While employers are still struggling with occupational health and safety regulations, Germany has been facing a much bigger problem for more than a year: cybercrime in the age of the home office. Read how MBS also protects itself in the home office: Through robust IT security management with a well thought-out emergency concept and security awareness training.

The damage caused by cybercrime reaches new record levels every year,” says Dariush Ansari, CEO of IT security specialist Network Box. “The home office opens doors that were previously blocked on corporate networks. It only takes one bona fide employee to access sensitive data or shut down the entire corporate network.”

Every employee who works from home uses connections that are often easier to attack than those on the company network. The boundaries between private and business are becoming blurred, creating the best conditions for fraudulent e-mails, phishing attempts and an increase in spam e-mails. With the introduction of home offices, the boundaries are shifting, but existing security functionalities are not shifting with them.

MBS recognized this danger early on and thinks of digitalisation and IT security as a single unit. “In addition to the IT solutions in the company, we have protected and IT-proofed numerous systems in the home office and connections to the company network.” says Maximilian Moll, Awareness Officer at MBS. “In addition to a robust and risk-based IT security management with a well thought-out emergency concept, we rely on security awareness trainings in cooperation with our partner Network Box.”

Thus, all MBS employees in the home office will regularly complete online training courses in eLearning. This includes the training module “Home Office Awareness”. In various units, the eLearning course raises awareness of the correct handling of e-mails, company documents and people in the household. This includes the use of cloudbased tools, private WLAN connections and the recognition of increased threat situations. With the help of interactive learning elements, participants learn more about the perfidious tricks of cyber criminals and, after successful participation, know what they need to pay special attention to in the home office. Anonymised reports document the progress and effectiveness of the training.

“In the pandemic, twelve million professionals in Germany alone switched to the home office. This is not a snapshot, but will become the new normal,” says Ansari. “IT security is not a one-off project, but a continuous process. Now, at the latest, it is time to make the home office IT-secure across the board and not to save money in the wrong place.”