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Fake Collaboration Apps Steal Data as Staff Struggle with Home-Working Security


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A hacker.

Oganizations have increasingly encountered malware attacks on remote devices over the past year as employees have been forced to work from home.

Credit: Krissikunterbunt/Dreamstime

According to cybersecurity company Wandera's Cloud Security Report 2021, malware attacks increasingly targeted remote workers last year, with 52% of organizations suffering such hacks, versus 37% in 2019.

Remote workers often are deceived into downloading malware from phishing emails.

Wandera's Michael Covington said many such applications purport to offer collaboration functions, but really steal private data or fool users into granting access to a device’s camera and microphone for eavesdropping.

More than a third of users of malware-compromised devices continued to access corporate emails, while 10% continued to access cloud services, both potentially providing attackers greater network access than they had initially obtained by compromising one remote device.

Said Covington, "Continuously engaging with workers on the sign-in mechanisms they should use, the incident reporting they should follow, and the applications that are approved for work will help everyone do their part to protect the business and its assets."

From ZDNet
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Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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