​The shift to remote work has opened up new possibilities for businesses and employees alike. Workers gain location independence, escaping lengthy commutes to do their jobs from the comfort of home. Companies can access top talent across geographies, reduce real estate overheads, and support a solid work-life balance.

However, this distributed model also expands cybercriminals' attack surface, introducing new vectors through remote employees' networks. If you have a distributed workforce, make no mistake—your business is in the crosshairs of bad actors looking to infiltrate for financial gain or intellectual property theft.

But advances in technology allow us to fight fire with fire. By implementing next-generation cybersecurity defences purpose-built for the remote work era, enterprises can empower productivity while shutting the door on attackers.

How does remote work affect cybersecurity?

 In 2024, cybersecurity teams are still grappling with evolving challenges as they work to strengthen their organizations' defences and adapt security strategies to the complex landscape of remote and hybrid work. 

Alex Smith, cybersecurity director at Global Strategy Advisors and North American cybersecurity leader for the firm, noted that insights gained since the pandemic's shift to remote work have led to fortified defences. Yet, many of the initial security issues remain, and new threats continue to emerge.

"Many teams still face challenges in implementing the right protections and security mechanisms—not only for present needs but also to future-proof their defences," Smith explained, as organizations attempt to navigate a threat landscape that grows more intricate each year.

A recent report by SecureOps highlighted "the ongoing need to manage the security complexities of hybrid work." Adding to the difficulty, staffing shortages in cybersecurity persist. 

Shift to SASE Architecture for Unified Data Control

Legacy castle-and-moat security models concentrated defences at the corporate network perimeter. But the rapid shift to remote work has utterly demolished this model. 

Employees access cloud apps and company data from distributed locations on various devices. Phishing and malware attacks have become more sophisticated. 

Trying to secure this new distributed environment with old firewalls, traditional VPNs, and patchwork solutions leaves massive gaps.

So, what is SASE architecture? SASE converges networking and security into a cloud-native solution that provides unified data control and protection no matter where users connect. 

It combines software-defined WAN capabilities with cloud-based security services, replacing traditional on-premise hardware like routers and firewalls. Instead, cloud services provide the components accessible anywhere.

• Identity-based access: After validating identities, ensure that only authorized users can access applications and resources. Multi-factor authentication is a must.
• Global enforcement points: Apply access controls and policies based on user identity globally across all edges - home networks, mobile devices, branch offices, etc.
• Converged cloud services: Bring networking and security services together in the cloud instead of separate appliances. This enables global coordination.
• Contextual security: Make access decisions after evaluating various signals like user, device, location, IP address, and anomaly patterns through advanced AI.
• Deep visibility: Get unified visibility into all components across the cloud, SaaS apps, endpoints, and networks for unified analytics, reporting, and control.

Guard Access with Strict Conditional Policies 

As you shift your architecture to SASE, setting granular conditional access policies is crucial instead of keeping environments open or closed—for example, block access if a user connects remotely from an unusual location or unknown device. 

Require further authentication to confirm identity. Restrict actions for risky sessions, like preventing privileged commands. Approve access only after users pass certain context-based criteria.

Modern cloud access security brokers (CASBs) make setting these sophisticated policies easy without needing to code complex rules. 

These policies are dynamically enforced across all access channels based on real-time conditions. You can even create automated remediations like requiring 2-factor authentication if a threat score from user behaviour analytics crosses a threshold. 

Detect Attackers with Improved Visibility 

The digital attack surface has massively grown. Company data is strewn across SaaS platforms. Employees use personal and work devices from everywhere. Networks have become borderless. This complexity allows attackers to sneak in easily, often dwelling undiscovered for months while silently moving laterally.

Filling visibility gaps is crucial for detecting threats early and minimizing breaches. Next-generation tools provide complete visibility by ingesting rich data from all surfaces and using advanced analytics paired with intelligent threat hunting.

For example, cloud-native network detection and response platforms give you unified visibility into network flows across cloud and on-prem environments. User entity and behaviour analytics (UEBA) uses machine learning to baseline normal employee activities, spotting anomalous patterns that could indicate an attacker at work. Extended detection and response (XDR) correlate insights from endpoints, emails, networks, cloud workloads, etc., to identify multi-stage attacks.

The key is ingesting comprehensive data from all surfaces and leveraging AI to make sense of it all. This allows early threat identification before attackers reach their objectives. 

Control Access to Saas with Cloud-Native Tools 

​Workforce collaboration has moved to the cloud, with companies relying on solutions like Office 365, G Suite, Slack, etc. However, configuring security correctly for each cloud app is challenging. Misconfigurations routinely leave data exposed or give employees excessive access, and legacy tools lack the capabilities to control cloud access properly.

Cloud access security brokers serve as gatekeepers to SaaS, authorizing appropriate data access while keeping out attackers. For example, leading CASBs protect cloud email by scanning all email content, blocking risky file types, and preventing sensitive data loss even within encrypted emails. They sandbox links and attachments to isolate malware. They automatically enforce data loss prevention and compliance policies enterprise-wide.

Some even give you control over third-party SaaS apps, enforcing security best practices. With cloud-native tools purpose-built for modern environments, you can reduce the risk of cloud data loss.

Empower DevOps and Cloud Teams with Guardrails 

​Custom development is moving out of IT's hands. Shadow IT proliferates as business units spin out cloud solutions to meet rapidly evolving needs. Developers deploy containerized microservices that IT security teams need help keeping up with. Public cloud IaaS offers such flexibility that engineers can bypass security altogether.

IT needs to shift left on security, embedding it earlier into application development lifecycles. But you still need guardrails to prevent risk exposure from developer misconfigurations or oversights without hindering productivity with ticket-based oversight.

Cloud-native security tools help. Cloud security posture management secures cloud resources as code is written, minimizing misconfigurations. Cloud workload protection platforms lock down servers and containers against attacks targeting custom apps. Cloud access security brokers protect SaaS apps beyond IT's control.

DevOps and cloud teams can innovate rapidly while staying secure with the right next-gen tools.

Prioritize People, Process & Technology 

​Of course, technology isn't the only solution for securing remote employee access. You also need training to elevate security IQ across distributed teams working outside traditional castle walls. Through education, enable people to become the last line of defence. Streamline processes with frameworks like zero trust to govern access consistently.

But the reality is that your workforce is now boundaryless. Technological capabilities have outpaced human limitations, and legacy security models cantered on the corporate perimeter can't keep up. 

Adopting next-generation defences built for the modern environment is key to empowering business productivity while locking down data. SASE, conditional access policies, enhanced visibility, and cloud-native controls help secure the distributed organization.

Wrapping up

Assess your existing security posture today, considering new remote work realities. Identify any blind spots or gaps around visibility and data protection. 

Then, map out a roadmap to implement cloud-centric cybersecurity tools that unite networking and security. 

With the right mix of people, processes, and next-gen technology tailored to the future of work, you can confidently eliminate security risks introduced by remote employees. Everyone should be able to do their job safely and productively.