As businesses emerge from the pandemic, many are making strategic decisions about their long-term work arrangements. While there is a substantial debate about remaining remote or bringing people back to the office, many companies are choosing to meet in the middle, embracing a hybrid work arrangement that allows people to work both on-site and remotely.

According to a Gartner survey of industry leaders across representative sectors, 82% of companies plan to provide a remote work option at least “some of the time.” In other words, hybrid work looks to be a permanent fixture, not a reactionary trend, making now the right time for leaders to assess and respond to the cybersecurity concerns created by this flexible work arrangement.

While today’s threat landscape is expansive, Verizon’s annual industry report found that 85% of data breaches are attributable to a “human element,” making it critical that companies enhance their defensive posture accordingly. For leaders looking to secure their hybrid workforces against insider threats, here are three best practices to implement today.

#1 Prepare Employees for Secure Remote Work

For many employees, cybersecurity is an afterthought as they execute their core responsibilities and obligations. However, secure hybrid work doesn’t happen by accident, so companies need to prepare their employees to operate securely in this environment.

For example, phishing scams have increased considerably in the past year. Employees are more likely to engage these malicious messages when working from home, making ongoing awareness training a central priority for hybrid teams.

At the same time, hybrid workers are more likely to mix personal and professional technology, putting sensitive data at risk and exposing companies to potential privacy or regulatory compliance violations.

Unfortunately, some remote workers will abuse the perceived anonymity of their home-bound workspace to abuse or misuse company data. Since trusted insiders (Read more...)