COVID-19 – Avoiding damaging data breaches in challenging times

This is a guest blog by REC business partner Beyond Encryption.

Long before Coronavirus dominated the headlines, Cyber Crime was being reported as a rapidly growing threat in the UK.

The current crisis has now brought this into sharp focus particularly in the area of our electronic communications. Email is at the centre of a massive amount of risk as the number one route of attack favoured by cyber criminals.

As early as the 20^th of March Action Fraud reported a 400% increase in scams linked directly to COVID-19 with this figure almost certainly set to rise. Most commonly attackers are using phishing e-mails, which often purport to deliver official information on the virus, to lure individuals to click malicious links.

With the most mundane of tasks, like a simple trip to buy groceries, now requiring thought and planning, we are all feeling the effects of “moral fatigue” and this can result in us letting our guards down - something cyber criminals are taking advantage of.

So, what can you do as a business leader to protect your business?

You are not in an office environment with secure connections, a protected network, and machines, which already makes you a perfect candidate for cyber-attacks. However, this does not mean you will be a victim to one, if you follow best practice, and educate your staff to be vigilant.

Like social distancing, and regularly washing our hands to avoid getting sick, there are many ‘common sense’ actions we can undertake to help us defend against cybercrime such as not reusing passwords, not writing them down, using a password manager and enabling two-factor authentication on your systems/devices.

With many businesses relying exclusively on electronic communication, Cyber criminals are also busy exploiting the vulnerabilities of normal email delivery. There are, however, some practical and positive steps that can be taken to protect data in transit and avoid damaging breaches, such as:

• Using an email encryption solution to secure email content and attachments
• Ensuring all staff are trained and compliant with current data protection regulation

REC approved business partner Beyond Encryption offers a secure email solution called Mailock for businesses of all sizes and shapes.

Sending an email, secured by Mailock, will protect the content, and attachments, of any message and a unique recipient verification process will ensure that the content can only be accessed by the correct person.

Configuring “trigger words” in the systems admin portal, will demonstrate a business owners ongoing commitment to staff training in the area of data protection. The sender is also able to revoke a Mailock email completely, with no need to rely upon the discretion of the incorrect recipient to avoid a breach.

Register for your free 14-day trial of Mailock

PS: REC members get a member rate of just £8.50 per month if you wish to continue using Mailock after your free trial.