Remote work has accentuated cyber security weaknesses. Phishing attacks have become incredibly prevalent since the beginning of the pandemic. People working from personal computers and home networks have unintentionally exposed sensitive information to bad actors.
It is worth noting the risks people pose to cloud security, whether they work in the office or from home, and ensuring you have a strategy to mitigate the risks they create.
What cyber security risks threaten the cloud?
Many human factors threaten cloud security. Often, the threat is not a cyber criminal attempting a brute force attack; it is your colleague with the unsecured home network that uses the same password for all of their accounts. Some factors that threaten enterprise cloud security include:
Lack of training among staff
While many people have a general knowledge of cyber security issues such as malware and phishing attacks, they may not be fully aware of how to recognise these and protect the company’s data and systems.
For example, your team might not have received the training to recognise sophisticated phishing emails. A cleverly constructed email requesting that someone update their login details on a fake page that looks similar to a company page could be the catalyst for a data breach if not scrutinised by the user.
Weak or repeated passwords
We all know the frustrations of forgetting a password and using repeated passwords for business and personal accounts appears to be the easy way of ensuring you never get locked out. Yet, repeat passwords are an easy way in for bad actors as once they have the login details for one account, they can try it for any other applications or platforms used within the business.
Weak passwords make it especially easy for brute force attacks to be successful. Weak passwords might be easy for people to remember, especially if they are merely a name or common word, but they are also easy to guess. Another way that attackers can gain access to enterprise cloud resources is by using default passwords. Many organisations do not change their cloud resources’ default passwords, so attackers can easily guess and re-use these logins.
IoT devices connected to home networks
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to allow employees to work from home, and this trend will continue. This has created a new set of security challenges for businesses, as staff members now access corporate resources from their home networks. One of the biggest threats to enterprise security in this new hybrid working environment is the use of IoT devices.
IoT devices are often not well-secured and can provide a way for malicious actors to gain access to corporate networks. For example, a staff member might have an IoT device on their home network compromised by malware. A bad actor could then leverage this device to launch attacks against the corporate network.
Strengthening enterprise cloud security at the user level
It is not enough to simply protect your business with technology solutions. You can establish endpoint security solutions on staff devices, but the value of these weakens when people fall for a phishing attack or use the same password for every application.
User training
Mitigating the threat of human error begins with educating your staff on how to recognise cyber security breaches and comply with best practices for protecting themselves and the organisation. User training can also help to improve incident response times. If an employee knows what to do in the event of a security breach, they can help to contain the damage.
Create policies
Another method for mitigating human error is creating cyber security policies. For example, you might enforce policies that ask people to create passwords that include capitalisations, numbers and special characters. Asking people to change passwords frequently often results in them using variations of the same phrase. So, rather than asking people to update their password four times a year, you might request they do so only twice but create strong passwords that they do not use for multiple accounts.
Having clear guidelines in place will make employees less likely to make mistakes that could put your business at risk.
Build cyber security into your corporate culture
Finally, cyber security must be more than training and policies; you need to build it into your company culture. You can achieve this in a few ways:
- Make sure that everyone in your organisation understands the importance of cyber security and knows what they can do to protect your data.
- Create a culture of awareness by holding regular training sessions.
- Encourage employees to report any suspicious activity or attempts to access sensitive data.
- Ensure that your cyber security policies are up to date and reviewed regularly.
By taking these steps, you can create a strong cyber security culture and a team that does its best to protect your business from attacks.
Engage your staff with a cyber escape room
Our Cyber Escape Rooms are a tried and true method of ensuring your team gain and retain valuable cyber security and awareness knowledge. Whether working remotely or finding a cause to get the team back together, our virtual and physical Cyber Escape Rooms are fully customisable to suit your group. You can book a preview session to learn more about the experience.
