In less than a year, the coronavirus has managed to take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and create a level of anxiety that matched the post 9/11 days. With the population focused on the virus, cyber criminals are taking advantage of your distraction. Smart Brief brought this concern to our attention in their article, “Remote work and cybersecurity: Coronavirus impact.”

In the US, almost 20% of households have had hours cut or a job lost because of this pandemic. Others are likely working from home with school-age children, because more than 80% of officials have closed their schools. With all this going on, criminals are banking on the fact that you aren’t paying as close attention on your credit cards, emails, texts, etc.

So imagine the concern corporations have about their security. Employees are distracted and we all know one of the biggest security risks is humans. By clicking on a phishing email or not logging out of an application, exposes the organization to cybercrime.

It is important to be sure passwords are strong and frequent updates are made in malware, ransomware and other virus (of another kind) software.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.