With the outbreak of the COVID-19 and the subsequent adoption of remote work, many businesses were forced to accelerate their digital transformation plans, making rapid technological decisions and creating infrastructure to facilitate remote work. At the same time, they began using new applications.
As individuals shift to remote work, one of the biggest challenges they face is the changing work environment.
To balance the new working conditions, businesses have quickly adopted new technologies (chat and video meeting applications, VPNs , etc.) to ensure that employee collaboration and productivity are maximized.
It is more important than ever for business leaders to take the necessary steps to ensure that the speed of their very unique digital transformations does not expand the attack surface or provide easy entry for hackers . However, any new technology, if not properly monitored and regularly patched , can expose critical business data and devices to attack .
Therefore, to ensure that businesses do not experience something like this, every new corporate application must be evaluated and prepared in the same way. The security teams of companies do not provide employees with laptops without first ensuring they have the basic security measures, so the same must be done with new applications.
While the situation varies depending on the type of application and the infrastructure of a business, here are some of the key actions that businesses should take to ensure that new applications intended to increase employee productivity do not open the door to cyber attacks.
Assessing Security Settings
While it may sound simple, the first step security teams should take before introducing any new application is to take a look at the default security configurations that come with the technology. Default security is not universal for every business, and each security setting should be reviewed by employees before implementation. For example, is 2FA enabled? What modifications should be made to the default security settings? Is there the ability to password protect specific capabilities or actions within the platform? After a thorough review, the organization can better determine the settings that users should have configured based on their role, access to information, and other factors.
Set user restrictions
Once the correct security settings for a particular application have been defined and implemented, it is important that only authorized individuals can adjust them to ensure that applications remain as secure as they were when they were developed. To ensure this, only those who need administrative privileges should have them. Other users should have limited access based only on their roles within the enterprise.
Prioritize endpoint security and regular security updates
Endpoints are a key entry point for hackers. So, businesses need to implement certain tactics, such as patching devices and software, quickly and effectively. By being proactive, businesses can remove vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them and minimize the attack surface of the business.
Just as IT and security teams update endpoints with updates coming from Patch Tuesday each month, patching third-party applications is equally important. All types of technology should be patched after vulnerabilities are identified.
General observations
The fact that new technologies are being implemented by businesses to facilitate the transition to remote work is a good move. All of these new technologies play a crucial role in how they operate, collaborate, and ultimately deliver value to customers.
However, it is more important than ever for businesses to develop only applications that meet security requirements and, if this does not happen, to undertake the necessary procedures to make the technology with which their employees interact on a daily basis secure.
