Accepting the “New Normal”, yes we all are hearing this famous term which asks us to find ways to live a new normal life which includes the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Well, it’s good to see that people are making their efforts to keep their lives and work going by finding alternatives, the sudden massive remote working force is the best example of this.  

Yes, while the businessmen are driving their workforce to serve their duty remotely, the increase in the cybersecurity threat has taken a surge. The employees during the remote work are connected to different home networks which might not be secured via firewalls to protect them against any cyber attack. 

As such connections are vulnerable and an easy target of phishing attacks. It’s a threat for the organization or corporate owners as there are many confidential data like credentials and the company documents that are being shared via those networks. So here comes the need for endpoint security for the business, especially when the employees are working remotely. 

What is endpoint security? 

Endpoint security is a process or an approach to protect the entry points or endpoints of different devices like laptops, mobile phones, and desktops that are remotely connected to client devices. With the endpoint security software, the devices connected in a specific corporate network or on a cloud are enveloped with high-security controls which ensures that data are not leaked through any of the endpoint devices, thus reducing the threat of the organization being a victim of cyber scams. 

These endpoint security controls are developed and evolved from the traditional antivirus software and are much-taken care when it comes to complying with the security standards. Considering endpoint security as a cybersecurity frontline for many huge organizations, this approach stands first for the companies looking for a secured enterprise network.

Moving forward, let’s look at some of the security threats that remote workers face to understand the need for endpoint security for them. 

Cybersecurity threats for remote workers 

• Phishing 

While working remotely, exchange of the confidential data, credentials, and project details between the employees and the employers is a normal thing to happen. As every one of them is connected to different networks, there are chances of data breaching and phishing attacks while the information is being transferred. 

Here the hacker can easily manipulate the data and send the corrupted links and messages with the malicious attachment to the other side. The receiver on clicking the link or opening the corrupted email, thus becomes a part of the phishing attack and the hacker will get access to all the device data. 

 

• Wifi security exploitation

 

The employees when working in the office are connected to office wifi which is well protected by wifi security and has complete access over the wifi usage with the track record. 

During work from home, the remote employees are connected to their home wifi or phone wifi network to their office devices which have much data related to the projects. As these networks use weeker protocols like WEP which are less powerful than protocols like WPA-2 gives easy access to the wifi network to the hackers. 

This loophole in the wifi security can thus act as a reason for a big cyber scam.

 

• Password hacking 

 

The team working on a similar project might be logged in with the same project credentials from different devices in different networks. Well, it’s very easy for the hacker to hack the simple passwords and if this simple password is used on many platforms, it’s an easy go for him to crack and hack the devices and accounts. 

Password hacking is a common cyber-attack scenario especially seen for the corporate organization, as for them the data is all they work on and if its hacked there could be a disastrous situation that could destroy their company. 

In order to avoid such mishaps and to ensure that your remote team and your organization data are under a safe environment, below are some endpoint security controls that can help you protect your workforce.

Endpoint security management and controls for remote workers 

• Implement next-generation EDR 

The traditional endpoint security solutions were capable of securing nodes of a specified network in the office. While with the all-new and advanced EDR the same safety feature is available to use even outside the corporate network. 

These advanced EDR have the ability to prevent malware while also enabling the user to take immediate action to stop such new malware from entering or spreading into the system. The new EDR helps the corporate owners to get complete and stronger endpoint protection on or off the network. 

• Use VPN and MFA while working with remote employees 

It’s very important for the corporates to handle sensitive data especially when the team is working remotely. Adopting for VPN and using only this for the data transfers and work will ensure data security to a greater extent for these employers. 

As the device and the data are not exposed to any external network, the chances of data scams can be reduced. While keeping a multi-factor authentication for your every internal application can also be a great option to ensure safety as it will help you and your team to double-check the access point and ensure that apps are being used by an authorized user of the company. 

• Enhances 24/7 security monitoring on your shared network 

Working in the advanced corporate world, your data would be stored on the cloud, so while working from home your employees would be able to access those clouds and other infrastructure for accomplishing their work.

This is the time when the owners have to improve the cloud access security by enabling such an endpoint security factor that has a constant eye (24/7 tracking) on the network security and cloud infrastructure to keep the corporate devices protected from malware attacks. 

Summing Up

The pandemic situation has made us all led towards a new life with a changed approach. While the business is accepting this not so old concept of remote working as the new normal for the company operation, opting for the solutions that keep the security of the employee and the company data should be considered as a center point to avoid any mishaps. 

As currently there is a high strain on the online resources used by the organization for the coordination of the work process, endpoint security management is a great way to ensure that your organization is working in a safer space.

Author bio :

Parth Patel is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of SyS Creations – managed IT services in Ontario. He has been serving in the Canadian healthcare industry for more than 7 years. Along with his team, Parth Patel has earned expertise in customized app development and even developed a virtual healthcare solution for long-term care homes.