How secure is your network, now that your staff work from home?

Due to the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown, many of us are working from home, including us!  Lately many of our client discussions have centered around security, and how we need to change the way we approach security, so that we can be better protected from the new threats we encounter daily.
Now that many of us are working from home, how has that impacted our security?  Has our haste to get back up and running ignored our need to be secure?  Now is the time to revisit the security for our work-from-home staff.

Connection Back to the Office

Your first consideration for security is the connection back to the office.  If you have had a connection setup for a while, you should consider having that connection reviewed.  If you have taken home your work machine and you are connecting back to your work server, the current standard is to use a VPN from your firewall.  If you are connecting to your your business workstation from your home workstation the current standard is to use a third party tool, such as Teamviewer or Logmein, which creates a secure connection on your behalf.
If you are in doubt, please give us a call.

Staff Using Their Personal Machine?

Many staff are now working from their home pc's, and this can create a few challenges security wise.
​
Antivirus
Does their home machine have paid antivirus installed?  Many home machines have a free antivirus installed.  This is not enough protection when connecting back into a corporate network, (or corporate cloud resources) as key-loggers can be used to gather information on remote connections, VPN connections and cloud credentials.  
Help is at hand though.  We are offering a FREE 60-day installation for BitDefender Endpoint Security.   Just send us an email at sales@decision1.co.nz, subject "Free Antivirus" and we will get you set up!

Patching
Many home computers aren't strict with their updating policies.  Unpatched machines are easily breached, and pose an enormous risk to your network.
Because this risk is so high, we are offering FREE patching for your work-from-home users for the next 60 days.  If you would like to take advantage of this offer contact us at sales@decision1.co.nz, subject "Free Patching". 

Multi-factor Authentication
Make sure MFA is enabled for all your cloud resources, especially bank accounts.  This ensures that even if your credentials are breached, those details cannot be easily used to gain access.

SPAM Protection
If you are using Office365 for your mail, then you already have great SPAM protection, regardless of whether you are checking mail from home, or work.  If you are not using this, and you are not sure what your Spam protection is, drop us a line or give us a call to work out if your protection is adequate for working-from-home.

Home Router
Many home routers are rather insecure, so we recommend checking your router for firewall features and password security.  Some routers have firewall features built in, but not all do and routers are often sent to homes with default manufacturer passwords loaded.  These passwords should be updated to a non-default password.  If you would like some help with this, please give us a call and we can check these items out for you.

Hackers Busier than Ever

Hackers are pretty good at sensing weak points in the security fabric of the world, and a global crisis is an ideal time to strike vulnerable and otherwise occupied minds.  Hackers have ramped up their efforts to catch you with your guard down.  Phishing Attacks have increased enormously, (667%!) as have COVID-19 themed scams. Be on the lookout as your technology can not always keep pace, so some of these scams will make it into your inbox.

​Sources:
https://www.cert.govt.nz/individuals/alerts/attackers-using-covid-19-themed-scams-updated-alert/
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/covid19-drive-phishing-emails-667/
https://www.netsafe.org.nz/phishing/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjoH0BRD6ARIsAEWO9DvKpkuOFFgA9raWtFrRLP3qIyLb040fvSFBWjBaTPHR2J5gf0-z0woaAijBEALw_wcB