Modern IT and cybersecurity departments have been challenged in ways that could not be foreseen at the beginning of the year. With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting business processes and accelerating the shift from the traditional office environment to a remote workplace, new strategies are needed to secure organizational data and respond promptly to any behavior deemed outside the norms of your security policy. CISOs, the professionals that work under them, and employees all need to be on the same page in order to meet these new challenges head-on. Whether you need to develop a remote work security strategy from scratch or you need to reinforce your current policies, here are some steps you can and should be taking right now.
Keep Training and Education at the Fore
In many sports, it is said that the best offense is a good defense. And when it comes to cybersecurity, the training and education of your employees is the defense that will play a major role in combatting insider threats and incidents before they occur. Ensure that you continually emphasize best practices and leave the door open for questions from your employees, especially if they are working with new tools such as VPNs or remote login tools.
The Principle of Least Privilege
Access rights become even more critical in a remote workforce setup. Always make sure that you follow the principle of least privilege when doling out access rights and audit it frequently if you are not already doing so.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication as Much as Possible
Even between secured endpoints, multi-factor authentication is a solid failsafe to help you protect your systems and data. You never know where your employees may be connecting from or how secure that access point is or isn’t. Implementing MFA into your processes is a key strategy to protect sensitive infrastructure and data and is more important than ever before.
Emphasize Visibility Across New Endpoints
In a remote work environment, new endpoints are bound to enter the security picture. And as they do, employees may become more vulnerable to mismanaging sensitive data. Emphasizing visibility across this larger footprint of endpoints is crucial for your security team and should become a key strategy in helping them combat threats.
Contact ITMG to Assess Your Current Capabilities and Develop Strategies and Protocols Designed to Help Your Company Mitigate Your Insider Risk
ITMG is an industry leader in helping organizations throughout the United States strengthen their insider risk management programs and secure sensitive data and intellectual property. Our team of bona fide experts has the real-world experience necessary to plan out and create holistic security solutions tailored to the special needs and risks in your industry. Contact ITMG today to learn more about how we can help! You can also visit our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages for more updates and insights into the world of insider risk management.