What is a digital nomad? 

The digital nomad lives and works abroad with no fixed location. These individuals work remotely using public Wi-Fi, smartphones and laptops to access the business tech and information of the company they work for. A digital nomad is not the same as a remote worker as they are generally located in one or two known locations at home or on site. 

Enabling employees to adopt a digital nomad lifestyle is a good perk that organisations like Shopify and Spotify offer employees. However, you should consider the risks to your business before hiring digital nomads and implement robust cyber security measures to safeguard your organisation.  

What risks can a digital nomad pose? 

Consider how digital nomads could be a risk to business continuity as they are moving around the world logging in and out of your business via coworking spaces, cafés, airport or hotels. Best practice cyber security, therefore, is vital to safeguard your business from accidental data loss and malicious cyber-attacks. This is the case for all your employees but there are extra layers of security you should consider before employing a digital nomad.  

The cyber security risk and challenges  

An organization must work with IT experts to understand the risks and challenges associated with hiring a digital nomad who may store personal and business data on the same device. Without IT support someone could open a back door through personal data or device with lower levels of cyber security.  

Before hiring a digital nomad, consider these 7 cyber security factors: 

1) The company cyber security policy 

The cyber security policy for your company is essential for raising awareness of cyber security and protecting your employees and business from cyber threats. Every employee should know their rights and responsibilities when it comes to cyber security – especially Digital Nomads who access your business from a wide variety of locations.  

2) Strengthen cyber security resilience   

An IT expert should evaluate the cyber security system across the company and identify any weak areas that could open the door to a malicious attack. For example, a digital nomad may be working in locations that are not listed under ‘safe countries’ or using public WIFI leaving your data vulnerable to malicious attacks. An IT expert can help by:   

• Securing devices behind a military grade VPN,  
• Using cloud software to safeguard sensitive data 
• Safeguarding devices and data with Anti-virus protection 
• Adding Multi Factor Authentication 

3) Cyber Security Training 

Cyber security awareness training will ensure the digital nomad is fully aware of the security measures they should take, including never leaving their devices unattended, using a lock screen, PIN or biometric ID, and adding a device tracker. 

4) The Cloud  

In addition to providing valuable extra storage, the Cloud also provides enhanced security, which makes it a robust cyber security solution for office-based, hybrid, remote, and of course digital nomads.  

5) Secure Business Apps 

Secure business apps integrated with your IT systems connect every employee – wherever they are – allowing access to collaboration and communication tools. Included in premium business software packages are Data Protection Controls and Cyberthreat protection to ensure business data on company-owned and personal devices remains safe from malware, unsafe attachments, and suspicious links. 

6) Multi-layer of encryption for business data 

Multi-layer encryption of data prevents identity theft and monetary losses for companies and customers. The data encryption encodes business data so that only authorised users can read and process it. 

7) Virtual Private Network (VPN) services  

A VPN establishes a protected network connection when using a public network. That’s why a digital nomad should set up VPN on all devices to protect private and company information when connecting to different public Wi-Fi networks in coffee shops, airports and hotels around the world. That way you can be confident your business data won’t be targeted by hackers and sold on, resulting in disaster recovery and reputational damage.  

Consider this: 

Ensure your digital nomad has all the right tech in place to connect securely with your business and conduct their daily tasks including:   

• Laptop with a long battery life that is slim and portable with fast processing power 
• Smartphone with the capability to store information and vast number of business apps to function 
• Good quality noise cancelling headphones with microphone to eliminate background noise 

Contact Us

Say hello and talk to a member of the Consider IT team today to help to structure and manage cyber security systems tailored for your business. 

It has been confirmed today that hackers were able to remotely install software on phones and other devices using a major vulnerability in messaging app WhatsApp. The surveillance software involved was developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, according to a report in the Financial Times. On Monday, WhatsApp urged all of its 1.5 billion users to update their apps as an added precaution.

The victim doesn’t need to do a thing other than leaving their phone on. To carry out the attack, a hacker has to manipulate data sent during the process of beginning a voice call with the target. Once the packets are received by the victim’s device, a memory buffer within WhatsApp is forced to overflow, overwriting other parts of the app’s memory and leading to the hacker gaining access to the chat application.

The NSO group, an Israeli-based but American-owned company, specialises in creating what it calls tools against crime and terrorism. But the security researchers call them something else: a cyber arms dealer.

WhatsApp said it was too early to know how many users had been affected by the vulnerability, although it added that suspected attacks were highly-targeted. According to the New York Times, one of the people targeted was a London-based lawyer involved in a lawsuit against the NSO Group.

How to update WhatsApp

On Android

• Open the Google Play store
• Tap the menu at the top left of the screen
• Tap My Apps & Games
• If WhatsApp has recently been updated, it will appear in the list of apps with a button that says Open
• If WhatsApp has not been automatically updated, the button will say Update. Tap Update to install the new version
• The latest version of WhatsApp on Android is 2.19.134

On iOS (iPhone, iPad)

• Open the App Store
• At the bottom of the screen, tap Updates
• If WhatsApp has recently been updated, it will appear in the list of apps with a button that says Open
• If WhatsApp has not been automatically updated, the button will say Update. Tap Update to install the new version
• The latest version of WhatsApp on iOS is 2.19.51

For a long time now, Huawei Technologies Co. have been accused of planting backdoors into their equipment to enable them to steal trade secrets from a business partner and to enable Chinese spying through the telecom networks it’s built across the West.

Now Vodafone Group Plc has acknowledged to Bloomberg that it found vulnerabilities going back years with equipment supplied by Huawei for the carrier’s Italian business.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

Huawei said it was made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and that they had been addressed at the time.

Australia and New Zealand have already blocked telecoms companies from using Huawei equipment in 5G networks, while Canada is reviewing its relationship with the Chinese telecoms firm.

Vodafone said:

The issues in Italy identified in the Bloomberg story were all resolved and date back to 2011 and 2012.

The ‘backdoor’ that Bloomberg refers to is Telnet, which is a protocol that is commonly used by many vendors in the industry for performing diagnostic functions. It would not have been accessible from the internet

Bloomberg is incorrect in saying that this ‘could have given Huawei unauthorised access to the carrier’s fixed-line network in Italy.

Several European telecoms operators are considering removing Huawei’s equipment from their networks.

Dixons Carphone said today that it had suffered a massive data breach involving 5.9 million payment cards and 1.2 million personal data records. The hack attempt which began July 2017 is still under investigation by Dixons Carphone they said.

The news comes months after the Information Commissioner’s Office handed “Carphone Warehouse” a massive fine of £400,000 after serious failures placed customer and employee data at risk. After one of their computer systems was compromised as a result of a cyber-attack in 2015, it transpired that the compromised customer data included: names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, marital status and, for more than 18,000 customers, historical payment card details.

Carphone Warehouse announced they would merge with Dixons in 2014.

Dixons Carphone published a press release today about the latest breach that again shows how likely a cyber attack is and how important it is to be proactive and to have appropriate cyber insurance in place.

Our investigation is ongoing and currently indicates that there was an attempt to compromise 5.9 million cards
in one of the processing systems of Currys PC World and Dixons Travel stores.

…

Separately, our investigation has also found that 1.2m records containing non-financial personal data, such as
name, address or email address, have been accessed.

Dixons Carphone Chief Executive, Alex Baldock, said:

“We are extremely disappointed and sorry for any upset this may cause. The protection of our data has to be at the heart of our business, and we’ve fallen short here. We’ve taken action to close off this unauthorised access and though we have currently no evidence of fraud as a result of these incidents, we are taking this extremely seriously. We are determined to put this right and are taking steps to do so; we promptly launched an investigation, engaged leading cyber security experts, added extra security measures to our systems and will be communicating directly with those affected. Cyber crime is a continual battle for business today and we are determined to tackle this fast-changing challenge.”

Rightfully worried about your cyber exposure? Get in touch today and we can chat about how we can help.

The FBI has seized a domain linked to what’s believed to be a Russian botnet composed of around 500,000 infected routers around the world. According to the Department of Justice, the botnet is under the control of Russian hacking group “fancy bear” or “Sofacy.” Sofacy use malware called “VPN Filter” to exploit the vulnerabilities in routers manufactured by by Linksys, MikroTik, NETGEAR, and TP-Link and QNAP.

On Wednesday security researchers at Cisco and Symantec separately provided new details on the malware, which has turned up in 54 countries including the United States.

The FBI has been investigating the botnet since at least August, according to court records, when agents in Pittsburgh interviewed a local resident whose home router had been infected with the Russian malware. “She voluntarily relinquished her router to the agents,” wrote FBI agent Michael McKeown, in an affidavit filed in federal court. “In addition, the victim allowed the FBI to utilize a network tap on her home network that allowed the FBI to observe the network traffic leaving the home router.”

Source(s): https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-fbi-seizes-control-of-russian-botnet

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/24/fbi-seizes-domain-russian-botnet/?guccounter=1

In April 2017 a computer virus encrypted the Durham Sixth Form Centre college files. The County Durham school confirmed it had made a payment of £1,500 to recover the data and it had informed the police about the attack.

The school has not confirmed the source of the attack, but it happened at the same time as the global WannaCry cyber-attack on businesses and banks across the world, as well as the NHS.