A recent study revealed that many remote workers are following weak or no cybersecurity practices while telecommuting. In the State of Data Loss Report by UK firm Tessian, 52% of employees surveyed admitted to ignoring security policies and exposing their companies to cyber risk due to the lack of organizational oversight from their IT department. The report also covered many of the respondents’ reasoning for the protocol breaches, which included frequent at home distractions and deadlines that required them to take shortcuts around security steps.
Data Breach Prevention for Remote Workers
The study surveyed over 2200 professionals (about 11% of which were IT leaders) in the US and UK and charted the data management practices of each group. Almost 85% of the IT respondents claimed that preventing data loss was more difficult with remote workers as they lacked the visibility to routinely monitor compliance. Worse, almost half (45%) of US workers surveyed admitted to using personal email accounts for business data, pushing it further outside of internal IT’s oversight.
Productivity and Speed VS Cybersecurity
Using personal email accounts and devices is just one area where remote workers can inadvertently expose your network to external channels if they are not careful. Ignoring proper safety procedures when remote accessing shared computers or cloud databases, leaving unsecure apps running in the background and reusing passwords across company accounts all increase cyber risk.
All the current disruptions have left many businesses overwhelmed, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean you can afford to take a break from cybersecurity. Your hard work will be for nothing if a data breach exposes you to wire fraud, ransomware or noncompliance with data privacy laws. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your network security for productivity – learn how to balance both with cyber threat protection.
Don’t Leave Cybersecurity to Chance When Working from Home
Security practices can be stressful in the best of times, and even more so for remote workers unused to telecommuting on top of managing the distractions from loved ones and pets. SWK can help you protect your network with cybersecure best practices and solutions for everyone in your company working from home.
Contact SWK Technologies ASAP to discover how we can protect your data while your business works remotely.
