As the world fights for its survival against COVID19, most of us are now extra conscious about our hygiene. During this tough situation isn’t it important to look after the asset hygiene as well? 2020 is a year to remember throughout life. Many things have happened and maybe a lot to expect in the upcoming months. Endpoint security has always been an important security step. However, due to the recent COVID-19 work from home situation securing your endpoints has become a mandatory task.
How are the cyber attackers using COVID-19 situation to affect the organization’s endpoints?
With the onset of COVID-19, there is a drastic change in the endpoint operating scenario. As most of the endpoints are off-premises now, attackers are on high alert to exploit any unchecked vulnerabilities.
There are various ways the attackers are taking COVID-19 situation’s advantage-
1. Phishing Attack – With the introductions of several COVID-19 trackers and information, attackers are sending a genuine-looking email to several people out there. Imagine people who are unaware of any such attack may tempt to open the links and fall victim.
- Forged Fund-Raising emails – Due to the current COVID-19 and various occurred natural disasters, attackers have managed to create fake charity campaigns or even forge an official campaign page. Due to the current stressful condition, anyone can fall prey and pay to these forged charity accounts.
- WHO Data Leakage – During April 2020, more than 450 active WHO email address with passwords got leaked. Form the pandemic onset the cyberattack attempts have quadrupled on the World Health Organization’s systems. Attackers posing as genuine WHO COVID-19 Solidary Response Fund have convinced several victims to pay the donations to the fake fund.
- Work from Home Norm – COVID-19 has changed the way industry works. Several companies like Google have suggested for Work from Home for full 2020, twitter has opted for permanent Work from Home. Most of the Information Technology industries have shifted to Work from the Home environment. With the shifting in the conventional working paradigm there raises several security concerns. The current working environment is relying on the off-premises moving assets, and not to mention employees working in a public WiFi network connection. It is very easy for any cyber attacker to sniff the insecure home/public network and leak crucial official data.
- Maze Ransomware Group – The Maze Ransomware group are cyber attackers. The group had played a significant role in leaking COVID-19 research data. For example, the attack on Hammersmith Medicines Research, London on March 14, 2020.
Future Cyber Attack Predictions
Due to the current COVID-19 situation and social distancing norm, 70% of the Information Technology industry has moved to work from the home trend. As more and more companies are supporting remote working, well it has its cons as well. Sometimes for an Information Technology administrator, it becomes hard to keep track of the moving assets and vulnerable networks. Although most of the companies offer a VPN, let us be honest VPN also has a probability of getting hacked and most importantly may not work smoothly.
Everything discussed until now emphasizes how organization assets will be more exposed to vulnerabilities due to it being off-premises. In the coming years if the off-premise asset health is not continuously checked then it will lead to the onset of various malware or cybersecurity attacks.
Some of the cyberattack losses are as below –
1. By 2021, it is predicted that cybercrime will lead to more than $6 Trillion losses annually.
2. Ransomware attacks will grow 57 times more than the present times.
3. It is detected that the Asia-Pacific region receives 6 cyber threats in every single minute.
How SecPod SanerNow can help organizations battle COVID 19?
As every event is connected like dominos, a single effect might ripple into something big. Keeping that in mind please take extra care to monitor moving assets. SecPod SanerNow gives you an excellent platform to keep your on-premises and off-premises in check. The solution offers comprehensive endpoint management and security features to help you take control of your work from home computers. Not only that it gives you an accurate report on any malware issues, vulnerabilities with associated patches and not to mention it provides you with a complete endpoint security solution. The platform provides you with various features like Asset Management, Endpoint Management, Compliance Management, Patch Management, Vulnerability Management, and Endpoint Detection and Response. SecPod has excellent on-the-go experienced customer support and training materials. It is an all-in-one tool to keep your endpoints health in check.
Give SecPod SanerNow a chance by using its Free Trial.