As some employees begin returning to the office while others prefer the convenience of working from home, businesses owners are considering offering a hybrid work model. While this increased flexibility can boost employee satisfaction, there are some key technology and security considerations leaders need to address.
Cyber Awareness and Training:
Hackers are taking advantage of companies having employees in multiple locations with less than adequate security. With more people doing online transactions than ever before, businesses need to safeguard sensitive information including customer and employee data. Unfortunately, traditional anti-virus and firewalls are just not enough. Ransomware is on the rise, costing companies millions of dollars, their reputation, even their business, as well as the need to ramp up security for the next big threat. Cybersecurity and Awareness Training can reduce the risk, by training your employees on how to reduce human error. These simulated phishing tests and training tools engage workers to spot potential dangers and make the right decisions on which emails to open and which to report to IT.
Multi-factor Authentication:
With frequent cyber-attacks, plus the added component of the hybrid workforce, many companies are left exposed with new technologies and weaknesses. It should be common sense for every company to use multi-factor authentication whenever and wherever possible. Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) requires users to use two forms of credentials to log in to their accounts. Even if the cybercriminal steals the employee’s password, they will not be able to get into their account with MFA. They would be required to use a fingerprint, face scan, phone, key fob, or pin to get in.
On Premise vs. Cloud Services:
Although many companies have been working on-premise, such as manufacturing and construction, many are just moving back to their physical offices, such as financial institutions that don’t feel it is sustainable to have employees work remotely long term. Some have even determined that they are more productive, and have lower overhead, working remotely or in a hybrid work environment forever. These same companies have chosen to downgrade their office space and make changes to their IT infrastructure to accommodate their need for scalability, security, reliability, and lower expenses. When downgrading office space, companies are taking a hard look at their investment into the cloud, more so than ever before. In addition, this opens doors for organizations to expand their talent pool to other geographic locations because there is no physical requirement for employees to be onsite.
This new dynamic, work from anywhere/hybrid workforce, clearly has its challenges, but will be rewarding upon the implementation of these key components. Wellness checks should be top of mind to determine the health of your environment. Consider a network or security assessment to kick off the start of this journey. Contact us for more details: https://techwerxe.com/contact/.
