Ever since home-based work, especially due to the pandemic-induced shift to remote working, arrived on the scene, organizations and their employees have had to confront heightened cybersecurity issues.
This personnel who are not well-versed in using IT systems for work away from the office headquarters face a particularly difficult challenge.
Cybercriminal activities must also be addressed quickly and on a large scale to prevent further damage.
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Remote work cyber security challenges
Remote work has prompted a difficult mix of human and technology-related issues. Here are some of the most common cyber security concerns of remote work:
With remote work, more consumer-grade devices such as phones, tablets, and home computers are now in use. These devices may not be secure against cyber attacks and thus the potential for a security breach has increased greatly.
When employees or the staff of a company work remotely or become virtual frontline defenders of the IT systems, cyber threat attacks and targets are more likely to increase as the data of the business is exposed to multiple networks and connections.
In some cases, when people are working remotely, the company tends to take away from their cybersecurity budget. However, it’s essential that management understands the importance of investing in cybersecurity, especially when employees are working away from the office.
When people are working remotely, cybercrimes occur more often as a result of urgency, doubt, uncertainty, fear, and other factors.
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Ways to address challenges of remote working
Great Learning offers multiple cyber security programs to tackle the changes that have come with remote working. The intersection of IT infrastructure and end-users forms the point where such solutions need to be implemented.
Below are some of the techniques to prevent security risks caused by human or technical errors:
In some organizations, no work is done on non-company computers. For remote work, employees are provided with devices like phones, tablets, and laptops that are multi-factor authenticated and remotely managed by the company.
These devices must be secured and protected on the corporate network using such technology as software-defined perimeter and virtual private networks (VPNs).
Companies that already have employees operating on virtual desktop infrastructure in-house should not encounter major difficulties when transitioning the work to remote locations.
Therefore, you can easily move these virtual machines anywhere with an encrypted and secure connection to the business’s network.
Organizations also have other choices such as SDP, VPN, zero trust, MFA, and desktop virtualization on their corporate servers. Moreover, using a cloud-based solution alongside IaaS and SaaS is a popular selection when working outside the office.
Organizations that have updated their policies, procedures, and technologies for remote employees should implement security awareness training to address the unique challenges that come with working from home. This training should cover:
- Protection against burglary
- Using shared gadgets with other household members
- Locking unattended devices
- Configuration of Wi-Fi
When managing remote workers, it is essential to provide guidance and support, as well as have a positive outlook.
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It’s often overlooked, but updating your cyber security insurance and conducting a security audit is an integral part of ensuring the security of remote work. These should be given ample attention, as they may become standard operating models in the future.
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