SHARING SENSITIVE FILES AND COLLABORATING DURING A CRISIS

The COVID-19 pandemic is now forcing more than 3.4 billion people[1] throughout the world to be confined to their homes, causing unprecedented economic, social and political upheaval. According to the latest Cyber Threat Assessment report published by Thales Security, employees are the preferred target of threat actors to reach an organization’s information systems. As a result, organizations face increased security risks due to millions of telecommuting employees.

Cyber-security experts are unanimous: cyber-criminals are constantly on the lookout for new developments, taking advantage of this global situation to multiply attacks on professional and personal devices and databases, exploit vulnerabilities in document sharing software, and increase intrusions into corporate information systems.

In an interview published in Les Echos, Marc Darmon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Thales and Chairman of CICS (French Council of Trust and Security Industries), warns of the risks organizations are facing during this crisis: “We perceive two types of risks. One is a multiplication of scams of all kinds using the word ‘Covid-19’. The other one is that telecommuting often encourages employees to use their personal tools which are not sufficiently secure”.

Every day, and especially during this crisis, countless confidential files are shared via email or through unsecured consumer collaboration solutions. This situation jeopardizes both safety and sustainability of the organizations involved. Some do not feel concerned, but all teams within an organization participate in these exchanges:

• Leadership: Action plans to optimize costs, monitoring the performance of operating entities, exchanges with shareholders, etc.
• Human Resources: Assessments and human impacts, implementation of partial/technical unemployment measures, preparation of company agreements with the labor committee, etc.
• Finance: Monitoring financial impacts, cash management priorities, etc.
• Trade: Current tenders, the daily state of the sales pipeline, impacts on contracts, etc.
• Communication: Preparation of communication to employees with HR, Q&A for external communication, communications to customers, etc.
• IT: Monitoring the performance of IT solutions, identifying weaknesses following the implementation of telecommuting solutions, remote management of production sites, etc.
• …and many more

One of the biggest fears is a security breach resulting in leaked professional data. It is therefore essential for these organizations to implement tools for sharing and managing confidential files, securely with end-to-end encryption and controlled by their IT department.

In this context, many vendors specialized in innovation and security are offering their solutions free of charge to help organizations with telecommuting. For their part, Ercom and Thales are committed to protect your data in all circumstances, by offering free collaboration solutions to businesses and administrations to help them share and store files securely with Cryptobox (free for 45 days, non-binding up to 31st December 2020), and to exchange instantly and securely with their employees at any time with Citadel Team (non-binding).

These solutions, referenced by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance, Action and Public Accounts, are designed to help all departments and functions secure their documents and confidential communications against hacking and data leakage.

Don’t hesitate any longer and protect your business!

[1] According to a survey based on an AFP database