Due to COVID-19, a majority of employees are working remotely from their homes. The IT staff can find gaps in their already set security strategy. The IT policies become outdated even after 6 months, so it is time to rethink how the information technology department will manage security within the distributed workforce. Besides, the majority of employees are working on their personal devices.
Sayed Sayedy is a sociology student, who has done a lot of social work in Parwan. He migrated to Munich in 2015 as he had to leave his homeland in Afghanistan because of his women’s rights campaign. He has also received training as an IT specialist when he worked with the ISA [International NATO Security Force]. Currently, he is pursuing his study at Salzburg University and is a freelancer communication coach and trainer. He works voluntarily as an integration and migration counselor.
Sayed is a strong supporter of civilian peace and education projects in Cambodia and Afghanistan. In this post as we will discuss how rethinking IT security strategy needs to be addressed Sayed in his seminar discussed the switch from military to the security policy for preventing a crisis, fair business, rule of law, avoid conflict, and more. He discusses the measures to consider for developing civil security policy via fair external relations, resilient democracy, sustainable EU bordering countries development, etc.
How IT professionals will address security among distributed workforce?
Global companies are suffering from cybersecurity attacks, which won’t vanish soon, so the IT team has to take proactive positioning. They need to review their cybersecurity policies and look for vulnerabilities and patch them up. A good strategy and transparency are essential. Employees must be aware of the strategy and if they are unaware of best practices then the company will not be safe from cyberattacks as expected. Make your employees aware of the security measures and what their contributions in maintaining safety are.
The C-suite personnel and executives must be aware of the intrinsic risks distributed work will cause. For maximum effect, the executives must offer resources and sponsorship because IT will need visibility in every trajectory ranging from network to cloud to the device. With the appropriate installation of technologies and policies that justify these trajectories then the IT is reinforced to prevent cyber-attacks.
In this ongoing pandemic situation, IT staff must show more consideration on how every employee is working to stay productive. In case there is a center point that takes care of personal freedom and security then the IT staff needs to work and make this happen. The employees are already depressed and stressed in this pandemic situation they don’t need an extra imperious policy to increase their strain.
Understand BYOD [Bring your own device] risk and plan a workable strategy for distributed forces
Working remotely on their personal device is harmless and enhances productivity as the worker is familiar with their personal computer. However, several BYOD risks employees may be unaware of are –
- Device theft
- Cyberattacks
- Jailbroken devices
- Data loss
- Network vulnerabilities
- Malware
It can craft a smart BYOD strategy that aligns with company security and employee freedom. The majority of network breaches are because of stolen or lost devices. The IT staff can encourage workers to protect their computers or mobiles or laptops with solid passcodes or/and fingerprint identification.
With an updated solid security policy, the IT team rest assures that employees can gain access to critical documents and applications without any concerns.
