Hybrid work models allow modern workplaces to split time between home, office and other locations. Although this has increased worker output and improved morale, it has introduced a new set of cybersecurity challenges, expanding the attack surface for many organizations. The shift to distributed work environments has fundamentally altered how businesses approach information security, creating unprecedented vulnerabilities that traditional office-based security measures cannot adequately address.
Poor Wi-Fi security, VPN Use and device hygiene often causes these security gaps. Let’s explore how these blind spots affect your hybrid workplace and actions you can take to secure your business from hybrid threats where attackers exploit the seams between home and work environments. Understanding these vulnerabilities is crucial for maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture in today’s evolving work landscape.
Wi-Fi Blind Spots and Similar Threats
In a hybrid workplace, your employees can opt to work from home, co-working spaces and cafes, using unsecured or misconfigured Wi-Fi network connections. These unsecured networks outside the secure perimeter of your formal workplace can expose your staff to man-in-the-middle attacks, credential theft and malware. The proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots in restaurants, airports, and hotels has made this threat vector increasingly common and dangerous.
By connecting to an unsanctioned wireless router, your employees may unintentionally bypass company security protocols, exposing your internal resources to intrusion. Cybercriminals can use unsecured networks to eavesdrop on sensitive data (including emails and files) that your employees can access.
Wi-Fi blind spots are often hard to detect. For instance, your company may lack the tools to correlate Wi-Fi signal data, network health, and security posture across the distributed workforce. Additionally, it is near impossible to control employee behavior, as they may unknowingly connect to unsecure networks or ignore best practices outside your formal workplace.
Practical Steps to Minimize Wi-Fi Blind Spots
Here are some actions your staff can take to minimize hidden IT gap exposure when using unsecured Wi-Fi networks:
- Require all remote connections to use VPNs to encrypt data when using any unsecured Wi-Fi network.
- Ensure your staff disable their devices from auto-connecting to open Wi-Fi networks and confirm the legitimacy of any hotspot before connecting.
- Train your workforce on best practices and create awareness on how to recognize common Wi-Fi threats.
- Encourage teams to use Wi-Fi scanning tools to detect rogue access points.
- Encourage employees to secure their home Wi-Fi networks with WPA3 encryption and strong passwords.
VPN Reliability and Misuse
Many hybrid and remote workforces already use VPNs to secure their access to corporate computer systems. However, that also comes with its unique reliability and scalability challenges, leading to unprecedented cybersecurity gaps in your business. The complexity of managing VPN infrastructure across diverse geographical locations and varying internet service quality adds another layer of operational difficulty.
For instance, if a worker lacks knowledge on how to configure their VPN, it can expose your systems to attacks. Also, outdated VPN protocols and encryption expose you to many vulnerability exploits.
Commercial VPNs often have performance bottlenecks. Since VPNS typically route all traffic through a central gateway, your employees may deal with network congestion, high latency and frequent VPN downtime. This may lead to choppy video calls and slow file transfers, which can affect employee output and morale.
It becomes harder to scale VPN use across a hybrid workplace, especially if you have a large workforce. Because of potential downtime and performance issues, some employees may choose to bypass VPN use. Often, this creates a loophole for attackers to use to breach your systems.
Mitigation of VPN Reliability and Misuse
Here are some practical tips to improve VPN reliability and reduce misuse:
- Create and implement strict VPN policies that require Multi-Factor Authentication to reduce the risk of VPN misuse.
- Monitor your VPN network to detect unusual user behavior that may show misuse. Check for new login locations, excessive data transfers, or unusual access patterns.
- Monitor and block non-VPN connections attempting to access corporate resources.
- Train your workforce on secure VPN usage, with an emphasis on recognizing phishing attacks and the risks of credential sharing.
- Explore alternatives to VPNs, including zero trust network access (ZTNA) and secure access service edge (SASE). These tools can address the limitations of traditional VPNs for your hybrid workforce.
Device-Hygiene Blind Spots
The endpoint, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and peripheral devices, is the new cybersecurity battlefront in hybrid work environments. In a hybrid work environment, your workers often use a mix of corporate and personal devices, which can create a complex cybersecurity environment. It can lead to an increased surface of attack, with every device as a potential vector or access point for unauthorized users.
Many hybrid workers use devices with minor oversight from your IT department. Some of these devices may have unpatched vulnerabilities, miss critical security updates or use deprecated software. That makes them prime targets for intrusion by attackers using known vulnerabilities that are already patched elsewhere.
Plenty of these attacks boil down to human error and risky behavior by your employees and company. Your distributed staff are more likely to download malware or succumb to phishing attacks from their personal devices, bringing malware infections and credential theft to your business. The psychological factor of working in familiar, comfortable environments can also lead to decreased vigilance regarding security protocols.
Additionally, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, especially in small and medium businesses, often results in your employees using misconfigured, shared or unsupported operating systems. It also blurs your network security perimeter, creating loopholes for potential man-in-the-middle attacks and other threats.
Addressing Device-Hygiene Blind Spots
Here are some tips to address critical device hygiene blind spots in your business:
- Enforce and automate regular updates for all endpoints, operating systems, applications, and security tools. This closes the window of exposure to all vulnerabilities and potential exploits. Also, using centralised patch management prevents update lag.
- Use Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) to enforce security policies and control device configurations. These tools also work even on personal devices used at work.
- Apply Zero-Trust Security principles to verify every device and users before granting access to corporate resources. Use the Principle of Least Privilege and continuously monitor for system anomalies.
- Continuously assess and audit device hygiene and align security practices with all compliance requirements for hybrid work.
