Security Study Highlights Increased Risks of Working Remotely

June 22, 2020
More than half of the U.S. population is working from home, and many do not have security policies in place to guide them, according to new research

A new study from IBM Security highlights the behaviors and security risks of those new to working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings reveal that more than 80 percent of respondents either rarely worked from home or not at all prior to the pandemic, and, in turn, more than half are now doing so with no new security policies to help guide them. This shift to working from home has exposed new security risks and has left nearly 50 percent of those employees worried about impending cyber threats in their new home office settings. 

Now that more than half of the U.S. population is working from home—and a large percentage is expected to continue to do so through the rest of 2020 and beyond—many companies may be playing catch-up as they attempt to manage the security risks of rushed remote-work models, according to IBM researchers.

Business activities that were once conducted in protected office environments, and monitored under specific policies, have quickly transitioned to new, and potentially less secure territory. For example, customer service agents who worked in closely managed call centers are now managing sensitive customer data at home, they noted.

The rapid shift to working from home has also changed the ways many organizations do business from moving face-to-face meetings to video conferencing calls to adding new collaboration tools—yet the survey showed many employees are lacking guidance, direction and policies.

Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by Morning Consult, the IBM Security Work from Home Survey is comprised of responses from more than 2,000 newly working remotely Americans. Key findings include:

  • 93 percent of those newly working from home are confident in their company's ability to keep personally identifiable information (PII) secure while working remotely, yet 52 percent are using their personal laptops for work – often with no new tools to secure it, and 45 percent haven't received any new training.
  • More than half have not been provided with new guidelines on how to handle highly regulated PII while working from home. This is despite more than 42 percent of people who manage PII as part of their regular jobs now doing so at home.
  • More than 50 percent of respondents don't know of any new company policies related to customer data handling, password management and more.
  • More than 50 percent of new work from home employees are using their own personal computers for business use; however, 61 percent also say their employer hasn't provided tools to properly secure those devices.
  • 66 percent have not been provided with new password management guidelines, which could be why 35 percent are still reusing passwords for business accounts.

In the context of healthcare specifically, early on in the pandemic, patient care organizations had to deal with both employees and third-party vendors remotely, and security experts have cautioned that this has significantly increased the attack surface for cyber criminals. In a recent story, Mac McMillan, the CEO Emeritus of cybersecurity firm CynergisTek Inc., emphasized that “Cyber criminals know businesses are stressed right now, and are sending people home and connecting them remotely. And they’re doing it so fast that they don’t have time to [ensure] these are the most secure connections.”

"Organizations need to use a risk-based approach with work-from-home models, then reassess and build from the ground up," said Charles Henderson, global partner and head of IBM X-Force Red. "Working from home is going to be a long-lasting reality within many organizations, and the security assumptions we once relied on in our traditional offices may not be enough as our workforce transitions to new, less controlled surroundings."

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