Who’s Keeping Computers Safe When Everybody’s Working From Home?
The writing on the wall has dried. For many people, working five days a week in an office is a thing of the past, a cadence shift propelled by the pandemic and widely embraced by global workers demanding greater flexibility. This is great news for workers who want more control over how, where and when they work. It can also be good for businesses: Many have noted an uptick in worker productivity in hybrid work settings.
But enterprises are finding that adjusting their operations to accommodate hybrid work is more complicated than flipping a switch. Yes, the opportunities are huge, but clumsy transitions pose big risks to business continuity.
And as the global economy stares down the looming threat of recession, it is more important than ever that businesses around the world prepare before it’s too late. That means implementing the processes and digital infrastructure necessary for hybrid work now so that when trouble hits, it won’t pack a withering punch.
Today, some 35% of U.S. employees are able to work from home full-time, while another 23% are doing it one to four days a week, according to a recent McKinsey survey. On top of this, the concept of a four-day workweek is gaining traction. Currently, more than 3,000 employees at more than 70 companies in Britain are getting a paid day off each week as part of a six-month four-day workweek study, with 86% reporting that they are likely to make the routine permanent.
The reality is that while a majority of top executives understand the benefits of hybrid work, it is estimated that two-thirds of enterprises are still unprepared for the change. In many cases, they lack a cogent security strategy, the ability to measure the effectiveness of their employees in a remote-work setting, or basic IT solutions, or reliable workflow processes. Or a combination of all four.
Take cybersecurity threats as an example. As the number of employees working from home has grown, many organizations have reported an increase in cybersecurity incidents. An Alliance Virtual Offices study found that, since the start of the pandemic, remote work has led to a 238% rise in cyberattacks.
Additionally, the cost of a breach has increased due to remote work. That’s because it often takes longer to detect and repair work-from-home breaches. According to the IBM 2022 cost of a data breach report, breaches involving remote work cost an average of $600,000 more than the global average breach cost.
Safeguarding against this threat is three-pronged. Enterprises must deploy stronger and safer networks for a remote work environment; devices employees rely on must be secured, and enterprises must lean into strong education programs around phishing. In fact, Deloitte found that 25% of companies receive more phishing emails now than before the pandemic.
To meet these increased cybersecurity risks head-on, companies must develop plans to maintain and secure remote work arrangements. Many organizations are now moving from reactive to employing a proactive IT security operations center, significantly reducing business disruption. An integrated cyber resilience approach helps companies anticipate, protect against, withstand and recover from adverse cybersecurity events. Organizations can focus on the most concerning and high-risk issues by using an automated triage and incident response process.
When companies have a real-time view of their current security, they can react immediately, making the difference between preventing an issue and experiencing a catastrophic breach. With AI-based platforms, businesses can get the actionable insights they need to proactively prevent or reduce system downtime. Unified technology also makes it possible to keep even the most complex multi- and hybrid cloud setup secure, enabling the business to run smoothly.
New ways of working will continue to play out over the coming years, with each company landing on a solution that works best for its particular needs. But all signs point to remote work becoming an option that is essential to hiring and retaining top talent. As companies work the kinks out, they must prioritize security for their dispersed workforce to ensure their business continues to succeed in the future.
