Editor’s Question: How have companies transformed their cyberdefences in response to recent events?
Editor's Question: How have companies transformed their cyberdefences in response to recent events?

Editor’s Question: How have companies transformed their cyberdefences in response to recent events?

Amir Kanaan, Managing Director for Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Kaspersky, explains how Kaspersky is helping healthcare organisations, consumers, businesses and employees during the pandemic.

These are strange times for businesses and consumers alike. Since the World Health Organisation announced that COVID-19 was to be labelled a global pandemic, drastic changes have happened to almost every aspect of everyone’s lives.

It has never been more important to protect the connected world and our amazing ability to communicate, socialise, work and above all carry out our daily lives online. Internet providers in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region have risen to the COVID-19 challenge to ensure smooth Internet access for the masses depending on it.

That’s why we as a society must continue to use and trust technologies that help to keep us secure and protected – as spending more time online widens the threat vector when it comes to cyberthreats – and why we as a cybersecurity company are taking several steps to help our customers.

Keeping healthcare organisations safe

To help medical organisations cope with unprecedented pressures and help protect against cybersecurity risks, we’ve made our B2B solutions available for free for six months. This includes Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security.

Keeping businesses and public organisations secure

As governments and organisations have placed countries under lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, 75% of companies have expanded their working from home policies. To help companies keep their staff protected as they work and communicate from home, we have extended our Microsoft Office 365 protection to include Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online, as well as offering this free for 180 days, to help secure collaboration and messaging channels within Microsoft Office 365.

Keeping consumers protected

With millions of people who would normally be out socialising forced to stay home, this is putting a larger dependency on streaming services. This may cause some slowdowns in service provision, which in turn could lead to people looking for alternative ways to access online content. And straying from the protected portals could play into the hands of cybercriminals and leave those seeking entertainment from unauthorised sources vulnerable to attack.

Some of us are also being forced to rely upon online shopping services for food and essentials, which is giving cybercriminals a wider attack vector. To help keep online users aware of the potential threats, we’ve been releasing advice and top tips to help prevent cyberattacks and the steps people can take to prevent these risks.

Keeping our experts healthy

It’s important to be cybersafe but the health and safety of Kaspersky employees, customers and other stakeholders is our top priority. That’s why our experts are keeping working – just remotely. Teamwork between both HR and IT is helping ensure that all processes, even in these circumstances, keep running. so that our customers can stay safe while they remain at home.

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