Want to Keep Data Secure? 4 Key Strategies to Avoid Data Loss

Remote workforces are leaving too much data open to threats, resulting in increased exposure to data breaches. Kris Lahiri, co-founder, and chief security officer at Egnyte outline four key ways security teams can keep sensitive data safe without letting it fall into the wrong hands. 

What does the future of work look like? This is the question that many business leaders and employees are asking now that organizations across the globe have been operating in virtual work environments for the better part of 2020. Will remote work becomes the new norm, or will businesses return to their previous mode of operations once it’s safe to do so? 

According to Salesforce ResearchOpens a new window , 67% of U.S. workers are interested in working remotely for the long term. If extended work from home policies from Twitter, Google, Zillow, and many more are any indication, employees will have their way. 

But, some businesses still have reservations about how remote workOpens a new window impacts operations. For instance, a survey conducted by enaible Opens a new window found that the majority of corporate executives are concerned about a decrease in employee morale, false reads on productivity, home/life distractions, and a lack of visibility on employees. 

Learn More: Believe It or Not, Remote Workers Just Don’t Care About Cybersecurity: Malwarebytes Labs

Meanwhile, IT teams are tending to overwhelmed networks due to the sheer volume of employees working outside traditional offices. Most enterprise networks were simply not set up to support workforces that are predominantly remote. 

IT teams are also struggling with shadow IT issues as users cobble together ad hoc solutions (such as hotspot usage, personal email and mobile device communications, or file sharing on third-party cloud apps) to overcome connectivity issues. This approach not only limits IT visibility, but also toggles network access on and off, multiplies access points, and reduces user adherence to security and compliance policies, resulting in increased exposure to data breaches, privacy incidents, and other major business risks. 

While the sudden shift to remote work has certainly presented new challenges, there are several measures CIOs can take to help workers stay productive while at the same time keeping company data secure. 

Learn More: Don’t Leave Cloud Data Security Behind: 5 Best Practices to Follow

Check out four key ways to secure sensitive data:  

1.Modernizing Your Content Infrastructure

Now that employees are accessing company data from a variety of locations outside the office, you must consider how your content infrastructure impacts data security. This new remote work setup means you are managing and protecting greater amounts of data than what is traditionally housed on-premise or in the data center itself. 

If you can, move to a centralized cloud-based management system from which you can centrally manage data and content permissions, access policies, etc. But if you are among the many that must preserve legacy systems due to cost or contractual restrictions, consider leveraging a hybrid solution to meet today’s increasing security, compliance and productivity requirements. This way, you can integrate new cloud-based content management solutions with legacy systems and establish a greater degree of control over file sharing and collaboration activities to reduce security risks and improve user experiences.

2. Applying Key IT Policies Uniformly 

As remote workers operate from home and leverage unfamiliar networks and devices on a daily basis, it’s much more difficult for IT to centralize network security, compliance, and governance. To enforce key IT policies across multiple environments outside their control, you should start by creating network usage guidelines that comply with industry and government standards. Automated policy enforcement can help you ensure off-network employees are operating safely and securely at scale. 

Consider an employee downloading an email attachment to temporarily work on a spreadsheet from his personal home computer. You are now accountable for what happens to any sensitive data from that document within an uncontrolled off-network environment. Luckily unified content management platforms can help you ensure that IT policies are applied and enforced uniformly regardless of the location of each employee.

Learn More: Know Your Company’s Enemy: 3 Different Types of Data Breaches

3. Adding Key Security Layers 

Most businesses have disaster recovery plans in place, but it can be difficult to measure their efficacy unless they’re put to the test. If you find yourself now leaning on your disaster recovery plan, it’s likely you are uncovering new security challenges that you hadn’t previously considered (e.g., employees circumventing IT policies, greater use of personal devices to access company data, etc.). 

To respond to these challenges and prepare for new ones, you need to better protect your data regardless of where users are accessing it by implementing critical controls such as advanced antivirus, endpoint defenses and ransomware protections. Additionally, be sure to strengthen file permission policies and implement end-to-end encryption to ensure all shared files and folders remain private.

4. Supplementing Your VPN Deployments 

VPNs are a tried and true method for sharing data across networks and distributed locations, but they can cause performance degradation that frustrates end users, and they can even increase security risks. Though VPNs can and should be used for point-to-point access to a company’s network for core infrastructure tasks, you must also find alternative solutions for remote workers to securely access and share files that don’t hinder productivity. 

Some methods include adopting multi-factor authentication (to ensure only the right users can log in and access sensitive information) and a single point of access for company files and content (to simplify and secure file storage and sharing). Tools like these can help remote workers quickly and securely get access to the content they need without being burdened by slow VPNOpens a new window connections.

Adapt and Thrive 

The abrupt transition to full-time remote work has been overwhelming for even the most prepared organizations. Many digital businesses are feeling pressure to keep workers secure while also giving them access to the content they need to be productive. If remote workOpens a new window challenges are causing chaos for your business, consider migrating away from piecemeal collaboration tools and file-sharing systems for a more centralized, intelligent content services strategy. Adapting to the “new normal” with the above strategies, systems, and policies will help your organization not only survive but thrive in the post-COVID business landscape. 

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