Cyber Insurance Risk in Light of Remote Work

One of the largest impacts of COVID-19 has been the adoption of remote work or “work-from-home” policies and procedures. While IT professionals are concerned about the security implications of a work from home environment, there are several solutions that can be implemented to mitigate risk.

At the beginning of the pandemic, companies had to quickly adapt to a new, remote working environment in the interest of employee safety. Converting quickly meant that many IT departments were stretched thin, desperately trying to enable employee access to corporate networks from personal devices and Wifi connections without compromising safety.

While IT teams were working to catch up and implement robust security procedures, hackers and other cyber infiltrators reveled. These criminals took full advantage of the pandemic - kicking off their attacks with volleys of COVID-19 related phishing emails which unfortunately tricked some unsuspecting, remote employees. Employees who clicked on scam emails unknowingly opened the door to malware which could attach itself to company networks and either extract or infect company data. This threat became so severe that by the height of the pandemic the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued warnings against it.

From the FBI and Secret Service Joint COVID-19 Announcement,

“As the United States and the world grapple with the immediate public health and economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, a related crisis has simultaneously emerged: a wave of criminals seeking to prey upon an anxious public. [...] Thieves are posing as national and global health authorities, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, to conduct phishing campaigns. They send emails designed to trick recipients eager for reliable health information into downloading malicious code. Perhaps most outrageously—and dangerously—criminals are using COVID-19 as a lure to deploy ransomware, malicious software designed to lock a computer system until a ransom is paid. Ransomware has substantially disrupted hospital and local government operations in recent years.”

The new reality of remote work makes clear the importance of multi-factor authentication, email gateway security, endpoint protection, and employee security training. These are all security tools covered here on our blog and in our Cyber Marketplace.

Any organization who has converted employees to remote work should consider how they are protecting themselves against cyber crime. By using a virtual private network (VPN), multi-factor authentication (MFA), or other authorization tools, companies can continue to operate with remote workers while keeping their data more secure. These are all part of the Zero-Trust Architecture that many insurers have adopted as the gold standard for cyber security.

An organization’s IT department can also be advised by third party specialists on the best way to roll out robust security architecture in a remote first environment. Security measures such as VPNs and multi-factor authentication can be challenging to implement, so leveraging a specialist can help. Limit has developed a specialized Cyber Marketplace to address these cyber needs and help make the world more cyber secure. The Cyber Marketplace features solutions tailored toward enhancing the client’s security posture, cyber awareness, and protocol - all three are necessary in the changing world of remote work and increased cyber criminal activity.

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