The pandemic transformed the way we work, with lockdown conditions forcing much of the workforce to do their jobs from home. Many businesses had to adapt their existing security to meet the demands of this new environment. Now, as we emerge from the worst effects of the health crisis, more than three quarters of companies in the UK offer hybrid arrangements, allowing people to work both remotely and on-premise, says David G Hydorn, VP, Security Strategy, at the cloud company OpenText.
But, while this modern way of working allows employees greater flexibility, it also presents organisations with new security challenges, particularly around data and how to protect it. And given that data – the crown jewel of every organisation – needs to be shared with partners, suppliers and customers as well as fellow employees, the attack surface area that every organisation needs to protect extends well beyond its own four walls.
During the second quarter of 2022, as hybrid working practices gained popularity, the number of global cyber-attacks grew by 32 percent on the previous year, to reach an all-time high. With employees accessing corporate networks and exchanging information with partners and customers from multiple locations and devices, it’s time organisations reassessed their approach to protecting that data.
Highly porous
The process of re-evaluating an organisation’s approach to securing its data should start with asking which of that data is most sensitive, where and how it’s being stored, and who has access to it. Gaining a better understanding of the location of an organisation’s data, its current security posture, and its access levels will help to establish a solid foundation upon which to operate. By addressing these questions, organisations will be able to properly assess the risks they face and determine the most effective approach to securely manage their information in the post-pandemic hybrid age.
However, the development of new security technologies means the efficiency and effectiveness of older solutions can soon diminish. This is further exacerbated as cyber-criminals continue to change their tactics and employ ever more sophisticated attack techniques. Those organisations with limited budgets will find it especially hard to refresh their cyber security stack to the level needed to keep up with this pace of change.
Modern work and particularly remote working settings can therefore be something of a gift for cyber criminals, who will continue to deploy increasingly innovative tactics in their efforts to exploit weaknesses such as consumer-grade devices connected to corporate networks via home routers. As attackers continue to thrive in this highly porous environment, organisations must remain on the look-out for new blind spots and for new technology requirements that might be needed to plug the gaps in their security posture.
Confident that their data is more securely stored and managed, organisations can turn their attention to enabling greater ‘anytime/anywhere’ access, using their collaboration tool of choice. After all, the key benefit of modern work is that it offers employees the flexibility to work from wherever they want, and engage with colleagues, partners and customers at a time that suits them best. But, as perfect as this sounds, it can be a challenge to ensure employees have the necessary visibility and access to the documents and data they need. In fact, we did some recent research that revealed that nearly three in four (70 per cent) UK workers say they have to use six or more accounts, resources, tools and apps on a daily basis but less than half of UK employees (47pc) feel they are equipped with the right digital tools to work at home.
That’s why many organisations are now embracing the power of cloud-based content management to enable this access, and give both them and their employees the agility, flexibility, and control they need to succeed in remote settings. Indeed, this move to the cloud has provided organisations with greater resilience during the worst of the pandemic. And as a result, traditional premise-based methods of storing, managing, and sharing content are becoming fast outdated.
As we’ve seen, though, this increased connectedness is happening against a backdrop in which attackers are aggressively looking for ways to compromise remote endpoints, leading to increased concern among organisations, their employees, and their customers and partners around the protection of their data. In today’s hybrid era, data security must be prioritised like never before.
Hybrid working practices are likely to be here for some time to come. It’s vital, then, that business leaders understand the impact they have on the security and protection of their organisation’s data, across their own networks as well as the broader business ecosystem of partners, suppliers and customers. Making those factors a priority will allow for greater collaboration and provide organisations with a true information advantage by preventing their most important asset, data, being compromised.
