The real risk of remote working
Since 2017, UK public sector business has lost as much as £48bn to cyber fraud, and shockingly, private sector businesses have lost £140bn. The need for businesses to understand their exposure to such threats, and the very real risk of financial, operational and reputational loss should not be underestimated.
But despite the growing scale of the problem, there is no national strategy for tackling the issue, and the police response lacks focus and financial support. This makes fraud “everyone’s problem, but no-one’s priority”, according to the report, written by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) -the world’s oldest independent think tank on international defence and security.
With so many people working from home, the threat of cyber fraud is greater than ever. It raises the question – if IT systems are compromised, how can a business revert to manual processes when there is nobody in the office?
Additionally it was found that in the rush and panic to set remote working practices up, even simple data protection practices were ignored, With these measures being ignored, many companies allowed staff to use their personal devices without due consideration for the elevated risk.
It is crucial for businesses to act before disaster strikes. Creating a ‘total security culture’ based on a best-practice cyber security framework should be the aspiration of every business.
Tsedal Neeley, a professor of business administration from Harvard Business School who is an expert on remote working, agrees that home workers should know exactly who to report cyber-security problems to. “Engaging with their firm’s IT/cyber-security experts is crucial,” she says. Consider safeguarding your business with a SotaProtect best-practice managed service for cyber security. Contact Sota today – our cyber security experts are here to help.