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Kaspersky warns about lax information security when working from home

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Millions of people are currently still working from home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions. But antivirus giant Kaspersky has warned that only 34% of employees have been given instructions on how to secure their personal laptops, tablets and smartphones while they work from home.

In a report entitled "How COVID-19 changed the way people work", Kaspersky highlights the importance of protection and security awareness for smaller enterprises.

The Russian cybersecurity firm found that three in five employees of small organisations (57%) weren’t given corporate devices as they worked from home during the pandemic, while 45% of staff working for all companies didn't receive devices.

Meanwhile, just one third of small business staff (34%) suggested that their employers provided IT security requirements in order to secure their personal devices for remote working from home. 

According to Kaspersky, requirements could include getting users to install anti-malware software, using stronger passwords and the best password managers, and downloading operating system updates regularly.

It said such instructions have recently become even more necessary as 35% of small business employees have been increasingly storing valuable corporate information on personal devices and in cloud services (25%).

Andrey Dankevich, senior product marketing manager of B2B Product Marketing at Kaspersky, said: “Small companies may be in difficult circumstances and their first priority is to save their business and employees during the lockdown. 

“So it is no surprise that cybersecurity may become an afterthought. However, implementing even basic IT security requirements can decrease the chances of malware infection, compromised payments or lost business data.”

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Nicholas Fearn

Nicholas Fearn is a freelance technology journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!