When the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard in North America, many businesses were struggling to figure out how to connect their office workers. Cyber Security was maybe a second or third thought. As a second wave of the virus seems to be making a return, it seems that many businesses won’t be returning to their offices for a long time. And as workers enjoy the flexibility work-from-home gives them, many workers may opt to continue to work-from-home after the pandemic subsides.
What does this mean for your business? It means that the security of the remote work environment has to become priority number 1. Corporate firewalls and constant in-person reminders of how to work safely no longer apply. Below are 3 steps your business should take to better secure your business while working remotely.
1. Adopt a Zero Trust Approach
This has become more of a hot topic lately as hackers have been able to get a foothold into systems they shouldn’t. Zero trust is centered on the belief that organizations should plan their defenses by not trusting anything or anyone, both inside and outside of the network perimeter. There are many factors that go into establishing a zero trust network. For starters, your identity and access management (IAM) strategy with unified account management and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are critical components to build your zero trust policies. Having good visibility into your business’s traffic flow patterns are key to determine what good data traffic looks like, and help you spot anomalies. To build on this, it is also possible to get rid of your VPN and move to what is called a Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA) model, which takes into account context, such as the user’s role, device and location when assigning access privileges, to enforce stronger security protocols.
2. Invest in Cyber Awareness Training
It used to be thought that only IT and security staff needed to have cyber awareness training. Then the thought was, anyone with access to email or data should have cyber awareness training. Now with more remote workers using their own devices and working on the home network, the entire family needs cyber awareness training. Corporate users still need to be trained on the usual phishing campaigns, and in addition, need to be made aware of IOT threats, as well as how their family members and guests on their home network can introduce malware onto the corporate network.
3. Invest in an MSSP
The business of cyber security can be overwhelming: from regular monitoring of the security health of an organization’s resources, to vulnerability remediation, to breach readiness planning take a lot of time, planning and effort. Maybe you can’t afford to invest in your own Security Operations Centre (SOC). Maybe you need help forming a security plan. Whatever it is, and MSSP can help you address your cyber security needs.
Need help with any of these 3 steps? Contact Uzado today to help you secure your business for the remote workforce. 