As covered last week by the BBC, employees are regularly using their commute for work emails. A hot topic within cybersecurity that this flags up is that the risks that come with your employees using public Wi-Fi networks, such as that on trains, can have a detrimental impact on your business.
By: Shannon Elliott
News, info & events
The study examined 5,000 rail passengers on commuter routes into London and found that 54% of those using the train’s Wi-Fi were sending work emails without using secure access via VPN – and use it as a way to get more work done. This raises major concerns for businesses as it leaves devices and networks vulnerable to intrusion due to the non-existent or lax security on these networks.
When the device that your employee is using connects to the internet, data is sent from their device to a service or website, which consequently creates an opportunity for a hacker to intervene in the transmission and read the data. Hackers can exploit the weakness of a public hotspot in order to transfer malware onto your device, possibly a laptop, undetected. You might never even notice this had happened until it was too late.
In today’s cybersecurity climate, cybercriminals are becoming more intelligent as technology advances. They can purchase software which allows them to eavesdrop on Wi-Fi signals. This means that attackers can see and access whatever your employee is doing online, giving them access to login credentials, email accounts, and potentially company confidential data.
This is by no means an exhaustive summary of the risks of public Wi-fi, but raises a number of major concerns of your staff using their commute to send work emails. There are measures you can put in place to protect your business and limit the possibility of a cyber-attack. Make your employees aware of the risks of using public Wi-Fi and the consequences. EnterpriseRed offer tailored assessment, training services and new cybersecurity solutions that can help to ensure your employees are an effective part of your security response, rather than creating vulnerabilities for your business.
Original article: Emails while commuting ‘should count as work’