Europe 1 revealed it to you on Tuesday: France is the 3rd country most targeted by cyberattacks since the start of containment. Hackers are taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis, and in particular the explosion of telework, to try to steal personal data. It is true that working from home is not always as secure as at the office. So to avoid being trapped or scammed, the CNIL has just published a guide to good practice. Europe 1 sums it up in five simple but essential commandments.
Respect the instructions of your company
First reflex if you are in telework: take stock with your company's IT department on your equipment and tools. Ideally, your business will provide you with a computer and / or telephone. Some can also provide a VPN, a virtual private network: just connect to it to be connected to the internal network of the company. It is ideal, in terms of security, for exchanging files or working in a group. But not everyone is as well equipped and this is where you have to be particularly careful.
Separate staff from professional
If you use your personal computer to work, the first rule to respect, according to the CNIL, is to separate the staff from the professional. "We have to recreate a seal between these two aspects of our life. It goes without saying in normal times since we have a personal computer at home and a professional at work. There, we have to adapt," explains Armand Heslot, chef of the technological expertise service of the CNIL.
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To limit the risks, first install an antivirus. Create different accounts for the sites or software you use. Do not consult shady pages that you would not have consulted at your workplace. Be particularly careful about the applications you use, even more if you have to download and install them from a site. Finally, limit as much as possible recreational uses (social networks, online games, etc.) on your computer that has become your work machine.
Secure your wifi
We think less, but we must also be concerned about its access to wifi. "Many people installed their Internet box when they received it and did not necessarily change the default passwords, block certain accesses, etc.", warns Armand Heslot. Wifi can be a very fragile access point to our computer for hackers and it is therefore important "to ensure, when using it to transmit professional data, that it is fairly secure and that it does not 'there is no risk of intrusion ".
Strengthen your passwords
There is also the issue of passwords. More than ever, it is necessary to create complex identifiers and above all, different for each site. So even if one of your passwords gets into the hands of hackers, they won't be able to give them access to other sites. The instructions are simple: avoid simplistic passwords ("azerty", "123456" ...) and mix uppercase, lowercase, symbols and punctuation marks. On its website, the CNIL also provides a password generator that is both complex and personalized, and therefore more difficult to crack for a hacker.
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Pay attention to video conferencing tools
Finally, be very careful about the communication tools you use. Video conferencing apps like Zoom, Skype and HouseParty are booming, but sometimes they don't respect your privacy. This in particular gives rise to a number of message chains on social networks to warn about pirations of these applications, sometimes not always supported by evidence.
Either way, prioritize your company's internal communication channels. If you do not have one, prefer Whatsapp to Messenger or simple SMS: the messaging application includes an encryption of messages from end to end. For videoconferencing, the CNIL recommends using Tixeo, a paid French software but encrypted from start to finish, the only one certified by ANSSI, the National Agency for the Security of IT Services.