Social distancing recommendations to combat the spread of COVID-19 are sending America’s workforce home in droves. Below is a summary of the potential issues that companies will have to consider:
Sensitive Information – Inside the corporation there are typically more controls in place to protect and monitor sensitive information such as intellectual property and trade secrets. While executives, managers and certain team members may have remote access privileges, it is likely that not everyone does. With the rapid expansion of the remote workforce companies will grapple with how to keep their critical information secure while expanding their footprint beyond the traditional perimeter defenses.
Strain on IT Staff – IT teams are already short staffed and overburdened and now the prospect of having to send the workforce home – with connectivity to the office – may be overwhelming. Mistakes or oversights, particularly with respect to security, will increase.
VPN Security – VPNs are devices or software that encrypts your computer’s connection to the corporate office and they are essential to data security. Unfortunately, the patch window for VPNs (the time between discovery of a vulnerability and the time it is fixed by the company) is historically long, leaving the vulnerability exposed to exploitation. Further, employees typically access other corporate resources, such as email (e.g. Office 365) and other online portals without utilizing a VPN from home and insecure public networks.
Unmanaged Devices – The remote employee may utilize a company-issued computer on a home network with dozens of other Internet-connected devices, including vulnerable Smart TVs. Unless the employee is technically savvy and cyber-aware, the patch window on personal computers is probably longer than desired. These unmanaged systems may be running outdated antivirus or none at all.
Lack of Monitoring – Companies typically have no visibility into an employee’s home network and may have no process in place for monitoring VPN connections or what the employee is doing while connected remotely to the company network. Further, most companies have little to no visibility into what the employee does with sensitive information that has been removed from the company’s internal network.
Insecure Wi-Fi – Home Wi-Fi if is often a “set-and-forget” service. Typically, home wi-fi broadcasts the network name (SSID) with descriptive information about the router and may be secured with a weak or default password – which are available online.
Skeleton Office Crews – Vacant homes with unlocked doors are invitations to burglars. An empty office without monitoring of critical systems and data is no different.
