Remote work era: Are we keeping up with trends while maintaining cybersecurity protection?

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a big change in how we work. Working from home has gone from being unusual to the new standard.Isn’t it ironic how technology and a global pandemic totally turned our ideas concerning efficiency and work-life balance on their heads, making working from home the new normal that was once thought to be rare?

Remote work offers numerous benefits. Firms can save on overhead costs by eliminating the need for large office spaces, which cuts down on rent and utilities. Employees gain greater autonomy over their schedules, leading to increased job satisfaction. With greater flexibility, there is better work-life balance that comes from the improved handling of personal and professional responsibilities.

Moreover, remote work has been surprisingly effective in boosting productivity, with many
workers thriving in the peace of their home offices—free from the usual office interruptions.
It’s almost as if working in a distraction-free environment actually helps people get things
done. Who knew that reducing commutes not only would cut down on carbon emissions but
turn out to be quite green? Add to that the power of being able to find talent anywhere, and
suddenly, there’s a perfect and borderless solution in work without boundaries to attract the
best people.

However, after the pandemic, some companies felt the need to call employees back to the
office. The return to the office has been met with considerable friction from employees who
have gotten used to remote work flexibility. Case in point: what Amazon is having to wrangle
with right now is something dubbed ‘coffee badging.’

More than a year ago, Amazon announced its new policy on #RTO (#returntooffice),
requiring employee presence in the office for at least three days per week, after a period of
remote work precipitated by COVID-19. The response of employees has been very fast and
negative; at this moment, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition against this
mandate.

The employees began to engage in a very creative form of resistance by ‘coffee badging’:
they would scan their badges, check into the system, enter the office, drink a cup of coffee,
and then leave. Since duration of office presence was not specified in the first policy, it made
the company later update it to state that an employee has to spend at least two hours in the
office during each visit.

Of course, there are plenty of people excited to return to the office. However, the 30,000
Amazon employees who signed a petition seem to represent a rather vocal segment of the
workforce who, shockingly, still prefer the perks of remote work. Perhaps it may be worth
considering that not everyone is in such a hurry to give up their home office for a desk back
in the cubicle farm.

Yet, while remote work offers these newfound benefits and perks, it also brings its own set of
challenges. The shift to working from home has introduced significant obstacles for
businesses striving to protect sensitive information. With employees operating beyond
traditional office settings, companies face the task of securing data access effectively. Risks
emerge from employee devices, home Wi-Fi networks, and unfamiliar third-party
applications, necessitating innovative approaches to monitoring and management. Keeping
strong security measures in place is essential in this changing work environment.
Let’s go deeper into the largest cybersecurity challenges of remote work and ways to
fight them.

Remote workers can easily fall for phishing scams, where scammers
send fake emails to steal company data. These emails might trick employees into giving
away login details or downloading malware. To keep your team safe, host regular training
sessions that make learning how to spot these scams fun and engaging. Teach them to
recognize sketchy emails and avoid risky actions.

One big headache in any remote job is the risk of insecure networks. Public Wi-Fi is like a playground for hackers; that makes the important company data prone when an employee logs in to one of those. Solution: Always use a VPN to get company information; it’s like giving your data a secret passageway.

When remote workers use their personal gadgets to access company data, it can spell trouble for the organization’s security. A proper device management strategy will go a long way to assist in the monitoring of which specific devices are plugging into company information, thus increasing the risks related to data breaches. Establishing proper systems to monitor and manage these devices will be the foundation in making sure that the data will be safe and remain unexposed.

Another remote work risk is that employees might not be as clued-in about cybersecurity as their office-bound ones. Give them regular training and remind them of those oh-so important company policies about staying safe online. Cloud security is another significant concern for remote workers. Cloud providers typically offer several security features and protocols, but it’s essential to ensure that these features are adequate to meet your data security standards. Evaluate cloud providers before making a choice to ensure that they have the necessary security protocols in place.

If your organization has strict regulatory requirements, remote work might give rise to compliance risks. With staff logging in remotely to sensitive data from their personally owned devices, it will be quite difficult to fully assure compliance. Strong safety measures should be implemented, such as the use of VPNs and restriction of access rights to networks, devices, and company data.

To boost productivity and keep your data safe, we suggest content filtering solutions. These
tools play a significant role in protecting against malware sites, among many other lurking
dangers on the internet, while managing internet usage within the organization. By filtering
out non-work-related content, content filtering solutions ensure that employees stay focused
on their tasks, reducing distractions and increasing overall productivity.

Here is how SafeDNS can make things easier: Boost productivity and monitor traffic: With SafeDNS, you’re literally the internet gatekeeper of your company. Block those distracting sites, and make sure that your team is focused on the task. Who doesn’t want some tool to help everybody stay focused and actually follow the rules? Our cloud-based content filtering adds another layer of protection to your network. Consider this your safety net for unavoidable human mistakes and another way to boost security.

Next-generation protection using ML and AI: SafeDNS uses the latest in AI and Machine Learning to provide exceptional security. Since 2015, our solution has been updating its database continuously with new online threats and inappropriate content to block them as they appear. In this way, it keeps your data and network safe against ever-changing risks, always one step ahead. To round off, remote work isn’t just a passing fad—it’s a huge change in how we do business.

The balancing act between efficiency and cybersecurity could not be more important, considering that more people than ever work from home. Indeed, this article is
being written remotely—just illustrative of how wide this shift has become. So, welcome to
the digital age of remote work, where businesses need all kinds of new tools and strategies
to stay safe and get things done. Because clearly, adjusting to this new norm is a piece of
cake.

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