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World Economic Forum on Working from Home and Avoiding Cyber Attacks

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Many companies have asked their employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent reports have noted an increase in cyber attacks after the work-from-home trend began.  In response, the World Economic Forum released guidelines for employees to follow while working from home to help avoid cyber attacks.

World Economic Forum’s fight against coronavirus outbreak

The World Economic Forum created the COVID Action Platform to protect people’s livelihoods, support the business community, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response.

It released a guide for how people can respond to prevent cyberattacks while working from home.

For businesses, it noted that:

  • Businesses leaders should manage security procedures and coordinate with their employees. The first thing the business must do is understand the threats. Business leaders should work with security teams to identify threats in order to be better prepared for them.
  • Second, businesses should offer clear guidance and encourage communication. Work-from-home policies should be clear and easy to follow.
  • Finally, organizations should provide the right security capabilities and ensure that all corporate managed devices are equipped with important security capabilities, including endpoint protection, VPN tools, and multi-factor authentication.

Guide for employees

Just as before the coronavirus crisis, human error remains a major cybersecurity weakness.  Therefore, the forum recommended that:

  • Employees use strong passwords, as well as multifactor authentication where possible.
  • Employees update their systems and software regularly.
  • Employees secure their WiFi access point and change their default settings and passwords to protect against an attack via connected devices.

Other steps suggested by the Forum were using a VPN (virtual private network), avoiding suspicious emails and malicious domains, and if possible, not mixing personal devices with work related devices.