While the debate over the productivity of employees working from home continues in 2024, another factor that requires special attention for hybrid or fully remote business is workplace cybersecurity outisde the office.
Companies are expected to build and maintain a robust cybersecurity posture to protect their customers’ information from cyberattacks and data breaches. This includes implementing security measures, practicing safe online behavior, ensuring data privacy, and responding to security incidents and breaches. A company can be found negligent if it cannot demonstrate that it has followed the minimum required cybersecurity measures.
What cybersecurity risks do remote employees face?
The shift to remote work has brought with it a number of cybersecurity risks that companies must manage. More and more people have started a job and left it without even meeting their colleagues in person. This lack of face-to-face interaction can increase vulnerability to social engineering and phishing, as remote workers may not exercise the same level of vigilance outside of the traditional office environment. Weak passwords pose a significant threat, undermining even robust cybersecurity defenses like firewalls and VPNs. Cybercriminals exploit these vulnerabilities in a variety of ways, including ransomware attacks that hold data hostage and phishing schemes that trick employees into revealing sensitive information.
Cybersecurity Risk Management Methods
In the age of remote work, companies face unique cybersecurity challenges that require tailored risk management strategies. Here are some expert methods to protect your remote business:
- To best protect yourself from criminals, you first need to know what to protect. Many organizations lack visibility into these critical assets, which is like leaving their digital doors unlocked. Knowing what to protect is the first step to protection.
- Capture the full context of every connection on your network. Implement strict identity management, device status control, and granular application permissions. This approach helps detect anomalies and prevent unauthorized access.
- Cybersecurity training for remote teams: Remote team members, who often work in isolation, may become lax about security practices. Regular training on cybersecurity best practices is essential to keep everyone alert and informed.
But even the best measures cannot eliminate every risk. The best way to reduce your risk and avoid negligence is to implement effective risk management. This involves several steps:
- Risk identification: Document all potential threats and vulnerabilities. Use risk assessments, security audits, and historical data analysis to uncover risks.
- Risk assessment: Evaluate the likelihood and impact of each risk. Consider the likelihood of threats exploiting vulnerabilities and the consequences of such events.
- Risk prioritization: Assign risk levels to prioritize based on their potential impact and importance to the business.
- Risk mitigation: Develop strategies to mitigate risk. This can include security measures such as firewalls, encryption, and access controls, as well as employee training and emergency response plans.
- Monitoring and auditing: Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your risk mitigation strategies. Stay up to date with the evolving threat landscape to ensure your risk management remains relevant.
Security risk management software helps organizations manage the additional cybersecurity risks that come with remote working. By centralizing information in a unified repository, it provides organizations with key insights and prioritizes risks. This centralization is key to avoiding the pitfalls of complacency, as it ensures that all compliance information and IT security measures are consistently applied and monitored. The software’s ability to create configurable reports and dashboards enables real-time insight into the organization’s security posture across silos, enabling quick action on urgent risks and ensuring nothing is missed. It protects against the costly consequences of complacency by keeping organizations informed, compliant and secure.