6 Ways you can Proactively Secure Your organization’s Mobile Endpoints

Over the years, mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops have been extensively used to get work done, primarily due to these powerful devices facilitating mobility for workforces.

Workplace trends from 2022 show that most organizations have moved on from the work-from-home (WFH) era, inviting employees back to the traditional workspaces while still providing them the flexibility to work remotely as needed.

This comfortable middle ground of hybrid work supported by mobile devices has not only resulted in more distributed workforces across the globe, with employees accessing corporate data from wherever they may be through an array of devices but has also expanded these organizations’ attack surfaces. With it, we’ve seen a boom in security threats, with bad actors waiting around every corner for their chance to steal sensitive corporate data.

Protecting your organization from these threats may sound daunting, but there are proactive security measures you can implement to make it easy. Here are a few ways you can secure your organization’s mobile devices:

• Enhance the first layer of security: Setting solid passwords is one way to ensure work devices and the data on them are protected from unauthorized access, which is why so many compliance regulations require sensitive information to be password protected at all times. Passwords should be complex and reset regularly to make it harder for bad actors to brute force their way into the device.
• Minimize the risk of data leaks: To prevent sensitive data from leaving the device or moving from corporate apps to third-party apps, applying a few DLP policies might help. Restricting device clipboard functionalities, blocking physical connections like USBs and portable drives, and restricting the automatic data backup to cloud services can help ensure your organization’s data remains inaccessible to unauthorized individuals.

Are Educational Institutions Easy Victims of Ransomware Groups?

Ransomware’s new favorite victim is educational institutions. Ransomware attacks that exploit targets utilizing malicious software code have increased tremendously over the past few years. In addition to targeting business sectors, cybercriminals are now attempting to ambush the security posture of educational sectors. Educational institutions are easy prey for ransomware attacks as they lack the fundamental elements of a secure network.

According to findings from a 2022 global survey, ransomware groups attacking educational institutions have encrypted around 73% of their data. Only a limited number of educational institutions recovered all their data after paying the ransom, while most could recover only 62% of their data.

Devastating ransomware attacks disrupt the functionality of educational institutions

The Vice Society ransomware operation orchestrated the most recent attack, targeting the Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. The college has found it challenging to cope with the effects of the cyberattack. This ransomware group mainly targets educational institutions it identifies as weaker in security.

One of the major headlines in 2022 is the ransomware attack in Chicago Public Schools that exposed the data of 500,000 students. Two ransomware groups are suspected in this breach.

Web Security Gateway: Best Security Practices to Protect Enterprise Users

Protecting employees from harmful content was a far more straightforward task once upon a time. COVID-19 changed all of that in an instant. The new hybrid work model has forced IT professionals to rethink their security strategy game plans. As threats continue to emerge, it becomes an ongoing game of cat and mouse for IT teams to outmaneuver cybercriminals.

One of the biggest challenges is keeping up with the latest forms of malware. Kaspersky detected 516,617 malicious installation packages in Q1 2022. Any one of these packages could be unknowingly downloaded by a remote worker.