Cybersecurity For A Remote Workforce [A Beginner’s Guide]
During the advent of the pandemic in March 2020, the number of remote workers peaked at more than 83 percent of the US workforce. At the time, commentators believed that the number would rapidly return to baseline once risks subsided. But that didn’t happen. Even by September 2021, more than 67 percent of workers still worked partially or exclusively from home.
In light of this, remote cybersecurity is now business-critical. Moreover, it brings up new challenges that don’t arise in conventional, office-based setups.
Why Cybersecurity Is Important
Many firms outsource their security to professionally managed service providers that continuously monitor network traffic and block suspicious activities. As a result, most company networks are difficult for hackers to crack.
When workers are remote, though, that approach becomes more challenging. Employees and contractors prefer to use their own devices, which don’t offer the same level of cybersecurity protection as enterprise-level solutions.
During the pandemic and the shift to remote working, many cybersecurity incidences rose across the board. The movement created new attack surfaces for cybercriminals to exploit, increasing the risk that companies face. The departure from previous methods of working increased insider threats substantially, both deliberate and inadvertent.
How To Set Up Cybersecurity For Remote Workers
According to a Microsoft Digital Defense report, there are some relatively simple steps that employees and organizations can take to bolster security in this new environment.
Options include:
Mandating better passwords. Passwords such as “password123” or “mypassword” are easy for hackers to crack …