Cyber Safety First

How to identify and manage cyber risks as remote working becomes the norm.0

- Domini Stuart

Employees were the biggest threat to corporate cybersecurity well before COVID-19. The 2019 ‘Human Factor Report’ from Proofpoint, an enterprise security company based in California, found that more than 99 per cent of the attacks they observed needed human interaction to succeed.

Timing, trust or a lapse of concentration can lead the most cyber aware to click on a fake link or comply with a fraudulent request for money or data. The risk is bound to increase as working at home piles on the distractions – and cybercriminals are quick to take advantage of uncertainty and disruption.

“They’re already using COVID-19 subject lines in emails to tempt people to open them and click on a link inside,” says Greg Austin, Professor of Cyber Security, Strategy and Diplomacy at UNSW Canberra Cyber.

“It’s a bit late to re-educate people on basic cybersecurity, so employers may be better off warning them to look out for disinformation and false news on the pandemic itself.”

Over time, Phillipa Lee, Senior Consultant at Agilient security consultants, has seen fraud emails overtake ransomware as the preferred and most profitable cybercriminal income stream.