SCOTTISH businesses are being advised to put in place stricter rules around passwords to protect staff and systems, as the country switches to home-working amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Following UK Government advice for businesses to work from home where possible due to the rise in cases of COVID-19, the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) is warning employers how this can increase an organisation’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks.

This was demonstrated just weeks into the coronavirus outbreak with scammers already capitalising on fear and system frailties.

Scams relating to the virus are belived to have cost UK businesses nearly £970,000.

SBRC is advising businesses to quickly and easily increase their security by using password manager software and implementing a two-factor authentication.

Declan Doyle, Ethical Hacking Consultant at SBRC, said: “We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of phishing scams since the outbreak of the virus, including fraudulent emails targeting businesses about fake Government tax rebates and Coronavirus funding.

“Criminals are very smart, and as much as we can find, identify and shut down scams, the best course of action is to tell people what to look out for and give them advice to follow to minimise the risk of falling victim to these traps. Increasing your online security is one way to do this.”

Eamonn Keane, Chief Operating Officer for Cyber and Innovation at SBRC, said: “The last thing any business battling the impact of coronavirus needs right now is a crippling cyber-attack. The prospect of thousands of temporary home workers, potentially accessing a range of vital business servers and applications from vulnerable home internet connections, or using old or inadequate laptops or PCs, is a scary one.

“One of the easiest ways for businesses to avoid cyber-attacks is to set up a password manager to secure, store and generate passwords for your team which can be accessed across various devices.

“Attackers use different techniques beyond hacking to discover passwords, including phishing, automated guessing using the most commonly-used passwords, manual guessing and intercepting networks. Password managers and two-factor authentication can easily put a stop to a lot of these tactics.”

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