THERE ’ S A

STRONG LIKELIHOOD OF UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO SYSTEMS OR

DATA WITHOUT THE PROPER SECURITY IN

PLACE . to work on from home . Personal devices were called into operation and many people were trying to work all day every day ( rather than intermittently ) on an old laptop , often accessing systems and apps that required bigger computing power than they had to operate smoothly . The result ? Slow devices that glitch regularly . How frustrating is it when you are on a video conference and you can ’ t share your screen effectively ? These problems haven ’ t gone away and with frozen screens and waiting for the IT helpdesk to fix problems , productivity decreases .

Security issues . There are many different security issues around remote working as employees are using their broadband services and devices to access offices systems and corporate infrastructure . Many companies weren ’ t expecting staff to work outside the office or to need to use personal devices to access their work , so the appropriate security measures weren ’ t in place . There ’ s a strong likelihood of unauthorised access to systems or data without the proper security in place . Some companies found firewalls , access to virtual private networks ( VPNs ), domain name security ( DNS ) and intrusion prevention were ineffective . And let ’ s not forget that most attacks start with human error – 95 % of attacks require a human to click on a link to be activated – but many staff weren ’ t and still aren ’ t properly trained to avoid these errors .

Post lockdown , with remote working looking set to become a way of life for many companies , these issues remain , with businesses needing to be able to update security and ensure employees aren ’ t unwittingly exposing them to security breaches . For example , one interactive map showing COVID-19 spread was laced with malware . We ’ ve also seen other malicious sites related to the pandemic linked to a phishing attack , with hackers trying to access office systems .

No access to devices to do patch or app updates . Most office devices are updated , and patches installed , on-premise . But with the pandemic , this has meant that some devices are running old systems and apps or out of date security . When they have been brought into the office for updating it has required

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