A quarter of SMEs in Poland have concerns about the security of remote working

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A recent survey by Orange Polska found that nearly a quarter of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland are concerned about risks associated with their employees’ use of the Internet. Employers cited viruses on both desktop and mobile devices and data theft as the biggest concerns.

Twice as many phishing attacks

Covid-19 pandemic is undoubtedly a period that does not stop cybercriminals, but on the contrary encourages them to act on an even larger scale. Most often scammers impersonate various types of companies that we use much more frequently as a result of restrictions. As CERT Orange points out, a successful phishing attack requires only one unintended click and a device that is not sufficiently protected is vulnerable to data theft, in this case also company data.

As confirmed by the CERT Orange analyzes, 2020 sawed an intensification of the number of attacks using the phishing method. In the past year, twice as many such incidents were detected as in 2019. In their activities, fraudsters use not only traditional methods such as SMS or e-mails, but more and more often the so-called “Vising”, or phone calls. What is worth emphasizing, according to CERT Orange experts, ordinary anti-virus software in most cases is not a sufficient tool to protect against this type of threat.

17% of companies affected by cyber attack

A decisive positive aspect of the pandemic and the related digitization of enterprises is that every fourth small and medium-sized company in Poland is aware of the dangers of not securing the company’s equipment. However, according to the Orange Polska survey, 24% of companies still have concerns about the use of the Internet by employees. Among the greatest potential threats, they mention computer viruses (79%), data theft (70%) and smartphone viruses (62%). At the same time, nearly one third of companies (32%) believe that the number of cyber threats has increased during the pandemic, and 17% have had contact with a cyber attack.

“It’s worth considering that small companies often don’t know about an attack until they experience its effects. Our experience shows that many companies of this size do not have sufficient knowledge and tools to effectively detect and counter threats” – concludes Krzysztof Białek, Director of Marketing and Product Development Cyber Security.

The survey was conducted in December 2020 by Kantar Polska for Orange Polska. The survey used the method of online interviews (CAWI) with owners and people responsible for IT in 400 SOHO and SME companies.