Articles
How you can enable secure remote working in your business
by APSense News Release AdminHow you can enable secure remote working in your business
Working from home isn’t just a response to
current pandemic concerns… it’s here to stay. Research shows that as many as 70
percent of organizations will adopt a “hybrid
working” model,” where employees spend at least some of their time working
from home.
It’s
easy to understand why bosses might like the idea. On average people that work
from home are 47 percent more
productive. Employees don’t mind either, since working from home comes with a host
of work/life balance benefits, and eliminates the morning commute and “grind”
from the workweek.
It’s
a win-win situation… except for one concern. Security. For both companies and
individuals, working from home opens up a host of new security concerns, and
for any long-term remote working policy, these need to be addressed.
The biggest security challenges when
working from home
1) Consumer-grade equipment
One
of the biggest challenges from a security perspective is the off-the-shelf
nature of the IT equipment in the home. Business grade routers/modems, printers,
and other devices cost more because they have more powerful security features
built-in. With home IT, if a hacker can break into the modem or printer of a
remote working employee, they can potentially get access back to the entire
network.
Furthermore,
technology at home tends to be shared, and it only takes one wayward download
or link click from an unsuspecting child to expose the computer to malware and
other viruses.
Many
businesses will look to supply their remote employees with equipment for this
reason, with the strict expectation that the equipment can only be used for the
purposes of work. It will also be more important than ever to have a formal cybersecurity education
system in place to help ensure that all staff understands how to security
best practices when they’re not in the office.
2) Everything’s on the cloud
For
working from home to work, the employee needs to be able to remotely access the
network, and that means that the company needs to move the computing
environment to the cloud so that it can be accessed remotely. The problem is
that because the cloud can be accessed from anywhere it can also be attacked
from anywhere. Previously the most sensitive data would be kept within networks
that could only be accessed internally. Now that data becomes one of the
biggest risks facing the enterprise.
Mandating
that employees use VPNs for connecting to the network is an important step in
mitigating this risk. VPNs encrypt data as it travels between locations,
helping to protect the connection from unwanted intrusion.
In
addition, businesses should shift their security strategy away from a perimeter
defense (firewalls and endpoint security solutions) to zero trust security.
Perimeter defense only works when there is, in fact, a perimeter to defend. For
decentralized IT (i.e. remote working), the zero-trust approach is much better,
because it assumes that traffic on the network is malicious unless proven
otherwise. If users are not able to log in and verify their access to the
network every time, the zero-trust security will immediately block them out.
3) What happens when a device gets lost?
When
people are working from workstations within the office, lost equipment is of
minimal concern. When people start working remotely, however, they will
generally take their laptops to cafés or away on holidays, and there is a much
greater risk that a device with access to the network gets left in a taxi or
other public location.
There
are tools available that allow the IT team to remote wipe devices so that even
if the device isn’t recoverable, there won’t be any risk of data leak. However,
this can also create some thorny issues. For example, if the employee is using
personal equipment, they might not be impressed if their device needs to be
wiped. Clear policies around the handling of lost equipment can cover the
organization legally, but from a staff morale point of view, providing
employees with the equipment they need to work might be the safer course of
action for all involved.
None
of these issues are a reason to avoid working from home. The productivity and
morale gains are too great to ignore, and with so many other companies allowing
remote working, it becomes one of those things that can sway a prospective
employee to one of your competitors instead. Furthermore, there’s no reason
that, with the right policies, the right staff training, and the right
technologies, you can have a secure remote working environment. Many of the
security fears around remote work have come as a result of businesses quickly
switching to remote work (as a way of keeping work going through the pandemic),
without a security strategy behind it. Now, as working from home becomes the
norm, it is time to build security into the environment.
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Created on Mar 24th 2022 01:34. Viewed 263 times.
