Intuition conducted a survey where they found out that the percentage of people working remotely has increased from 30% to 48% post pandemic. Even CEOs say that remote or hybrid work will be part of upcoming business strategies. However, the sad truth is that 58% of organizations have also experienced data breaches as a result of adapting to remote work.
With employees accessing sensitive information from the company system remotely, keeping track of every access is a difficult task. Organizations in 2026 are more at risk of data leaks and unauthorized access than ever before. To combat this, many companies take help from tools and strategies to track employee activities. In doing so, we mustn’t forget to respect employee privacy and maintain trust. Having a balance is key; securing sensitive assets without creating a highly invasive environment.
I will be sharing some remote work cybersecurity best practices, but before that, I will also give you a glimpse of the current cybersecurity threat landscape, and in between, we will learn about some global remote work statistics and other key aspects.
Remote Working Security Risks
Before you can allow employees to work remotely or in a hybrid mode, you need to understand the security risks that come with it and have an action plan in place. I will also provide an extensive remote employee data security checklist that you can follow. Using this, you can check the security status of remote employees, detect vulnerabilities, and prioritize the ones that need quick attention.
No matter what cybersecurity solutions you are currently using, it’s never just “set it and forget it.” In addition to keeping an eye on your IT infrastructure, you need to stay updated on the latest threat developments. Learn about these developments on cybersecurity news to come up with strategies and solutions against them as and when they become known to the world.
According to Owl Labs’ report, currently, the sectors with the highest number of remote employees are:
- Healthcare with 15%
- Technology with 10%
- Financial Services with 9%
And some common threats to remote work culture include:
- Phishing attacks
- Fragile security access
- Cyberattacks
- Unsecured WiFis
- Dated software or hardware
- Multiple endpoints
- Own device (BYOD) risks
- Unencrypted sharing
- Weak passwords
- Cloud misconfigurations
Proofpoint’s survey reveals that 71% companies have gone through at least one phishing attack. The consequences of which are 144% increase in financial penalties and 50% hike in reputational harm.
In this alarming context, Jeetu Patel, President & Chief Product Officer at Cisco, says that, “We cannot underestimate the threat posed by our own overconfidence.” He also adds, “Today’s organizations need to prioritize investments in integrated platforms and lean into AI to operate at machine scale and finally tip the scales in the favor of defenders.”
How to Secure the Remote Workforce?
As an employer, you need to be agile in strengthening your work-from-home (WFH) employees; this also includes VPN security for remote workers. You must also have a standardized device security checklist for remote jobs. A common issue you can face is that many security features that are basic in an office setting might be alien to home users. Below, I have provided a comprehensive work-from-home security checklist to make their environment safer without encroaching on their privacy.
1. Home Network Security
- Make sure your remote employees’ devices on the home networks are applying WPA2, i.e., WiFi Protected Access Ⅱ.
- Utilize a virtual separation to separate devices onto a single work network segment.
- Use only trusted sources to download and install patches, updates, firmware, etc.
- A firewall is another important requirement to protect the network from unauthorized access.
2. Software Patch Management
- Every employee must use only licensed and supported software.
- Also, make sure that once updates for patches or software are available, they are immediately installed.
- For security patch deployment or operating systems and apps update, use an MDM or Mobile Device Management.
3. Malware Protection
- As an employer, the first step is to guide your employees to install antivirus software and anti-malware on their personal devices.
- Ensure anti-malware configuration is complete to automatically detect and block all malicious attempts.
- Personal devices need to be scanned at regular intervals. Ensure that the anti-malware and antivirus configurations are done.
- Manual updates pose risks like forgetfulness or delay. It’s advised to turn on the auto-update on anti-malware and antivirus software.
4. User Account Management
- Each remote employee must have a unique account and username from the employer.
- Collect and store the accessibility of every user account and get them approved from the right department.
- For optimum consistency, use a single remote access tool.
- Standardize the use of VPNs or Virtual Private Networks for remote access.
5. IT Policy
- Ensure that all accounts are protected by 2 Factor Authentication (2FA). Make it mandatory.
- This should be a common practice; educate and train all your employees, irrespective of their work environment, about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and risks.
- Educate them on how to identify phishing and what to do if they get phished.
- If there is a security breach, your employees must have a point of contact and know the guidelines.
- Make it essential for employees to have a standard password manager solution.
- To check the agility of remote employees, conduct regular phishing audits.
- Check whether regular backups are conducted or not.
- Also, educate them to share ‘read-only’ files to both known and unknown receivers without proper authorization.
- Ensure mail filters are turned on to prevent spam, malware, and phishing emails.
- An email filtering solution is a great method to filter both inbound and outbound messages.
Related: AI in Cybersecurity: Benefits, Risks, and Future Outlook
Cybersecurity Tips for Remote Employees
When working from the office, any cybersecurity issues faced by employees are promptly fixed by the in-house IT team. But, when you are working-from-home, the situation becomes a tad overwhelming in case of such security issues. To ensure you do not face any issues with your work or reputation as an employee, do follow the given cybersecurity tips. These tips are easy to implement by employees from both tech and non-tech backgrounds.
- Your organization must have invested in a comprehensive antivirus suite. Antivirus can protect your system from a host of threats like zero-day attacks, malware, spyware, viruses, trojans, worms, and phishing. It runs quietly in the background of your everyday work, so it won’t be a bother. Make sure you use it.
- Another important ground rule is to keep your family members, especially young children and pets, away from your work device. Though family members are trustworthy, they can cause harm to sensitive files unknowingly; it is better to keep a distance.
- Webcams are commonly used devices by remote workers for online meetings, video calls, and teleconferences. Modern hackers can easily have access to your webcam and can get into your personal space. If you have any physical copies of sensitive information with you, they can view it. It’s ideal to invest in a sliding webcam cover to avoid any mishap. It can be found online on various retailers like Amazon.
- Employers offer a VPN connection to WFH employees for added security. Many modern organizations also provide guidelines for VPN security for remote workers. But it can create new home office safety ‘back doors’ that hackers can easily access. As an employee, you need to keep updating your passwords and turn off the company VPN when using the device for personal purposes.
- If your employer has a centralized storage like a cloud storage, make sure you are using it to store all work-related data and files. Do not store any sensitive or work files, as a matter of fact, in any local storage under your personal accounts.
- Another way to ensure optimum security in a home working environment is to secure your home WiFi network. Some easy ways to do that are: use a unique password and change it from time to time, you can also change the SSID and wireless network name, enable network encryption, allow access to particular MAC addresses and block unidentified ones, and finally, update the firmware regularly.
- Emails are the easiest way for hackers to get access to your device and its data. Send emails only through your company’s secure VPN. Ignore or block unknown users and emails that look suspicious.
Related: Key Cybersecurity Domains: Specializations, Career Opportunities & FAQs
FAQs
1. How do remote workers stay secure?
As I have just extensively discussed, remote workers can maintain the security of their work files and device/s by:
- Using an antivirus
- Using the company’s VPN
- Using the company’s centralized storage
- Changing passwords regularly and having unique ones
- Securing mail accounts and blocking unknown users
And many others.
2. Is remote work safe for company data?
If you follow the guidelines, both as an employer and employee, there shouldn’t be any problem with working remotely. Did you know that 58.6% employees in the U.S. are working from home!
3. What are common remote work cyber threats?
This too I have priorly discussed, some of the most common ones are:
- Phishing
- Zero-Day Attacks
- Trojan & Worms
- Malware
- Ransomware
And others.
Is It Work From Home Or Not, Then?
As per all the data and the happenings around us, remote working is the norm for the present and future. But what about cybersecurity? With innovative technologies like AI and machine learning integration in tracking and data leak prevention tools, both employers and employees can breathe a sigh of relief. The best solutions offer a balance between security and productivity.
If companies are vigilant about their IT policies, educate employees on the safety of their work devices, give them cybersecurity tips from time to time, and maintain their security through a strong centralized infrastructure, WFH will not raise eyebrows anymore but will bring in the much-needed smile on the faces of all parties involved!
Related: Importance of Cyber Security in IoT: Common Cybersecurity Issues
