Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] The longer employees are working remotely in a vulnerable state, the bigger a target they, and ultimately the company may become in phishing and other attacks. You need to be thinking about this. 0:15 Prepare them as best you can now, because we don't know how long we're all gonna be working remotely. And the longer we use video programs that get hacked. With all this in mind, we need to be prepared. 0:27 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:51 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. All right. I hope, again, you are all staying safe and well today. So I'm glad that you're here with me. 1:04 All right. Today it's time for a tough conversation. 1:07 In the past few weeks, I've talked about how people can work remotely, how essential companies are trying to continue to work safely, and how business owners and managers can lead. 1:18 We've had a lot of interesting conversations, so today we need to have a real conversation, and we need to talk about cybersecurity. We've all kind of, uh, ran out. We all went home. 1:29 We had to do our things, but now we need to talk about how we need to step things up with cybersecurity. And with more employees working remotely, breaches will continue to increase. And guess what? 1:41 We've been starting to see some cyber attacks, so we need to have this discussion. So how can you protect your business? 1:48 I'm gonna answer that question here on segment one, but first, I need to talk about who our guests are going to be. 1:53 We're gonna be talking with Lance Spitzner, director of SANS Security Awareness, and then on the final segment, I will be back with, uh, Connected World's Women of Technology winner, which is Tina Gravel, and senior vice president of Global Challenges and Alliances at AppGate. 2:13 So let's get started. 2:14 The International Association of IT Asset Managers is warning that most employers may have found that they've rushed into making their decisions on remote work without thinking through how to secure their sensitive data. 2:31 Now, we all know that that probably what happened. We, we kinda sent our employees home, so now some companies didn't have a choice, right? 2:39 We all have kind of discussed that, but it brings up a really good point, and we need to talk about that. And it said, the World Economic Forum says the COVID-19 pandemic poses the risk of in- increased cyber attacks. 2:54 Hackers are taking this opportunity to target people's increased dependence on digital tools, and we've seen that. We've h- heard about Zoom and others getting hacked. So here's my question for all of you today. 3:09 Were we truly ready to work remotely? Did we have the right cybersecurity measures and practices in place before this pandemic? So I really want you to think about that. Were you ready to work remotely? 3:23 Did you think, "Hey, I'm, I'm, everything I'm using is secure"? So here's the scary reality. Roughly 54% of people use five or fewer passwords on all of their accounts. Now, that's something to think about. 3:39 Further, home networks tend to have a very weak point in most remote work from home systems, and this opens the door for our friendly bad guys to get in. That's the fact. 3:52 The bad guys say this is the greatest opportunity on Earth for them to start hacking. So what can we do? That's our point today. So let's start with some of the obvious points and tips, I guess we should say. 4:04 Mark Gilroy, the CEO of Forenetics, says we should do this, and let me read to you what he has. He's got some points here, and I'll just read them to you. 4:14 Be suspicious of any emails asking people to check or renew their passwords and login credentials. Seems pretty basic. Be suspicious of emails from people you don't know. Ensure your Wi-Fi connection is secure. 4:30 Ensure antivirus is in place and fully updated. Lock your screen if you work in a shared space, and check if you have enough encryption tools installed. All great advice, right? Those are some of the basics. 4:47 That's just the basics. So I don't know if you're doing any of that, so I want you to think about that. 4:52 But Matrix Integration echoes some of these in its top five security tips during the coronavirus outbreak, and here they are. 5:01 They might seem basic, but I always think they're worth repeating, because sometimes in our haste to do things, we forget to do the basic security. So first, have a secure connection. 5:14 You, you have that, right, at your home. You might have had it at work, but were you thinking about is it secure at home? Second, get information from the source. Don't click on those email links. 5:24 We all think, oh, and we're reacting quickly, and we just click on an email. Third, be aware of multiple modalities. We need to think about that. This is an important one, and let me explain. 5:38 Criminals are using a variety of means to make those inroads with victims. Never, ever give personal information, even over the phone. Sometimes we forget, and we start doing it. We think someone's calling us. 5:50 We just forget. Don't do it. You know? It's basic stuff. 5:53 Fourth, if you de- if you do see suspicious emails, share it with the company's IT managers, because you're letting everybody else on the team know someone's out there sending something you just shouldn't be linking on, or connecting with, or passing it on.Finally, have a discussion with your family members and children about potential threats and how to handle them. 6:17 This is something I spoke about last month because it's really important, and it's so important that many people are working re- when working remotely, because we forget about it and your children are on mobile devices downstairs, could unknowingly, they're in your basement, wherever you might have 'em, I always think about this, and you're not, you're not letting them know that the bad guy is getting in your door. 6:41 I mean, because you're not saying to them, "Hey, what are you doing?" 6:43 You know, we always forget our children are doing something in the house, but we've gotta make sure we're advising them the bad guys want in the house. You know, that's the expression, right? 6:52 So make sure you have a conversation with them. So let's move on to another example. 6:57 The World Economic Forum offers three p- practical actions for companies today, and I'm thrilled at the way they put it because I think it's great advice and something we all should consider. 7:10 It brings an entirely different perspective, I think, to the conversation, and i- I like it because I think it's one we should think about. 7:18 It says, "Step up your cyber hygiene standards," and basic- and it's a great analogy. 7:23 In addition to stepping up your cyber hygiene, you know, it's an analogy, I like it because it's say step up, like washing your hands after every physical contact, your hygiene. 7:36 Think about the same way we have to wash every time we have to wash our hands. It's saying do the same kind of things with your computer. We need to take this step to renew our digital hygiene habits. 7:47 These days, we're putting a lot of emphasis on protecting ourselves from COVID-19. We need to do the same things to protect ourselves from hackers. It's a great way of thinking about it. Makes sense, right? 8:01 So do check that you have a long, complex router password for your home Wi-Fi. S- check that. You might think you don't need to, but yes you do. 8:11 Make sure your system's firewalls are active on your router, and please, don't reuse passwords. Oh my goodness, how many times we hear that people are reusing 'cause it's, uh, quick and easy and you don't have time. 8:23 I've said that many times before. Longer passwords, you know, before this pandemic, and people forget that because they wanna make it easier. Second, be vigilant on verification. 8:34 We need to be far more careful than usual when installing software and giving out any personal information as I just mentioned. Don't click on strange links from emails. Take a pause before you click. 8:48 We're in always a hurry. There's so much going on, family members, you know, dogs barking, noises, kids interrupting. You know, digital viruses spread like physical ones. 8:59 One mistake could contaminate others in your organization and have a dangerous ripple effect. Take a pause, take a deep breath, you know. Finally, the World Economic Forum recommends all of us follow official updates. 9:13 You know, so I think this is important. Be sure to update your system software and patches and weaknesses that may be exploited. We're in a hurry. We don't think to do that. We need to. 9:24 There are a number of other organizations and individuals that are offering advice for how to s- secure your businesses during these times. Take them. You know, take the time to do that. 9:35 You know, take advice from the people you trust. The people you trust. Remember I said that. 9:41 You know, the International Association of IT Asset Managers has some good advice for people working remotely that I want you to consider as well, so I thought I would share these as well. 9:52 The association suggests tracking all IT assets that are being taken home. You know, that is perhaps some pretty good, sound advice for managers. Make sure you know what people have taken home. 10:04 You also might want to require employees to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the data that they will have access to outside the office. Again, we ran out, we didn't ask them to do this. 10:16 Another critical point we've been emphasizing is to make sure you provide education training to employees about how to manage their equipment and their data at home, because sometimes they let their children use their iPads that are work iPads. 10:30 You need to be careful about the information. So set up these expectations now. This is so very important. 10:37 S- so for some organizations, it might even make sense to monitor employees' data use and other re- remote practices. 10:45 This also might be a good time to tighten up the reins on those, you know, bring your own devices, you know, your BYOD device practices. It's important. 10:55 You know, do consider virtual private networks, encryption, multi-factor and authentication as well. You know, sometimes you're not a huge organization, you're a small business. You need to think about these. 11:07 Other ones, you're a very large organization, you have these practices in place, but a lot of these small businesses don't. 11:13 And remember this: the longer employees are working remotely in a vulnerable state, the bigger a target they, and ultimately the company, may become in phishing and other attacks. You need to be thinking about this. 11:26 Prepare them as best you can now, because we don't know how long we're all gonna be working remotely, and the longer we use, you know, video programs that get hacked, you know, things can ha- with all this in mind, we need to be prepared. 11:41 So here's my opinion for today. Companies need to work to ensure data is secure and protected during these times. 11:49 The pandemic, the coronavirus, is attacking our health, but we need to prepare ourselves for other attacks as well. It's not just our physical health, it's our computers, you know, our, our digital connected devices. 12:02 So possibly, digital attacks on our data might happen because the bad guys are out there. They have their minds on going after our information. So here's my tip. Start with the cyber security basics. 12:16 If you have been listening to my show for any amount of time, you likely know that we say update your software, secure your passwords, and then train your employees on cyber security best practices. 12:28 You know, hopefully we're all doing this and we're taking care of ourselves and our health, but we need to be smart during this COVID-19. 12:37 You know, in these times of remote work, do all the things to make sure your h- your employees have secure home networks, and keep track of equipment and data as best you can as m- much as possible. 12:51 Are there other best practices you're doing during these best times? I don't know, but you need to know that. I'm curious what you're all doing. I'd love for you to share your thoughts with me on Twitter. 13:02 What are you doing? And maybe there's other best practices we can share with other listeners. Tell me what you're doing and share with me on ConnectedWMag. That's the best way that we can keep ourselves secure. 13:12 All right, I'm out of time right now for this segment. Again, share your thoughts with me on ConnectedWMag. Check out our website on connectedworld.com or thepeggyסmedleyshow.com. 13:21 All right, listeners, we're gonna take a quick commercial break. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 13:32 [upbeat music]
