Home Offices Introduce New Cybersecurity Risks

2ND YEAR ON THE LIST

Cyberattacks increasingly target home offices.

KEY INSIGHT

As employees became accustomed to working from their own living spaces in the COVID-19 era, CISOs raised concerns that insecure and unmonitored home networks could expose companies’ proprietary data, trade secrets, video conversations, and more to hackers or industry rivals. Working from home is becoming a gateway to new forms of data theft.

EXAMPLES

In 2020, the sudden shift to remote workforces opened wide gaps in cybersecurity for companies around the globe. As we enter year three of the pandemic, cybersecurity threats continue to plague companies. According to a 2021 Deloitte survey, 25% of employees have noticed an increase in fraudulent emails, spam, and phishing attempts in their corporate email since the beginning of the COVID crisis. And a 2021 Tenable study found that 74% of organizations attribute recent cyberattacks to remote work tech vulnerabilities. In a home office setting, threats such as phishing and ransomware can more easily evade corporate defenses.

DISRUPTIVE IMPACT

WFA is our new normal—which means that cyberattacks directed at remote workers will increase. Straightforward ways to mitigate risk and reinforce cybersecurity best practices include requiring two-factor authentication, installing anti-malware software on all machines, increasing privacy settings on home Wi-Fi networks, and even scanning video backdrops for exploitable information. Another option is to invest in cyber liability insurance. Any company that handles highly sensitive or classified materials should consider sending technicians to secure the domestic working environments of all employees with security clearances. Failure to address these vulnerabilities greatly increases the odds of a potentially devastating breach.

EMERGING PLAYERS

• Chubb • Norton 360 • Malwarebytes • Wyse