Facility management companies in today’s day and age have transformed beyond comprehension into a complex multitude of services that are interlinked by the internet. Gone are the days when you had to keep paper copies of everything including records and painstakingly bring them out to show clients.
Nowadays every facility management company has what we call the internet of things (IoT) integration. This IoT integration has formed a complex ecosystem that is also connected to the cloud to make sure every point of the service that facility management companies provide is updated as well as these services can be monitored easily by the clients.
With the advent of the internet of things playing an important role in facility management, there is a crucial problem that every reputable company has to deal with and that is cyber security risks. A security management agency has to handle a lot of sensitive data and this data security is of their utmost priority. With hackers getting more powerful in their data breaching attacks, security threats to businesses like ransomware attacks are quite common. In an industry like facility management, this means a lot more other interconnected industries will get affected.
In this blog, we will talk about security threats, mistakes and challenges faced by workplaces in 2022.
PASSWORD PROTECTION –
Password protection is unfortunately one of the most important concerns about cyber security risks that businesses have to deal with. Not all businesses are tech-savvy and not all businesses understand cyber security in the workplace quite well. The moment a botnet like Mirai attacks these companies, they understand how insecure their internet of things(IoT) devices are. The main problem with a casual approach to cyber security is that it affects employee and client security as companies hold a lot of sensitive data and these getting leaked can be a bigger problem. So, what is the solution? There are many and one of the easiest is to never set guessable passwords that are anyway related to the company or employees. Another way to be safe is to always change the default passwords from routers and other internet-connected devices. One way of entry for the hacker will open multiple ways of entry.
UPDATES NOT DONE REGULARLY –
Updates may seem annoying but they are there for a reason. You may have always wondered why your Wi-Fi router always asks to be updated or even why your smart TV gets updated often. There are valid reasons for it and the reasons may be, updates in the software to clear out bugs and maybe to rectify and patch up vulnerabilities that might have been there in the previous update. Vulnerabilities in IoT devices are the easiest way for malware to infect the device and the whole ecosystem in a company. That is followed by ransomware attacks and other forms of attacks wherein intimidation and blackmailing are used to extort money. Even after the ransom is paid, there is still no guarantee that the leaked data will not be sold out to the highest bidder even after the ransom is paid. Now, this may seem like a problem too big to solve and in some cases it is but the best thing you can do without being a data scientist is simply to turn on updates automatically to show that your IoT devices may always have the latest update from the company. We would also suggest there to buy your IoT products from reputable brands that are known to not forget pushing security updates right after year 2 of the device release.
SHADY SERVERS AND NO 2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION DISABLED –
One of the best security measures to have ever come out is one of the simplest measures as well. We are of course talking about the powerful yet underrated 2-factor authentication. This is simply a second fail-safe of security so that your identity can be verified once again before you enter into critical parts of your email account or server account or any other services. Speaking of servers, there are the reputed ones and then there are ones that are not reputed, but people seem to avail their services simply to save money. There is no harm in trying to save money for your brand but saving a little bit on the server can cost you the whole company in the future if your data gets leaked and especially if you are in a data-sensitive industry such as facility management, banking, security, government etc
LACK OF IOT INVENTORY TRACKING –
Let’s take the scenario that you have just digitalized your businesses and a couple 100 IoT devices are working in your company. There are no ledgers to keep track of physical documents and every service is getting updated to the individual client and business is going well. Everything seems to be smooth that you in fact do not pay close attention to all your IoT devices. There is no regular reset of these devices and changing of the passwords of these devices. No one is to blame because no one suspects anything will happen to them but you must understand that any one of these devices can open Pandora’s box and can be the gateway to your entire network and your entire database if any knowledgeable hacker gets physical access to them. Keep track of your IoT devices in the same way you keep track of your other assets. This is possible only through physical security in the workplace keeping track of the devices.
ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE IT GUY –
If you are in a nuclear reactor, you must always listen to the nuclear physicist. In the modern workplace, you are clearly surrounded by the internet? Therefore you must always listen to the IT department of your company. They are the closest thing to a digital security guard service that can protect your company from these cyber threats. Thus, whenever your IT team complain that any IoT device is not meeting the security standards you should not shun them off and actually listen to their concern and address it not only verbally but by allocating a cybersecurity budget so that they can take care of security. With the number of attacks increasing day by day and with the various types of attacks that hackers are coming up with the only way to keep yourself informed is to listen to the person or persons who are experts in the field.
So, this was a brief look into IoT security threats in the workplace. These threats are quite real and severe for the modern workplace from the standpoint of protection of sensitive data to employee safety and security. IoT cyber security solutions are always a good investment if you want to protect your IoT ecosystems from cyber attacks. While there are excellent technologies that are evolving like remote workplace security as well as crypto security, these avenues are still quite new and you must always make the extra effort to learn about these in order to keep your workplace and your IoT device safe from any data breach.
If you are someone who thinks doing all this personally is too much of a hassle then you are in the right place because as India’s most reputed facility management company, we at DMM Facility Management Pvt Ltd provide excellent cyber security and workplace security solutions which include physical security guard protection of every kind from physical security escorts to surveillance systems and also digital and cyber security defence solutions that can operate a protective shield around your company at all times.
