Our ability to secure our workforce and endpoints is among the many things profoundly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, says Ken Galvin, Senior Product Manager, at the IT systems management company Quest KACE.
While many organisations have developed remote working capabilities in recent years, very few will have been ready for such a sudden transition to serving and supporting an entirely remote workforce. Those less prepared may have been forced to support this practically overnight – which is less than ideal from a security perspective. The new security challenges that come with this rapid deployment of remote working support call for more endpoint visibility than ever before, including new tools to support your IT team and staff to manage your organisation’s devices.
The key to overcoming security challenges throughout this unprecedented time is to ensure your IT staff have the tools and capabilities to police every endpoint on your network and catch anything that seems suspicious before it has the chance to do significant damage.
1.Endpoint Visibility
While your remote staff have the best intentions, there’s an increased chance that working at home may encourage more crossover in the use of personal and professional devices. In situations where multiple family members are home, people other than your staff may have access to devices on your network and company data. These factors could mean that company endpoints are being used differently than they might have been previously and for you to ensure that this isn’t making them less secure – you need insight.
In addition to the changes in environment, cyber criminals have been extremely active in exploiting the pandemic and the new work conditions. Phishing emails are on the rise and it is extremely important that you are both preventing and aware of any malware that has gained access to your system as a result. A unified endpoint management solution can give you visibility into hardware and software on all of the endpoints on your network. This service can play a crucial role in alerting you and your team to threats on your system as soon as they happen, before they are able to be exploited.
2.Remote IT Capabilities
The ability for your IT team to carry out functions remotely has now gone from a ‘nice-to-have’ to absolutely business critical. While there is a lot of uncertainty around exactly when we will be able to return to the office, it is almost guaranteed that it will be too long to go without any system updates or patches. These functions are imperative for closing easy access routes for cyber criminals to gain access to your system and so you must have a solution in place that will allow you to provide these essential updates.
A solution with remote patch management is absolutely vital to managing the system updating process. With a large and dispersed organisation potentially containing vulnerabilities, an automated system of patching and updates will be a big help in keeping your endpoints up to date. If you can do this remotely, you will be taking a huge step towards reducing your organisation’s risk of falling victim to an attack. In addition, the ability to manage privileges remotely will go a long way to securing your system by reducing the number of avenues that a cyber criminal can use to access your system critical infrastructure.
3.Remote Helpdesk
Finally, another key function to remote working endpoint security is a remote IT helpdesk to offer your organisation’s workforce support. While always a priority, workforce productivity is as important as ever as businesses all over the world fight to continue their pre-virus levels of activity. A remote IT helpdesk function will make the difference between a member of staff being out of action for a few hours in the event of a technological mishap or a few days, and this is time your organisation can not afford to lose right now. This will have the added benefit of empowering your organisation’s workforce to act as eyes and ears when it comes to security by giving them the ability to report any abnormalities, again allowing you and your team to find security breaches before cyber attackers are able to exploit them.
This function should be accessed via a portal, through which employees can raise service tickets with the assurance that their cases are prioritised and tracked to successful completion. Bolster this service by offering employees the opportunity to self-serve through knowledge base articles that include frequently requested information. This will save on time and facilitate productivity, freeing up remote technicians to handle pressing and complex issues.
As a society and as IT professionals, we have found ourselves in a situation that is truly unprecedented and, while some organisations have been focused on finding solutions towards productivity, cyber criminals have been exploring this brand-new threat landscape. Consider these three key implementations to protect your system from these ever-adapting threats.
