As Fortune reports, the mix of in-person and remote work could be a “nightmare scenario” for cybersecurity pros. Employees who are 100% remote can be separated from key systems, but hybrid employees pose a risk each time they come back to the office and log in, possibly bringing security compromises with them.
For an indication of the hazards that may await, one study finds that 61% of malware delivered last year was sent via cloud-based apps. Elsewhere, a recent phishing attack on an employee at the California State Controller’s office compromised internal documents and allowed hackers to phish another 9,000 employees at this $100-billion-a-year agency.
Organizations should review their cybersecurity to be sure it fits in with the hybrid-office environment, concludes the Fortune report, authored by Jesper Andersen, CEO of cybersecurity firm Infoblox. Investing upfront in cloud-based security solutions can close off potential attack routes before they become a problem, Anderson argues.
Compliance Week’s list of “six best practices for managing cybersecurity upon return to the office” starts with shoring up privacy and security in shared workspaces. With the rise of shared employee workspaces through strategies like “hot desking,” security pros will need to consider how to prevent confidential information from being accidentally glimpsed or overheard.
Compliance Week also calls for updating hardware inventories and rolling out oversight controls for chat and collaboration platforms such as Zoom and Slack. Fine-tuning cybersecurity policies and revising risk assessments to take account of the hybrid workplace are further recommended steps. Employee training on phishing is another imperative, writes Marc Gilman, general counsel at software provider Theta Lake.
It’s perhaps no wonder that cybersecurity spending is projected to increase. According to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, cybersecurity expenditures are on track for $200 billion a year by 2024, with network and endpoint security seen as the fast-growing segments.