Remote work has created a surge in the use of cloud collaboration apps. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications have become essential for supporting collaboration, ensuring easy access to files and folders from anywhere and keeping us productive and connected.
“The economic, organisational and societal impact of the pandemic will continue to serve as a catalyst for digital innovation and adoption of cloud services,” said Henrique Cecci, senior research director at Gartner. “This is especially true for use cases such as collaboration, remote work and new digital services to support a hybrid workforce.”
Unfortunately, many organisations believe that these applications are completely secure and this simply isn’t true. Accessing work data on personal devices puts a business at risk since some IT departments can’t protect sensitive information that is beyond the scope of a traditional on-premise, firewalled system. So, what can remote workers do to be safer?
Use a device less likely to get ransomware. Windows devices are especially vulnerable to ransomware and Macs can also be more easily infected. A device like a Chromebook can be less susceptible to attacks because they don’t run on a Windows or Mac operating system.
Be smart about sharing. Share documents only as needed with clear access permissions and double check that documents or folders are being shared with trusted internal and external collaborators.
Stay alert. Don’t open attachments or follow links unless it’s clear they’re from a known person and in a format that would be typically received from a sender.
Education is an essential piece of an effective security strategy. Security training must go beyond just how to recognise phishing attacks because whilst phishing is a major concern, weak passwords and other human errors can lead to security breaches and data loss.
Employees need cybersecurity training so they’re able to spot and avoid potential attacks. Better security training could significantly help to mitigate cyberattacks. To be effective, the training needs to simulate real threats and test employees’ ability to detect a suspicious attempt to gain access. When an employee fails to identify the threat and inadvertently clicks through, they should receive additional training.
We all love the ease of being able to work from anywhere, but it’s important for us to be smarter about how we keep our information private and secure. Our team can help create an internal communications strategy for increasing your security-awareness across your organisation. Please contact TechComms, a b2b tech marketing and communications agency on + 44 (0) 203 322 8928 for more information.
