Can Your Cloud Storage Security Keep Up with the Rise of Remote Work?

The business world has witnessed drastic changes since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with the widespread adoption of remote work culture. A report from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research revealed that the number of employees working remotely at least once a week has increased fivefold since 2019, now accounting for nearly 42% of the global workforce.

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From employees getting a work-life balance and flexibility to companies benefiting from talent globalization, it's a win-win for both parties. This opportunity of working remotely has also attracted endless security challenges. Home networks and personal devices with unrestricted access provide an ideal ground for cybercriminals, exposing sensitive organizational data. Accessing the company's sensitive data via home networks, personal devices, or shared WiFi has led to a 40% increase in cyber threats from 2021 to 2024, according to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures.

Let's take a close look at the critical remote working security risks, real-world consequences, and essential strategies to prevent cyber attacks.

What's Being Overlooked?

To accommodate the remote work culture, businesses changed the mode of storing, sharing, and accessing data. Nowadays, daily business operations are incomplete without Cloud platforms, including OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or enterprise solutions like Microsoft Azure and AWS.

Despite robust baseline security by cloud providers, businesses are missing out on two key factors: environment configuration and necessary training for employees. Common entry points for cyber attacks include

• Weak passwords are used for a long time.

• Over-permission and poor access control.

• Accessing corporate data through unsecured personal handsets.

• Improper cloud storage configuration.

Real-world Consequences