Remote work has transformed people’s lives since the pandemic, and the trend continues to this day. While working from home became a necessity in 2020, now, a few years later, more employees operate from their homes in a full-time or hybrid way, so the event triggered a massive shift in the employment industry.
Opinions about WFH are fragmented, as some highlight benefits of a better work-life balance, lower levels of stress, and an overall better health, while others prefer the office to avoid the risks of isolation, distractions, and overworking. Therefore, each enterprise takes a different path for remote workers, especially as they fear cybersecurity gaps coming from employees’ devices.
Your company experiencing such vulnerabilities is most likely to face phishing attempts and data breaches, so here are some of the most common challenges and how to manage them.
Chaotic collaboration policies
Collaboration tools are necessary in hybrid work environments as they connect people to communicate, share files, and make decisions efficiently. However, it is more difficult to use them across different points of access as they create gaps where cyber vulnerabilities appear.
The problem can stem from companies’ ignorance of which platforms they can deploy within their systems, so they skip a risk assessment. But companies also put their trust in employees’ skills to configure these tools, not knowing that this might lead to misconfigurations.
Other mistakes you make as an entrepreneur include failing to clarify workflows, lacking a platform structure, or lacking consistency in the permissions you offer across systems. So, sometimes, the best solution is to simplify the process and establish secure remote work with just the right number of collaboration tools and eliminate unnecessary systems or devices that overload the network. And for the ones you use, make sure to embed security protocols accordingly to balance productivity with security.
Unsafe personal devices
People working from home use their own networks and, in many cases, their personal devices to operate, which increases the company’s vulnerability to cyberattacks. Home networks are often unsecured when compared to those in companies, and this applies to personal devices that are not configured according to stringent standards.
Unencrypted internet networks are the perfect target for hackers who can intercept data between the user and enterprise and access sensitive information, which is why many remote employees operate with VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).
While you should train employees thoroughly, you will need to implement a vulnerability management strategy to cover necessities of cyber safety, such as discovering weaknesses, prioritizing cases based on exposure and having the support team available for remediation guidance in the case of a data breach or a risky attack.
Security centralization
Centralized security may have its benefits, as the IT department can control and monitor activity and practices with one platform that ensures consistency. But this creates a single point of security failure at the same time, which can impact the infrastructure through:
- Disruption: as the system is in downtime, the potential for losing revenue grows;
- Data loss: a lack of a data backup plan can compromise company information;
- Reputational damage: failing to operate means being unable to meet customer experience expectations;
Centralization is one of the easiest ways to have a single point of failure in the business since having only one location for data or systems is a major vulnerability. So, here’s what you should consider as an entrepreneur:
- Backup systems that are immediately available in the case of disruption;
- Decentralized systems to distribute resources across multiple locations;
- Cross-training programs to empower teams about other departments;
Disjointed communication
While entrepreneurs always praise the importance of communication, they often fail to implement it, and when it comes to remote teams, this becomes a huge problem in the long term, creating inefficiencies. Indeed, handling communication in remote teams requires expertise in using the right tools and overcoming potential barriers on the tech stacks or platforms, so entrepreneurs must maintain a robust strategy for safe and efficient communication systems.
The platforms employees use are preferred to be user-friendly, easy to configure and update, so the learning curve is reduced to their skills. Consider it easy to integrate so it’s compatible with other networks and helps streamline workflows. Finally, make it secure so it meets industry standards on data encryption to protect sensitive information shared within teams.
Sometimes, the most popular options are the most suitable as they adhere to top regulations on data security, but not all solutions are adequate to your company’s needs if they focus on specific goals like project management.
Password fatigue
The term password fatigue is also known as password overload, and it’s a struggle coming from having to use too many different passwords for all accounts. We already know people are not great with creating and remembering unique and complex passwords for their accounts, so this is the case for employees as well. You might be surprised to find how many reuse passwords across accounts, or write them in digital files in case of forgetting them.
There’s only one step from password fatigue to a data breach, especially when people’s password hygiene practices are outdated. Hackers can effortlessly break workers’ weak passwords and access company data through basic techniques like password guessing and more complex ones like brute-force attacks.
So, what you can do as an entrepreneur is train your workers to establish a better password routine and encourage them to use multi-factor authentication to safeguard their accounts. Password storage is also important, so a password manager is usually the ideal solution for keeping everything in a safe place. Employees can use it to generate and store passwords and activate autofill when logging in to their accounts.
Final considerations
Remote work has boomed since the pandemic, allowing people to balance their work and life. However, working from home exposed the company to numerous cybersecurity issues coming from an inconsistent use of collaboration tools and fragmented communication. Therefore, entrepreneurs must adapt the policies for remote work to make it safer by experimenting with software solutions, training employees, and always prioritizing proper communication.
