Stay Safe and Secure While Working Remotely#

As 2019 came to a close, organizations all around the world underwent a significant transformation in how they carried out their business. Nearly every corporation was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and each one struggled to maintain operations while also introducing a new work culture known as remote work or work from home. Remote work became the new normal for many organizations with many analysts predicting that remote work is the future and it is here to stay.

While many businesses and their workers find working remotely to be incredibly convenient, it can also pose significant security risks for an organization. Companies must put in place comprehensive and explicit policies, as well as take proactive steps to maintain the security and privacy of company data and guard it against different security threats. The need for proper security when working with remote team members necessitates the development of methods and best practices that today’s businesses can use. This article goes over the security risks and challenges associated with remote work and the techniques that can be used to ensure that risks due to remote work in an organization are minimized.

Security Challenges of Remote Work#

There are several security challenges associated with remote work. These challenges range from securing the organization’s assets, its network traffic, and the endpoint devices that the employees use to access the company’s network. In a traditional office work environment, an organization has a great deal of control over the office premises and its employees. Using security badges for the employees, installing and configuring hardware firewalls to block malicious traffic, and monitoring suspicious activity on the company premises as well as on the network are some of the ways in which an organization can employ effective security measures in a physical work environment. Many security risks emerge when this physical security boundary becomes blurred. Some of the security risks associated with remote work are as follows:

Using Unsecured WiFi Networks#

When employees use wired or wireless network connections to access the company’s assets inside its confines, the organization can use a variety of security controls to safeguard its assets from various attack vectors. However, when employees have the option to work remotely, the organization is unable to exercise the same level of control over the network that the employee is using to access the company’s network. If the employee is using an unsecured connection at home or a public wifi hotspot to access company information, it becomes vulnerable to different attack vectors. For example, in order to intercept and steal confidential company information, an attacker can establish rogue or false access points and trick the employee into using those access points to connect to the company’s network.

Decreased Visibility#

The fact that remote workers use networks that are physically distinct from the organization’s physical network environment reduces the organization’s ability to monitor their devices and network connections. The company’s IT security team is unable to keep track of the user’s network or device for potential security holes or incorrect configurations and fix those concerns. This results in a loss of visibility into the employee’s activities. If the employee’s device or network environment has various security flaws, it can end up exposing sensitive or confidential company information.

Using Personal Devices for Office Work#

Organizations are increasingly embracing a Bring Your Own Device approach as the trend shifts to working remotely. The idea behind the “bring your own device” policy is that employees can purchase and use their own equipment to carry out their duties while working for the company. The majority of the time, these personal devices lack the necessary or adequate security controls to protect the stored company information. As a result, the company needs to be aware of all the devices that its workers use for work-related tasks so that it can take the appropriate security precautions for protecting its assets.

Remote File Sharing#

The distribution of files and documents to coworkers by remote workers typically involves the usage of file-sharing platforms. These files are probably encrypted for protection when stored on company networks. When shared remotely, the same level of security might not be applied. Using file-sharing software to share sensitive information leaves it vulnerable to hacker theft or interception, especially when this data is traveling on the network. The loss of important confidential or sensitive information can lead to security incidents such as data theft, identity fraud, and ransomware attacks.

Lack of Security Practices in Public Places#

The lack of security practices in public areas is another security concern that may appear unimportant on the surface but can have serious consequences. Following are a few instances of employees failing to exercise proper security precautions in public places:

  • The employee is working on his laptop in a cafe and talking loudly on the phone while he discusses important work-related matters

  • The employee performing an important task on his device while exposing his screen to a number of people in his vicinity

  • The employee leaving his device unattended in a public place that contains sensitive or confidential company information

  • The employee participating in teleconferencing or videoconferencing in a public place where his conversations and activities can be clearly seen or overheard

Lack of Proper Security Awareness#

When working outside of the confines of a traditional workplace, employees may find it difficult to adopt the proper “mindset” to take organization’s security and privacy requirements into consideration, especially if this is a new experience for them. For remote workers, the organizational, social, and visual stimuli that employees experience when they are inside the office premises are no longer there. Working remotely is very different from working in an office, despite the company’s best efforts to encourage its staff to adopt effective remote work environment standards. As a result, a worker who lacks even the most basic security awareness could expose the company to a variety of security threats.

Best Practices for Securing Remote Work Force#

A list of some of the best security practices is provided in this section so that the business can utilize them to safeguard its most crucial assets from various security concerns and to secure its remote workforce. It is suggested that multiple security countermeasures be implemented in a layered fashion in order to reduce the risks presented by these threats.

Creating a Proper Remote Work or Work From Home Policy#

The very first step towards securing your remote workforce is to create and implement a strong remote work policy. The purpose of this policy is to establish the importance of security and how can the employees perform their duties in a manner that doesn’t compromise the organization’s security. Some of the important points that should be covered in a remote work policy are as follows:

  • The policy should clearly define the positions that are eligible for working remotely. The policy should state the conditions that can allow the employee to work remotely so that the work from home approval decisions are made in a manner that is sound and justified.

  • The policy should clearly state where and when the remote work can take place. For example, the policy should state the geographical areas where the employee can perform his work remotely.

  • The policy should clearly define the importance of complying with the organization’s security rules, policies, and procedures as well as the consequences of non-compliance.

  • The policy should clearly state the tools and platforms the employees will be using for performing their job responsibilities. This includes computers, monitors, keyboards, video/teleconferencing platforms, cloud platforms, and much more. This will ensure that all the remote employees are using the technologies according to the organization’s work and security requirements. The policy should also define the technical support arrangement for the equipment that the employee is using for remote work.

Establishing a Secure Work Environment#

It is important that employees set aside a private, secure and dedicated work environment in order to perform their office work. The employee should ensure that their confidential work information, phone or video calls, and other work-related activities are kept hidden and away from the view of non-employees. In order to reduce the chance that sensitive information would leak, sight lines to their computer should be blocked as much as possible, and the working documents and computer screen shouldn’t be accessible to anyone.

Separating Work life from Personal Life#

The employee is responsible for making sure there is a distinct line between daily life from work activities. It is important for the employee to avoid blending personal and professional lives. Combining personal and work information can be detrimental to the employee as much as the employer. Therefore, if the organization has a BYOD policy in place, the employee needs to take precautions to ensure that work and personal information don’t mix. The necessary instructions on how to distinguish between information related to the workplace and personal life should be given to the employees. The organization can also employ technical controls to protect the company data when it is accessed from a device that is not owned by the company.

Taking Precautionary measures while working in Public location#

In order to prevent the leaking or exposure of confidential comapny information when working in a public setting, the employee should take a number of precautions. When on a work-related phone or video call, it is crucial to be sure that no one in the vicinity may see or hear what you are doing. People could be able to see or hear sensitive, secret, or confidential information about your organization if you have work materials lying around your area or if they can hear you discussing important wor-related matters on the phone. One of the most important precautionary measures is to avoid connecting to public Wifi networks that do not provide enough security. The worker should switch to using their own personal hotspot with password protection enabled on it. This will protect the sensitive or confidential company information from becoming exposed due to eavesdropping attacks such as access point spoofing, evil twin attacks, and much more.

Providing Security Awareness training to organization’s remote workers#

The organization must make sure to implement and conduct regular awareness training programs for remote employees in order to provide them with the proper mindset to take the organization’s security, privacy, and compliance matters very seriously. A good security awareness training program is extremely important to guarantee the success of the remote work program. Some of the important points that should be covered in the security awareness training program for the remote employees are as follows:

  • The importance of security for the organization and the proper security protocols that must be followed at all times

  • The proper use of the organization’s equipment in order to protect the company owned device as well as the information stored on it

  • The identification of common security issues and how should they be addressed and reported

  • The maintenance of a security mindset and healthy work-life balance while working from a remote location and much more

Updating Employee devices with the latest software versions#

If the organization provides remote employees with work equipment and manages those devices then it should employ a centralized software distribution service to send updates and patches directly to employees’ work devices on a regular or as per needed basis. However, if the company doesn’t manage these devices then it should ensure that remote workers keep their devices updated by downloading and installing the latest software patches through the implementation of security policies and security awareness programs.

Enabling firewalls on all remote user workstations#

On all company-owned computers, firewall features should be enabled, and they should be configured so that the remote users cannot disable or change those settings. These firewalls can prevent, detect, and block different attempts to access sensitive data stored on the user’s computer.

Encrypting sensitive information on the user’s device#

Use encryption measures to safeguard all the private data kept on the remote user’s device. Encryption provides a strong layer of protection to the organization’s data when employees utilize that information remotely because the majority of remote workers lack many physical and environmental security controls.

Enforcing Strong Password policies and authentication Controls#

A strict password policy should be implemented by the company for remote workers. The length of the passwords should be between 10 and 12 characters, and they should also contain special characters. Enforce strong authentication rules, such as the use of multi-factor authentication, in order to protect the organization’s assets from unauthorized access and to safeguard employee login information. All remote workers who need access to the company’s network and applications from remote locations should be required to adopt Multi-factor authentication as it provides siginificant protection to organization’s assets.

Using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to encrypt network traffic#

A VPN must be used in order to access organization’s network and data remotely. Using VPN is another critical secuity countermeasure for protecting organization’s valuable assets and remote connections to the organization’s network. A VPN encrypts a remote network connection on a public network so that it appears as though this connection is not in a remote place but rather is directly connected to the corporate network. End-to-end encryption is provided by a VPN for all network traffic, from the remote computer to the organization’s network, preventing unauthorized access to the data stored by the enterprise.

Enforcing Strict Access Controls#

Identity and access management systems should be implemented by organizations in order to enforce appropriate access controls to the valuable assets of the organization that is in compliance with business functions and security policies. To safeguard the sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure, these access control settings must be based on the least privilege principle.

Conclusion#

This article presents some of the many recommended strategies for securing the organization’s remote workforce. Remote work can be a great enabler for businesses all around the world given that it is implemented correctly and that the organization employs necessary security controls in a layered approach to reduce the attack surface.

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