Due to the drastic change of scenery in the past few years, many businesses have been forced into developing and maintaining a remote or hybrid work model. To stay safe, our IT processes must also adapt to the ever-changing environment. Many of the systems and processes that were in place in offices must be translated to meet the needs of off-site staff and ensure remote worker security.

What Is Missing in This New Environment?

In addition to missing the privilege of having the IT department down the hall, remote work environments are missing other critical technologies such as firewalls, blacklists, and designated/separated devices and utilities. Most workers are using home networks or working on their own computers through a BYOD program. In fact, 86 percent of executives believe that data breach is more likely with remote working. Many remote work policies were made quickly and in reaction to the pandemic, leaving businesses without a solid framework for remote worker security.

What Is New in Today’s Workplace Environment?

With a 238 percent increase in global cyberattack volume during the pandemic and an average of 1.5 cyber attacks per minute, there are new threats we must address in this modern world of work, including unmanaged computers, home networks, innovations in phishing and attack-as-a-service availability. According to IBM, 36 percent of breaches are connected to phishing. More than half of those scams (52 percent) use brand names and identities, and 72 percent of those that redirect to a webpage use valid https certificates. Attackers no longer need technical skills, they simply need to be aware of where to go to hire and purchase attack services.

How Can We Improve Remote Worker Security?

In order to fight back against these old and new threats to cyber and data security, we have established seven strategies for securing your remote workforce.

1. Strengthen your remote work policy. Either creating or updating your remote work policy is a must for mitigating the lack of control IT now has over things like home computers and networks. In order to establish a secure remote work policy you must decide who is allowed to work from home. Be sure those workers clearly understand which systems they can and can’t use, and at what times. Regulatory and contractual compliance requirements should be consulted when creating policy. However, those industries without regulatory compliance will most likely have contractual compliance requirements in regards to their data security. Communication guidelines must also be stated in the policy, outlining how, when and with whom your employees are to report suspicious events.

Consider your current BYOD policy and how it will need to change. Many companies have borrowed from their phone BYOD policy and added changes relevant to computers and other machines as well.To ensure data is controlled, conduct a data assessment and classify it in accordance with its sensitivity, and then outline how to handle each classification of data. Ask yourself, “If this data was leaked, what would the consequences be?”

2. Require robust authentication. If you don’t use 2FA/MFA authentication yet, we highly recommend you start now, as it is easier than ever to implement. Start with your privileged users and plan for wider deployment in the future. Authentication requirements are proven to reduce risk of attacks, acting as a first line of defense for remote worker security.We recommend Auth0, Duo, LastPass and Google Authenticator. The most secure passwords are those we won’t be able to remember, so do not use weak or old passwords and heavily encourage your workers to do the same. Check out LastPass, Bitwarden and 1Password for easy ways to maintain secure passwords. Use account lockouts alongside authentication to add another layer of protection against password attacks. 

3. Enhance network protection. Protecting home networks is a fairly new challenge for IT departments. Be sure to secure your remote connections with VPN or MFA. Educate your users in how they can change default passwords and how to access, update, and secure their home network. Don’t forget to replace old equipment and “tool up”. Anti-virus and anti-malware tools can also use patching to allow for easier remote protection. 

4. Protect endpoints. After classifying your data, backing it up is critical. Test your backups and use the three, two, one, zero rule. If you use Office 365, we recommend considering OneDrive as an easy backup solution. Physical protection is another great way to protect endpoints. Data blockers can help against malware disguised as chargers or usb ports. Encourage your workers to be vigilant about protecting their screen, keeping their screen as a need-to-know and setting device boundaries. 

5. Practice secure operations. When working from home, there is often a more relaxed mindset because we are in a comfortable place and sometimes don’t remember to maintain the etiquette of a business environment. A way to ensure remote worker security is to use office rules at home. Encourage phone hygiene, device security, vigilance when screen sharing and not badge bragging on social media. Security can be compromised by anything from a loud business phone call, to a tweet of a badge. Prioritizing operational security in your company creates safe habits, making for an overall more secure business.  

6. Cultivate user awareness. Almost all breaches (95 percent) involve human error, meanwhile 11 percent of companies provide cyber security training to non-cyber employees. Training employees in best practices is vital to securing data. Employees who know when, where and who to respond to will lead to fewer breaches and help create an improved security culture. Encourage workers to report when they come across suspicious events, and remind them that phishing and malware are sophisticated and hard to spot. Make sure your department is approachable and nonjudgmental. You can even incentivize good reporting habits to create that culture of remote worker security. KnowBe4, Proofpoint, Infosec IQ, Kaspersky and Webroot are all recommended third-party training programs. Having a set process for continued education will ensure future security of data.

7. Know how to respond to incidents. Cyber attacks are much like natural disasters, you must plan a course of action for them and practice that plan. But unlike natural disasters, cyber attacks are a matter of when not if. At Afidence, we recommend a cyclical plan that includes detection, containment, eradication, restoration and illumination. If you would like more details on this plan structure, our team can help with implementation. Drills should be run to ensure all workers know when and how to respond in case of an attack. The quicker the response, the lesser the damages. Hackers can and will stay in your environment as long as they are undetected in order to gain more and more access to your data and backups. That’s why detection and eradication are critical parts of your response plan. 

Cyber security for remote environments requires extensive policies and training. As a technology consulting firm, Afidence takes this burden away from internal IT teams to establish a sustainable remote worker security system and helps guide your team through it with our trained professionals.

We help to promote a proactive approach to security and reduce the risk of remote workers. Contact us to perform a security assessment for your business.