Remote Working from DB Computer Solutions

Article 3: Cyber-attacks Intensify During Covid 19 Which is Why Data Backup is Essential

Techcrunch.com, a leading technology publication, reports that Covid 19 has changed the cybersecurity threat landscape. With many companies deploying work-from-home strategies (helping to conform to government social distancing regulations), criminals are seeing opportunities.

“Attack methods logically exploit changes in the global environment,” Techcrunch.com writes. “Mass working over remote connections leads to mass remote login activity. This activity is mostly over private, insecure machines with user accounts that have recently been set up for remote access – therefore making remote login credentials an easy target for attackers.”

As we have advised in previous blogs, when implementing Remote Working, make sure you set up your systems securely. This includes:

Use strong passwords
Set up two-factor authentication
Use a VPN
Set up firewalls
Use an antivirus software
Secure home routers
Install OEM software updates regularly
Look out for phishing emails and sites
Watch out for work-from-home scams
Use encrypted communications
Lock your device

However, even with the most sophisticated security systems and routines in place, hackers and malware perpetrators can sometimes unpeel the onion, gaining access to your critical systems and data.

While data backup is always a prescribed procedure, during the Covid 19 emergency, it is even more important.

Why Data Backup is Now Critical

Many employees now working from home may be using Microsoft 365, TEAMs, or similar collaborative tools. These tools allow workers to save documents and other assets both locally (in their laptop or other devices), centralized in a single IT location (your business’s IT storage, or a cloud-based location, for instance), or both.

Should a local device be compromised, and data is not backed up to a centralized location, that asset is lost forever. For that reason, make certain that your employees working remotely save their assets – and any revisions – to a secure centralized location.

But even more importantly: due to the ever-increasing incidents of malware attack, and other concerted criminal cyber-threats, each device as well as all centralized data locations must be backed up on a periodic basis. Ideally, backup routines should incorporate dual, multiple targets such as an off-site cloud location, together with an in-house backup target.

As well, consider implementing a data recovery strategy to mitigate any possible data loss in the event of a successful attack. A best-of-breed data backup plan should incorporate both onsite and off-site backup targets at periodic intervals.

Covid 19 will pass. However, if a perpetrator invades your IT systems, or the devices of your employees, your data assets could be lost forever. In that case, the prospect of getting back to normal, whenever that day comes, could prove difficult at best, and impossible at worst.

For that reason: if your company does not currently employ a data backup plan, implement one right now. If it does, make certain the frequency of backup routines works to protect all data assets, while also backing up to a number of locations.

Past Articles in our Remote Working Series: see directly below for more information on Remote Working