In the coming days and weeks ahead, many businesses are assessing how they can maintain regular business operations while providing employees with a method of securely working from home. To help ease the burden on businesses, Microsoft, Google, LogMeIn, Cisco Webex, and Zoom are providing free remote working tools for certain industries so see the link to see if you qualify.
With the probable rise in remote work, companies will have to formulate plans to address this need while too, avoid cybersecurity risks or interruptions to business. “When supporting a remote workforce, understand that security controls shift. Therefore, firewalls, DNS and IDS/IPS could be ineffective when employees head home. Most environments that support VPNs should be able to protect the remote user, be sure to account for the bandwidth of users and remote desktop sessions,” said Dan Garcia, Senior Information Security Engineer II at Datto.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an alert on 3/13 to "encourage organizations to adopt a heightened state of cybersecurity. According to the CISA, remote work options require an VPN solution to connect employees to an organization’s network. The CISA encourages organizations to review the following recommendations when considering alternate workplace options:
Update VPNs, network infrastructure devices, and devices being used to remote into work environments with the latest software patches and security configurations.
Alert employees to an expected increase in phishing attempts. See CISA Tip Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks.
Ensure IT security personnel are prepared to ramp up the following remote access cybersecurity tasks: log review, attack detection, and incident response and recovery. Per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-46 v.2, Guide to Enterprise Telework, Remote Access, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Security, these tasks should be documented in the configuration management policy.
Implement MFA (multi-factor authentication) on all VPN connections to increase security. If MFA is not implemented, require teleworkers to use strong passwords. (See CISA Tips Choosing and Protecting Passwords and Supplementing Passwords for more information.)
Ensure IT security personnel test VPN limitations to prepare for mass usage and, if possible, implement modifications—such as rate limiting—to prioritize users that will require higher bandwidths.
Contact CISA to report incidents, phishing, malware, and other cybersecurity concerns."
If your organization hasn’t deployed a firewall, or currently does not have a VPN server, there are other solutions MWL can help you with in providing remote access to your company applications and data.
Call us today to discuss a solution that is right for you!
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