2020 has been a banner year for cybercriminals. They have stolen billions of dollars and data on billions of individuals by preying on widespread fear and uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we all know, unprecedented numbers of employees are working from home during this pandemic year. In fact, one recent survey by Bay Leaf Digital found that 65 percent of newly WFH employees are now using company devices from home – and 42 percent are experiencing unstable access including issues with connecting to remote desktops, poor VPN, etc.
It’s OK, we understand. You thought you and your employees would all be safely back in the office by now. However, we’re all still adjusting to this new normal of exponentially more remote working – and exponentially more cyberattacks. Every day, hackers seek to exploit not only fear and insecurity caused by the pandemic, but the security loopholes created as more employees access their email and other work systems from remote devices. According to one report, streaming phishing sites saw an 85-percent increase from January to March, with more than 209 malicious websites being created every day. A record 25,000 confirmed phishing pages were created on March 19 alone!
Staying informed of the latest data privacy regulations as they apply to healthcare can be challenging. Not only are there a plethora of different security and retention requirements, but the risk of failure is higher than in any other sector:
The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way we approach data privacy and email security as the transition to working from home has been accompanied by a growing surge of Coronavirus themed phishing scams and spoofed websites used to distribute malware or lure victims into providing confidential information.
