Employers’ ignorance becomes black hats’ dream

People are working from home like never before. For the most part, offices are relatively empty, but all network/system security technologies are still in the office. What is more, many employees are accessing work resources from basic ISP modems/routers with default usernames and passwords. Most business owners and employees do not understand cyber security, so CTOs, CISOs, CSOs, IT/IS Directors, IT/IS Managers, and/or IT personnel are responsible for protecting company data. Obviously, such ineptitude in protecting systems is primarily responsible for growing the black-hat industry. Dollar amounts, without getting technical, should explain the risk of getting hacked in today’s environment. “Remote work has increased the average cost of a data breach by $137,000.” If the previous number is not enough to raise awareness regarding protecting your data when employees work from home, “The search term ‘how to remove a virus’ increased by 42% in March.” Of course, being aware is not synonymous to being proactive. Therefore, every business leader must take action to protect his or her business’s data. It is impossible, and beyond the scope of this blog, to recommend a one-size-fits-all solution. Leaders can always start by contacting their respective company’s security expert and asking if their networks/information systems are being protected with AI and other advanced security technologies. Just as important (possibly even more), ensuring required compliance are met at all employee home offices is essential to a business’s livelihood. Currently, health care is seeing a spike in compliance enforcement. “The City of New Haven, Connecticut (New Haven) has agreed to pay $202,400 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to implement a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules.” If you are reading this and have any questions, we are always here to help as well. With that said, we will continue to provide useful information to help secure your environment/information systems.

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