Home Working Cyber Security Toolkit

The British cyber security agency have created a tool to practice being cyber attacked and businesses are being urged to help keep their home working staff safe from cyber-attacks by testing their defences in a roleplay exercise devised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). 

The new exercise is part of a series in the agency’s Exercise in a Box toolkit, which is an online tool designed for helping organisations to understand how resilient they are to cyber-attacks and also for practicing their response in a safe environment.

The ‘Home and Remote Working’ exercise is the latest addition to the NCSC’s highly successful ‘Exercise in a Box’ toolkit, which helps businesses (notably SMEs) carry out drills in preparation for actual cyber-attacks. It has been launched as people continue to work from home in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, often doing so over personal internet connections and computers. The tool allows people to test their defences by roleplaying the experience of being hit by a cyber-attack. 

It comes as millions of workers continue to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, and has been designed to help workers reduce the risk of data compromises while working away from the office.

The exercise focuses on three key areas, teaching staff how they can safely access networks from home, which services might be needed for secure collaboration and what processes need to be in place to manage a cyber-attack remotely.
The NCSC has previously published guidance on safe home working during the pandemic, including tips on securely setting up video conferencing software.

The new online roleplay is the latest in the existing Exercise in a Box toolkit aimed at businesses wanting to test their cyber security.

Sarah Lyons, NCSC deputy director for economy and society engagement, said: "We know that businesses want to do all they can to keep themselves and their staff safe while home working continues, and using Exercise in a Box is an excellent way to do that. "While cyber security can feel daunting, it doesn't have to be, and the feedback we have had from our exercises is that they're fun as well as informative....  I would urge business leaders to treat Exercise in a Box in the same way they do their regular fire drills - doing so will help reduce the chances of falling victim to future cyber-attacks." 

The NCSC is the UK’s lead technical authority on cyber security and offers unrivalled real-time threat analysis, defence against national cyber-attacks and tailored advice to victims when incidents do happen.

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