Remote working has made it easier for organizations to work from multiple locations and improve their working efficiencies. Since maintaining a remote workplace is much cheaper when compared to a physical office, businesses have started preferring a remote workspace. However, this increased preference has also caught the attention of cybercriminals, who are also leveraging technology to improve their attack techniques. 

Hackers commonly use phishing to target remote workspaces, a socially engineered attack that can help obtain sensitive information like login credentials. An attacker disguises malware into a seemingly authentic email and asks the recipient to download the file. Even if one of your employees falls for this trap, your network could end up with malware leading to system slowdowns or loss of sensitive data. 

Reasons attributing to the rise in phishing attacks 

Even when organizations have adopted the latest cloud applications, they are still vulnerable to phishing attacks. Here are three reasons: 

Users happen to be the weakest link 

Hackers are using such good social engineering skills to make phishing emails that it takes a momentary lapse in judgment to spot a malicious email and fall victim to it. For example, employees often fall prey to emails that report suspicious activity. They immediately panic and overlook clear signs of deception. 

However, organizations and individuals have the power to resolve this issue by learning how phishing works and identifying clues that can help them distinguish it from an authentic email. The management needs to train the employees to keep them updated with the latest phishing techniques. 

Organizations rely on the bare minimum security measures 

Staff awareness training is just one thing organizations need to perform to improve their network’s protection against phishing scams. They rely on basic cybersecurity efforts that are no longer effective and lead to weaknesses in the following key areas: 

1. Timely backups
   After gaining access to user credentials, a hacker can easily access the network and implant a ransomware attack. Most organizations have no option but to pay the ransom and regain control of their data because they did not take backups on time. Outdated backups become outdated, making them unreliable in recovering from a ransomware attack. 
2. User testing
   Organizations often have inadequate procedures to test how their users handle a malicious email. These procedures can help them determine which staff members are most susceptible to falling for a phishing attack. You can take immediate steps to improve your organization’s cybersecurity posture by giving more time to the most vulnerable employees. 
3. BYOD policies
   Most organizations lack a Bring Your Own Device policy, leading to security concerns. Without it, a cybercriminal can easily compromise an employee’s device and use it to access sensitive data stored on the organization’s secure network. 

Criminal organizations have better funding 

Cybercriminals have been successful in the past few years because they have obtained good funding to build scams, collect sensitive information, and release or sell it over the dark web. Currently, cybercriminals are investing in technical resources that can help them root their scams into the network and run efficiently by increasing the number of scams they can send per minute. 

They also work to improve the authenticity of their bogus to make it seem realistic to targets. Hackers like increasing the complexity of their campaigns and adding new attack vectors into their arsenal. Therefore, technological advancements have made attackers more dangerous than they were two years ago. 

How can you protect yourself from phishing attacks? 

Businesses often struggle to find the right security solution to protect themselves from phishing attacks. Most IT leaders talk about segmenting the network, but what is network segmentation? You can divide your network into multiple segments according to roles and applications. Each segment allows a limited number of devices to access the network and utilize the network for daily tasks. 

Network segmentation makes monitoring the network easier and seeing how users utilize applications or services. This makes it easy to identify unusual behavior and revoke access privileges. Network segmentation solutions like ZTNA continuously authenticate and authorize users based on their roles defined by the organization. 

With a network segmentation solution, your network stays protected even if a hacker gains access to user credentials. The network will detect and flag unusual behavior before isolating the session and restricting it to one network segment. This restricts the attacker’s ability to have lateral movement in the network. 

Other benefits of using a network segment include:

1. Building trust
   Taking cyber security seriously will boost client and user confidence because it protects your business from security breaches. 
2. Mitigating risks
   The right network security solution will improve your compliance with regulatory agencies and minimize the financial impact of a data breach. 
3. Protecting proprietary information
   Your clients and customers trust you to provide protection to their personal information. Adding network security will ensure data protection of all information stored on the network. 
4. Securing the remote workplace
   Adopting network security will keep your employees and applications safe from phishing attempts. Granular security policies help restrict the network perimeter and allow access to authorized devices only. 

Conclusion 

Even when phishing attacks are rising, you can easily train your employees to identify bogus emails and protect the organizational network. Network segmentation is one solution that you can consider to improve your security posture. Converting your network into numerous segments makes it easier for IT administrators to monitor the network and address any suspicious behavior.