Forced to work remotely due to the Covid19 pandemic, IT departments across the industry amplified their cyber tools to support cloud and hybrid working environments. The rapid shift to Work from Home (WFH) unlocked new data security challenges to be tackled. Every home device or wireless connection became a potential entry point for malicious actors and cybersecurity administrators faced an additional challenge of insider threats.
While disgruntled employees were always a threat for organizations, the risk increased considerably in the remote working scenario due to lack of secure access to offsite networks and systems. No longer the resentful employees driven by personal agendas are the only insider threats for businesses. Negligent, overworked, or unaware employees who do not follow security protocols are equally responsible for a large amount of data leakage and data theft. With Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) on a rise, employees merge personal and professional use on one system. Moreover, sensitive information such as access codes or passwords is saved on unsecured home networks, and personally, identifiable information is freely transferred to and from these devices. Remote employees thrust into new working environments with little to no training for handling new security risks and casual attitude towards corporate data led to an increased data breaches, thereby, making it necessary to expand the scope of data protection against insider threats.
With remote working becoming the new normal, organizations need to build a robust and sustainable data protection strategy that wouldn’t restrict employees’ productivity and provide organizations with control over the data that needs to be regulated and protected. One way of ensuring data protection is by installing Data Loss Protection (DLP) software on the endpoint – the devices being used. The encryption feature of DLP further strengthens the security factor such that even if the devices are lost or stolen, the data cannot be compromised. A DLP solution gives the control required to ensure granular and unified policies across evolving cyber landscape. However, protecting the organization from data breaches while being sensitive to employee needs require a fine balance which can be achieved with the following measures:
- Communication is the key: An organization needs to convey the purpose of data security to its employees which includes recognizing suspicious activity or compromising employee behavior in advance. The same should be communicated to employees in a simple, easy to comprehend language.
- A multi-layer approach to data security: The organization must establish the priority of data protection to narrow down on the security measures. Security measures related to insider threats must be addressed at multiple levels from human resources to process flow to technology domains.
- Choosing the right technology –The security plan must reflect privacy features such as auto-redaction of personal information, time or location-sensitive monitoring, automated data access regulation can help secure the organization without revealing personal information.
- Employee Training – Employees at all levels must be trained in data protection awareness measures. This includes addressing the privacy-related measures of an enterprise.
- Incident Management – Despite the best of the training and technology put together, mishaps are likely to occur. Enterprises must maintain a Crisis management process in such an eventuality. This includes the disciplinary process and legal action to be taken in case of malicious data breaches, and remedial measures to be taken in case of accidental data leaks.
It is not an exaggeration to say that insider threats are more complex in the WFH setting. An established data protection policy considers the role of employees in safeguarding a company’s sensitive data and incorporates data-monitoring as a must-have component of data loss prevention technology.
BY: Filip Cotfas, Channel Manager, Cososys