According to an Australian technology integrator, remote workers pose a hazard to corporate security.
As SECURITYBRIEFAU reports, tech integrator RBC Group has asserted that remote workers “are adding to the risk of corporate security data breaches”.
The Group’s General Manager, Michael Manton, has stated “that any business with an annual turnover of more than $3 million (US$2.2 million/€1.9 million) must now disclose breaches to the Australian Information Commissioner and to customers if data has been compromised.”
RBC Group pointed out the findings of HP Australia’s Security Study (2018), which revealed that half of Australian SMBs “were not prepared for mandatory data breach reporting laws” and had not conducted any IT security risk assessments in the last year.
Manton revealed his view that “breaches are likely if employees connect to company networks through their personal devices.”
“The real concern is the increasing number of people who are taking devices home or using them in public where the environment is less secure than a corporate office, or connecting to a corporate network using a personal device and unwittingly providing malware with access to the business network,” he explained.
The HP study also found that 73 percent of the businesses surveyed allowed employees to work from home, and 53 percent allowed their staff to work in public spaces, while 59 percent indicated that they did not have a disposal policy for devices, potentially exposing any data stored on them.
“The other issue is people think they only need to be on the lookout for hackers and malware, but there are dozens of different types of security breaches which can prove to be very costly to a business,” Manton went on, before going on to point out the dangers of unsecured “endpoint devices” such as printers.
“I think a lot of businesses would be surprised to learn just how easy it is to gain access to data from a printer instead of via the computer network,” he said.
“Leaving a printer unsecured is a bit like locking the front door of your home but leaving the back door wide open – people can easily get in if they are seeking access.”
In a world where corporate espionage is an ever-persistent threat, Manton feels SMBs should be on their guard.
“Businesses really need to take more responsibility in terms of educating their workforce with regard to maintaining data security and ensuring that they audit the security of their entire network on a regular basis,” he concluded.
