Fully remote and hybrid models of work have become the norm for businesses of every size and industry. This shift has been beneficial for workforce productivity and work-life balance, but the shift has also been advantageous for criminals due to the increased size of the attack surface. Corporate security teams can no longer depend on perimeter security measures limited to the physical office. Employees now connect to corporate resources from home, coworking spaces, public spaces, and numerous locations in a transportable and insecure manner.
Businesses must adapt to these changes and protect endpoints and networks differently. One of the best ways to solve this is to have hardened network clients and professional-grade security software, including enterprise-level VPN protection for Windows PC clients, on all devices that are used to access corporate resources.
Security Issues of Remote Work
Corporate networks are built to sustain enterprise-level security, whereas home networks may run outdated consumer-grade hardware, use weak Wi-Fi passwords, and be shared with family members. Even when employees follow security guidelines, the home network itself can remain vulnerable.
Phishing campaigns, malware delivery, credential theft, and network-based attacks are some of the most effective ways of impacting remote employees and accessing corporate cloud applications, client databases, and business communication tools. A single compromised network device poses the utmost threat to the broader corporate environment.
This issue is further compounded when employees perform work functions using personal computers. They expose enterprise networks to additional risks because these machines often lack endpoint protection, proper security configurations, and regular security updates. Consumer-grade software may add even more security vulnerabilities.
Why Consumer Software Doesn't Work
Most people believe that having a good antivirus and keeping the operating system up-to-date are good security practices. While they are good security practices, they provide only a single layer of security.
Network access, authentication, device and data security, and network traffic control require greater rigor in professional settings compared to personal settings. Consumer-level applications favor convenience over enterprise risk assessment and management. These applications are often designed with limited visibility and offer minimal administrative and security hardening controls.
More secure communications, more strongly enforced and managed policies, and connections are needed for employees accessing sensitive information from outside the corporate network.
The Role of Hardened Network Clients
Hardened network clients are applications with the primary purpose of securing network communications and mitigating the risk of unauthorized access, data interception, and credential exposure. They are security-centric and encompass many protective features, such as high levels of encryption, secure tunnels, DNS protection, as well as traffic and data leak prevention.
These tools are specifically designed to secure network communications in less-trusted environments. They ensure sensitive corporate data and communications can be secured even when employees are working at home, in a hotel, in an airport lounge, or in a public Wi-Fi hotspot.
Such clients allow organizations with a widespread and distributed workforce to maintain a cohesive security posture across all endpoints of the network. Without depending on the security of individual networks, companies can establish safe, secure, and protected channels of communication, regardless of the location.
Data Leak and Exposure Prevention
Data leakage is a substantial risk when considering remote work. People share various confidential documents, customer information, intellectual property, and financial data. If data travels over an exposed or misconfigured network, sensitive data may be leaked or captured.
Modern VPN technology can be very helpful for this. If VPN solutions are configured correctly, they will encrypt the traffic routed between the endpoints and the corporate resources. This will minimize the chances of data leakage.
In many cases, VPNs prevent data leaks by ensuring that network communications remain encrypted and by blocking traffic from leaving protected channels when connections are interrupted.
Additional VPN features like kill switch, secure DNS resolution, and split tunneling can help further mitigate exposure risks without affecting productivity.
Meeting Compliance and Governance Standards
Many businesses are bound by the data protection and cyber safety regulations of various industries. This is especially true for financial services, healthcare, legal and certain technology businesses.
Hardened network clients will allow businesses to implement reasonable safeguards for sensitive data. They allow a security team to create a custom network configuration, monitor network activity, and enforce encryption to minimize compliance violations during insecure remote access.
As regulators continue to focus on companies' cyber readiness, documenting and enforcing secure remote working practices is becoming increasingly important.
Establishing a Safe Remote Workforce
As the flexibility to work from home has become the norm, businesses must change the way they protect information. With employees accessing data from a myriad of locations, the traditional corporate office perimeter is no longer the boundary of secure company data.
A strong perimeter is established with hardened network clients. They secure communications, minimize exposure to cyber threats, and help prevent damaging data losses. Together with endpoint and network management, employee education, the use of multi-factor authentication, and security updates, they add additional layers to the protection of a remote workforce.
Flexible companies have to ensure the security of critical data resources. The application of secure business-grade networking and advanced security software must become a priority.
