Admittedly, we are in uncharted territory – what seemed routine a few short weeks ago – commuting to work, going to the gym, or gathering with friends – is now either a daunting task or a non-existent option.
This shift has impacted our technology, our workforce, and our business environments almost overnight and with minimal warning. Given the rapid move for many to work from home, organizations have either been scrambling to quickly roll out solutions to keep employees connected or relying upon their contingency plan in place.
As they work to make this happen, cyber risk must be addressed in parallel. Changes in business needs using the traditional methods to connect with corporate networks and data can introduce new security risks.
Protecting your organization and its suddenly remote workforce is essential. Consider these immediate security needs and whether your solutions and services are resilient.
- Unified endpoint security – Consider whether your team has the resources or automation tools to onboard, deploy, configure and enroll their entire workforces on corporate-owned laptops, mobile phones and BYOD devices.
- Protect remote access – With more employees accessing the internet from home, consider whether IT administrators have the ability to grant access to specific applications hosted in the cloud or in the data center so remote workers can stay productive and protected against network-based threats.
- Internet browsing – When working from home, employees need to be able to connect to the internet in a highly secure manner, even when they are off the corporate network. Consider whether your IT administrators have what they need to enforce acceptable use policies and provide that websites employees visit are safe and appropriate for the business.
Protect against email-based attacks -- With email phishing attempts that take advantage of global public health fears on the rise, consider whether IT administrators have the means to inspect inbound and outbound email for a wide range of threats including malware, imposter emails, and phishing attacks.
- Protect the increasing use of digital and cloud applications – As many businesses are no longer able to gather together in the same conference room with their employees or customers, they are accelerating their transformation to using digital and cloud applications for collaboration. With this change, the risk of security events is heightened. Security controls built-for on-premises environments may not readily provide continuous or centralized security across heterogeneous environments. Consider whether security controls, processes, and expertise for cloud applications can protect against threats as well as vulnerabilities related to configuration errors. And, consider whether there is sufficient ability to continuously monitor activity from public-facing web applications to identify and diagnose issues.
- New business realities – New business applications become more viable and important. For example, telemedicine is suddenly needed, and to meet demands, regulations are being relaxed. In a telemedicine world, doctors are practicing outside of the traditional confines of the hospital or medical office. Their applications used to collect data, tools used for collaboration, and laptops used for video must all be highly secure. Data, specifically medical data, is a valuable asset to bad actors. Consider whether your organization is prepared for the necessity of protecting data, devices, networks, and applications outside of “headquarters” to facilitate the movement to new business needs and realities.
After we emerge from this new reality, business models may look different. For now, think about how your organization needs to assess and adapt for resiliency.
A remote workforce brings unpredictable scenarios. A managed security service brings specialized skills combined with visibility across all types of scenarios immediately to your team. This allows your organization to focus on being productive while a trusted advisor takes care of cybersecurity on your journey to resiliency.
Stay safe and protected.
