In recent year, organizations shifted working operations remotely to cope with the lockdown situation. The latest digital technologies and frameworks exhibit many flexible functionalities to carry out business operations. Are all the latest tools and frameworks are secure enough? Is the digital evolution smart enough to manage the confidential data of organizations? The online collaborative tools and cloud infrastructure demands the disaster recovery plan for enhanced data security and availability. But unfortunately, the remote working has raised challenges of cybersecurity in the organizations. The organizations have not still prepared for the challenges like AI expansion, serverless app vulnerability, phishing (ransomware), IoT threats and blockchain revolution. And remote working operations added challenges of data backup and incident response planning. Here we will highlight the main security threats and risks that remote working operations are putting on cybersecurity infrastructure.
BYOD
Many companies use the policy of BYOD (bring your own devices) to increase productivity at a lower cost. But these devices can pose a severe threat to the company’s infrastructure. Eavesdropping and Man in the middle attacks targeting the SSH and SSL can quickly occur on the devices not connected to the company’s internet using the cybersecurity standards and policies. Work from home has also raised the risk of unauthorized use of devices by third parties such as family and friends. Moreover, work from home through personal computers can lead to the loss of visibility and control of business data, data exposure, device theft and malicious codes and applications for phishing and compromised integrity.
Missing updates
The IT support team in any organization train the employees to deal with the issues related to IT resources. Employees neglect the essential security updates while working from home, leading to security breaches and compromised business data. Fewer skills to use the latest online collaborative tools can also open the ways for hackers. Moreover, employees’ attitude to ‘remind me later’ for patch updates makes the endpoint security weak. There should be continuous monitoring by the company’s IT support team remotely to check whether employees are installing essential security updates or not. It should be their responsibility to make it visible, mandatory, consistent and interactive.
Backup and Recovery Plan
The remote employees are inefficient or sometimes miss in synchronizing data to the organization’s servers. Employees can not handle operations like data backup, downtime and cybersecurity management. There should be MSPs (Managed service providers) for automated data backup and monitoring. Providing the data backup, MSPs also notify to install the necessary software, uptime maintenance, and mitigate risks timely to provide recovery plan.
Targeted attacks
The remote working has activated the hacking skills to target people working from home through spam emails. Hackers lure the employees or sometimes pose as the authorized colleague to lead them to click on the spam email link. Clicking on those links lead to the compromise of the whole company’s network and sensitive information. There should be online training for remote workers to know company cybersecurity policies, and knowledge about malware, phishing and ransomware attacks. Security is as weak as the weakest link in the chain. So, the remote working has raised challenges for companies to monitor employees devices and Mac addresses to check whether they are not acting as a backdoor for hackers.
Less secure network connections
The remote workers connected to public network connections, use insecure and unencrypted data communication. IT administrators in the companies implement the firewalls, DMZ, IPS, IDS, two-factor multi authentication and encryption software to secure the company’s internet connection. Remote employees must use the VPN for private communication and encryption software to protect the companies IT resources and sensitive data. Moreover, the company must deploy IP sec protocol in the network to enable employees to access the company’s resources with enhanced security levels.
Security advice
Here are some security tips to enhance security in remote working operations. The IDS for inbound traffic in the network and MAC-based firewalls can improve the data protection. Enabling the filter of ‘only authorized Mac addresses’ in the network can protect the sensitive data and ensures confidentiality. Secure encryption algorithms like AES and RSA can boost confidentiality and use hash algorithms to provide integrity. It also adds a security layer against security attacks like IP spoofing and DDOS. The SSL/TSL method of authentication ensures secure client and server communication. By following these simple tips, remote workers can beat cyberattacks and boost cybersecurity strategies in the business IT operations.
