Risk of being scammed online rises with working from home, says expert

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Being able to work from anywhere may feel like a luxury, but you could be at more risk of being scammed, according to an expert.

Derek Manky, chief of security insights at Fortinet, a company that develops and sells cybersecurity solutions, says entire organizations could be at risk as people jump from network to network.

“They’re very convincing emails. This isn’t the, ‘you’ve won $20 million in a lottery’ scams that everyone’s used to … oftentimes real staffs names [are used]. It requires a lot of care and attention today,” he says.

Manky adds children who are remote learning can also be vulnerable as they often don’t know the signs of a scam.

Related Articles:

• In crosshairs of ransomware crooks, cyber insurers struggle

• Ransomware attack before holiday leaves companies scrambling

• New ransomware attack paralyzes hundreds of U.S. companies

“Attacks are actually going to these remote victims through things like social media platforms. They’re actually getting very clever, and they’re reaching out, using artificial intelligence as an example to do phishing attacks,” he says.

He suggests being hyper skeptical of anyone who asks for personal or company information, and to maintain your awareness when you’re surfing the web.

“The reality is today, that everyone is a target — even though they may not think so. We’re seeing that directly from cyber criminals. They are trying to fully take advantage and leverage these new environment.”