With the coronavirus outbreak, companies are, in a way, forced to adopt new work models. However, the epidemic helped us to understand how beneficial remote work models can be. It is usually a cost-efficient practice with increased productivity. Moreover, after the epidemic, some organizations maintained these work models or adopted hybrid ones. For example, working three days from home, and two days on-premises can sometimes motivate people and enhance productivity.
However, it can sometimes be struggling. Since, in hybrid work models, users access the corporate network from various locations, it may occasionally be hard to maintain the cyber security of the company. Some actions users take may leave the company network open to breaches or cyberattacks. And as a result of this, a company may encounter a variety of liabilities. Since companies are expected to meet regulatory compliance requirements, a breach or data leak may result in reputation or brand trust loss.
So keeping this hybrid work model practice secure plays a significant role. However, today’s article is just about that. In today’s article, we will talk about the ways of maintaining hybrid work security.
Hybrid Work Space: Vulnerabilities and Risks
Before implementing a solution, it is essential to detect the risks and vulnerabilities that may come with a hybrid work model. The first thing to do is learn how this practice can compromise your network security and which challenges you may encounter. Also, there is another thing that is significant to acknowledge. And that is being aware of your needs. These needs generally depend on your business size, the number of employees, and current infrastructure.
However, when you successfully detect risks and your needs, you can manage to implement a solution that would work well for you. Sure enough, that will provide significant benefits for a company such as cost savings, enhanced productivity, and peace of mind. So, knowing vulnerabilities may be the first step to maintaining hybrid work security.
Lack of Control
Usually, devices and access are managed by the IT team when you have only on-premise employees. However, the IT department may not have such strict control over access when it comes to a hybrid workplace. Since remote workers often use their home internet provided by ISP or public Wi-Fi, the corporate network becomes much more vulnerable.
Reduced Response Time
Sometimes endpoints, access, and network a remote employee use may contain both corporate and personal activity. Since this increases the traffic flow that should be monitored, detecting threats and breaches may take longer than usual, which also reduces the response time. Responding quickly enough necessitates a more organized approach to threat detection. Unless monitoring is automated, this increases the workload of the IT department.
Possible Data Loss
Whether the reason is an insider threat or an outsider attacker, data loss is one of the most remarkable risks hybrid work models may bring. Numerous possibilities can cause data loss. However, no matter what the reason is the consequences of data loss may be worse than thought. Detecting possible causes of data loss is essential to secure hybrid work.
How to Create a Secure Hybrid Workplace?
It is easy to see hybrid work models are here to stay. That means companies may need to adopt different cyber security solutions from the ones they used to use. In essence, creating a secure hybrid workplace successfully depends on particular practices. Without giving up on the flexibility hybrid work models provide, you can easily establish a worry-free environment both for employees and customers. Also, a company can reduce the risk of brand trust and reputation loss arising from breaches and cyberattacks.
Education and Training
Proper education and training on cybersecurity play a significant role in creating a secure workplace. When you provide your employees with regular training on cybersecurity, it becomes easier for them to see and act regarding possible risks. Furthermore, having a cyber security awareness training certificate increases customer confidence in a company. In short, the more aware your employees are of cybersecurity importance, the less vulnerability a hybrid workplace may bring.
Adopt IAM Solutions
Identity and Access Management may be the core of secure remote access. Granting only required access to users may reduce the risk of a data breach. Adopting the least privilege policy may come in handy in a hybrid workplace. In that way, your employees and customers use network services and applications without compromising security. A well-adopted IAM solution can drastically mitigate the possibility of data leaks.
Make The Switch to Cloud-based Solutions
Instead of utilizing a high-cost hardware on-premise, adopt cloud-based solutions. In general, cloud-based solutions are much easier to manage, monitor, and maintain than traditional physical infrastructure. By switching to cloud-based solutions, a company may reduce the cost, time, and efficiency spent on maintenance. Also, cloud-based solutions assist companies with scalability, which is a great advantage in today’s business world.
Utilize a Business Virtual Private Network
VPN is a common technology. With a VPN, users can easily encrypt their online activity. Since users access the corporate network via a public or home-based network in a hybrid workplace, the corporate network becomes more vulnerable and open to threats. However, you can establish a more secure and safer connection between users and the network by utilizing a business VPN. Moreover, you can reduce the possible risks arising from negligent use.
Key Takeaways
Maintaining hybrid work security may not be as hard as you thought. Embracing the change and acting accordingly is the key to establishing a safe and secure environment both for your employees and customers. In the current ever-evolving business world, cybersecurity plays a significant role. Even though it seems to become more challenging with the new work models, maintaining distributed workplace security is not hard to achieve. By utilizing the necessary tools, a company can create a trusted environment.
Also, adopting cloud-based solutions helps you to spend less time on maintenance and security so that you can focus on your business. When a company manages to maintain a secure hybrid workplace, it can benefit from the main advantage of this work model: Flexibility.
