New York City – Working from home has never been this important and trendy. With Covid-19 pandemic raging across the world, wreaking havoc on economic activities and the livelihoods of millions of people in virtually every country, social distancing is the only weapon in our arsenal to fight back. That means many people must work remotely, turning their basements, garages, kitchen counters or bedrooms into their home offices. It’s an entirely new experiment that may upend the way we work in the future. Businesses and organisations must adapt to this new reality if they are to continue executing mission critical functions from outside of the traditional offices. They must quickly scale their systems, and accommodate their employees using their personal devices or work supplied computers, or both. Unfortunately, this inevitably results in increased exposure to cyber-security threats that Rwandans and others around the world are not immune to. Cyber-attacks come in various ways. There are phishing and social engineering attacks. There are online impersonations. There is download usage of pirated software. Many of these attacks occur because some users use weak passwords, use work credentials for personal activities, other users do not have anti-virus software installed on their systems, and others are not installing important security updates or patches. These threats require organisations and individuals to understand the importance of cyber-security. We all have a duty to protect information systems supporting critical sectors of the national economy, public safety and health. We must guard systems we use, and most importantly critical infrastructures from outages, and violation of confidentiality and integrity of the data they process, transmit and store. Organisations and individuals can reduce the likelihood of their devices or systems being the cause of cyber breaches resulting in theft of intellectual property, sensitive government information and outages of essential services. Hence, everyone should be familiar with how to recognise and protect themselves and loved ones against indication of cyber-attacks. Everyone should be vigilant against unsolicited or threatening emails from supposedly important people, reputable or big companies, government authorities reaching out. You should think twice when someone is somehow stranded and all they need to survive is your help through email instructions, especially if that emsail comes with an unreasonable sense of urgency. You should take emails from unknown senders promising airline carrier refund or miracle cures/vaccines with deep suspicion. The good news is that there are a few steps that can be taken to reduce the risks of these threats. As you work from home, you should upgrade your computer to the latest operating system and install updates regularly. You should be using anti-virus software and always remember to back-up your data. Be cautious of remote desktops and VPN tools and if you can, use encrypted communications. Taking these steps will not only protect individual Rwandans’ rights to privacy and confidentiality, enhance the reliability of essential services in both the private and public sectors, but will also contribute to securing Rwanda’s continuous transformation into a knowledge-based economy and technology hub. A technology hub that must ensure that individuals and institutions adequately manage the risks associated with working from home, and developing world class information technology and communication products that are protected against cyber-security breaches. The writer is the CEO and co-founder of TechnologiesX, a New York City based start-up dedicated to enhancing the inclusion of cyber-security into the growing information technology sector in Rwanda and across Africa, and connecting cyber SMEs in North America and East Africa. The views expressed in this article are of the author.
