Hartford Business Journal

THE REMOTE WORKFORCE HAS EXPANDED dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic – with the number of employees working from home increasing by almost one-third in 2020. But as businesses have adjusted to support a remote workforce, an unintended outcome has occurred — cyberthreats are on the rise. Fortunately, new research from Comcast Business and IDG indicates that most organizations are investing in cybersecurity to address the challenges of protecting against a growing threat profile and in remote IT operations to support remote workers. Many businesses have also found that having good security in place not only protects from threats and breaches, which could be costly due to outages and remediation, but helps their brand stand out. The following best practices will help businesses continue to build their cybersecurity resilience. Know your cloud footprint. The use of cloud resources is very convenient. For instance, if you want to develop an internal application or service for a limited time, it's easy to do so. But oftentimes when the campaign is over, organizations forget to disable the application, which means it's still available and could be an outlet to threat. It's important that you're aware of your cloud footprint to ensure unused applications are removed. This added level of scrutiny and validation ensures you aren't leaving your business and customers vulnerable to leaky, unused cloud apps that could cause a potential customer data breach. Get in front of threats to stop them before disruption is caused. Phishing and ransomware remain the biggest threats to businesses of all sizes, and this has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the number of blocks from newly registered malicious domains increased nearly 13 times over the past six months and DDoS attack traffic has also significantly increased since the start of the pandemic. For a business, this could impact your ability to serve customers online, transact with supply chain partners or interact with employees. And these prolonged disruptions lead to loss. Having security in place to block these are essential and can allow you to stop threats before they get to the customer to prevent po- tentially costly interruptions. Provide secure network access. Advanced security services or Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewalls can be pro- visioned, configured and supported remotely without requiring physical changes in the telecom closet through virtual network functions. By doing so, your business can be more agile and you're able to bring advanced security functions and services closer to the edge of a distributed network. This also supports secure access directly to the internet to reduce overhead on data center capacity and opti- mize their distributed investment. Implement advanced tools. Businesses require a multi- layered approach to cybersecurity because cyberattacks have become increasingly sophisticated and diverse. First, assess your network's strengths and weaknesses, then implement the right combination of tools that work best for your needs, such as an antivirus program, multifactor authentication for employees or network security to proactively protect devices that connect to your network. Offer education and resources to employees. Cyberse- curity solutions and tools are only effective when employees are educated and able to complement them. Especially during this time of remote work, ongoing employee education and a culture centered around customer and data privacy is more critical than ever. A mixed approach of online courses, awareness campaigns and email reminders on security tips can help reinforce this. Over the past six months, businesses across the region have shown resolve and agility. SMB owners and employees alike have adapted their business for the future. As you and your employees continue to adapt to working remotely, a combination of the right technology solutions and the implementation of cybersecurity best practices will allow you to better protect employees, assets, and customers from the increases in attacks. l 5 Best Practices to Build Your Company's Cybersecurity Resilience About Shena Seneca Tharnish: Shena Seneca Tharnish joined Comcast Business Services as VP, Cybersecurity Products and Practice in late February 2017. She joined after serving as SVP, Enterprise Network Infrastructure at PNC Bank for five years in Pittsburgh, PA, and as a senior leader at The Home Depot, Inc. for twelve years in Atlanta, GA. In Shena's time at Comcast Business, she has developed a Cybersecurity Product Framework that drives the commercial product roadmap, as well as security practices for all business products at Comcast Business. Shena has over 24 years of experience in Information Technology — leading and managing network engineering and application development services. Prior to joining The Home Depot, Tharnish worked as a network consultant with carriers MCI WorldCom and Concert Communications (BT/AT&T), designing wide area networks for businesses. Shena Seneca Tharnish earned her EMBA from the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, and her undergraduate was in Telecommunications Engineering Technology, with a minor in management, at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

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