4 ways to improve cyber security during a pandemic

Wash your hands, practise social distancing, and report any new exposures. The new mantra as we collectively face the challenges of COVID-19. While the disease is the biggest threat to the public, the domain space is not immune with the rise in cyber-attacks featuring their very own array of viruses, posing threats to business in significant numbers.

Government guidelines allow for some modest exercise to keep ourselves healthy, but what about exercising necessary Internet hygiene? A few small adjustments can improve the security for your domain name portfolio to maintain the health of your business on-line.

1. Double check a sender’s contact details

Phishing attacks rely on the lack of vigilance exercised by recipients when opening email from external sources. Malicious email is the conduit for many of these attacks and bad actors are particularly skilled in the art of masquerading – using identical branding and professional language – as bona fide and legitimate senders. A closer look however will identify the smallest of anomalies in, for example, the email address where a 0 (zero) is transposed with O (capital O) or a homoglyph is used instead of the correct Latin character.

2. Conduct your own research instead of clicking on hyperlinks

A rule of thumb would be to never click on a hyperlink regardless of how trusted the source may appear. In these uncertain times, there is a temptation to secure a solution, for example, on how to maintain sales during the COVID lock down or how to access government funding to pay furloughed staff. It is vital to be aware however that scammers are playing on the insecurities we are all facing; under these circumstances it is vitally important to check official sources of information rather than an unsolicited link – for example, should the link purport to resolve to a government website a far safer alternative would be to navigate directly to gov.uk and conduct independent research.

3. Are your brands being compromised in the domain name space?

Cyber security is increasingly at the forefront of corporate thinking however during these challenging times additional measures are worthy of consideration. For example, are your brands being compromised and fraudulently deployed for egregious purposes?  The implementation of an on-line monitoring service enables the constant surveillance of your brands in the domain name space to guard against such potential scenarios. For example, this service has given rise to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs saving many millions of pounds that could have been lost to fraudulent activity. This low-cost service will help you preserving the hard-won equity you have built for your online brand.

4. Additional domain name security

The application of registry lock to core domains does represent an additional layer of security to these core assets. Registry Lock ensures the prevention of unauthorised or accidental updates being affected at the Registry level and provides additional security and peace of mind. Making your key domain names less vulnerable to hijacking.

These are just some examples of the areas in which security can be compromised. There key message here is that these are being compounded by home working and it is important that preventive controls combined with awareness amongst your personnel will minimise and indeed mitigate the adverse impact of attacks of this nature.

Com Laude is an established provider of corporate domain name management and can provide support and advice on matters relating to domain name security and monitoring, made perhaps even more pressing in these challenging times.