At the onset of the pandemic, several adjustments were made by people in terms of learning and working.
For students, learning became home based, whether online or through the use of modules. For businesses, where offices are found to be the most prone area for spreading the virus, they adopted a “remote” or Work-From-Home setup just to keep employees safe.
Employees are used to report for work going to a physical office, but most organizations were caught unprepared in dealing with this kind of remote working arrangement. And because everything was rushed, it gave rise of unsecured systems and vulnerable hardware when working from home.
“Threat actors,” or malicious entities who may and can inflict damage on IT systems, know how vulnerable a work from home setup can be, perhaps thinking it will make their work easy.
Trend Micro, a cybersecurity software company, saw an increase in attack attempts and malicious activities that target remote systems and connected devices. From December 2019 to the end of the first quarter of 2020, they detected a significant uptick in malicious activities compared to the same period last year.
Cybercriminals indeed became very busy to get into users’ home networks and devices. And because is it a pandemic period, among the malicious activities were related to sending COVID-19 related messages. thinking that home systems are more vulnerable to attacks.
Checking for symptoms
Admittedly, not all intrusions or malicious acts can be detected easily, but there are symptoms if something wrong is happening that even a non-IT person detect and check if their hardware is already infected.
Check out these symptoms, how to detect them, and what to do next in this infographic that appeared on https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/ph/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/know-the-symptoms-protect-your-devices-while-working-from-home
According to Trend Micro’s Director of Managed XDR, Jay Yaneza, the office IT staff may have lost visibility on what’s happening for those working at home. “I don’t think we are generally ready to fully address threats to the WFH environment, where we were just thrust into this setup. I do believe and I strongly advocate that organizations should have this stipulated in their IT security policy, which routers to use, which machines to use.”
He said it’s better to separate work from personal data, and make sure that if one is working on very sensitive information, it should be separated from the views of family members, maybe to the point of even separating USBs that they use.
And if in case that employees are already allowed to report for work in an actual office, Yaneza said there may be specific or potential issues when it comes to transitioning from a WFH setup to actual office work, though this may vary depending on the setup within the organization. One is the transferring of company data processed through the employees’ personal files back into their work environment. “This will need to be done securely, and employees will need to make sure that company data is not left behind in personal devices.”
To help elevate further the knowhow of cyber-defenders in the country in dealing with modern-day attacks, Trend Micro Philippines has formally opened the annual “Decode” cybersecurity conference, happening now up to November 12, 2020, with about 3,000 Filipino IT professionals from across the country and the globe expected to attend.
Happening amid the new normal, Decode 2020 has transformed into a three-day virtual conference—with more than double the number of sessions, more international experts who are convening discussions, and customized networking activities that will provide more learning and training opportunities for modern-day ‘cyber-defenders’ who must elevate their knowledge and skills to facilitate their organizations’ transformation in the most rapid, seamless, and secure way possible.
With the theme “Elevate: Transform Rapidly, Seamlessly, Securely,” the interactive cyber-security conference is facilitating six keynotes, 33 breakout sessions, two plenary sessions, and one panel discussion.
To learn more about Decode 2020, visit https://decodeph.com/.
(Photo credit: trendmicro.com)