text: Remote Work Security: Handling Setbacks in the Time of COVID-19 – OnWire – Identity and Access Management Services and Cloud Solutions
  Home
  Products
  Identity and Access Management
  Access Management
  Identity Governance and Management
  IBM Cloud Identity
  Application Security
  HCL AppScan
  Intelligence, Analysis and Investigations
  IBM Security QRadar Intelligence Platform
  IBM QRadar Network Security (XGS)
  Resilient Incident Response Platform Enterprise
  IBM i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis
  IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook
  IBM i2 iBase
  Security Automation
  Redhat Ansible Automation Solution for Security
  Mobile/Endpoint Security
  IBM MaaS360 with Watson Unified Endpoint Management
  Advanced Fraud
  IBM Security Trusteer Fraud Protection Suite
  Cloud Security
  IBM QRadar on Cloud
  IBM MaaS360 with Watson Unified Endpoint Management
  IBM Security Trusteer Fraud Protection Suite
  IBM Cloud Identity
  IBM Guardium Data Encryption
  Resilient Incident Response Platform Enterprise
  OnCloud®
  Active Directory Integration
  Governance & Intelligence Integration
  Great Wonders and Identity Governance Series
  Multi-Factor PIV Authentication
  Defense Starts with Security Series
  Services
  Bundled Services
  Resources
  Datasheets
  Whitepapers
  Case Studies
  Support
  About Us
  Careers
  Open Positions
  Partners
  Doing Business With OnWire
  News
  News
  Remote Work Security: Handling Setbacks in the Time of COVID-19
  By Anthony Lim	onOctober 29, 2021 inSecurity
  Most security experts, IT workers and leaders understand that the pandemic brought a decline in business and digital safety. A big part of that is the rush to get set up at home and establish remote work security. But why, exactly? It turns out that surprising factors degraded the security of the remote workforce.
  Let’s start with the most obvious: remote work security. The pandemic ushered in a sudden and unplanned experiment with remote work at scale. First, employees stopped working in physically secure locations inside firewalls with approved devices and started working from home. It’s something of a cliche to say that remote work expands the attack surface. But the fallout of this is just now becoming clear. The change brought a lot of remote work security challenges.
  Remote Work Security Factors: Poorly Vetted Tools
  The rush to remote work demanded new tools, but employers didn’t have time to vet that tech for safety. As a result, apps and services are, on average, less secure than they used to be. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of 1,300 security leaders surveyed by Forrester Consulting say recent cyber attacks come from vulnerabilities in tech deployed during the pandemic.
  More Shadow IT
  Employers literally leave their people to their own devices when working at home. Many employees are being creative about which devices they use for work, threatening remote home security. Remote employees connect over home networks that also serve smart thermostats, connected toys, home entertainment systems, gaming consoles and many random home Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These devices are likely to lack physical security and tend to be rarely or never updated.
  Lack of Visibility
  Making matters worse, organizations lack visibility into the home networks of remote staff. This, in turn, creates barriers to organizational cybersecurity.
  Increased Use of Cloud Services
  Another huge problem, whose scale the security company Zscaler recently uncovered, is that large companies often have hundreds of cloud servers exposed to the public internet. By “exposed,” they mean that anyone can connect if they can find the services. Many organizations are unaware. And 80% of both security and business leaders said they face greater risk because of both remote work security issues and moving critical functions to the cloud, according to Forrester.
  The Rise in Widely Distributed Connections
  Globalized, mobile and nomadic workforces — all features of the remote work trend — make it harder to detect threats. That login coming from eastern Europe could be a ransomware gang probing your defenses. Or, it could be your sales manager. Location is now weaker as a data point for detecting odd behavior.
  COVID-19 Concerns
  Attackers use COVID-19-related content for social engineering phishing attacks matched to anxiety-engendering news reports, according to Proofpoint’s Human Factor Report. Remember, a big part of remote work security is getting rid of human error.
  Explicit Targeting of Remote Work Security
  Some 67% percent of cyber attacks on businesses targeted remote employees, according to the Forrester report.
  Increase in Online Transactions
  With more people buying more stuff online, the number of chances to target both online retailers and their customers rose.
  Both remote work security needs and hybrid work security needs will be with us for a very long time. So, we need to rethink cybersecurity. Now, we need to embrace more comprehensive ideas like zero trust and using tools to gain visibility into everything connected to our networks. We also need more comprehensive cloud security solutions and better employee training with remote working safety tips and management around cybersecurity. Companies need to develop a whole new set of best practices for working from home.
  The post Remote Work Security: Handling Setbacks in the Time of COVID-19 appeared first on Security Intelligence.
  Search for:
  Recent Posts
  How the Rise in Cyberattacks Is Changing Consumer Behavior
  Hospital Ransomware Attacks Go Beyond Health Care Data
  IoT Security: Are Personal Devices Dragging Your Work Network Down?
  A Journey in Organizational Resilience: Insider Threats
  The Cost of a Data Breach Goes Beyond the Bottom Line
  About Onwire
  OnWire offers professional consulting, engineering, and cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions for IBM, Red Hat and HCL Security products. Our consultants have extensive knowledge of the IAM landscape across private and public sectors. Services and capabilities focus on design, implementation, deployment, customization, and maintenance of integrated IAM systems.