Where to Find Free Cybersecurity Resources

The impact of coronavirus has been swift and fierce, both on our personal and work lives. Instead of enjoying a few days off with my family over spring break, I was home -helping my two daughters through the realities that come with being high schoolers right now and working in my new home office (think taking over my husband’s man cave).

You may also be working remotely, along with your teams, as more businesses are moving to work-from-home arrangements. While it helps slow the spread of coronavirus, it’s adding to the risk for cyber-attacks.

Cyber Readiness Institute

At Principal, we believe cybersecurity is something that requires time and attention. Earlier this year, we started collaborating with the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI), a non-profit initiative that brings together business leaders to help inform the development of free cybersecurity tools for small and medium businesses.

We partner with more than 150,000 small businesses across the U.S so it’s a group that has been top of mind for me as we work through this crisis. In our latest research, we found 64% of small businesses are concerned about data security and they ranked cybersecurity as a top area in which they need guidance from outside advisors. And this was before the significant increase in working remotely we’ve had over the last few weeks. The CRI has free and helpful tips, training, and resources available.

If your team is working remotely given this very surreal situation, here are some critical steps the CRI recommends for online safety and security:

• Ensure a home router password is not easily guessed and does not include an address or personal names.
• Always “mouse” over the email sender’s name to determine the sender’s true origin to ensure the sender’s name is not spoofed.
• Social distancing works online too. Limit the amount of personal data you’re sharing on social media to reduce your threat landscape.

You’ll find more tips and free resources, including conversation guides for talking to employees and a cyber readiness starter kit available through the CRI.

There’s no doubt these next few weeks will be challenging. Those of us who are fortunate enough to work from home may be sharing our new workspace with a spouse or partner also working from home, or may have children beside us due to school closings. Sharing these resources is one simple way we’re trying to help others through this experience.

Know that Principal is committed to doing all we can. This is what we do – help people through the unexpected and unplanned moments. In every discussion, whether it’s about our employees, customers, distribution partners, or communities, the question we’re asking is, “how can we help?” That’s the same question we were asking in every meeting last month, and last year. And it’s the same question we’ll be asking next year.

Together, we will get through this. #DSMStrong

You can count on The Partnership to continue to share accurate and fact-based updates as well. See more on COVID-19 here.

Find these tips useful? Find more business tools and information by visiting the Business Resources page.