11.01.2021 10:00 am

Working from home: security risk of video conferences

Although the numbers have declined slightly in recent months, about a quarter of all employees in Germany are still working from home entirely or at least part of the time – and according to a study by the German Institute for Employment Research, the majority of them actually quite enjoy it. The advantages are obvious: no more time-consuming commutes, greater flexibility, a better work-life balance, less stress and lower costs for both employees and employers.

However, there are also some disadvantages of course. The most commonly discussed drawbacks are a loss of team spirit, lack of direct communication and interaction, or a high risk of distraction. One of the most problematic downsides of working from home is often overlooked in the process: the loss of IT resources and processes that are taken for granted in an office.

 

Working from home: working without a safety net?

Multi-person IT departments on company premises guarantee a high level of security for sensitive company data. Regular patching of operating systems, software and network devices, network backups through firewalls and intrusion prevention systems, daily backups of all workloads, daily updates of endpoint anti-malware, firmware updates, helpdesk support and security awareness training – the list of protective measures goes on.

In contrast, things look quite different at home. A colourful collection of desktop computers, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, consoles, smart TVs and smart home components share a WLAN access point whose security settings are controlled by the respective provider. If this assortment of private equipment is used to access the corporate network, there is a very high risk that malware will exploit one of the vulnerabilities of only one of the devices located in the home network and infect the corporate network.

 

And suddenly it zoomed

Video conferencing is one of the most critical gateways for cyberattacks exploiting the vulnerabilities of home offices. If the participants use their private devices in an inadequately secured environment, we are talking about a perfect can opener for Pandora’s box. The platform of the market leader Zoom is a particularly popular cybercriminal gateway for message and code injection attacks, remote control hijacking and watering hole attacks, session ID hijackings as well as man-in-the-middle attacks on chat and video streams.

 

How to build a protective wall

As threatening as these scenarios sound, they can be defused quickly and effectively. A sophisticated all-in-one security solution such as Acronis Cyber Protect lets you implement all security-related measures with a single package. On top of its five essential functionalities of prevention, detection, response, recovery and forensics, Cyber Protect includes a variety of additional features specifically designed to protect Zoom conferences.


Acronis Cyber Protect

  • blocks code injection attacks
  • prevents website redirection attacks
  • blocks attacks via third-party applications
  • blocks malware hooks for grabbing streaming content
  • blocks remote control of a compromised machine
  • blocks attacks via third-party libraries
  • prevents session ID theft, and
  • prevents the use of outdated zoom versions

 

This makes Acronis Cyber Protect an elemental contribution to eradicating one of the biggest potential drawbacks of working from home. On the other hand, you will have to take other measures to counter the risk of getting distracted by house pets, chatty neighbours or unexpectedly attractive vacuum cleaner sessions…



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