It is likely that after working remotely for over a year, companies around the world will soon expect their employees to return to the office.
Whether you are working from home or office, it is smart to consider a few cybersecurity best practices so that you and your employees do not become a target of a malicious actor.
For companies to reduce cybersecurity risks, it is essential to mandate specific measures that their employees must take to mitigate risk as they return to the workplace.
Complex Password Policy
A strong password is the first key to ensure the safety of your accounts and data. However, most employees do not use complex passwords and often use a standard password across multiple accounts. Employees use weak passwords based on their preference to use simple passwords that are easy to recall. Unfortunately, this endeavor can be dangerous for the company.
Companies need to ensure that their employees understand the reasons for using strong, complex passwords.
Before establishing a strong password policy, first, educate your employees on why a policy is needed. The policy’s objective should be to develop a protocol for employees to establish complex passwords, the frequency of change for their passwords and how best to protect them.
Use of a Password Manager
Companies across the world are facing an increased risk of cyberattacks due to ineffective password management. Yes, there are many techniques available for data encryption and securing the network, but as long as employees use weak passwords, all of these techniques are of little use.
By incorporating a Password Manager into your security stack, employees can establish and use complex passwords for their accounts, thereby increasing the company’s security. Additionally, a Password Manager will help ensure proper protection of their passwords and keep them secured in an encrypted state. Companies can further provide login security and password protection by deploying a Password Manager, which also delivers Multi-factor authentication as an additional security measure.
Using a Password Manager can help prevent login credential theft and loss of passwords by malware such as Mimikatz.
An incident at software firm Voova speaks to the need for the use of a Password Manager. On the way out, a fired IT worker stole a co-worker’s AWS login credentials and deleted over twenty AWS servers – out of spite, according to investigators, the use of Multi-factor authentication would have helped prevent the incident.
We want to add that, had a Password Manager been deployed, the likelihood of stealing a co-worker’s credentials would have been nearly impossible.
RevBits Privileged Access Management solution is an all-encompassing access management solution with five access management modules. One of the tool’s modules is its’ password manager that delivers complete password control and policy setting for an organization.
Protect Endpoints
With malicious emails being the primary vector for breaches and incidents, ensuring that your employee’s endpoints are thoroughly protected is paramount. Malicious actors understand that the employee is the weak link in network security – attack the employee endpoint and gain access.
Employees trust that their companies have adequate cybersecurity and will have a relaxed attitude toward clicking on email attachments and links. Once the link or attachment of a malicious email is clicked, the difference between containment and a devastating intrusion is only one lateral move away.
RevBits Email Security and RevBits Endpoint Security provide a dual-opportunity to protect employee endpoints. RevBits Email Security operates on the endpoint and protects the user inbox by detecting and blocking the most sophisticated phishing emails that bypass gateway and cloud-based email security solutions. RevBits Endpoint Security offers the most thorough analysis of new executables and incorporates the most comprehensive EDR tool on the market.
Similarly, you can add further factors – creating a Multi-factor login process to augment the security of entry into your network.
Invest in Cybersecurity Training
While it is essential to deploy comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, it is equally important to invest in your employee’s cybersecurity knowledge through training. Cybersecurity awareness training should be a component of your overall cybersecurity planning and road map. In some situations, a single employee may be the last chance your organization has to stop a devastating breach; investing in them through security training is a smart thing to do.
Remember, sophisticated-phishing emails are designed to bypass security analysis and land in the employee’s email inbox. Through email construction complexity, malicious email can bypass gateway and cloud-based security solutions. And, secondly, malicious emails are built to bypass the analysis capability of your employee.
For instance, one of the most devastating attacks is a phishing email designed to harvest an employee’s login credentials. Proper training can help employees detect false login pages; however, as sophistication grows, it can be virtually impossible for a human to detect a sophisticated fake login page.
Adding technology with training is imperative to block these attacks. RevBits Email Security has unique technology to detect and block page impersonation attacks. The technology in the solution is so significant it has a US Patent. Additionally, RevBits Email Security provides employees with details concerning the malicious email and why it was detected and blocked while leaving the email unactionable. The information provided to the employee increases their security awareness knowledge.
Protect Network Assets through Access Management
As employees begin to return to work, it may be an excellent time to assess the assets deployed throughout your network and determine if they are protected from unauthorized access. Assets hold vital data that keeps the company operating and ensures employment for all employees; protecting that data is critical. Access control to those assets and their data through privileged access management is now a necessity.
Access management runs across multiple needs: privileged access management to servers and other network assets, session management to monitor activity conducted on those assets, certificate management to ensure certificates running in the environment are updated and active, key management to create and maintain encryption keys and password management as described earlier in this blog.
RevBits Privileged Access Management Solutions is a unique access management product. The solution delivers complete access management across all network needs. Contained in the product are five modules: privileged access management, session management, password management, key management and certificate management. The product covers all necessary access needs.
Wrap Up
As we begin to move back to normalcy in our work life, it is time to assess your network’s security. Investing in security solutions is an expensive endeavor but vital to an organization’s existence. Implementing the above security measures can help your organization be on the best footing to protect your network and your employees.
Investing in robust solutions and thorough employee training is the best action to combat malicious actors intent on entering your system.
