Careless Cybersecurity Conduct in the Remote Work Place

CybersafetyConnections  June 2021 Vol#22 

Be In The Know  

• Colossal cybersecurity risk concern due to bad security behavior of employees in the Remote Workplace.  
• Crucial challenges in Hybrid Work Place as employees return to office. 
• Suggested solutions to prevent and mitigate loss from cyberattacks.

Talking about keeping safe on the internet, I have to tell you I was pretty scared about being a possible compromised access point into our company’s network while connecting remotely and working from home. This article on lax cybersecurity hygiene states that a third of employees developed bad cyber hygiene during COVID-19 Work From Home.  

Colossal Cybersecurity Risk Concern  

Employees embraced bad security behavior because they were not closely watched by the IT department and felt they could get away with this behavior. According to Tessian back to the work security report, many employees are unlikely to admit the bad cybersecurity behavior for fear of disciplinary action and enforced training. The younger workers adapted worse cyber hygiene and their risky behavior was less likely to be discovered.  

This bad behavior has become a concern for employers as we moved towards the hybrid work environment post-pandemic. 

Crucial Challenges in Hybrid Work Place  

IT leaders fear employees may bring infected devices used in the remote workplace (to access the company network) into the hybrid workplace.   

 Ransomware is another big threat in the hybrid workplace as stated by IT leaders. And the ransomware attacks may be carried out through phishing and possibly business travels that could expose company data to the public through scammers posing to be airlines, booking companies, hotels, and senior executives. 

Suggested Solutions  

Guess the Impact of Cyberattack Disruptions when we fail to take the necessary measures to safeguard and mitigate against loss from cyberattacks, and data hacks/breaches? The victim firm, supply chain, customers, and possibly financial institutions may suffer and this could result in supply chain disruptions.

•  Infected Devices  

To keep infected devices from compromising the network in a hybrid workplace, IT and security leaders would have to shift to a new security architecture that involves zero-trust network access, endpoint security, and multi-factor authentication.  

•  Resisting Ransomware  

To lessen the risk of ransomware that threatens business continuity, the authors of this report proposed putting a stop to phishing, business email compromise, account takeover attacks, and social engineering scams. This action would significantly reduce the risk of ransomware.  

When employees fail to report clicking a phishing link, it makes it harder to contain the cyberattacks. 

•  Cybersecurity Culture  

The solution to this problem is not to turn employees into security experts or scare them into compliance with fear of punishment for bad behavior. According to the authors, the solution for IT leaders is to build a security culture so employees can work securely and productively and for IT leaders to understand how to encourage permanent behavior change over the long haul.  

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