Organizations want to continue remote work but aren't equipped for secure access

The current crisis has led to a big increase in numbers of people working remotely. Many businesses seem set to continue that when normality returns, but a new report suggests they're not equipped to do so securely.

The study from cloud security company Bitglass shows that 41 percent have not taken any steps to expand secure access for the remote workforce, and 50 percent are citing proper equipment as the biggest impediment to doing so. Consequently, 65 percent of organizations now enable personal devices to access managed applications.

When asked what their main concerns are with securing while employees work remotely, 65 percent of respondents say securing network access. This is followed by securing access to SaaS apps like Slack (55 percent) and bring your own device/personal devices (55 percent). When it comes to the most concerning threat vectors for remote work, respondents cite malware (72 percent), and unauthorized user access (59 percent).

"This research indicates that many organizations are not implementing the security measures necessary to protect their data in the current business environment," says Anurag Kahol, CTO of Bitglass. "For example, while respondents said that the pandemic has accelerated the migration of user workflows and applications to the cloud, most are not employing cloud security solutions like single sign-on (SSO), data loss prevention, zero trust network access, or cloud access security brokers. On top of that, 84 percent of organizations reported that they are likely to continue to support remote work capabilities even after stay at home orders are lifted. To do this safely, they must prioritize securing data in any app, any device, anywhere in the world."

The application types that organizations are most concerned about securing remotely include file sharing (68 percent), web applications (47 percent), and video conferencing (45 percent).

At 77 percent, anti-malware is the most-used tool to secure remote work. However, this and other tools like single sign-on (45 percent), data loss prevention (18 percent), and user and entity behavior analytics (11 percent) are still not deployed widely enough.

You can read more in the full report available from the Bitglass site.

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