Digital Immunity for Hybrid Work

Cisco has labeled this period as the hybrid work era because the ongoing pandemic has led companies to create flexible workplaces that combine in-office work with remote work and working on the go.  

While hybrid work can boost employee productivity and satisfaction, it can also create risk on the network. Cisco reported that during the pandemic, cyberattacks have increased a shocking 600% since employees have been working from home. 

Just as people must build up immunity to COVID by getting their vaccinations and booster shots, companies with hybrid work environments must build up digital immunity by protecting themselves from cyberattacks. Digital immunity for hybrid work can be achieved using the right security tools and strategies. 

Here’s an overview of 3 ways you can increase your hybrid work digital immunity: 

Take a Zero Trust Approach to Security 

The Zero Trust approach to security follows the principles of never trust; always verify. Zero Trust uses identity authentication and access controls to protect employees, data, and infrastructure. This approach is effective in a hybrid work environment because it checks the authenticity of every access attempt on the network, whether it comes from inside or outside your business.  

Tools, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), use identity-based methods to strengthen security to protect against internal and external threats. Security information and event management (SIEM) is also useful for taking a Zero Trust approach to security because it logs and analyzes access attempts across a distributed infrastructure, alerting your company to any suspicious activity. 

Monitor Your Digital Assets 

Just as the pandemic makes contact tracing and maintaining physical distance essential, hybrid work makes tracking all your digital assets crucial. Tracking digital assets can be challenging when some are being used on-premises and others are being used on the go or in a home office.  

 When remote employees use their own devices and applications, they create a shadow IT that is difficult to monitor for risk. Using a wireless infrastructure, your company can keep track of users and connected devices in your office, as well as endpoints at the edge of your network. 

Secure In-Office and Remote Workspaces 

Whether employees are working from home or in-office, they deserve to have a productive, satisfying, and safe experience. Employees that work from home want to have the same experience as in-office workers by conversing, meeting face-to-face, and collaborating on projects. 

 Companies that have hybrid environments face challenges in giving everyone the same work experience. Your network must deliver the same secure, reliable connections for people working from meeting rooms, home offices, and coffee shops. Wired and wireless networks can make it easier for employees to connect securely and stay productive no matter where they’re working. 

Keeping Your Hybrid Work Environment Healthy 

There’s no telling how long organizations like yours will be using hybrid work environments. For long-term success, you must find ways to protect your workers as they move between in-office and remote workplaces. Partnering with the right technology provider will help you develop a security strategy for hybrid work that keeps your environment and your employees healthy. 

 iConvergence is an ideal partner because we are a Cisco Advanced Security Partner, offering leading network security solutions. We can help you identify and eliminate security risks in your hybrid workplace. Our team can provide you with all the tools you need to protect your employees in the office and wherever else they work, including Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Firewall, Cisco MFA, and Cisco Secure Endpoint. 

Learn what iConvergence can do to boost the digital immunity of your hybrid workspace. Talk to one of our Cisco experts. 

by Beau Peyton

Hybrid Work Maturity

How Mature Is Your Company’s Hybrid Work Environment? 

As we continue to experience new COVID variants, companies are delaying their move back to the office. Cisco found that more than a quarter of companies surveyed believed they would never get 90% of their workforce to return to the office. 

Instead of asking employees to return fully, companies are transitioning from remote work to hybrid work. Hybrid work creates a blend of in-office and remote workplaces. 

 Even though hybrid work is a relatively new phenomenon, technology thought leaders are working to develop a hybrid work maturity model to gauge how completely companies have made a transition to a hybrid work environment. Your company can assess its level of hybrid work maturity by looking for certain indicators. Mature hybrid work environments provide seamless and frictionless work experiences for employees working in the office, at home, and in other remote locations. 

 To determine your level of hybrid work maturity, ask yourself the following questions. 

 

Do you have a resilient distributed infrastructure? 

Cisco reported that companies are creating distributed infrastructures to support hybrid work. For example: 

  • During the pandemic, cloud services have grown 30% to 50% 
  • Adoption of videoconferencing platforms has increased 30x 

As companies embrace distributed infrastructures that include the cloud, endpoints, and collaboration tools, they must ensure the resiliency of these architectures to promote business continuity and user satisfaction. 

Organizations with higher levels of hybrid work maturity have created secure cloud-first infrastructures. These infrastructures take advantage of distributed applications and cloud services, such as public cloud, hybrid cloud, software as a service (SaaS), and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).  

With the cloud and connectivity, employees should be able to work safely from anywhere and collaborate from any device. 

 

Do you follow best practices for business policies and a resilient IT operating model? 

Companies with a high level of hybrid work maturity have developed and follow business policies. These business policies should include rules and best practices for: 

  • Work from home  
  • Data and application security 
  • Workplace resources 

Best practices for a resilient IT operating model should consider: 

  • Network operations 
  • Data Center/Cloud operations 
  • Security operations 
  • Device management 

 

Are you empowering distributed work in a cloud-accelerated world? 

Hybrid work maturity using a cloud environment requires Zero Trust security and end-to-end visibility that empowers distributed work. To reach a high level of maturity, your company’s strategy must support secure remote work, return to the workplace, and flexible multi-cloud strategies. 

For secure remote work, you need: 

  • Secure communication and collaboration 
  • Secure remote access 
  • Automation and zero-touch provisioning 

For the return to the workplace, you must have: 

  • Optimized connectivity 
  • Scalable capacity 
  • Common policy and segmentation 

For flexible multi-cloud, you should have: 

  • Hybrid and multi-cloud delivery 
  • Applications and cloud services experience 
  • Visibility and assurance 

 

Increasing Your Level of Hybrid Work Maturity 

Developing a hybrid work maturity model is an emerging and ongoing process. The global market intelligence firm IDC and Cisco have teamed up to conduct research to better understand how companies are transitioning to hybrid work and progressing on their journey to maturity. 

 As a Premier Cisco Partner, iConvergence can help your company assess its hybrid work maturity level and develop a strategy for using Cisco tools to support hybrid work. We focus on solution areas that are critical for hybrid work success, including Networking, Network Security, and Collaboration. Our team of Cisco-certified experts can help you design your hybrid work strategy and implement the Cisco solutions you need to realize it through a hybrid work environment. 

Find out how to increase your hybrid work maturity. Reach out to the Cisco experts at iConvergence. 

 

by Beau Peyton

Steps to Increase Security for Hybrid Workers

Hybrid work environments are promoting flexibility for the workforce as companies adjust to this extended period of remote working. While some organizations are testing the waters of returning to the office, most employees are continuing to split time between the office and working from home. 

While hybrid work can increase productivity and employee satisfaction, it can also create security risks as employees use email as a primary source of communication and rely on endpoints, such as mobile devices and laptops, to perform their work.  

 Here are 5 steps you can take to ensure you create a safe and secure hybrid work environment for your employees: 

 1) Educate your hybrid workforce. 

Employees can be your greatest security liability or your greatest security asset. Workers may become frustrated with security as they jump through many hoops to access information. They may also unwittingly expose your company to risk by falling for phishing attempts.  

 Educating employees about security awareness will help empower them to recognize suspicious emails and prevent them from clicking on links and attachments that are infected with malware. 

 2) Promote a Zero Trust approach to security. 

In a hybrid work environment, the Zero Trust approach to security makes the most sense. Zero Trust security, with its principles of never trust; always verify, protects your hybrid workplace from internal and external threats. Every attempt to access information, whether from your on-site systems or from remote endpoints, is evaluated to prevent unauthorized access.  

 Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an essential part of a Zero Trust approach because it restricts access using several forms of verification. Security information and event management (SIEM) also promotes Zero Trust by analyzing access attempts and alerting you to threats as a preventative measure. 

3) Build security into the way employees access information. 

Access control can be made flexible enough to protect both remote and in-office employees. A virtual private network (VPN) brings on-premises security to the user, while the cloud moves security out to the remote user. Secure access service edge (SASE) can protect users no matter where they are working, using cloud-native capabilities. 

 4) Protect your email platform. 

Email is a key point of vulnerability for both remote and in-office workers. Hackers often target employees with phishing attacks by using social engineering to impersonate co-workers and authority figures to gain trust. These phishing emails trick employees into clicking on attachments infected with malware. Moving email to the cloud can help protect your hybrid workforce from ransomware and other advanced threats. 

 5) Defend your endpoints. 

Hackers are increasingly attacking the endpoints remote workers depend upon. Your company’s last line of defense is at the endpoint, so you should have full visibility into them, no matter where they are located. Endpoints should be monitored in real time, and you should have the ability to send alerts so any breach can be remediated immediately. 

 Start Securing Your Hybrid Work Environment  

As your workplace environment changes, your company must revise its security strategy. Working with the right security technology partner will ensure you choose the ideal security solutions to protect your hybrid workers. 

 

iConvergence is a Premier Cisco Partner staffed with certified experts. We can work with your company to define steps for implementing a hybrid work security plan. iConvergence can help you with all the Cisco tools you need for hybrid work security, including Cisco Secure, Endpoint, Cisco Umbrella, Cloud Mailbox Defense, AnyConnect and more. 

 

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Take a deep dive into hybrid work security. Get a copy of the Cisco eBook Take the next step to secure your new hybrid work environment. 

by Beau Peyton

Tips For Hybrid Work

Despite predictions that companies would be returning to the office, the emergence of new COVID variants has extended the reliance on remote workplaces. Now many organizations are creating hybrid work environments that give employees the flexibility to work from home, the office, or other locations. 

Cisco’s The Rise of the Hybrid Workforce study found that post-COVID, 24% of employees report working from home 15 days or more a month. With employees splitting their time between the office and other work environments, companies must find ways of supporting hybrid work through technology. 

Here are 5 tips on how to create a winning hybrid work environment: 

1) Adopt Intelligent Workplace Technology 

Collaboration tools can be enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) for a remote work experience that rivals working in the office. AI can be used for reducing noise, eliminating administrative friction, prioritizing tasks, and accessing information when it is needed. An intelligent web conferencing platform can use automation to increase employee satisfaction, whether at home or in the office. 

 2) Create Secure Access Controls 

Business information must be protected whether an employee is working on-site or off-site. Identity authentication and access controls prevent unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information using the company network. Access controls can be set according to the employee’s job level, so only the appropriate information is at a worker’s disposal. These access controls should be consistent no matter where employees are working from. 

 3) Support Collaboration 

To create a productive hybrid work environment, companies must provide a range of collaboration tools. Collaboration encourages employees to innovate by working on projects together. Collaboration tools, such as web conferencing, chat, and file sharing, allow employees to work together as if they are in the same room, even if they are working remotely. A unified communications (UC) solution will have all the collaboration tools your employees need to communicate in the ways they prefer. 

 4) Enhance Visibility 

Technology should provide real-time visibility into distributed applications, as well as security, network, user, and service performance, for the best user experience. Visibility tools include performance management and insights correlation from infrastructure to code. Real-time analytics and alert thresholds will allow you to monitor network performance and troubleshoot any problems. These tools should grant visibility into a distributed workforce. 

 5) Provide Support for a Variety of Workspaces 

Technology should support a blend of home, individual, collaborative, and common workspaces. Web conferencing platforms with video should provide every individual workspace with secure login, contactless join, and access to your calendar and virtual workspaces.  

 Common spaces need technology that enables safe, intelligent, and engaging use of space across buildings and shared spaces. Video and collaboration tools support meeting room and jump spaces for scheduled and ad hoc meetings through intelligent booking, contactless join and control, voice commands, in-room controls, and notifications and alerts. 

 Put Hybrid Work Tips Into Action 

Technology can enhance the experience of working from home and in the office. Working with the right technology partner will help you get on the path to designing the best hybrid work environment for your employees. 

 As a Cisco Premier Partner with Advanced Certifications in Security, Collaboration, and Data Center, iConvergence is equipped to help your company design a successful and custom hybrid work environment. We believe in delivering results-driven technology solutions. Our team can work with you to decide which leading solutions will empower you to make the most of your hybrid workplace.  

by Beau Peyton