GLASGOW businesses are being urged to tighten their rules around passwords as the country switches to home-working amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It comes as nearly £1million has been lost to scammers praying on fear and system fraitalities. 

The Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) is warning employers how working from home can increase an organisation's vulnerability to cyber-attacks.

So far, scams and viruses relating to COVID-19 have cost UK businesses nearly £970,000 so far.

READ MORE: Coronavirus LIVE: Boris Johnson receives intensive care while Scottish cases surge to nearly 4000

SBRC is advising businesses to quickly and easily increase their security by using password manager software and implementing a two-factor authentication.

Declan Doyle, Ethical Hacking Consultant at SBRC, said: “We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of phishing scams since the outbreak of the virus – including fraudulent emails targeting businesses about fake Government tax rebates and Coronavirus funding.

“Criminals are very smart, and as much as we can find, identify and shut down scams, the best course of action is to tell people what to look out for and give them advice to follow to minimise the risk of falling victim to these traps.

"Increasing your online security is one way to do this.”

Eamonn Keane, Chief Operating Officer for Cyber and Innovation at SBRC, added: “The last thing any business battling the impact of coronavirus needs right now is a crippling cyber-attack. 

“The prospect of thousands of temporary home workers, potentially accessing a range of vital business servers and applications from vulnerable home internet connections, or using old or inadequate laptops or PCs, is a scary one.

“One of the easiest ways for businesses to avoid cyber-attacks is to set up a password manager to secure, store and generate passwords for your team which can be accessed across various devices. 

“Attackers use different techniques beyond hacking to discover passwords, including phishing, automated guessing using the most commonly-used passwords, manual guessing and intercepting networks.

"Password managers and two-factor authentication can easily put a stop to a lot of these tactics.”

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