this is Susan Bradley for CSO Online. so you've seen that headlines we need to
get ready for a potential pandemic a virus and even if you we don't think
it's going to occur have you done the what-ifs what if your boss calls you up
and says hey everyone in the office needs to work from home are you ready
for that do you have such things as a remote access tools tools that allow you
to reach out to your home users and can help them set up VPN or other remote
access software there's things like Splashtop LogMeIn rescue and also reach
out to your consultants they may have remote access tools that they can give
you and loan to you while this this crisis is going on do you have policies
in your office to handle home use rights have you thought about supporting
Macintosh and G for Windows we can think of things like defender as being a good
enough antivirus but what about Macintosh antivirus and if you think
that your users aren't secure just keep in mind that Slayer trojan attacks one
in 10 Macintosh users so don't think in terms of Macintosh being an invincible
it too is a vulnerable just to software issues so think in terms of what the
bare minimum requirements for both Mac and Windows home users do they have good
enough software do they have good enough antivirus do they have office suites and
keep in mind that if you have office 365 there's some licenses allow you to cover
five phones five tablets and even five pcs or Macs per user if you're a volume
license user you can have home use rights reach out to your volume license
provider and to see what licenses and what options you have so think in terms
of do your home users have the necessary tools to either remote into your office
or to have an office suite that they need in order to work from home
these days Microsoft teams is giving away paid features for six months due to
the corona virus outbreak look to see if that's good enough for your environment
maybe you just need to call and have have meetings virtual meetings if you
don't have enough desktops to remote into there's windows a virtual desktop
deck is delivered on a door you can also deploy office 365 ProPlus in a Windows
virtual desktop and don't overlook the issues of remote working if nobody's
worked from home before it can be a little bit isolating so make sure that
you have tips of remote workers reaching out to co-workers looking at what kind
of microphones and and cameras that they have to make sure that they have the
best experience also don't just open up remote access and think that's good
enough for example the dry decks ransomware went through RDP brute-force
attacks so don't just open up 3389 to your servers and say hey that's good
enough our admins can get in you want to make sure that you have secure remote
access secure remote RDP Rd Kate Way looked for even tools like duo that
allows you to do secure remote access with two-factor during this process also
don't just open up VPN and think it's secure enough recently pulse secure VPN
had a vulnerability and there were attacks as a result so look to see what
kind of VPN software is installed on the home user machines they may need to have
security security updates before you can roll out VPN and also make sure that you
have a company electronic bulletin board so that users in your office know
exactly where to go to for good information there are lots of scams out
there in phishing attacks having to do with Cova 19 so make sure that you have
a go-to place in your organization where people can get good information and last
but not least the CIS security org site has a CIS controls telework and small
office network security guide and it gives you additional guidance and things
to think about so even if you aren't working from home
for the next month think in terms up what if can you do it do you have the
resources available do you have tools that you can reach out to home users
think in terms of what you need to have if you need to remark from from home do
you have the necessary tools so think of the what if can you do it until next
time this is Susan Bradley hope hopefully making you think a little bit
for Co so online thanks again bye-bye