Covid-19 and Remote Work
A look at employee behavior and how to best enforce corporate cybersecurity protocols in the age of remote work
The COVID-19 pandemic made secure information sharing a necessity as companies were forced to quickly transition their employees and operations to a remote model. Despite best efforts to provide solutions and employee training needed to keep company information secure, 60% of workers admit to knowingly violating corporate security policies. And while information security spending has taken a hit due to the pandemic, Gartner reports spending to reach $123.8 billion this year, which is why it’s imperative for companies to understand which tools work best for employees’ needs, especially in a remote work environment.
UNDERSTANDING AND BRIDGING THE SECURITY GAP
Invest in security: Enterprises must continue their commitment to security by investing more time, money, and resources to ensure confidential data is shared securely.
- 95% of employees report that their company provides secure information tools and 85% report that their company has policies around sharing, delivering, and securing data, documents, and information
- 88% reported that their company trains employees on properly using secure information sharing methods
Understand why employees aren’t compliant: When it comes to security compliance, while companies are investing more, apathy is the leading cause of workers bypassing security policies. 78% of respondents acknowledged and agreed with their company’s security policies, but older employees simply do not care, and millennials admitted that they were too lazy to comply. Now, in the age of remote work, adherence to security standards/compliance to company policy is uncertain.
- Prior to the pandemic, 17% of millennials reported being too lazy to follow company policies, whereas those over 35 are 26% more likely to use insecure methods to transfer information
- Gen Y and Boomers are also 10% more likely than millennials to simply ignore security policies
Give employees what they want: Three-quarters of workers admitted to sending sensitive company information via email. Why? Because it is fast and easy. In fact, when asked what would help drive security compliance, email integration (35%) along with a zero-time learning curve (64%) were key requirements for workers to hop on the corporate security train.
- 88% of respondents said they were sending as much or more sensitive data through risky methods today than ever before
Email is not secure — Employees know this and they simply do not care. Access to resources, tools and training is not enough. Convenience is key to ensuring employees follow key security protocols and policies.
MITIGATING RISK AMONGST EMPLOYEES
Employees are and will continue to use email as their primary method of sharing sensitive information but are willing to adapt if companies make simple adjustments to their secure delivery solutions and policies.
3 Key Components for Cloud Secure File Transfer Solutions
- Simplicity and ease of use
- Email integration or similar intuitive interface
- Key features like receipt confirmation and file access tracking
When making new purchasing decisions, choose products that prioritize simplicity. Intuitive file-sharing tools that do not require significant overhead will help eliminate the risks created by employees defaulting to email. Organizations should examine solutions that offer streamlined, yet secure integrations with their enterprise email system, ensuring employees can send sensitive materials, attachments, and large files securely.
Biscom Cloud SFT
Biscom’s secure cloud file sharing and email solution provides businesses with a way to send documents, large files, and email messages as easily as an email but with embedded encryption and activity reports that enable you to meet your security and compliance requirements.
SFT Outlook Add-In
The SFT Outlook add-in is a lightweight plugin that provides access to a secure email and file transfer solution from your Microsoft Outlook client. The SFT add-in integrates with the Outlook ribbon, providing a Secure Message button that can be used to manually send secure attachments.
For more information about Biscom’s secure file transfer solutions please visit here.