We are now living in a much more digital world than we were even a few weeks ago and, whilst working from home where possible to keep us all safe is vitally important, it does present some additional cyber security and data protection risks.

Also, fact that cyber scammers are using this crisis to their own advantage means that businesses must ensure that they are educated on cyber security challenges and communicating with employees to give them the confidence to navigate this drastic change in working they now face.

Supporting the transition to homeworking

Business are now having to respond to working from home at scale that very few have had to tackle until now.  There will be many people who won’t have worked from home in a significant way until this point, so it's up to employers and leaders to help their colleagues navigate safe ways of working to be the first line of defence.

National Cyber Security Centre has published specific advice employers and employees about home-working due to Coronavirus:

Home working: preparing your organisation and staff 

This guidance recommends steps to take if your organisation is introducing or scaling up the amount of home working and provides some tips on how individuals can spot the typical signs of 'phishing' (a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information) emails.

Stay Safe Online: Top Tips for Staff: 30-minute e-learning package

The short training introduces why cyber security is important and how attacks happen, and then covers four key areas: defending yourself against phishing; using strong passwords; securing your devices; reporting incidents.

This learning has also been condensed into a useful infographic here

Reducing risk of cyber attacks

At any point in time, maintaining good cyber security is vital, but there are individuals who are looking to take advantage of this crisis and there have been reports of and increase in phishing emails and scams in relation to Coronavirus.

10 Steps to Cyber Security - this is a long-standing infographic tool used by many businesses and is especially important for  companies who are thinking about cyber security more at the moment.

What you can do to combat cyber attacks - this infographic provides guidance on steps reduce the risk of a cyber attack impacting your business.

What you should be doing on data protection

Many businesses, luxury included, have very rigorous standards when it come to data protection which are harder to maintain when people are working remotely. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) - the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest - is aware that it is hard for  companies to tackle this issue and have acknowledged that businesses might need to share information quickly or adapt the they work and data protection will not stop them from doing that.

The ICO’s Data protection and coronavirus: what you need to know Q&A provides helpful guidance on questions such as:

- During the pandemic, we are worried that our data protection practices might not meet our usual standard or our response to information rights requests will be longer.

- Will the ICO take regulatory action against us? More of our staff will be homeworking during the pandemic. What kind of security measures should my organisation have in place for homeworking during this period?

- Can I tell my staff that a colleague may have potentially contracted COVID-19?

Click here for the full Q&A

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To give feedback or ask questions, please contact Charlotte Keesing and Carly von Speyr