Security Awareness – Fall 2020
Telework Security Basics
There are some simple things you can do to improve your security while teleworking:
- Follow TMB’s policies and procedures for telework. These can be found on the Resources > Company Policies page in ADP.
- Protect your computer communications by ensuring your Wi-Fi network is set up securely. Specifically look to see if it is using “WPA” or WPA2” (the current common standard) or at least WEP security encryption and make sure your password is hard to guess.
- Keep your computer and mobile devices patched and updated.
- If you see any unusual or suspicious activity on your computer or mobile device, contact TMB’s Security team or IT Help Desk.
Be on the lookout for social engineering attempts such as phishing emails or phone scams; scammers and criminals use every major event to come up with new schemes and with everyone teleworking, attackers will try to take advantage of this changing environment. If you get emails from unknown accounts with strange file attachments, if people call claiming to be technical staff asking for your passwords or telling you to go to a website to “scan” your computer, or if you receive any unusual web meeting requests – please ask questions and verify things by phone or other means before proceeding.
Recently, there have been several events reported to DCSA from companies whose employees fell victim to a spoofed email (unknown cyber actor pretending to be CEO, COO, or another employee of their company) who asks if the employee can text them, then requests via text that the employee go purchase gift cards, and send text message or pictures of the gift card information back to them. It’s a SCAM – TMB’s CEO and COO do not request employees to purchase gift cards. If this occurs, employees should report this to the FSO and IT Security team to take appropriate action.
In summation, best practice for IT security – when in doubt, delete emails from unknown sources and do not download any attachments and/or weblinks contained within. If they appear suspicious, report them to TMB’s security team.
