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Best Practice – Completing Security Surveys and Questionnaires

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Data Protection & Security

In our recent Security Update Series blog post, New Security Demands & Requirements for Small and Midsize Businesses, we discussed three drivers for increased business security. We noted that expectations will often be expressed in security surveys and questionnaires you are asked to complete. Providing incorrect, incomplete, or misleading answers, whether intentional or not, can impact premiums and your available coverage.

To minimize the risks and potential pitfalls, here are five best practices to follow:

1 Know the Process

Before starting your response, have the broker or agent walk you through the process in detail. What role do the security surveys or questionnaires play in the underwriting process? While some carriers only use a single survey, others will ask for follow-up information and/or request evidence supporting your answers.

Understanding the process will guide how you answer questions and the nature and amount of information you provide.

2 Follow the Rule of Absolutes

Following the “Rule of Absolutes,” answering “yes” or “no” to a question means “yes” or “no” everywhere and in every instance. 

For example, if you answer “yes” to the question, “Do you require multi-factor authentication for user login?”, you are stating that MFA is in place for every possible user login for every system or service. Answering “yes” if this is not the case will be considered a misleading or deceptive response.

The better approach is to answer with commentary that accurately responds to the intended questions without absolutes. Using the above example, provide a list of systems for which MFA is required, optional but recommended, and/or not available. In addition to being a more accurate response, the information will better inform the underwriting risk assessment.

3 Understand the Questions

Not all questions may be clear. Some questions will focus on technology. Others will focus on policies, processes, and procedures. Still others will focus on outcomes.

For example, these three questions:

  1. What security incident and event management (SIEM) system is in place?
  2. Do you have security incident and event management?
  3. Do you monitor, save, and analyze security event logs to identify alerts and conditions that require responsive action?

Question 1 appears to be asking about specific software or tools. The second Question asks about capability; the software tools and operational resources may be implied or assumed with a “yes” answer. Question 3 probes procedures, possibly independent of the supporting technology and/or existence or use of a security operations center (SOC).

If you are not sure how to best answer the questions, consult with the broker or agent for guidance.

4 Pause and Implement

In reviewing the security surveys or questionnaires, you may notice an emphasis on certain aspects of your security systems, solutions, policies, and processes. 

If your answers appear to indicate weakness in these areas, consult with the broker or agent for guidance. You may benefit from pausing the effort until you can update or implement expected services and solutions.

In some cases, indicating that an improvement is in process may be sufficient to move forward.

5 Get Legal Advice

You own and are legally bound by the survey and questionnaire responses you provided. This holds true even if IT providers, vendors, and others have drafted portions of your response.

Before submitting your responses, review the surveys or questionnaires and your responses with qualified legal counsel familiar with cyber security. Understand if answers provided by third parties may create issues or liabilities. Understand any and all commitments expressed and implied in your responses.

What to Do:

The best course of action is to assess and, if appropriate, adjust your security services before you face a survey, questionnaire, or audit. Our Rapid Security Assessment provides a quick review of core security services. Our Cloud Advisors are ready to assist with any questions or concerns.

Contact us or schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors. 

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management. 

 

Ensuring Hybrid Work Actually Works

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Hybrid Workplace

For most of us and our businesses, hybrid work from home jobs are here to stay.  In reality, it has almost always been with us.  Salespersons, field technicians, and other out-of-office customer-facing roles have been a part of many businesses for decades.  The mix, however, of who works outside the office has changed.  And while many businesses are still working to figure out how many in-office work days are necessary each week, the underlying assumption is that hybrid work models will remain.

The challenge now is to ensure your model for hybrid work actually works for your business. When remote work was the exception, the solutions could be one-offs, or more complicated, because the impact on users was limited.  The extra effort to connect to the office was acceptable.  Remote work is now part of the norm, whether in a hybrid model or full-time. Connecting is now critical — technically and in terms of communication, collaboration, and culture.

Here are 5 Ways to Help Ensure Hybrid Work Actually Works

 

1 Simplify Access and Accessibility

Ensure your team can connect and work easily.  Each added layer, such as VPNs, adds a layer of complexity and creates another opportunity for something to go wrong. Complexity also impedes performance.

Moving services — applications, files, data — into a central cloud service reduces the need for complex connections from remote users to in-house networks and servers.  Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, for example, can easily replace traditional file servers.  Using a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) service with remote desktops simplifies access and accessibility to servers and line-of-business applications that do not yet run in the cloud.

2 Create a Single User Experience

If the user experience is different in-office and remotely, team members on a hybrid schedule must effectively navigate two different systems to connect and work. The result is often confusion. File locations and access to printers and scanners become confusing. Configuring oneDrive or Google Drive desktop applications is challenging if you want them to work on and off your office network.

Creating a single user experience reduces the confusion and eliminates potential roadblocks to productivity.

One of the easiest ways to create a single user experience is to use (VDI) and remote desktops.  Rather than having users work “locally” in the office and “remotely” elsewhere, the VDI environment provides remote desktops usable to everybody regardless of location.  All users connect to the service and work within a secure network.

As an added benefit, VDI narrows the scope of your security envelope. VDI reduces the need to manage end user devices, particularly if you allow Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD).

3 Enable Collaboration

The flow of information is different when we work remotely versus together. And while many are more productive working remotely, effective collaboration takes effort.

On average small businesses use only 10% to 15% of the features and capabilities of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. There is a high cost to low adoption.

To foster collaboration, your team must be comfortable using the tools that enable the sharing, communications, and relationships. On-going education of capabilities helps team members learn and use collaboration features. Reviewing and updating workflows and processes can improve collaboration within day-to-day activities.

4 Manage Your Managers

Managing people and leading teams is a skill. Many “doers” struggle when they become managers, given the complexities of coaching, mentoring, managing expectations, and dispute resolution across diverse groups of individuals. Managing teams with remote members is even more challenging. Team dynamics will differ, perception biases related to visibility will exist, and managing will need to be against results and expectations rather than visible activity.

Team leaders and managers need education, training, guidance, and mentoring to succeed.  And this need is greater with hybrid and remote teams. Peruse the Ask a Manager blog archives if you want real life examples of unskilled, and outright bad, managers who can damage your business.

Spend some time, and yes, money, to develop management and leadership skills for those responsible for supervising others.  Include guidance and support for issues unique to remote staff and hybrid and remote teams.

5 Include People Intentionally

Remote work does allow team members to focus on their tasks and manage their time. Meetings still happen and team members can use their commute time for other things.

In-person work still has benefits. Unstructured interactions build relationships and connections that enable ideas and innovations to take hold. Granted, “water cooler” chats can be gossipy or give naysayers a channel.  These conversations also enable many to float and test ideas outside of formal meetings. There is a perceived formality when you ask somebody to meet via video, even if it is to just bounce and discuss ideas. The acts of requesting, scheduling, and joining create a structure that differs from catching somebody at their desk, in the hall, or walking back from lunch.

The solution is to create opportunities for casual communications and to set the expectation that they should occur. To do so, your team members need opportunities to interact not only on work, but work-tangential topics, as a means to build relationships and trust.

For your remote/hybrid workers, inclusion is key.

  • As you prepare for meetings, let remote participants know in advance that you will be seeking their input on various topics. Set the expectation for participation without an element of surprise.
  • Create the habit of asking, “Who else should we ask?” when having unstructured discussions. Include them in real-time via chat or video, or message them for ideas or a time to chat.
  • Actively include remote workers in company events.  Team pizza lunch on Thursday?  Move it to a conference room, invite remote team members, and send remote participants lunch (or a credit to order their favorite).
  • Plan company events so remote team members can participate. Activities, like providing the ingredients and preparing a fancy meal guided by a chef, allow people to share a common experience in a group setting, even though participants are not physically together.

Next Step: Cumulus Global Can Help Your Business Succeed in a Hybrid Work Environment

Making sure that hybrid work actually works for your business requires intent, planning and action. Even small initiatives and steps to support remote staff and teams, and to foster communication, trust, and collaboration, can have a big impact on your business.

Cumulus Global can help you with plan and deploy technologies and servers that enable and support effective remote workers and teams.  With best-in-class remote desktop/VDI services, expert support for both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and affordable Managed Cloud Services, we will help your business thrive and grow.

Click here to schedule a call with a Cloud Advisor or send us an email. There is no cost and no obligation.

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management. 

 

The State and Future of Remote Work

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As noted in a recent article published by American City Business Journals, the state and future of remote work are still up for debate.  Remote work and hybrid work arrangements continue to face resistance. Our reduced need for office space still impacts city centers and commercial real estate markets.  And yet, employees still want remote and hybrid work arrangements. The desire to have work-from-home options is strong enough that many employees will take pay cuts in exchange for the flexibility.

Some of the Data

Work from Home Research noted that paid full days worked out of office was about 27%, year to date, in 2023.  This represents a very slight decrease from recent months.

In February 2023:

  • 60% of employees worked full-time in the office
  • 28% of employees worked in a hybrid arrangement
  • 12% of employees worked remotely full time

40% of employees continue to work some or all of their time outside the office.

A recent study by Robert Half found:

  • 28% of job postings were advertised as remote
  • 32% of employees who work in the office at least one (1) day per week would take an average 18%  pay cut to work remotely full time

Data from the Federal Reserve indicates that:

  • From 2020 to 2021, during the surge in remote work, productivity jumped from 108.57 per hour to 115.3 per hour
  • In 2022, productivity dropped slightly as more employees returned to the office

Using the Data

Remote and hybrid work arrangements will likely continue as companies and employees work to find the right balance for the company and employees.  As small business leaders, we understand that remote work is an attractive feature of job postings, and 1/3 of employees would take a pay cut or change jobs to work remotely.

We need to manage our remote and hybrid work arrangements in ways that employees see as flexible and accommodating. 

In-person interactions with colleagues can improve morale and enhance company culture. It makes sense that we want most employees in the office, interacting face-to-face, at least some of the time.

Employees see most hybrid work arrangements as designed to meet the needs of the company, not employees.  Employees see incentives, such as free meals and other “perks”, as gimmicks to attract employees to the office without addressing employees’ needs.  We need to present hybrid work arrangements honestly in terms of company needs and priorities and those of the employees. If we provide a real balance of needs and priorities, employees will feel respected and heard. They will be more accepting of change.

The Role of Technology

We have no doubts about the power of technology to empower your employees to do their best work — in office or remotely.  Many small businesses scrambled to support remote work at the onset of the pandemic.  These solutions were often rushed and, as such, less efficient or effective than needed.  Too many of us, however, have not stepped back to assess, revise, and improve our IT support for remote and hybrid work.

We need support and technologies in place to ensure the long-term viability of remote and hybrid work.

Employees, when working remotely, want and need the same resources and abilities as when they are working in the office.  They want the same user experience regardless of where or how they work.  At the same time, we need to ensure our systems and data remain secure and protected.

When assessing your IT services, make sure you have the SPARC you need:

  • Security
  • Performance
  • Availability
  • Reliability
  • Cost

Leveraging cloud services, you can provide secure access to your systems and data, with a consistent user experience, at a reasonable cost.

Calls To Action

1. Read our recent eBook, Cloud Strategies for Small and Midsize Businesses. In this eBook, we: Set the stage by looking at how small and midsize businesses acquire and use technology and IT services; Explore the challenges we face moving into the cloud; and Map out four strategies for enhancing your use and expansion of cloud services.

2. Schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors or contact us to discuss how best you can support your remote and hybrid workers. The conversation is free, without obligation, and at your convenience.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America. Starting his first business at age 12, Allen is a serial entrepreneur. He has launched strategic IT consulting, software, and service companies. An advocate for small and midsize businesses, Allen served on the board of the former Smaller Business Association of New England, local economic development committees, and industry advisory boards.

Hybrid Business Strategy: Examples, Considerations, and Recommendations

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Hybrid Workplace

The Business Side of Hybrid Workplace Strategy

The business side of hybrid workplace strategy is forefront as we make plans for the future. In a survey recently published by Gartner, CEOs were asked to identify the top enduring changes resulting from the pandemic. 45% of CEOs stated that hybrid and remote work was the most significant long-term impact. This equals all other noted enduring changes, combined. Nearly every business will have some degree of remote and hybrid working arrangements, as we experience a change in employee expectations and broader cultural shifts.

In past posts, we have looked at the technology and related managed cloud services needed to properly support remote and hybrid workplaces. The business administration issues related to hybrid and remote work are more complex than the technology solutions.

Four Hybrid Workplace Business Considerations

We’ve broken down what you should think about when it comes to hybrid workplace strategy into four key points. Each of these aspects of a hybrid workplace contains examples of how a hybrid business strategy might be implemented. See how these four considerations can help you strike the right balance and create a hybrid workplace that prioritizes people.

1. Working Environment

As we have noted before, as employers we are responsible for providing staff with a safe and healthy work environment.  If employees are working remotely, or from home, on a regular basis (an expectation for the job), their work environment must be managed appropriately through a hybrid work strategy.  We are responsible to ensure appropriate lighting, noise, desk space, seating, and ergonomic accommodations, as well as productivity tools, and cloud collaboration services.

2. Payroll, Benefits, and Compliance

With employees working at home, you are more likely to be paying employees who both live and work out of state (or in another tax jurisdiction). In addition to accurately representing their work location for payroll, you will need to provide benefits in each state and comply with each state’s employment laws.  Minimum wage, sick time, and paid leave are a few of the regulations that differ between states, and need to be considered in a hybrid business strategy.  Healthcare plans and providers will also differ, as do contributions to state unemployment insurance programs.  Additionally, you will need workers’ compensation insurance coverage for each state in which employees work.

3. Insurance

Beyond workers’ compensation, you may need to update your general liability coverages to address employees working from home.  Your insurer may see additional risk and/or the need to document work locations to ensure your business is properly covered.  Most policies require that you list any company-owned or leased work spaces, including co-working spaces.

4. Taxes

Lastly, when it comes to a hybrid workplace strategy, having employees work in your state while living in another is not uncommon. States have reciprocity agreements that dictate how these employees need to file their personal tax returns.  When you have remote employees working in other states, the rules are not yet as clear. Some states expect you to withhold taxes based on your employees’ locations, as this is their workplace.

Even more impactful, some states see an employee’s work location as creating nexus, and will require you to file business tax returns in that state.

Recommendations on a Hybrid Workplace Strategy

We strongly recommend that you proactively address the business side of hybrid work.  Speak with your HR, tax, and legal advisors as you navigate and design your hybrid strategy and remote work plans.

  • Consider using a Professional Employment Organization, or PEO, to manage payroll, benefits, HR policies, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation insurance.  In addition to operating across state lines, PEOs provide you with a unified approach to human resource services. They can assist with recruiting, onboarding, offboarding, and regulatory needs such as driver safety, OSHA compliance, and testing for banned substances. PEOs als0 assume liability for compliance errors.
  • Be prepared to provide employees working from home with the workspace and accommodations they need to be healthy, safe, and productive. Beyond IT, we can assist with home office workstations, desks, stands, lighting, and more.
  • Communicate with your insurance provider to ensure your coverages are appropriate and correct.
  • Consult your tax and legal advisors to ensure you understand when, and where, you have nexus with respect to corporate registrations and taxes.

If you’d like to chat more about hybrid business strategy, be sure to get in touch!

Six Best Remote Work Strategies 

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Remote Work Strategy in Action

If you have remote workers, then how you manage your business and employees has, and will continue to change. We often talk about the technology that makes remote work efficient and that can help integrate teams. But supporting remote workers requires a broader perspective and understanding of the workplace.  As employers, we remain responsible for providing a safe, effective workplace regardless of where our employees work. Here a few considerations as you plan your hybrid business and remote work strategy.

If you have remote workers, then you should consider the following six best practices for a remote work strategy.

Six of The Best Remote Work Strategies

  1. Are responsible for their work environments, including the same health and safety regulations that apply in the office.
    • Ensuring safe and appropriate workspace ergonomics, sound levels, lighting, etc. are responsibilities of the employer.
    • Provide your remote workforce with appropriate furniture, lighting, and ergonomic tools.
    • And yes, an employee working from home might be eligible for Workers’ Compensation if they trip over their dog while working.
  2. Need to accurately track and manage working hours for non-exempt employees.
    • Avoid wage and employment related liabilities by ensuring hourly workers are compensated for all work time, including when they respond to the random off-hours email.
    • Setting clear policies and expectations can help avoid work hour, wage, and employment issues.
  3. Are responsible for ensuring their work is secure.
    • Remote work environments must be managed and secured to the same levels as those working in the office.
    • Data privacy regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI, and SEC17, do not end at the office door.
    • Networks, systems, applications, and data require the same levels of protection regardless of location.
    • Similarly, physical protections must be in place for printed documents.
  4. Can be accountable for intellectual property stored on personal devices.
    • Establish a clear policy and procedures for the use of personal devices for work.
    • Include the need for the company to install software or productivity tools to manage the business’ information on the device, including but not limited to cyber protections, personal/work data separation, local encryption, backup/recovery, and the ability to remotely remove work related data in an emergency.
  5. Want to avoid “in-person” bias.
    • Remote workers need mechanisms and unified communication options to participate in the informal conversations and interactions we take for granted when working in an office environment.
    • Supervisors and managers should help workers establish and build effective relationships, including those that offer mentorship and guidance, with direct co-workers and others in your firm.
    • Measures of performance should, explicitly, avoid the implicit bias that in-person visibility correlates to better involvement and teamwork.
  6. Should understand the tax implications for your business, and employees related to working remote.
    • Having employees in other tax jurisdictions can make proper payroll tax withholding and filing more complex.
    • States may or may not have reciprocal agreements and some states are imposing new rules.
    • Remote workers may create nexus in some jurisdictions, triggering sales tax and other tax obligations.
    • Work with your attorney and financial advisors to understand your requirements and to ensure compliance.

Next Steps to Create a Remote Work Strategy

Cloud infrastructure technologies help facilitate remote work and hybrid work environments. You can deploy systems, apps, and tools to make remote and hybrid work efficient and secure. Remote and hybrid work models, however, span every aspect of your business.  Policies, procedures, operations, and culture all require attention, planning, and support.

Work with your legal and financial advisors, and your HR resources, to ensure  your remote/hybrid plans will benefit your business.

5 Effective Ways to Improve Work from Home

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Ways to Improve Work from Home

The Covid-19 pandemic proved that work from home and remote work was viable and productive for more employees than previously believed or acknowledged.  Necessity is a great motivator. Our businesses, employees, and customers responded, adapted, moved forward.  In the process, we have identified effectives new ways to improve work from home, as well as new benefits and pitfalls with remote work. Looking forward, our emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic is not a clear as hoped or predicted. The virus is here to stay and the impact on our lives is yet to be fully understood.  Our normal is not necessary “new”, but continues to evolve.

Considerations for Improving Work From Home

While we cannot predict the full extent of the shift, remote work, hybrid work, and work from home will be the norm. Learn how to work from home better, and remember to continue to reassess your work from home arrangement. This means asking yourself questions like, what can I do to improve my work-from-home setup? Could I boost my home productivity with additional productivity tools or technology? Is my work-from-home setup secure enough? What can I do to improve my communication skills while working from home?

5 Ways How to Improve Work From Home Effectiveness and Increase Productivity

Business need to continue to assess, plan, and adapt.  Here are 5 ways we can improve work from home and hybrid remote in-office work environments.

1. Device-as-a-Service

Device-as-a-Service, particularly remote desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure solutions, have clear benefits for new office norms. You can:

  • Provide a secure access to applications and systems with consistency regardless of where your employees are working
  • Better manage the computing environment, separating your business’ computing from the local device
  • Use existing, older laptops and desktops, thereby reducing hardware upgrade costs driven by operating system and application upgrades
  • Leverage Chromebooks as end user devices, lowering your total cost of ownership

2. Pick a Video Conferencing Service

Picking a standard video conferencing service lets you manage how you communicate internally and with customers. The right choice can also save you hundreds of dollars per year per employee while giving you and your team the features and functions they need to manage meetings and work efficiently.  By selecting a preferred service, you can invest the time and effort to integrate the service with your productivity and collaboration suites. An small investment in teaching employees how to fully use the solution also pays dividends.

3. Improve Employees’ Internet

You would never allow your Internet service to slow down work at the office. You should not allow home Internet speeds to slow down your remote employees. Reimbursing employees for increasing their Internet speeds improves productivity and morale. Providing employees with better WiFi routers and access points ensures their connections are available and reliable. Note: a few states require employers to reimburse home Internet services based on the percentage used for work.

4. Secure Your Remote Workers

Unless you provide the equipment and services, you cannot control your employees’ home networks and systems. At the same time, you want and need to secure your applications, data, and network. To do so:

  • Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) or two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible to control network, system, and application access.  MFA and 2FA are the simplest means of preventing hackers from using compromised user identities or credentials.
  • Upgrade home computers with additional, advanced threat protection services.  Many of the next-gen solutions offer greater protection from modern attacks and are designed to work with existing anti-virus solutions that may be installed on the device. Some of these solutions also provide tools for remote support.
  • Consider using physical security keys that provide authentication codes without the need for a smartphone or other device.

5. Protect Your Remote Resources

Whether using a company provided laptop or a personal computer, problems at home are disruptive and take longer to diagnose and repair than in-office problems. Things to improve working from home such as Device-as-a Service solutions separate the risk from the physical device, however employees using their local machines are still at risk.  At a minimum, ensure that you are backing up and can recover applications and data on remote laptops and desktops. If an employee performs critical or time-sensitive tasks, consider a continuity solution that enable the employee to return to work within minutes rather than hours.

Conclusion on How to Improve Work From Home

Whether work from home, remote work, or hybrid work will be strategic or tactical for your business, you can improve remote work security and employee experience with minimal cost.  We are here to help you assess, plan, and update your IT strategy and services to best meet your needs — and budget.  Contact us for an initial consultation, and to discuss how we can help you improve the work from home environment for your business.

 

Remote Workforce Security: Tips, Challenges & Lessons Learned

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As part of its Global Year in Breach – 2021 report, security firm ID Agent found that remote workforce security is more difficult than generally thought. With many of the changes in how we work expected to continue, as business leaders we need to embrace hybrid work as the way of the future.

What Exactly is Remote Work Security?

Remote workforce security is a subset of IT cybersecurity that focuses on protecting corporate data and other assets when employees work outside of a physical office. Implementing strong security protocols and technologies for remote access, educating employees on how to identify security risks and stay safe, and strengthening your overall business data protection and security are some of the best ways to secure your remote workforce.

What to Know When Developing Security Procedures for a Remote Workforce

Pandemic Triggers Panic

2020 and the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges. The biggest challenge was cybercrime. The mix of understaffed IT departments, maintenance failures, unpreparedness, record-breaking cybercrime, and employee stress taxed IT teams and services. Cybercriminals took advantage of this golden opportunity, and businesses were hit hard.

Businesses needed to rapidly shift to remote operations. For those with older technology, this shift was especially difficult. Everybody became a remote worker. IT teams needed to become instant experts in remote workforce security, including knowing the four pillars of cloud security. For too many businesses, it was a mad scramble to to get their teams remotely or face shutting down entirely. Many employees lacked training in remote work; many IT teams had never managed remote security at scale. A barrage of unintentional, insider threats assaulted IT teams daily.

Stress Creates Vulnerabilities

Why was the massive shift to Work from Home such a boon to cybercrime?

IT departments were unprepared and understaffed.  Only 39% of IT executives polled felt they have adequate IT expertise on staff to assist with remote work issues. Only 45% of organizations reported having and adequate budget to support remote work.

At the same time, employees were dealing with unexpected stress at home and more likely to make cybersecurity mistakes. Over 50% of respondents admitted they were more error-prone while stressed. 40% said they made more mistakes when tired or distracted. Altogether, 43% of workers surveyed acknowledged mistakes resulting in cybersecurity repercussions for themselves or their company while working remotely.

Cybercrime Complications

Chaos and confusion created opportunities for cybercriminals. Experts estimate that overall cybercrime was up by 80% in 2020. Much of that increase was from phishing attacks. Cybercriminals took advantage distracted, stressed workers, with limited IT support, and immense numbers of email. In 2020, phishing attacks skyrocketed by more than 650%. Attacks hit 75% of companies and accounted for almost 80% of all cybercrime.

Successful ransomware also jumped more than 145%. In 2020, 51% of all businesses and 40% of small and midsize businesses experienced a ransomware attack. 50% of attacks on SMBs used vicious double extortion ransomware. Ransomware will continue to top the list of cybercrime trends in 2021.

FAQs About Remote Workforce Security

Next Steps for How to Secure Your Remote Workforce

Stopping ransomware and decreasing your company’s risk of a successful cyberattack against remote and hybrid workers starts with stopping phishing and its destructive effects. We have tools that help your IT team support and protect your people and your business, while also protecting your budget.

To learn more about you cyber risks, and solutions to fit your needs and budget, contact us and schedule a complimentary Cloud Advisor Session.

 

Webcasts

2022 Wrap Up

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(01/03/2022) – Hopefully our plans for the new year are nearly complete and we will jump into January ready to execute and succeed. It is a great time of year to review and look forward to the new year. Let’s close out the year with new ideas and information.

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Lower the Price of Productivity

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(11/15/2022) – Our IT solutions serve a purpose: to help us operate our businesses as efficiently and effectively as possible. Are you paying for duplicate IT services? Reviewing and streamlining IT services supports productivity at a lower price.

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Cloud Cover – Manage IT All

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(9/20/2022) – The right IT management and services add value and save money. Learn IT management strategies for small and midsize businesses that can better match current and evolving business needs and priorities.

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Cloud Cover – Hybrid Work

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(8/16/2022) – Successful businesses will adapt to changing expectations. You can, affordably, adapt your IT to hybrid work while improving security and resilience. This webcast covers the IT strategies and solutions to help you adjust your IT services to better support hybrid work.

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