Explosion in Remote Work Increases Hacking Risk

The frequency of remote work has skyrocketed this year thanks to pandemic-related lockdowns.  While this has many benefits for both employees and employers alike, there is one crucial downside – increased cyber risk.

Why Increased Remote Work Has Opened a Cybersecurity Pandora’s Box

There are several reasons why the spike in remote work has created incremental cybersecurity risk:

• Because the lockdown came with little warning, companies were forced to rapidly implement technology measures to meet the increased demand for network bandwidth, oftentimes leading to rushed solutions plagued with security and compliance gaps.
• Because employees access the company network from many locations, hackers now have many more user access points to exploit. 
• Many companies already had weak password and cybersecurity practices and other dated protocols in place, and the explosion in remote work has increased the potential negative impact of these weak practices.
• Remote workers are more likely to fall prey to phishing emails.
• Remote workers are more likely to share passwords, especially those in younger demographics.
• Remote workers are more likely to use personal devices for work purposes.

Clearly this is a big problem, for all types of companies, not just utility companies.  And it’s safe to say that virtual work, at least in some form, is here to stay (things were trending in this direction anyway, but the coronavirus pandemic has served to exponentially increase the velocity of this trend). 

So, what’s a utility to do?  Well, unfortunately the report does not offer any concrete recommendations, mainly because every company’s information-technology infrastructure is different.  However, some consideration points include fortifying identity security, improving password protocols, tightening access controls, and deploying training programs to teach employees how to safely work from home. There’s no doubt that remote work is here to stay, and both companies and their employees will need to do their part to mitigate the additional cyber risks of this new norm.