Many companies have inadequate security measures in place to support remote workers. This is revealed in the 2020 Remote Work Report by cloud security firm Bitglass.
Bitglass analysed how organisations adapted to the sudden shift from working at the office to working from home. The report also examines what actions the organisations took in terms of cybersecurity and what their main concerns are. More than 75 percent of the employees of the surveyed organisations currently work from home, compared to less than a quarter before the pandemic.
Security issues
The transition from working at the office to working from home also resulted in plenty of security-related problems. In 65 percent of all cases, employees are allowed to use personal devices to access managed applications. Although, 55 percent of the companies admit that this is a significant security risk.
For many companies, securing network access is their biggest concern (65 percent), and 55 percent of them are worried about employees accessing SaaS applications such as Slack and the use of personal devices.
There are companies (41 percent) that haven’t taken any action at all to improve secure access to enterprise systems for remote workers. Fifty percent of the organisations report a lack of the right equipment as the biggest obstacle to improving security.
Cyber-attacks
Malware is seen as the biggest threat (72 percent) to organisations, followed by file sharing (68 percent), the use of web applications (47 percent), and videoconferencing tools (45 percent). Among the respondents, 77 percent used anti-malware software to protect employees but otherwise lacked other security solutions. Only 18 percent of organisations use tools to prevent data loss.
Remote work after the coronavirus
Among the respondents, 84 percent said there is a chance they will continue to increase their remote working capacity after the pandemic, with 44 percent saying they are very likely to do so. The current situation also creates new opportunities for people living far away from potential jobs, as 33 percent of respondents indicated that certain jobs previously carried out on-site will be permanently moved to remote-working positions in the future.
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