After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work rose. But with the flexibility of work-from-anywhere, many cybersecurity risks arise. Employees logging in from home networks represent new targets for hackers aiming to infiltrate enterprise systems. Implementing robust security controls tailored for remote workers is now a strategic imperative to enable distributed teams while preventing data breaches or loss of intellectual property. This article spotlights software-based solutions companies can deploy to secure devices, networks, data, and access.
Solutions for Securing Remote Employee Devices & Data
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VPN software
Virtual private network software is an absolute necessity for protecting remote and hybrid workforces. VPNs establish securely encrypted tunnels that completely shield sensitive internet traffic from potential eavesdropping, hacking, and data theft threats. Especially when employees connect devices through public Wi-Fi networks, VPN encryption provides a critical layer of privacy and security, keeping all communications and access completely private. All remote user internet traffic should be configured to exclusively route through the VPN tunnel into internal company networks and assets, fully hidden from any external visibility. Alongside VPN protections, organizations must continue requiring basic security hygiene measures like promptly patching and updating endpoint devices as soon as vulnerabilities are identified, as well as implementing multi-factor authentication policies to validate user identities and prevent unauthorized access resulting from credential theft or guessing attempts.
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Endpoint security software
In addition to VPN measures, multilayered endpoint security suites like Microsoft ransomware protection for your company on each employee device are equally important for securing distributed and remote workforces at scale. Anti-virus and anti-malware software elements block the vast majority of known malware, viruses, and general threat attempts trying to infect or compromise endpoint machines. Supplementary host-based firewalls limit the potential impacts and damages from any threats or attacks that still happen to succeed in establishing an initial foothold on devices by preventing further internal pivoting or lateral movement of adversaries after that point. Additionally, organizations should implement comprehensive vulnerability scanning and remediation across all employee endpoint devices on an ongoing basis to identify and rapidly fix any emerging security gaps or weaknesses that attackers could still potentially exploit. Fully updated endpoint security suites make employee devices significantly less susceptible to compromise in any manner that could enable access to more central systems.
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Data encryption software
Implementing strong data encryption solutions provides another critical layer of protection for securing sensitive information across distributed and remote workforces. Encrypting locally stored endpoint files, as well as cloud collaboration platforms, scrambles readable plaintext into scrambled, unreadable ciphertext only accessible to authorized personnel with the passwords or cryptographic keys exclusively held by IT teams. Even in worst-case scenarios where employee credentials are compromised, or devices with stored sensitive data are physically lost or stolen, strong encryption means enterprise information remains fully secured and inaccessible to unauthorized parties. Intuitive, enterprise-wide data encryption options give remote and hybrid workers enhanced security without hindering legitimate access needed for productivity.
Solutions for Access Control & Authentication
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Multi-factor authentication
Instituting multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds immensely critical protection on top of passwords alone by requiring employees to provide an additional authentication factor from a trusted source – like unique single-use codes from an owned mobile device or biometric factors like fingerprint scans – when accessing internal systems and data from external remote locations outside the corporate network. Even in situations where passwords are stolen through phishing or other means, MFA ensures the credentials cannot alone enable access without secondary trusted device ownership confirmation. By combining device-based factors only available to legitimate owners with standard knowledge factors like passwords, even compromised credentials or unlimited guessing attempts cannot enable unauthorized access without additional authentication. Applying secondary MFA checks on top of modern password practices provides immense value for remotely verifying user identities.
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Single sign-on platforms
Consolidating access to company applications through a single secure identity portal enhanced by single sign-on functionality tremendously improves security over individually managed credentials across disconnected apps. With SSO platforms granting access to any enterprise apps through one set of synchronized login credentials, risks like password reuse across business systems are fundamentally eliminated. Employees can conveniently access all needed software from one seamless business identity and entry point, while IT teams maintain centralized visibility, lifecycle automation, and dynamic policy management for access controls, user provisioning/de-provisioning as workers enter new roles or leave the organization.
Solutions for Securing Company Networks
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Next-gen firewalls
Modern next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) deliver integrated, multilayered threat protections to secure remote users and cloud infrastructure through coordinated detection and response capabilities. Core anti-malware elements block known exploit attempts, malware communications, and command & control attack signatures, which could enable endpoint compromise or sensitive data theft. Supplementary intrusion prevention systems halt sophisticated buffer overflow, code injection, credential harvesting, and other attack techniques attempting to leverage software vulnerabilities on endpoints and internally facing assets. Heuristic analysis and machine learning further strengthen defenses by identifying novel threats, hackers, and highly targeted attacks not matching previously known indicators. Optimized NGFWs filter allowed traffic from detected external and insider threats dynamically based on contextual access patterns of remote users and workflows rather than static ports and protocols alone, fundamentally transforming enterprise defenses.
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Web application firewalls
As remote workforces increasingly rely on internet-facing web properties, APIs, and customized applications, web application firewalls (WAFs) provide immense value through deep analysis of all web traffic to counter injection attacks, data scraping attempts, and bot threats targeting these assets. Detecting and neutralizing exploitation techniques like cross-site scripting, SQL injection, or API brute forcing aiming to steal data, web application firewalls also blocklist suspect sources and frustrate automated credential stuffing attacks. Additionally, bot detection and mitigation capabilities further impede content scraping, transaction replaying, and account takeovers. As remote personnel and even customers depend on externally exposed web apps and APIs for critical workflows, modern WAFs enable immense data and application protection. Proper WAF implementation, ruleset optimization, and traffic analysis fine-tuning are imperative for securing distributed access frameworks.
Conclusion
Enabling ongoing remote work demands a multilayered cybersecurity approach to protect an expanded attack surface. While remote models introduce new risks of device theft and network infiltration, the solutions outlined allow organizations to equip flexible policies securely. Core priorities like device hardening, access controls, and network security underpin safe distributed infrastructure while protecting sensitive data itself via comprehensive encryption, which enables collaboration without fear of exposure. By embracing work-from-anywhere freedoms without security tradeoffs, modern businesses can future-proof operations for the post-pandemic age of hybrid work.
