Many companies were already focused on digital transformation, but the arrival of an invisible enemy led organizations to accelerate the "exit" from the physical perimeter of their workplaces.

Although several organizations allowed certain employees to work remotely, the unexpected challenges of 2020 show us a new picture: at the moment, most or all employees are working from home, traveling, in public places and/or alternately between the office and home in the same week or even on the same day. This last example has even led to the emergence of new solutions for the reorganization of workstations.

This panorama is naturally propitious to failure and we must adopt best practices to avoid compromising the safety of organizations.

The exponential growth of threats and cyber attacks

The growing number of home workers and home computers being networked has created unique opportunities for threats and attacks.

The reality is that most people have tried to find their own methods to continue their working activities, often using alternative, unsuitable and unsafe practices, leading to an interruption of collaboration and security.

According to the Portuguese Cybersecurity Centre's Newsletter, there was a significant increase in the number of attacks between February and April during the first half of 2020. The increase coincided with the time of confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic and crossed different business areas.

The same source revealed that 160 are the number of phishing incidents recorded during the 2nd quarter of this year. This is the most frequent type of incident, followed by malware infected systems (68 incidents) and unauthorized access (41 incidents).

Safety should be the "starting point" for all organizations

Addressing existing vulnerabilities and correcting security holes as they are found can be a difficult process and will never be as effective as implementing tools that enhance security "by design".

Starting with a more proactive approach to the security of any organization, allows you to automate the mechanisms of trust, from the beginning, creating a more reliable and secure environment. Security seen as a later step is no longer sufficient to effectively protect operations and maintain trust at all levels of a company.

Boost your organization's safety with a Secure Work by Design approach

Secure Work by Design is an implementation approach that seeks to make systems free from vulnerabilities/faults and impenetrable to attacks, through innovative security tools and engineering practices, planned and tailored to the needs of each organization.

With this approach, organizations enjoy a more resilient environment where security is implemented rather than added as a remedy. In this way, the projects and normal workflows of each company are "by definition" supported by safety policies and tools appropriate to their own needs.

In addition to implementing mechanisms that promote security, such as constant threat monitoring, controlled access management and reducing costs and resources, it is important to reinforce your security posture with intelligent guidance and information, taking into account that the probability of failure is low when all employees are aware of the appropriate tools and controls and behaviour in a hybrid working regime.

Empower your organization and your employees with essential tools for a stable and efficient environment, making the most of their functionality with an optimized configuration.