The majority of U.s. industry leaders — 86 percent of C-suites and 60 percent of SBOs — think that when employees work remotely, the risk of a data breach increases. Despite this, an alarming 26% of IT professionals say that their organization does not have any formal policy for ensuring information security while working remotely, leaving them vulnerable to risk.
The need for more rigorous and powerful cybersecurity to protect employees working remotely means that organizations should begin looking toward more advanced approaches, such as investing in a zero-trust model and identity-centric services, to provide a stronger response to these frequent attacks.
Remote Work Security Challenges
Security becomes everyone’s responsibility when working remotely. That’s great news if every employee is equally invested in identifying potential security threats and has the same tools, resources, and skills, but that’s rarely the case.
Your employees are probably preoccupied with other aspects of their job, which is understandable, especially if they are just getting used to working from home.
Furthermore, transferring responsibility to individuals without implementing security policies or providing the necessary tools or training invites trouble.
Also employees aren’t always capable of detecting scams. Phishing scams, spoofing attacks, fake alerts, and other similar tactics can be so convincing that even celebrities fall for them.
Remote Work Security Best Practices
The issue of remote work causing employees to lose sight of security priorities is high. There’s a lot that goes into establishing work-from-home arrangements, which can consume the majority of your IT team’s attention and cause critical security measures, such as patching, to fall by the wayside. Employees are more likely to be lax about security protocols when supervisors are not present to monitor their activity.
- Establish and enforce a data security policy.
- Equip your employees with the right tools and technology.
- Frequently update your network security systems
- Regulate the use of personal devices.
- Institute a “Zero Trust” approach.
How You Must Use Personal Devices for Work
When working from home, 46% of employees admitted to transferring files between work and personal computers, which is a concerning practice.
Simultaneously, a trend of allowing employees to use their personal devices at work, commonly referred to as “Bring Your Own Device” or BYOD policy, has emerged.
You must be fully aware of the issues that arise when your employees use their personal devices for work-related purposes. For example, they may abruptly leave the company and retain the confidential information that was stored on their device during their employment, and you will not have the opportunity to erase it.
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