A rise in cyberattacks on employees working from home

Around 7 million cyberattacks occur every day on employees working from home in German-speaking countries. The main target is the remote desktop protocol. This is the conclusion reached by a global security software company in a current research report on the threat situation in the third quarter of 2020.¹ In our blog article, you will find all the background information on the research report and how you can more effectively protect your company.

More and more cybercriminals have been specialising in launching cyberattacks on employees working from home in recent months. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone, there was an average of more than 7 million cyberattacks on the remote desktop protocol last September. According to the research report, attacks have increased by 390 percent since March.¹ One obvious reason is the increased number of poorly secured systems that have been connected to the internet during the pandemic. In whole or in part, many employees are using private devices whilst working from home. The use of unknown devices in a corporate network poses an enormous security risk and makes it very easy for cybercriminals to obtain confidential data.

The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a protocol developed by Microsoft that allows remote access to a computer running the Windows operating system via a network. The tool is widely used to manage client networks and systems. With the help of the protocol, screen displays and control commands can be transferred between the computer to be remotely controlled and a remote computer virtually in real time. While RDP greatly facilitates the remote administration of distributed Microsoft systems, it also creates an attractive gateway for cyberattacks.

Cybercriminals use RDP to gain permanent access to the networks of affected persons. Once they have gained access to a network, they extend their privileges to administrator rights, inject malware on the server and execute files without any activity or authorisation from the victim. RDP allows the cybercriminals to infect the victim's environment with minimal probability of detection.

The main focus of cyberattacks is usually on people. Educating employees to be aware of the current information security threats and dangers helps to effectively improve the protection of company data. In this context, the company's information security concerns every employee - from accounting to production and sales to management. Important: All employees should be educated on the problems and learn using practical examples about what threats their own company is exposed to. We at Increase Your Skills offer your company a variety of modern and interactive awareness courses. In our "Information Security Course", your employees will be effectively prepared for all current threats and dangers to information security. In our German-language "IT-Sicherheit im Home-Office" course, we focus on the essential aspects of working from home. Would you like to try out the courses? We would be delighted! We offer you the possibility to set up a free test account.

^{¹Eset Threat Report for the 3. Quarter 2020: Eset [online] https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/10/28/eset-threat-report-q32020/ [02.11.2020].}