With the Coronavirus spreading around the world, now reaching France, more and more companies are resorting to teleworking. Thanks to high-speed networks and online solutions for collaborative work or video conferencing, teleworking seems a viable solution, allowing companies and services to continue their operations. However, with mass teleworking expected to increase even more in the coming period, forcing millions of employees to work from home, numerous issues are raised, one of which concerns the possible congestion of networks and the security of corporate data.
More specifically, one of the issues raised is whether the Coronavirus can “hit” the Internet. According to experts, network congestion may occur, especially on the part of private companies’ networks, so those who work from home will have to use VPNs to access company information systems. However, these private networks usually have limitations on the number of users who can use them simultaneously and on capacity as they are not configured in such a way that they can serve everyone who works from home at the same time.
As a result, many companies are not ready for mass teleworking. In particular, email connectivity , business applications and collaboration tools are at risk of being severely degraded. In addition, in recent days there has been an increase in demand for cloud- based solutions , which have the advantage of being able to adapt in case of a sharp increase in connections.
Fabio Costa, who works with cybersecurity at Akamai, confirmed that there is a risk of congestion on corporate sites for access to professional applications, such as email, video conferencing, CRM, corporate portal, chat, developer platform, etc. It all depends on the size of the infrastructure. Companies with cloud are less exposed to the risk. Furthermore, if an average connection allows the exchange of small files, it cannot provide services such as a quality video conference or the sending of large images-videos.
The situation could become even more complicated in the US, which does not have optimal network quality. The weak point, where the system could become overloaded, is at the “level of the Internet of people”, according to Lisa Pierce, a network expert at Bloomberg. Moreover, Pierce notes that, unlike a few years ago, the US is better prepared for potential network congestion.
Can mass remote work affect corporate data security?
This is a question that concerns IT managers and company bosses. Within the company, the employee works in an environment that is a priori secure and controlled. When working remotely, however, all or at least part of the data exchanged may be transferred unprotected and therefore become a target for hackers, especially when everything goes through the cloud. In this case too, VPN helps to make exchanges possible, but many companies are not properly equipped and it takes time to find the necessary solutions.
Small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly concerned about mass remote work because they lack the resources required to implement such a solution. With the help of experienced technicians, however, they can find a solution. Specifically, American Cloudfare has set up an online portal where businesses can find secure solutions for working from home.
Companies are increasingly looking for solutions to avoid problems during mass teleworking. Cisco sees that congestion in Asia for its online conferencing tool WebEx has increased by 700%, while visits to the company's page for free collaboration solutions have increased by 300% across Europe.
