Remote Working and Cybersecurity – Increasing Threats and What Businesses Can Do About It

The pandemic-fuelled shift to remote working has been a necessary adaptation to the world of work, helping us maintain social distancing and ultimately slow the spread of COVID-19.

This surge in remote working has also brought about some great benefits for workers, saving both time and money that would’ve otherwise been spent on the daily commute, new professional clothes or on lunches out near the office. In fact, many are now keen for remote working to remain an option even once the pandemic’s restrictions have lifted.

However, while working from home has brought about some great benefits for working professionals, there has been a downside to this – increased threats to business’s cybersecurity. 

It’s been confirmed by The City of London Police that as people have worked from home, cyber-attacks have increased. HLB’s 2020 Cyber Security Report shows that during last year, more than 50% of organisations experienced cyber-attacks and security breaches, while under half (42%) claimed they were prepared to make the move to remote working.

How to Protect Remote Working Teams from Cybersecurity Threats

With teams working remotely, it’s become tricky for businesses to manage their cybersecurity. However, there are a number of ways organisations can help to protect their remote operations from cyber-attacks. 

One thing organisations can do to promote cybersecurity for people working from home is to increase awareness of the threat. It could be worth employers having a meeting with their remote working teams to discuss the cybersecurity threats that can come with working from home, as well as what to be wary of when working in this way – e.g., the risks that can come from unprotected networks, insecure group video calls and more.

Making remote workers aware of the role they play in maintaining the cybersecurity of the business could help to avoid a cyber-attack from happening. 

In addition to raising awareness, it’s can also be important to further educate employees on how to both identify and avoid key cybersecurity risks. Having training sessions on how to recognise and dodge certain types of potential threats can help to further strengthen the cybersecurity of a business when operating with a remote team.

Another way to help protect remote working teams from cybersecurity threats is to ensure that web traffic is secured. 

Web traffic is important to secure, especially when staff work in a network environment that can’t be controlled as it is by IT in the office. This can be done via VPNs and multi-factor authentication tactics, ensuring employees use trustworthy, reputable VPNs, ensuring they only connect to cloud services through HTTPS/HSTS, all while making two-factor authentication logins, where appropriate, mandatory.