As remote work becomes standardized across companies across different industries, it's important that we don't forget about cybersecurity for remote teams.
Over the past few months, countless companies have made headlines thanks to their renewed commitment to and support for remote work. News like this can inspire any company to follow in its footsteps and that's definitely a great thing. However, these articles don't always tell the full story – especially when it comes to the cybersecurity measures you'll have to take to avoid disaster.
The facts show that the ongoing transformation of the traditional office has presented a golden opportunity for hackers and cybercriminals. These malicious attackers took advantage of preventable weaknesses that new remote teams simply weren't aware of. Today we're here to learn more about these preventable weaknesses and what your business can do to keep the threats at bay.
1. Risk assessment is very important
Like everything in business, metrics are fundamental. We cannot improve cybersecurity if we do not measure our current state and identify potential vulnerabilities. This is especially important for small and medium-sized companies, as they are the ones who most often ignore the risk assessment process.
Whatever the reason behind it, you need to know that even a simple risk assessment can take you a long way. Knowing simple things like what data you need to protect, how you will do so, and how you will address identified vulnerabilities is enough to make you a cybersecurity-conscious company.
There are also no excuses not to do this. Given how popular IT outsourcing services have become, it's extremely easy and quick to get a small team of cybersecurity professionals who can do most (if not all) of the work for you. You can even include cybersecurity services when opting for more general approaches to digital transformation.
2. Understand endpoint security
In the traditional office, employees are limited to the secure corporate infrastructure that is already in place in the building. Going remote control means giving up that (along with the associated costs), and you need to be prepared to replace it. Believe it or not, an employee using the same device for personal and professional purposes actually poses a significant risk to your cybersecurity strategy.
That's why endpoint security became so relevant in 2020 and will continue to be a key focus for remote teams in the years to come. Today, almost all remote work experts will agree on the following: Providing new devices (aka laptops) to remote workers is the most preferable way to strengthen endpoint security.
However, not all companies have the budget available to do so, especially those that were hit hard in 2020. Fortunately, regardless of resources, the most important part of endpoint security is education. Be prepared to educate all team members on the appropriate security protocols for accessing sensitive data, and for added security, adopt Zero Trust .
3. Embrace Zero Trust
Let's face it: not every employee in your organization needs access to highly sensitive data on your system. In fact, I bet there are very few groups of people on your team who actually need access to information like this. And that's what Zero Trust is all about: taking a zero-risk approach to data management, where access to data is selective and always monitored by AI and machine learning algorithms.
The Zero Trust approach states that all users inside and outside a corporate network should not be trusted. This implies that all users need to be authenticated and authorized whenever they try to access a different level of data. And to access the most secure information, the system must evaluate the security and potential risks of the user's device before granting access.
I know it may seem like a lot, but believe me (I know, it's ironic), it works. Thousands of companies follow Zero Trust, and it has saved them countless expenses and headaches due to preventable problems. If you want to know how your company can implement a Zero Trust model, check out this article with more details on the topic.
4. Keep all software up to date
If you ask me, outdated software is one of the biggest and weakest threats in the field of cybersecurity. Larger because breaches related to outdated software happen very frequently, and weaker because you only need minimal effort to eliminate it. But I guess that's how human psychology works.
I don't even feel like there's much to be said about it. For every advancement we make in technology, there is a malicious attacker trying to find the vulnerabilities in it. Software as a Service (SaaS) companies release updates frequently to fix these vulnerabilities and 99% of the time they do a great job of it. So force your team to keep their software up to date. It's very easy, most of the time automatic, and can even be done in the background.
About the future of remote work
I believe the shift to remote work has been a long time coming. The pandemic simply accelerated its adoption. Coming from a company that prioritizes remote work, it's been great to see so much support and interest in remote work on behalf of the global corporate community. I hope these tips can help businesses like yours stay a few steps ahead of the bad guys. And lastly, remember that in cybersecurity, the strength of a chain is only equal to its weakest link.
