Home office leads to a significant increase in cyberattack damage

The ongoing pandemic has also permanently changed the way we work. With the first lockdown, more and more employers sent their employees home and ordered them to work from home. Two lockdowns later, working from home seems to have become the norm, and many of us probably no longer go to the office today.

This also has an impact on the risks for companies. Because it is particularly difficult for employers to check whether the IT infrastructure is being used properly and securely within their own four walls. It is therefore not surprising that the damage caused by cyber attacks has increased across Germany.

A survey by the Institute for Economic Research in Cologne now shows that German companies suffered an additional 53 billion euros in damage, caused by attacks from the Internet. The total damage was thus 224 billion euros in 2020, twice as high as in the previous year. A quarter of the damage can be traced back to mobile working.

One reason seems to be the lack of knowledge of the employees, who often received no training on security. The number of unreported cases could be even higher, as no data was collected from small companies and these too are struggling with the problems.

Own opinion:

The pandemic has demanded a lot from us, especially departments and professions that are not IT-savvy are likely to have had to struggle with switching to home office. It is therefore high time that companies that have not yet trained their employees do so as soon as possible and thus optimally protect their base. Because a hack can quickly become a risk for the entire company.

Via Bloomberg