The COVID-19 pandemic has left organizations scrambling to adapt to having their entire staff working remotely on a full-time basis. There are many challenges to overcome, not the least of which is limited network connectivity and the need for secure VPN connections to protect sensitive data. Generally, businesses have less than 20% of their staff working remotely at any given time. Today, everyone is working from home and needs a large amount of internet bandwidth as well as secure access to the corporate network. Unfortunately, most networks are not able to scale up rapidly to support a high volume of external traffic over inbound gateways, which leaves workers with issues connecting as well as slow connection speeds once they are on the network.
Having the capacity to support so much remote work is one issue, but perhaps the more significant concern is the security risks from the home office. How secure are your employees’ home networks? Do they have encryption on their Wi-Fi? Are they running anti-virus software, and have they installed the latest software patches? Your most significant vulnerability comes from workers who click on things they shouldn't, are not updating their systems with the latest patches, and are not employing basic security hygiene.
Begin with Corporate Security Basics
Establish the New Rules for Working Remotely
Communicate with workers using IT equipment provided by employers. “There is often a range of software installed in the background of company IT that keeps people secure. If a security incident took place on an employee’s personal device, the organization – and the employee – may not be fully protected.” How to stay cyber-secure while working from home
Develop cybersecurity policies that address the new reality of working remotely, including:
Use of Personal Devices
Collaboration and Communication
Document Management
Education and Awareness
Will there always be a need to support remote work for organizations? Undoubtedly, but a balance needs to be struck when everyone is suddenly working from home. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, which leaves us to find creative ways to navigate around the disruption. While technology is one tool to support remote work, another path is to manage the human factor in order to maximize the impact of the available technology and mitigate the inherent risks with a remote workforce.
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