Top 3 Concerns Of CIOs When Employees Are Working From Home

A little good comes out of everything – like acceptance of work from home came out of a pandemic. Global Workplace Analytics says that remote working has increased by 159% since 2009. Be it the flexibility of working without commuting or the comfort of working while spending time with families, 99% of employees would like to continue working remotely, according to a report by Buffer. Surprisingly, 65% of the US workers are even willing to take a 5% pay cut, to stay fully remote. Furthermore, a study of 16,000 people by Stanford found that their productivity increased by 13% while working from home.

These statistics, coupled with thousands of satisfied employee stories on social media, prove that work from home is here for the long run. The last two years have been a lesson for corporates and enterprises too, as most businesses have grown with the complete support of their employees, from home. Now, it is worth decoding why CIOs are still concerned about the work-from-home model.

● Distributed Work Environment

As work gets divided into more and more systems across households, the biggest concern is that of security. With a sudden switch to a fully remote working style, several endpoints are susceptible to vulnerabilities. Employees are more at risk of cyberattacks at home than in offices. Home connections are mostly less secure, and cybercriminals can find easy targets there.

Many people are generously switching between the company device and their personal devices while working from home. This sharing makes data furthermore vulnerable. Not just devices, but shared networks also pose a threat to security. Employees may not always be working from home, when in a remote arrangement. Sometimes, they can log in to their corporate collaboration platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams using unsecured public Wi-Fi networks. If any cyber-attackers are spying on these networks, they can easily access all confidential company information through the employee’s credentials.

CIOs are also struggling with providing a consistent employee experience across different locations, but there is no centralized control to offer that in remote or hybrid settings.

● Human Error

Cybersecurity training is no longer a good-to-have-HR exercise. It is a necessity across organizations. Most cyberattacks can ultimately be linked to human errors, where employees take one wrong step and their data goes to the wrong hands.

Now, CIOs are concerned about their employees becoming victims of phishing, scams, and hacking. There are several malicious apps and websites, more so in the wake of COVID-19, disguised as informative networks. Phishing attacks and hacking is also very easy through deceptive emails with fraudulent links and attachments.

To deal with this concern, cybersecurity training is crucial. CIOs should come forward and help their employees understand the need for strong passwords and the deployment of strong authorization. Knowing the right practices to stay safe on the internet, can resolve half of the security concerns.

● Confidential documents and data

Face-to-face corporate meetings are now Zoom meets or Teams get-togethers. This AV-led use-case of video conferencing has made work from home feel a little closer to office space. Most enterprises use video conferencing for simpler collaborations and even discuss sensitive information, plan-of-action, and management processes – basically, they share all kinds of data and files. Even the meeting notes and minutes are accessible through collaborative tools and browser extensions – including third-party extensions.

All of these practices in an unsecured network make data vulnerable to several kinds of potential threats. However, doing away with video conferencing is not at all the solution. Rather, AV solutions are the backbone of the modern workplace. Virtual workspaces and smart conferences are also a part of the new work ecosystem that India and the world are creating. It seems clear that the future includes a nod to the hybrid workplace where some employees work from the office for some of the time and from their homes the rest of the time. So, it is time to start a conversation around safe data sharing.

Employees should avoid the practice of unencrypted file sharing. The connected cameras on devices should not be on, all the time. Employees must be aware of different tools to gain control of their system and easily trace any malicious activity. But right now, these practices are not accurately in place.

Then, what is the solution?

As technology is forever evolving, most companies are still on their way to digital maturity. The CIOs can find crucial gaps in their digital strategies, and fixing them gets difficult with looming security concerns.

The biggest challenge for CIOs right now is to create a bridge between the old work ecosystem and the new one, picking out the best possible ways to keep the business secure and prospering. The challenges remain the same in hybrid mode, with the need for bridging security gaps, more than ever.

This is why, it is important to have dedicated networks for work at employee homes that are controlled from the office itself, to create a safe virtual home office that is more secure. Such practices can resolve most concerns of CIOs related to cybersecurity, and they will also help the IT team regulate systems across distributed workspaces.

To assist enterprises in creating a secure, dedicated network for work, Resurgent promises seamless communication, irrespective of employee location, across diverse sectors – from corporate and retail to the public sector and healthcare. It’s now time for Indian businesses to notice the global trends and grow with technology to increase their visibility and brand value.