(Newswire.net — March 25, 2021) — Right now, a great deal of the workforce is working remotely. Just so you get an idea, before COVID, according to data from enterprise solution company MBO partners, there were more than 4.8 million digital nomads. Before, 2020, in the US alone more than 18% of workers considered pajamas as office wear and did most of their job from the comfort of their living room. Those are just some statistics that were in place before 2020. One of the main problems and one that has increased and worsened due to COVID is that most of these stay-at-home breadwinners and operatives have little to no regard for cybersecurity. Difficulties often arise when trying to deal with them and their limitations. What sort of difficulties? The type that for example keeps the Secret Service awake at night… bare with me.
Post COVID-19 forecast
By the end of 2020, a study was implemented by Dr. Anita Kamouri and several global associations to determine how the workforce, in the United States, had changed due to the pandemic. The study released the following data:
- As of December 2020, over 63% of Americans were working from home.
- 56% have dawned on the fact that their job is compatible with remote work.
- By the end of 2021, even if restrictions are lifted and life goes back to normal, it is estimated that between 25-30% of Americans will be working from home multiple days a week.
- Managers and executives, the first line of defense against work from home initiative – the biggest holdbacks – now trust the paradigm. They are seeing the benefits of having part of their workforce working remotely.
- Most businesses, once they got over the initial shock, are increasingly aware of the cost-saving opportunities of remote working. A typical employer can save up to $11,000 per year for every person that works remotely half the time.
Those stats and figures are only the tip of the iceberg. The archetype has changed and now companies are having to adapt to the new ideal. Most molding their criteria to this tectonic shift. One of the most challenging aspects, technology, and cybersecurity. Why? Because in-house teams have oversight and guidelines in place, they have redundancy measures and smart automatic software solutions backing all their keystrokes and ventures into the worldwide web. Work-from-home aficionados, meanwhile, don’t have this platform serving as their guardian angel. Work-from-home employees are liable to click dubious correspondents unwittingly and without any malice, exposing themselves and in turn your company’s data.
The cost of cybercrime, by the year 2025, is estimated to be over $10.5 trillion annually. Part of that cost is merely how much a company might have been swindled out of, it doesn’t take into account the PR nightmare surrounding faulty secure and the dent in a brand’s face-value, nor does it take into account the legal repercussions it might entail due to exposing private consumer and customer information.
Difficulties of cybersecurity when teams work from home
The new normal pushed and driven by COVID-19 has kicked most businesses into a panic state. Remote working became the norm, out of necessity, with a bit of hesitation. The daunting challenge is that once your employees and the devices they use leaves your sandbox your company’s security posture essentially goes out the door with them.
In the blink of an eye, most companies had to deal with unmanaged devices, routers, WiFi networks exposed to all manner of treats, printers, WEP protocols, Phishers taking advantages of their workers, and yes, kids playing with daddy’s laptop and sending sensitive information accidentally over the web or posting it on Instagram.
When we made that joke in the first paragraph on Cybersecurity from home being the Secret Service’s boogeyman, we weren’t just kidding. The main concern most companies have is the use of personal devices used for sensitive information. There’s a reason why the second the President and his family enter the White House their iPhones are seized and they are issued special phones with encryption. Why? Cause everyone wants to avoid another email scandal.
The same principle happens with employees working from home. The main channel for leaks is their personal devices.
Causes for Cybersecurity threats when working from home
Ignorance
Not everyone understands the requirements needed for a robust remote access policy. Not just employees, but managers and even security teams.
Personal Devices At Work
People at home, in spite of having work secure devices, tend to use their own personal hardware to get work done.
Decimation of Info
Personal emails, messaging services, cloud services, dozens upon dozens of ways information is traded rapidly. Sometimes, folks don’t even know what they are trading or sending let alone through what medium. And, if said medium is even protected.
Public WiFi networks
Over 40% of Public WiFi networks might be compromised. And, more than 60% of people with smartphones have them configured to connect to WiFi networks when available. Most hackers simply leave them open and wait for a smartphone to ping them.
Routers
Did you know that most passwords are laughably insecure? The most common password in the world is abc123, followed by 000000, then 1234, and the word password. 70% of passwords are just the address of that person or business. Most routers come with a built-in password and it’s up to the user to change it, and most users don’t do that.
Cybersecurity experts can maintain proper levels of protection when employees are working from home, they just need a protocol in place. One that informs, educates, adapts ecosystems, and, most importantly, enforces the use of protected devices.
SOC, Security Operations Centers, right now are the best option when providing the highest level of cybersecurity for a remote workforce. The main reason is that they didn’t have to adapt to the COVID explosion of this model, they already had protocols in place for the archetype. Protocols they had been using since networks became speedier and smartphones became widespread. Since 2009, SOC teams have had rigorous and constantly evolving rules of conduct and obligations for the management of remote teams and employees.