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Remote Workers Are Not Protected from Phishing and Vishing

Work from home and remote work is now the new norm however organizations must be aware that remote workers are not protected from phishing and vishing threats.

Phishing is well known but now mix that in with remote workforce, video conferencing apps, and corporate messaging.  The end result is now vishing.

Why are cyber criminals looking at vishing as the new cyber security threat? A few simple points.

Remote workers are not protected from phishing and vishing for the following reasons:

  • Increased use of personal computers by organizations with no Mobile device management (MDM)
  • Increased us of smart phones to conduct our work remotely once again with no Mobile device management (MDM)
  • Increase in phishing emails and vishing calls targeting remote workers

The pandemic had everyone scrambling to find ways for remote workers to work from home, but it did not stop cybercriminal hackers from attacking.

Hackers shifted their techniques to target remote work force at home that lost all the cyber security protection implemented by their managed IT services provider or internal IT department.

This introduced pressure on cyber security systems, policies, and procedures.  Cyber security education was one of the quickest ways to educate and protect organizations.

Remote workers are not protected from phishing and vishing but how do you protect them?

Here are some industry recommendations from cybersecurity specialists and managed security services providers.

  1. Employee education and cyber security awareness.
  2. Show your employees examples of phishing prevention and proven verification tips.
  3. Give examples of suspicious file attachments, malicious website URLs, and good user credential behavior.
  4. Ensure all your systems have updated and managed for the latest vulnerabilities, patches, and security software such as next-gen anti-virus.

When it comes to vishing prevention and verification tips, . these are not well known but there are still some basic cyber security approaches that can be used including:

  1. Inquiry for their name to look-up in the company directory
  2. Inquiry Asking for internal company information to verify their knowledge
  3. Request a call back number to verify where they are calling from
  4. Request for their supervisor’s name to look-up in the company directory

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