When it comes to working from home, there are certain risks that you need to be aware of. You need to make sure that you are aware of these threats and what they can do to you, whether you run a small business or you are part of a far bigger corporate industry. No matter your placement in the world of business, you need to be on the lookout for these things when working from home.
The threats
The main threats as a single user that you need to be on the lookout for are baiting, phishing, and scareware, all of which come under the term social engineering. For more information about what social engineering is, read this article from Proofpoint. They can be the things that are most likely to come your way and can be a key part of creating a lot of stress in your life. If you don’t have a considerate boss, you might even lose your job. Here are some more in-depth examples of the threats you will be facing.
#1 Baiting
Baiting is easy to understand. The key things you need to know about it are:
- It relies on feeding off of your curiosity or greed.
- It is a method that can get malware onto your device either discreetly or visibly, depending on the attacker’s motives.
- It can be a targeted attack or something random.
- A good example of a baiting attack would be scams that pop up on websites claiming that you have won a prize. Click through to a malicious website that makes you type in your details or download something, and the attack is completed.
- It can also be done by planting evidence. This can be putting an infected USB drive somewhere unusual, but it will blend in, for example, in a car park or toilet cubicle. This will entice people to put it into a device, which the malware then spreads from.
Baiting is dangerous but can be easily avoided.
#2 Phishing
Phishing is a very common attack on those working from home. The key things that you need to know about it are:
- It relies on human error and mistrust.
- It is a method to steal data and get malware into systems.
- It is often a bulk attack, meaning that those with threat-sharing platforms are more likely to be better protected, especially if the email is sent out firm-wide and is identical or very similar.
- An example of phishing can be asking for data or a bill that the employee needs to click on using a link, and it instead downloads malware.
Phishing is sneaky but can be obvious.
#3 Scareware
Scareware is everywhere and is easy to spot. The things you need to know about it are:
- It relies on its victims feeling scared and panicking and making bad decisions as a result.
- It is often an ad saying that a device is infected with malware. In many instances, the software it markets is malware.
This is the kind of attack that is obvious but is designed to exploit vulnerable users.
