IT Strategies For A Safe And Secure Hybrid Workplace

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s work patterns and perceptions of workplaces around the world. Experts agree that the future of work will be hybrid, with teleworking and traditional office jobs. IT administrators may face additional challenges as a result of the new model. But it also opens up new opportunities for hackers and cybercriminals, who are constantly looking for new ways to exploit the constant switching between corporate and remote devices and networks.

Secure hybrid workplace

How security affects hybrid workplace?

Since the hybrid workplace has become a part of our lives, it has raised security concerns. Leaders worry about the security of their employees’ home connections, the leakage of important company information and cyber-attacks.

Planning for a secure workplace

Businesses need to create a hybrid work environment that is flexible, safe and secure with people connected online and offline with the same level of security. The transition to hybrid work is a unique opportunity to launch business and security initiatives that will truly serve the digital era.

Steps

Create a new security strategy

Organizations need to adopt a security plan now that they have a better idea of ​​what the future of work will look like in the long term. The central part of the security strategy consists of two aspects: the human factor and technical dangers, especially the use of the cloud. Strategic decision-making and preparedness are essential if you want to prevent cyber risks.

Human factor

Employees may have adopted unsafe behaviors when they began working from home in recent months. Some of the risky habits include using home networks, which are less likely to offer malware protection than workplace networks, and increased chances of fraud and clicking on dangerous links. Cybercriminals can use this circumstance for further social engineering attacks against remote workers.

Challenges brought by technology

This increase represents an increase in Remote Desktop Protocol attacks, a statistic that continues to grow. To limit this increase, you need to ensure that your VPN, SaaS products and RDP servers are properly patched and configured as they could become an easy target for fraudsters, especially due to previously leaked or easily cracked passwords.

Workplace against cyber threats

Using zero trust instead of VPN

Many enterprises have implemented a virtual private network as a standard solution for basic security. Maybe it’s time to ditch that VPN and use a zero-trust model instead. It will provide all employees with secure remote access to the organization’s servers while encrypting data.

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication is another standard solution that adds another layer of protection and reduces the risk of client identity theft. Cyber-attacks on important files and information can be limited by using time-based one-time passwords sent via SMS or Google Authenticator.

Improved password security

Various tools like LastPass allow you to securely manage your passwords and monitor who has access and where to prevent confidential information from being leaked.

Conclusion

The strategy here means granting individualized access rights to all employees, regular device authentication, appropriate access control and network segmentation. Enterprises should implement multi-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, network detection and response to increase the security of enterprise data.