Firms face cyber risks with employees working at home

Quick-thinking business leaders have kept their companies thriving through work-from-home during the pandemic. Scalability has always supported remote work, with cloud-based bookkeeping services that allow firms to manage their financial data online.

There are a wide variety of technology tools available to support remote work. In addition to the now ubiquitous Zoom calls and document-sharing platforms, services like Grasshopper make working from home more professional.

“Covid-19 has transformed the way we work, practically overnight,” says James Braunstein of the IT firm apii. “Many of these changes have been positive and working from home – at least a few days a week – is here to stay.”

At the same time, the rise of working remotely has increased the risk of business data being hacked. “Our job is to bring to the surface risks to organizations and show them how to address these risks to protect their vital customer data,” James says.

When working remotely, employees are no longer sharing data on secure networks in an office. Instead, they are using tools such as Google Drive and Microsoft Azure. These can be vulnerable to cyberattacks unless strict security measures are put in place.

In addition, scams such as spear phishing can result in data breaches. A job applicant who submits a PDF resume may seem trustworthy – but the document can include active content that allows hackers access to your confidential data. All employees need to watch for suspicious files and be discouraged from downloading them.

As companies grow, more employees come on board, increasing the risk. Unfortunately, smaller companies often do not have the training and systems needed to protect data. A careless or uninformed staff member can cause a disaster.

Prevention is the key. “Once you have had a breach at your company, it’s already too late. We are pro-active in protecting our clients’ data,” James says.

Indeed, the National Cyber Security Alliance in the US estimates that up to 60 percent of small- and medium-sized companies that are victims of cyber attacks will go out of business within six months. While big firms usually have the resources to recover, smaller companies are often devastated by an attack.

“Cyber villains are out there and trying to hack your security,” James says. “Working from home was a necessary step and is now a part of our future. At apii, we minimize risk associated with remote work by assessing and improving company security measures.”