FEATURE : INSIDER THREATS
Minimizing threats from employees as they return to work
Rick Vanover , Senior Director for Product Strategy , and Dave Russell , Vice President of Enterprise Strategy , both at Veeam , tell us how IT leaders can protect their organizations against the threat posed by the return of employees bringing large numbers of potentially unsecured devices back into the fold .
As organizations get closer to implementing return-to-work plans , most employees are excited about getting back into an office routine . They miss their colleagues , their favorite lunch spots , and the on-site corporate culture that can ’ t totally be replicated over Zoom .
IT administrators have a slightly different view . They miss all the in-office benefits too , but for them the prospect of having employees all get back on the network after a year of remote working is a scary thought .
The admins worry that , after a period of being lax about security , employees will bring compromised devices back to the office and expose the company to new threats .
They may have a point . Work computers have played many roles during the pandemic – hosting everything from social gatherings to workouts , online learning sessions , home shopping and Netflix streams . Family members have borrowed mom ’ s computer to play online games and passwords have been passed around . Cyber-diligence has taken on a lower priority than it should have .
Cybercriminals are well aware of how insecure employee environments have been . They struck with a round of phishing attacks during the spring 2020 lockdown period . Now , administrators are concerned that hackers might implant vulnerabilities in unsecure laptops and unleash them once employees reconnect with a wider array of resources inside the corporate network .
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA 53