Cyber ​​threats in the home office: How hackers are taking advantage of the Corona crisis

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Home office instead of office work: In view of the corona pandemic, more and more employees are currently moving to home offices - initially for an indefinite period of time. But the increased work from home poses many security risks.

Inadequate security opens the door for potential hackers to launch a successful attack. But phishing emails that are specifically tailored to the Corona crisis are also on the rise. What companies should definitely pay attention to in this context and how they can protect themselves.



IT security must not be neglected
The mass relocation of their employees presented many companies with an enormous challenge and in some cases pushed IT departments to their capacity limits. The goal: to be able to work again and be fully operational as quickly as possible - but this sometimes came at the expense of IT security.

The time pressure and the tension involved often increased the susceptibility to configuration errors. In particular, the fear of no longer being able to do business led in many cases to a tendency to lower the actual security level in favor of the ability to act. This in turn spurs cyber criminals to try new attacks.

"IT security must not be neglected, especially in times of Corona. In the current situation, a successful hacker attack can have fatal economic consequences for many companies," says Dirk Kretzschmar, Managing Director of TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT). "It is therefore all the more important to protect your IT infrastructure as best as possible on the one hand, but also to sensitize your own employees accordingly on the other."

The TÜV Association has also already warned of the dangers associated with mobile working from home. "Due to the corona pandemic, companies must reassess the risks for their organization and adapt their IT security measures," said Dr. Joachim Bühler, Managing Director of the TÜV Association

But what cyber threats are associated with working from home and how can companies protect themselves against them?



Old threats in a new guise
"Basically, the threat posed by cybercrime is not new, quite the opposite: In vietnam gambling data principle, these are largely known dangers, but with a Corona-specific twist," explains Dennis Schröder, Team Leader Cyber ​​Security & Privacy at TÜViT.

"The corona pandemic is forcing companies to act quickly. Unfortunately, quality assurance often falls victim to time pressure. Short-term remote access is more prone to errors and temporarily issued additional work equipment may not be properly secured."

This means that companies should upgrade if necessary and protect their IT infrastructure with appropriate measures, such as firewalls, secure VPN access points or access authorizations to central services and servers.

"Performing penetration tests in particular helps to identify and close existing security gaps. In this context, our IT security experts (so-called "ethical hackers") attack the IT infrastructure components accessible on the Internet on behalf of companies and put them to the (security) test. Remote access and clients are at the center of these 'hacker attacks', which are coordinated with the customer," explains Dirk Kretzschmar.

This makes penetration testing an effective measure that companies can use to protect themselves as much as possible from cyber attacks .

In addition, business continuity management is also strongly recommended and helps to respond appropriately to such crisis situations. The security policy created within this framework and the associated data protection instructions can serve as necessary orientation for employees in this case. In addition, certain processes should be protected with a security code word.