Experts at GlobalData say the need for investment in cybersecurity is stronger than ever, in light of the coronavirus crisis. In particular, data is a key issue. Jonathan Cordwell, Principal Health and Social Care Analyst at GlobalData, says: “ Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been directly involved in relaxing these policies, such as granting Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) powers to obtain information from NHS IT systems and issuing orders to healthcare providers to process confidential patient information relating to the coronavirus.”
Remote working continues to pose a threat as employees across Europe admit to their own bad cybersecurity practices. A survey carried out by OneLogin revealed that 17 per cent of workers share their work device password with their children, while 36 per cent had not changed their WiFi password in over a year. The figures were even worse in the UK, where 50 per cent admitted to this flaw. On the plus side, 70 per cent of UK businesses are using VPNs.
Academics have come together to posit a new ‘Centre of Excellence’ to promote good security practices within the UK transport sector. A study into autonomous vehicles, led by ResiCAV, highlighted key flaws in national road transport. With input from universities, local councils and the National Digital Exploitation Centre, the proposed three-month programme has been supported by government funding including Innovate UK.
MyCena, a credentials management security company, has announced the release of MyCena Desk Center, a solution for containerized environments such as call centers, contact centers and critical departments, which handle a high volume of critical, private and confidential information.
Until now, contained workplaces were facing enormous challenges with credentials theft and fraud. Most workers have to log in to multiple systems for multiple clients. Since no one can remember dozens of strong and unique passwords, everyone was using weak and reused passwords. Passwords were often written down on post-its and easy to steal. For safety reasons, workers typically cannot bring their mobile devices to their desk, so they could not use MyCena Business Fortress, MyCena’s flagship solution that turns mobile devices into credentials fortress.
With the rising costs of fraud, an incident-based remediation and recovery approach was not sufficient anymore. With no other solution in sight, MyCena has been tasked to come up with the equivalent of MyCena Business Fortress for containerized workplaces.
Applying MyCena’s MASS (Method of Access for Structured Stored Data) technology and its three-level security architecture, MyCena Desk Center allows each desk-bound worker to create a digital fortress of credentials inside their contained environment. In line with MyCena’s concept, each person can only access their own credentials fortress, using a combination of PIN, lock pattern, and passphrase. There is no master password to memorize, so no single point of failure.
Some of the key security issues like passwords policies, password sharing, and privileges are controlled and distributed from an easy-to-use manager console. Users no longer need to create, type, see, or remember any password, eliminating the risk of weak and reused passwords. Users can only access their own passwords, reducing the risk of password theft. All passwords are AES-SHA 256 encrypted locally.
Like the other solutions in MyCena’s portfolio, MyCena Desk Center is system-agnostic. It can protect any type of credentials, from systems, websites, applications, devices, networks, with strong independent passwords, reducing IT helpdesk service time related to password resets from an average 50% down to nil.
Using MyCena also reduces a wide array of costs related to deployment, remediation, recovery, litigation. Employees follow an automated process to create their credentials fortress without any new hardware or integration cost.
“MyCena Desk Center comes to fill a huge gap in the credentials management space, providing military-grade security for what has been an enduring problem with exponential and catastrophic consequences if not mitigated”, said Julia O’Toole, Chief Executive Officer of MyCena.
“Our portfolio gains depth and provides a solution for a long-standing issue, helping our global partner ecosystem serve our clients even better, covering areas that could not be secured with our Mobile Fortress solution. If you have mobile workers, we cover you. Now, if you have container environments or desktop-only workers, we cover you too”, said Rodrigo S. Martineli, Chief Revenue Officer of MyCena.
MyCena’s concept was created after a breakthrough trip to the ancient city of Mycenae. After spending decades looking for a solution to her passwords problem in the fields of neuroscience, mathematics, and technology, Julia discovered in the ruins of the city how the Mycenaeans had built three levels of security to protect it. A first gate led inside the city. Once inside, a second gate led to the garrison. Once inside, a third gate led to the king’s palace. She realized the problem with passwords has never been bad memory or forgetfulness. Rather, it has always been a problem of safe storage and speed of access. By creating a digital credentials fortress, MyCena allows everyone to keep their credentials safe, decentralized, and easy to access at the same time.
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Contact: info@mycena.co
About MyCena
MyCena is a credentials management security company. A pioneer in risk decentralization through layered access security, MyCena’s mission is to make our cyberspace safer. MyCena is currently selling in North America, Latin America, and Europe. The company is headquartered in London (UK) with offices in Dallas (USA), Tunis (Tunisia) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). For more information, visit www.mycena.co
Video conferencing software Zoom has become the latest victim of coronavirus-themed cyber-attacks. The platform, which is used by thousands of businesses and families worldwide, had 530,000 passwords stolen and sold on the Dark Web, as well as meeting URLs and Zoom keys. In an attempt to slow further cyber-attacks, the company has now made passwords for all meetings compulsory.
As the world continues to adjust self-isolation, Facebook users are being warned of falling victim to social engineering techniques. Seemingly innocent quizzes designed to alleviate boredom are asking users questions such as their favourite place and pet names. Cybersecurity experts are warning that users answering these questions could be unwittingly giving away clues to their passwords.
