Looking to what’snext: A Post-Covid WorldB Y C O R E T O C L O U D

1. Welcome“Post-Covid”... it’s a term that’s starting to creepinto everyday use. We’re feeling optimistic,we’re feeling hopeful. What we’re going toexplore in this ebook is what that post-Covidworld might look like, in terms of cyber-securityand remote teams.

Whether your business was ‘remote-ready’ ornot, it’s likely that a considerable amount of lastminute planning and preparation went intosecuring your employees for remote working.What can we learn from that? Whichdeveloped areas would we like to hold on to?And where do we look next when it comes tokeeping our businesses safe for the long haul?

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2. Make the investmentworthwhileThere’s a chance that remote working at shortnotice might have to become part of ourbusiness continuity. With a vaccine severalmonths away, large scale shifts and lockdownsare very much a possibility. From a securityperspective, remote working is a very differentenvironment to the traditional world wherenetwork penetration tests, web and emailGateways, policy frameworks and DLP were atthe fore. With cloud storage, CRMs and Office365 at the core of most remote frameworks,the surface area is much bigger and morevulnerable than before.

Companies that had to heavily invest in laptops,headsets, software and video conferencinglicenses should be mindful of protecting theirinvestment - not least because employees willnow expect a level of flexibility to become the‘new normal’. In order to make remote workingworthwhile, it needs to be safe - as safe asworking on premise, if not more so. Instead ofreacting to issues as they arise, let’s focus onpreventing threats from entering the remoteworkplace at all.

3. Operate under zerotrust"The Zero Trust tenet means that from the start,every action is not trusted. In a Zero Trust model, inaddition to authentication. there’s constantmonitoring to ensure abnormal or risky behavior isidentified immediately and remediation steps can betaken. Monitoring includes how users interact withan application, from what network, from whatdevice, during what time of day and other variables.Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, abehavioural profile can be built for each user. It’simportant to monitor that so that you can identifyunusual circumstances and the only way toeffectively do that is with artificial intelligence sothat remediation can happen at the speed ofcomputers.” - Forbes

It’s an unfortunate fact that human error is the mainweakness in your cybersecurity defense. Whilstmalicious actions are taken by employees, it’susually seemingly harmless acts such as forwardingan attachment or taking work home on a USB drivethat cause the most devastating damage. Withcloud links and easily accessible sharing toolscommonplace, it’s becoming more prevalent forworkforces that are not operating on an on premisenetwork. So, how can we combat data leakage andother high-level threats? Operate under a ‘zerotrust’ policy.

Every action has to prove its validity, rather thanallowing actions to happen and accessing theirvalidity post-action (which has been the traditionalmodel). Think of it as ‘guilty until proven innocent’.Passwords, MFA’s, filters, anti-virus, endpointprotection and AI behaviour modelling must cometogether to create an impermeable perimeteraround your physical and, now, virtual network.

4. Bolster your securityteam"In times of crisis, good security practices are oftenthe first thing to go. As COVID-19 has spread aroundthe globe, many companies, universities, andorganisations are implementing remote working orstudy policies. An expanding remote workforce canincrease your security risk, especially if IT andSupport employees use non-secure remote accesstools as temporary measures." - Beyond Trust

Supporting remote workers by offering acomprehensive, remote security team is one of theways we recommend that businesses bolster theirsecurity offering.

One of our favourite features? The remote supportdesk. The Real Time Dashboard for Remote Supportis the easiest way to get a live view of your helpdesk. See which support reps or teams areoverloaded and which ones have extra capacity.Quickly access top level targets, including sessioncount, waiting sessions, longest wait time, and acount of logged in/available reps.

As we move into a post-Covid world, the pressureon cyber security teams is not going to ease. Ifyou’re concerned about your remote workingcapability and whether it’s secure (which you shouldbe), then you need to assess, reassess andconstantly monitor your security posture.

5.What’s next?

W h a t ' s n e x t ?

In our series of ebooks, we’ve introduced you toseveral exceptional providers who work closely withus. BeyondTrust are a trusted vendor, looking afterclients from the financial sector, the NHS andbeyond. We put our trust in them, so you can relyon us.

Sophie will be on hand to help at any time with anyquestions or queries you may have. Please don'thesitate to get in touch, we are here to help. Pleasefeel free to contact her on:sophie@coretocloud.co.uk or 07557 449471.