Over 60% of the UK's adult population Worked From Home (WFH) well into the second half of 2020. Hopefully, the pandemic will come under control once enough people are vaccinated, one of the things that might not change is the WFH situation. During the pandemic, both employers and employees learned financially beneficial and productive WFH could be, and it is likely to become the new norm in the job market.

Cybersecurity Trends For The New Norm

WFH comes it its own set of cybersecurity challenges. For one, it increases the attack surface considerably. And if people are accessing business data using their personal devices, it might be considered an inherent vulnerability.

A few trends you might consider following when you try to fortify your cybersecurity for the long-term WFH situation.

1. Good remote working protocols should be rolled out, and strict adherence should be enforced right from the beginning to plug the intentional or unintentional insider vulnerabilities. There should be a tiered hierarchy governing what employees can and cannot access, print or share.

2. Re-think your entire cybersecurity model. On-premises cybersecurity is drastically different from cybersecurity you might need when most of your staff is working remotely. AI and automation can help you police cybersecurity threats exclusive to a remote workforce more effectively. You might also consider merging your cybersecurity teams with your in-house IT or development teams so that any new software or update that rolls out goes through the right cybersecurity protocols.

3. Start relying on cloud-based cybersecurity tools and infrastructure. It will make data access easier and more manageable and offer you a better-centralized control than trying to run things from head-office using legacy tools and servers.

4. Dynamic security trends would dominate in the new norm. Instead of focusing on the network as a whole, start focusing on the nodes, i.e., employees and assets. By dividing your workforce into different tiers, you can manage employee access to information and define individual-centric security protocols. Asset protection might require enhanced network segmentation and advanced end-point management.

Step Into The New Norm

The whole WFH situation will take some time to sort out, but you can't be lax regarding your cybersecurity because hackers and other cybercriminals know that the ideal time to penetrate your business defenses when you are still in the process of redefining them for the new normal. So instead of taking the trial-and-error approach, consider reaching out to vendors who have already gained experience in this regard and can help your business take the necessary cybersecurity steps. Hybrid model is here to stay and Microminder cybersecurity can assist you in revisiting or complement your current IT and cyber security strategy in a way that it aligns with your business vision and enable you to focus on business-critical tasks whilst Microminder manages all your security needs.