is a significant threat to data security. By preventing its spread in the remote working culture, you can ensure that everything remains safe and under control.

Protecting Data While Working Remotely
Remote working data protection practices are different from the ones opted for regular in-office work. A few of them that shouldn’t be ignored are:

1. Intelligent Use of Firewall

Firewalls are of no use if they don’t function properly. That is why you need to implement them smartly. This includes using multiple layers of firewalls and keeping them updated for any new unknown malware.

2. Use of Encryption Software

Even if the intruder gets to the network or one of the endpoints, they won’t be able to cause any harm if the data is encrypted. So each system should use encryption software for proper security.

3. Rely on Two-Factor Authentication

The two-factor authentication process creates an additional layer of security. It makes certain that the person accessing the data is authentic and has the required permissions for access.

4. Use a Password Manager

An appropriately secured system requires a password on every other step. But an employee can’t remember all of them at the same time. That is why a password manager must be used for all. This will help in keeping the passwords safe.

5. Ensure all Internet Connections are Secure

Unsecure networks are the first place where intruders gain access to the organizations’ system. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that each employee’s personal internet connections and Wi-Fi are adequately secured. Using open networks should also be avoided to stay secure from any mishaps.

6. Establish a Cybersecurity Policy

Making an appropriate and feasible cybersecurity policy has become an inevitable part of every organization that has its employees working from home. However, you also need to ensure that the staff complies with the rules and regulations. Otherwise, they will be of no use.

Conclusion
We hope you have understood data security and compliance’s significance in the age of remote working. So you must practice the best security measures to make sure that no one causes any harm to your organization, even for a small prank.

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.