There is a popular saying that every cloud has a silver lining. While the pandemic might have led to several global setbacks. One good thing that came out of the global lockdown was the emergence and widespread acceptance of remote work. Even as the world has returned to its “normal” state in 2025, remote and hybrid work remain popular.
75% of UK businesses now offer a remote work option, as it continues to be a beneficial alternative for employees and employers. However, one obstacle that works against it is cybersecurity issues.
Cybersecurity measures need to be updated regularly to stay a step ahead of threat actors, which also helps you prevent data theft and reputational and financial damage while working remotely.
One of the most effective ways to do so would be to use solutions like remote desktop services, which let you control access for the employees while also giving them access to the processes. This is where working with a dedicated cyber security company can help you proactively spot vulnerabilities and build more resilient systems from day one.
But that’s not all. In the article, we’ll share seven proactive steps today to ensure remote working does not pose a cybersecurity threat to your company.
1. Strengthen Authentication with SSO and MFA
Strong passwords with a number and a special character, along with upper and lower case letters, are not enough anymore. To make your remote working systems truly secure, you need to include Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-factor authentication (MFA).
An SSO will allow your employees to access the tools and systems they need by using a single secure login. This helps reduce password fatigue while also giving your IT team a better understanding of who’s logging into what.
A good addition to SSO is MFA. An MFA will protect you from falling victim to scams that involve your passwords being stolen. Multi-factor authentication needs a second verification (biometric, passkey or OTP) before someone signs in to your company’s secure network.
2. Apply Least Privilege Access
Does every employee within every department have access to all the applications and folders? It’s just a privacy breach waiting to happen. Businesses must maintain a hierarchy of access, enough to do their job, but not enough to pose a security threat.
The principle of least privilege, which means always giving employees only the most basic access, helps in tightening your remote security.
A good place to start is by running a thorough check through the applications you are using and your employees’ devices. Once you have the data on what access each employee has, remove the unnecessary privileges. This is especially important for the personal devices your employees might be using. This might seem a little tedious, but it will help reduce the risk of malware spreading across your network.
3. Isolate and Monitor Remote Desktop Protocols (RDP)
If your employees use tools like Remote Desktop to log into your servers or their work computers from home, you need to be more vigilant. Remote Desktop is a very useful tool, but it is a well-known target for cyberattacks, especially if it’s left open or unattended.
The good news is that there are ways you can prevent this from happening. For example, instead of allowing direct access to remote servers, you could use a secure gateway or VPN. It also allows you to track activity on these sessions in real time so that you can quickly spot anything suspicious.
4. Don’t Rely Solely on VPNs
VPNs were once considered the best solution for remote access, but over-reliance on VPNs can create gaps in your security. Since VPNs were designed to provide users with wider network access, they were never intended for this purpose. Not only that, but they often need manual maintenance and place a considerable operational burden on IT teams.
Instead, you could rely on role-based access tools or identity-centric security models, which give each employee their own workspace.
5. Reduce Help Desk Overload with Smart Policies
Moving to a full-time remote environment shouldn’t be equal to an increase in the number of IT support tickets. In reality, many IT teams tend to get overwhelmed with requests for access, resets, and permissions. There’s a simple workaround to this. You need to introduce allow, block and restrict policies that clearly help define who has access to what.
These policies let the staff access approved applications without going through the help desk every time. You could also consider self-service portals that can assist your employees with basics, such as self-resetting or forgotten passwords, so that they can self-resolve minor issues.
6. Offer Just-in-Time Access for Third-Party Vendors
A remote worker is not just limited to an employee; it also includes freelancers or contractors who have been working with you. These users often sit outside your internal directory and can be difficult to manage securely.
However, there is a solution there as well, called just-in-time provisioning. It means that rather than creating permanent accounts, you could provide temporary access that’s automatically revoked once the job is completed. This practice helps in limiting your security gap.
7. Educate Your Teams and Establish Good Habits
Human error is probably one of the major causes behind security breaches, and most of them are because someone logged into a secure portal through public Wi-Fi. Your employees must be trained to be aware of cybersecurity risks and take preventative measures accordingly.
It’s ideal to make training part of the company culture and retrain people as and when required. Whenever you upgrade processes or systems for efficiency, you will need to let them know immediately.
Wrapping Up
A secure remote working environment doesn’t need to feel stifling. You just need to find the right balance between access and protection. Making sure you have the right systems in place and the people are aware of them is the first step you need to take towards making your business more resilient and keeping your data safe.