Giving Your Endpoint the Gift of Security This Holiday Season

2018年12月18日

Suddenly, it’s December, and the beginning of the holiday season. Your coworkers are now distracted with getting in their PTO, flying home to be with family, and completing their shopping lists. But the holiday season isn’t always filled with cheer, it’s got some scrooges too – cybercriminals, who hope to take advantage of the festive fun to find vulnerabilities and infect unsecured devices. And with many employees out of office, these hackers could potentially pose a serious threat to an organization’s endpoints, and thereby its network. As a matter of fact, there are a few key reasons as to why your organization’s endpoints may be in danger during the holidays. Let’s take a look.

Business Shutdowns

Most companies close down for a handful of days during the holidays, if not a full week or two. That means less people manning the IT station, executing updates, and defending the network if cybercriminals manage to find a way inside. A lack of personnel could be just the opportunity cybercriminals need to take advantage of an open entry point and swoop data from an organization essentially undetected.

Holiday Spirit, Relaxed Attitude

For the employees that do stay online during the holidays, attitudes can range from relaxed to inattentive. Unless their product or service directly relates to the holidays and shopping, businesses tend to be quiet during this time. And with many coworkers out, employees tend to have less reason to be glued to their computer all the time. This could mean cyberattacks or necessary security actions go unattended – irregular activity may not seem as obvious or a necessary software update could go unresolved a little too long. What’s more – the lax attitude could potentially lead to a successful phishing attack. In fact, phishing scams are said to ramp up starting in October, as these cybercriminals are eager to time their tricks with the holiday season. In order to accurately identify a phishing scheme, users have to be aware and have their eyes on their inbox at all times. One false move could potentially expose the entire organization, creating a huge problem for the reduced staff on hand.

Holiday Travel = Public Wi-Fi

Workplace mobility is a great new aspect of the modern age – it permits employees more flexibility and allows them to work from essentially anywhere in the world. But if employees are working out of a public space – such as a coffee shop or an airport – they are likely using public Wi-Fi, which is one of the most common attack vectors for cybercriminals today. That’s because there are flaws in the encryption standards that secure Wi-Fi networks and cybercriminals can leverage these to hack into a network and intercept or infect users’ traffic. If an employee is traveling home for the holidays and using public Wi-Fi to get work done while they do, they could potentially expose any private company information that lies within their device.

BYOD in Full Force

Speaking of modern workplace policies, Bring Your Own Device (or BYOD) – a program that allows employees to bring their own personal devices into work – is a common phenomenon these days. With this program, employees’ personal devices connect to the business’ network to work and likely access company data.

That means there is crucial data living on these personal devices, which could be jeopardized when the devices travel outside of the organization. With the holidays, these devices are likely accompanying the employees on their way to visit family, which means they could be left at an airport or hotel. Beyond that, these employees are more likely to access emails and company data through these mobile devices while they are out of the office. And with more connected devices doing company business, there are simply more chances for device and/or data theft.

Staying Secure While Staying Festive

Now, no one wants their employees to be online all the time during the holidays. Fortunately, there are actions organizations can take to ensure their employees and their network are merry and bright, as well as secure. First and foremost, conduct some necessary security training. Put every employee through security training courses so they’re aware of the risks of public Wi-Fi and are reminded to be extra vigilant of phishing emails during this time. Then, make sure all holes are patched and every update has been made before everyone turns their attention to yuletide festivities. Lastly, if an employee is working remotely – remind them to always use a VPN.

No matter who’s in the office and who’s not, it’s important to have always-on security that is armed for the latest zero-day exploits – like McAfee Endpoint Security. You can’t prevent every user from connecting to a public network or one that is set up for phishing, but you can ensure they have an active defense that takes automatic corrective actions. That way, employees can enjoy the time off and return to a safe and secure enterprise come the new year.

資料來源:https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/business/endpoint-security/giving-your-endpoint-the-gift-of-security-this-holiday-season/