How IT Teams Can Secure Remote Workers More Efficiently

07 January 2025

Hybrid work offers flexibility but poses cybersecurity risks for IT teams. From shadow IT to phishing, threats are evolving. Discover solutions from Virgin Media O2 Business and Samsung to secure and streamline remote workforce management.

Article 4 Minutes
How IT Teams Can Secure Remote Workers More Efficiently

While there have been dozens of headlines in recent months of businesses implementing return-to-office mandates, flexible working is far from dead.

In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), hybrid working has become the ‘new normal’ for roughly 1 in 4 workers.

A key benefit of these models is the flexibility they offer. When asked why flexible work matters to them, 83% of UK employees said it supports a better work-life balance. Additionally, almost half (47%) of workers would seek a job with more flexibility if they lost their hybrid work privileges.

Clearly, flexibility matters to modern workers. Yet facilitating remote and hybrid working is far from straightforward – particularly for IT teams responsible for security.

The current cybersecurity landscape for the hybrid workforce

The very technologies that facilitate flexible working have also introduced a new wave of vulnerabilities for cybercriminals to exploit.

The cloud, for instance, has enabled employees to use personal and unauthorised devices – often referred to as shadow IT. Almost a third (32%) of remote and hybrid workers use unauthorised apps and 92% work on personal mobile devices, increasing the number of attack vectors that cybercriminals can exploit.

Phishing attacks also remain an ever-present danger to remote and hybrid workers. While awareness has grown since the pandemic, two-thirds (66%) of UK organisations were hit with successful phishing attacks last year.

The industry has moved quickly to address these threats. Simulated phishing tests are now common practice to ensure employee security awareness is up to date, and authentication measures have become mandatory in many businesses.

However, as hybrid work continues to evolve, so too must the strategies and technologies designed to protect it.

The challenge facing IT teams

Delivering hybrid and remote workers the connectivity they need to perform their roles is essential. From a business perspective, being able to offer this flexibility is crucial to recruitment, retention and productivity in the workforce.

However, along with making sure workers have seamless and undisrupted access no matter where they’re working from, IT teams also need to safeguard them and the critical business information they have access to.

This forces them to perform a delicate balancing act, granting remote and hybrid workers enough flexibility whilst simultaneously keeping them secure across multiple devices.

3 strategies to defend your business

Here are several ways IT teams can enhance security and reduce risks for hybrid workforces, all while improving efficiency:

1. Adopt Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)

UEM solutions help IT teams to manage and secure all the devices (or ‘endpoints’) in their organisation, from smartphones and laptops to desktops, tablets and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Rather than having to review each device individually, UEM provides a single, centralised platform from which all devices can be monitored. This gives IT teams visibility across all of an organisation’s devices, simplifying the management of these devices and helping identify potential risks quickly.

Crucially, it also means that issues can be troubleshooted remotely, and integrated security features like remote wiping and encryption can keep sensitive information secure if a device is lost or misplaced.

2. Implement triple authentication security

Triple-factor authentication (3FA) adds another layer of security to two-factor authentication, meaning users require three distinct factors to be able to access devices, software and business information.

3FA can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised access. In the event of a phishing attack, the two extra layers of security can still block a hacker’s access to their device and systems.

This further reduces reliance on passwords, which are typically a major vulnerability in organisational security.

3. Level-up security awareness training

The simple fact is that most security breaches are down to people. 68% of data breaches involve some kind of human element, whether that’s clicking on a phishing link, failing to spot a social engineering attack or using weak passwords.

While technology is crucial to fortify your defences, the security awareness of your hybrid and remote workers can’t be ignored.

With regular training and updates to align with the latest cybersecurity developments and threats, you can keep one of the most vulnerable entry points of your business secure: your workforce.

How Virgin Media O2 Business and Samsung can help

With Samsung Knox, IT teams can do more to keep their remote and hybrid workers secure. It provides enhanced oversight of organisational devices, along with the ability to roll out remote updates to keep them equipped with the latest security software.

Samsung Knox also offers real-time protection for mobile devices, ensuring that even if they are left for days without a reboot, their data and operating system remain safe and secure.

When combined with reliable network solutions from Virgin Media O2 Business, IT Teams can ensure consistent, secure connectivity for their remote and hybrid teams, enabling seamless communication and data access without compromising on security.

Samsung | Virgin Media O2 Business

Why Virgin Media O2 Business and Samsung?

When budgets are tight and deadlines even tighter, you need to know that your teams can get on with their work without worrying about frozen screens, patchy phone lines or unreliable internet access.

That’s why we’ve partnered with Samsung to help you work smarter. You’ll have access to the best devices and flexible financing offers, all backed up by the UK’s most reliable network.

Our partnership takes the best of our network and device expertise, and offers you all the tools to truly support your business needs.

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