We live in exciting times, COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, and as part of efforts to curb the spread of the disease, the pandemic has forced organisations to adapt to working remotely quickly.

Currently, working from home has become a new reality for organisations and their employees. As convenient as this may sound, it is fraught with its challenges.

From a cybersecurity perspective, working from home presents significant risks to organisations because cybercriminals around the world are capitalising on this crisis, and that makes the need to secure the remote workforce an ever-growing concern.

Since the outbreak began, there have been spikes in cyber-attacks as cybercriminals are using COVID-19 as bait to trap organisations and their employees.

To avoid falling victim, organisations must address these challenges without introducing new flaws by implementing and evaluating cybersecurity safeguards/controls.

In this article, we will be talking about some current cybersecurity challenges due to this pandemic as well as tips and recommendations on how to address them.

Phishing

Phishing is a cybercrime, with phishing, targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, credit card details and passwords. Cybercriminals know we desire more information at this time, and they are using that as bait to get people to click on malicious links via emails and text messages.

These messages often have an appearance of legitimacy and designed this way to pull you in, getting you to click on links that redirect you to malware-infested sites that could steal your personal information, money, or both.

There have been numerous cases of criminals targeting governments and organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO reports a fivefold increase in cyberattacks directed at its staff and email scams targeting the public at large.

In another scenario, due to shortage of health-care-related products such as PPEs, test kits and ventilators, cybercriminals have impersonated sellers and manufacturers of such products and duped not just people and organisations, but also States, out of millions of dollars.

Business Email Compromise (BEC), a specialist type of phishing attack is becoming increasingly prevalent too. BEC attacks are designed to impersonate senior executives and trick employees, customers, or vendors into wiring payment for goods or services to alternate bank accounts.

How can you protect yourself? Here are five things you can do:

1. Always verify the source of the message – never swallow anything hook, line and sinker. Pay attention to spellings or grammatical errors in emails or text messages.
2. Never respond to unsolicited messages and calls that ask for personal or financial details.
3. When entering sensitive information on a website, always verify that you are on a secure and legitimate website. A quick tip is to look out for the lock icon in your browser when you need to enter login details or other sensitive information such as your debit card details.
4. Do not click on links from sources you do not know. Act by reporting them. Email service platforms such as Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook, give you the ability to report phishing emails, this helps to protect other users from spam and abuse.
5. Question everything. Always remember the adage, “if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”

The Not-As-Secure Home Environment

As mentioned earlier, one of the fallouts of the pandemic is the shift from traditional working models to remote working. This has led to many individuals using their personal computers to conduct business and carry out work-related duties. These computers might not have up-to-date operating system patches or useful antivirus software, and attackers can easily exploit these vulnerabilities.

It is essential organisations get employees on approved and secure devices to protect not only themselves but also the firm. Also, it is vital to know that while employees work remotely, they are not behind the typical corporate security perimeter. They are not protected by firewalls, no intrusion detection or prevention systems, no proxies etc. and with employees connecting directly to the internet with personal modems and routers, their visibility to attackers increases.

What can be done to prevent this?

1. Always ensure your operating system and security software is up-to-date with the most recent patches.
2. Avoid free, unsecured, public WiFi.
3. If you must connect remotely to your organisation’s network, maybe to login to a corporate application, use a VPN. It reduces your visibility on the internet by creating a safe and encrypted connection known as a tunnel.
4. Use Multi-factor authentication. Authentication deals with validating the identity of individuals. It requires users to prove they are who they claim to be. There are three factors of authentication: the knowledge factor or something you know such as passwords, the possession factor or something you have such as tokens, access cards, keys and the inherence factor or something you are such as biometrics – fingerprints, retina.

Consequently, when we talk about multifactor authentication, the idea is having at least two of these factors present when proving your identity to a system. Use cases when logging into emails, corporate applications, and internet banking platforms.

Cyberattacks are nothing new, but in recent times, they have increased in frequency and magnitude. Cybercriminals are not letting this crisis go to waste, and they are working overtime, so organisations must take steps to protect themselves.

Governance and risk management functions must conduct and drive comprehensive risk assessments and business impact analysis for critical functions and processes within the organisation.

Policies around information security, cybersecurity and acceptable use of devices should be up-to-date and disseminated to all employees.

Organisations should test and update their cyber incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Operating system updates and security software patches must be mandatory.

Critical systems such as servers, core business applications should be monitored. Logs and security events from such systems should be reviewed daily. This will help to identify anomalies or suspicious activities quickly.

Finally, do not forget your people. Humans are the weakest link in the security chain. It does not matter if you have the best technology or the most efficient processes. If your people are not informed, they put the entire organisation at risk.

Now is not the time to cut down on information and cybersecurity training and awareness. Learning interventions such as videos, newsletters, pictures, even games and quizzes go a long way in building a security-conscious culture in an organisation.

These recommendations if implemented, can strengthen the security posture of your enterprise, enabling you to build and maintain a cyber-resilient one.

In a bid to increase financial literacy amongst the younger generation, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, recently held virtual sessions to educate preteens and teenagers on how to develop a savings and investment culture.

Through its New School Money Initiative, the organisation aims to improve and deepen the financial knowledge of Nigerian children. This year’s event which was held virtually, is the fourth in its series and was themed “The Art of Money: Earn, Save and Invest”.

Representatives from Stanbic IBTC shed more light on subjects to distinguish between wants and needs, assets and liabilities as well as the importance of making the right financial decisions. These were communicated using simple relatable videos and illustrations.

The wealth certified professionals demonstrated different ways of achieving financial goals and meeting unexpected needs such as emergency savings, budgeting and investing, amongst others.

A total of 703 participants attended the sessions in the three age categories. 53 wealth facilitators selected across the group from various regions of operations also delivered to the exciting sessions cut across 18 virtual classrooms. Interactions recorded through the sessions were a total of 2,166 comments.

Obinna Lewis-Asonye, Zonal Head, Micro Pension and Agency, Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers, who anchored one of the sessions, emphasised that earning money is the first step towards financial freedom, followed by budgeting and investing.

He stressed that participants should inculcate a savings plan to enable them to keep their money safe while it grows with interest. He said: “To get more money, you must limit your withdrawal so that your interest can grow.”

Other representatives of Stanbic IBTC emphasised the need to cultivate the habit of saving and investing as a guarantee towards becoming financially independent. According to them, it is important to consider the kind of investments that suits your needs, be it long, medium, or short time. They added that a better future is assured by investing in government bonds, treasury bills, mutual funds and commercial papers, amongst others.

The hosts described the initiative as essential in imparting financial education in the younger generation while strengthening their financial management skills and enhancing their understanding of financial matters. They further encouraged Nigerian children to engage in meaningful ventures to generate income as a first step towards making money.

150 winners emerged across the sessions from the various tasks which were completed and were all awarded with Stanbic IBTC Mutual Funds as prizes.

Speaking on the continuity of the initiative, Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, Head, Marketing and Communications, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, said that the session will be an annual event as part of the organisation’s goal to continually increase the number of financial literate individuals across the country.

Oyefeso-Odusami highlighted the importance of the initiative, noting that financial literacy should begin from an early stage for easy attainment of financial freedom.

She emphasised the importance of the customers’ journey with respect to the offerings of the organisation being an end-to-end financial services provider.

“One way to build a well-rounded adult is to catch them young. If we can inculcate financial literacy and investment culture into these young ones, we know that we will have financially enlightened adults tomorrow. At Stanbic IBTC, we want a future filled with smart, intelligent and financially enlightened leaders, hence we took this initiative,” she added.

There are a huge number of ways to make money online nowadays. You can do it sitting at home on the couch, at a table in a cafe or even in parallel with the main work. In general, anywhere, you just need an internet-connected computer or a smartphone.

Trading in the financial markets can be one of the most promising and profitable types of such earnings. Why? Let’s figure it out in this article.

What is Online Trading?

It is an opportunity to make money on fluctuations in the price of various financial assets. Simply put, you buy, for example, a currency and wait for it to rise in value. Or, conversely, you sell in the expectation of a fall in the rate. This is the basic principle of trading. But brokers offer more than just currency trading, which is a huge advantage. For example, working with a brokerage company like NordFX, you can trade a wide variety of asset types. For example, stocks, oil and gold, stock indices and even cryptocurrencies. Such a rich selection allows you to significantly diversify your earning opportunities. Moreover, you can earn not only on the growth, but also on the fall in the price of any of these assets.

Currency and Cryptocurrency Trading: Features

Let’s say you have chosen currency trading. What should you pay attention to? First, on the fact that all currencies are in pairs on Forex. That is, you do not just buy, for example, euros, but you automatically sell another currency in return. Basically, it all looks like in a standard exchange office. The thing is that you do not need to have all these currencies in stock, the broker will automatically convert funds from your trading account.

For example, when buying a EUR/USD currency pair, you purchase euros and sell US dollars. When selling the same currency pair, you, on the contrary, sell euros and buy US dollars. On Forex, all currency pairs are divided into major ones, for example, GBP/USD (British pound/US dollar) or USD/JPY (US dollar/Japanese yen) and cross rates (in such pairs, currency exchange is performed directly, bypassing the US dollar), for example, EUR/GBP (Euro/British Pound) or NZD/CAD (New Zealand Dollar/Canadian Dollar). Apart from this, there are also exotic pairs in which rare currencies are present, such as the African rand, for example, or the Norwegian krone. In total, 33 currency pairs are available for NordFX clients to conduct transactions.

In addition, you can make transactions with digital currencies. The principle of trading here is the same as in Forex. Trading operations can be carried out with any of 11 cryptocurrency pairs, including the leading cryptocurrencies against the US dollar: BTC/USD (Bitcoin), ETH/USD (Ethereum), LTH/USD (Litecoin), EOS/USD (Eos), XRP/USD (Ripple), etc.

Stock Trading

The principle of stock trading is quite simple. You are not buying the stock itself, but a contract for the difference (CFD). That is, ownership is not transferred to you. You kind of make a bet with a broker whether a particular stock will rise or fall in price. And it gives you the chance to make a profit both if its value soars to heaven and if it collapses to zero.

Broker NordFX offers a large selection of CFDs on shares of nearly 70 companies, including such world-famous brands as IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Mastercard, McDonalds, Microsoft, Twitter, UBER, eBay, Alibaba, Deutsche Bank and many others.

Trading in Precious Metals and Oil

NordFX also offers the opportunity to profit from the difference in quotations of the most popular metals and raw materials. And if gold and silver are more often used as insurance assets to hedge risks, oil prices, on the contrary, are subject to fairly strong fluctuations reaching hundreds of percent. This combination with the addition of trading positions for stocks, currencies, and cryptocurrencies, allows you to form the most balanced investment portfolio that brings maximum profit with minimum risk.

What if I Do Not Know How to Trade Yet?

The overwhelming majority of those who come to online trading do not have relevant experience and generally know practically nothing about the financial markets. To help novice traders, the broker NordFX has posted a lot of useful videos and articles on its website. on the topic of Forex trading. In particular, you can learn about the basics of trading, strategy creation, market analysis, wealth management, and risk. Finally, a whole section is devoted to how to use the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform, on which, in fact, all transactions are performed.

It is clear that before buying a particular currency or another asset, it is necessary to analyze for the development of a trend, that is, to predict where the quotes will go, and, accordingly, open a buy or sell transaction. There are two types of analysis here: technical and fundamental.

Using the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform, you can carry out technical analysis of quotes using all kinds of built-in indicators and various charting tools. MT4 has a built-in news feed as well, which allows you to quickly learn about important macroeconomic events and, accordingly, perform another type of analysis, fundamental. In addition, you can find regular analytical reviews and forecasts for the main financial markets on the NordFX website, for which the company has even been awarded the prestigious international award as Best News & Analysis Provider.

Also, you will find an economic calendar on the website of this broker, thanks to which you will know in advance on what day and at what time certain economic events, decisions of Central banks or important macro statistics are expected.

How to Profit Without Trading Yourself

You can make money on financial markets not only by trading yourself. Clients of the broker NordFX are also offered various services with the help of which they can make a profit without even having an idea of what market analysis is and without making a single transaction on their own.

For this purpose, the broker offers PAMM accounts (Percent Allocation Management Module) which is a special platform where a client can choose an experienced and successful managing trader (one or more) and entrust them with managing the client’s funds.

In addition to PAMM, CopyTrading service is also offered. Here you also choose an experienced trader as your “partner”. But, unlike PAMM, you do not transfer your funds for management, but you copy on your account all those transactions that the trader you have chosen (the provider of trading signals) makes on their account, in a fully automatic mode. Moreover, you can work with one or many signal providers.

The use of robot advisors is another opportunity to profit from trading in financial markets, which does not require special knowledge. A robot advisor is a computer program that will make transactions for you according to the algorithm embedded in it. You just need to purchase or download the robot free of charge on the Internet, install it on your MT4 platform, after which it will trade for you 24 hours a day.

There are nuances here, however. Thus, NordFX does not offer specific robots to its clients. Accordingly, all of these will be third-party programs. Therefore, you need to test them and optimize their settings (for example, the volume of transactions, levels of stop orders and take profit) before working. This can be done using a special tester already built into MetaTrader 4. Also, any Expert Advisor needs not only one-time optimization, but also periodic monitoring.

How to Increase Your Profits Tens and Hundreds of Times

Trading conditions, margin and leverage are three things that can multiply your income from trading in the financial markets.

First, you need to be mindful of the trading conditions. All brokerages charge a spread fee for ongoing trading transactions. This is their earnings, and for some such commissions are quite large, while for others, like NordFX, they are minimal, which allows clients to earn even with insignificant fluctuations in quotes.

As for the leverage, in fact, this is a loan that the broker provides to its clients automatically and without any collateral, and which, like in NordFX, when trading currency pairs, can exceed your own capital 1000 times. That is, having in your account, for example, $100, you can make transactions of up to 100 thousand dollars. Accordingly, your profit grows too. Imagine that your deposit is 10,000 USD. In this case, with the help of such leverage, for only 100 transactions your turnover can reach a billion (!) dollars, and this is already a very large business on an international scale.

The same goes for cryptocurrency trading. With NordFX margin trading, you can open buy or sell positions with just $150 in your account. This despite the fact that the price of bitcoin is above 10.000 USD now!

And most importantly, everything that is described above is not a fairy tale or fantasy. This is a reality that is available to everyone. And you don’t have to graduate from Harvard, work on Wall Street in New York, or have a start-up capital of millions of dollars to open your way into the world of finance. Once again, you need just an internet-connected computer or smartphone and… $10. This is the minimum deposit in order to become a client of the NordFX brokerage company.

To achieve a lot, you can start with a little. The main thing is to start.