Maarten Grooff
The popularity of flexible working has increased in recent decades, but remote working has accelerated due to the corona pandemic. Mobility and working from home are becoming increasingly popular due to technological developments and higher demands from employees for a better balance between work and private life. However, this does have an impact on the safety of companies.
As mobile devices such as laptops etc. become more powerful and affordable, employees have more freedom to work from anywhere with a WiFi or broadband connection. With the right hardware and software it is possible to work anywhere; from home to the train and plane. While employees took advantage of this flexibility, cybercriminals were able to exploit security vulnerabilities in remote networks. Now that hybrid working has become normal, many companies around the world have become vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Working in an office, data security was quite easy. Everyone was directly connected to the central office network via an Ethernet cable or WiFi. Now a company's network consists of multiple locations; work location and home, and both in the cloud and physically in buildings. In the new world where everyone connects from other networks to the corporate network every day, there are many security holes that cybercriminals can exploit. If a network connection is not optimally secured, there is a good chance that it can be hacked.
Many of the employees who started working remotely had never worked from home before the pandemic. They may have taken their office computer home, received a company laptop, or a home computer to work on. In all cases it is important that security is properly set up. This is not always easy. Connecting remotely to a company network is very different from connecting locally. For example, how do you ensure that someone who is not very IT skilled makes the right security settings?
Another possible problem is the age and suitability of the equipment used. The older servers, security equipment and networking equipment may not be able to handle the demands of remote work.
Due to hybrid working, the network infrastructure of companies has changed. This creates additional challenges. Because many employees now work from home, a distributed network is created. There are many access points, so it no longer has a fixed physical structure. The difficulty with this is that the employer has less control over security.
The bottom line is that hybrid working has created a challenge for enterprise network security. Many more potential security holes make it easier for cybercriminals to penetrate a corporate network.
Cybercriminals are smart and are therefore moving along with this new trend of a changing work environment. As a company, you must therefore ensure that your security is in good order. We at Xafax can help your company with this. We offer Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), which means your company is well protected against ransomware attacks. Please contact us and we will assist you further.
