Risks and Rewards of a Remote Workforce

It’s hard enough to protect office-based employees that connect directly to the organization’s network and where the IT department takes care of security updates and patch management; those working outside of the traditional, impermeable IT environments are an even greater challenge.

Technological advances in video conferencing, messaging and collaborative tools have enabled organizations to hunt for talent beyond the confines of their physical location. Organizations today, regardless of their size, are outsourcing non-core activities as much as possible. Add to that the intense battle for attracting top talent and the struggle for enhancing productivity, and remote work has rightly become more of a necessity than choice.

Technologies Behind the Evolution of Working Remotely

Undoubtedly, the availability of tools and technologies geared towards remote collaborations are the driving force behind the evolution of flexible working.

Remote teams have communication suites and project management tools at their disposal that make communicating, sharing and collaborating as seamless as in person. A communication suite, such as Slack, brings all communication channels including messaging, video conferencing and emails behind one interface. Then, there are document management tools that allow easy resource organization and quick remote access to relevant documents. With real-time sync and access control, having a central repository is convenient and timesaving. The all-in-one project management tools are a must-have for both- remote and on-site employees. They have built-in calendars, to-do lists, Gantt charts, activity trackers and chats. Modern project management tools remove any room for miscommunication in a remote team setup.

Threats Surrounding Remote Workers

Despite the prevalence of remote working, telecommuting and BYOD, balancing flexible working and security remains a daunting challenge. According to a recent study, a whopping 36% of organizations have had a remote employee cause a security incident. Such statistics highlight the alarming situation of cybersecurity in remote workspaces, considering that about 70% of employees work remotely at least once a week.

Unlike conventional workspaces where employees communicate in person, employees working remotely need to share data online. Negligent remote workers may share their data over public wifi which can expose sensitive information to a number of threats.

Remote employees can put an entire organization’s security at risk by using the same hardware and software resources for personal and work-related activities. As threatening as this could be, it’s not uncommon for employees to share or store work data in personal devices. Leaving a personal device unattended in a public area or losing it altogether could easily compromise organizational security.

In a traditional office, the IT department is responsible for implementing security patches and software updates. In a remote set up, however, it can be difficult for organizations to ascertain that their remote employees are keeping up-to-date with the latest software upgrades.

Combating Threats and Enabling Opportunities

Creating cybersecurity awareness is perhaps the most effective strategy to avoid a breach caused by apparently harmless and careless employee behaviors.

CIOs and CSOs must ensure implementation of company-wide security protocols. Security policies must be documented properly, and periodic workshops must be conducted to keep employees up-to-date with the security expectations. Conducting phishing tests and simulations for other security threats can create awareness among remote employees while giving an insight into their behaviors. Solutions also exist to intercept phishing attempts in transit to protect credentials and sensitive information.

Companies must ensure that their employees, regardless of their location, use company-issued devices for business activities or that they have implemented a secure BYOD policy that enables sufficient protection and analytics of corporate data resident on employee-owned devices. They should also monitor those devices carefully to detect malicious or negligent user behavior. Today, a number of tools exist that can enable employers to track activities, applications, and interactions of remote employees. Such tools can be handy in ascertaining that employees are adhering to the company’s security protocols.

Require employees to use strong passwords for all personal and business accounts and periodically changing those passwords is imperative. Implementing multi-factor authentication and keeping their anti-malware and anti-virus software up-to-date is also important.

Secure File Sharing or Encrypting important files that need to be shared is a good practice to protect critical data. There are a number of encryption software available that can protect data even on the move.

Finally, Desktop and Application Virtualization is an effective way to centralize applications and important data while enabling secure communication, increasing performance, and having deep visibility into employee risk behaviors.

From SMEs to industry giants, organizations are increasingly harnessing the power of remote intelligence to attract and retain talent and increase productivity. And this is only the beginning; flexible working may very well become as pervasive as traditional 9 to 5. Organizations must take the right steps to define and implement technology solutions and controls that support their security policies before embracing the upcoming workspace revolution.