Cybersecurity Impacted by Hybrid and Remote Workers

The impact of the hybrid workforce on cybersecurity is becoming a major issue for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and Legal Operations Managers. The 2023 State of Hybrid Work and Browsing Security Survey Report by Red Access sheds light on the challenges faced by CISOs in today’s age of hybrid work. Even though the survey was directed at CISOs, the results are of equal importance to Legal Operations Managers. In the report, browsing-based threats ranked as the number one concern, whether employees are working on-site or in hybrid or remote settings. Insecure browsing also topped the list of concerns for risks that were specifically posed by hybrid and remote workers. Of the 300 CISOs from the United States and 100 from the UK that were surveyed, 63 percent said they anticipate most employees at their organizations would be primarily using a hybrid or remote model for work within the next three years. And 73 percent agree that the hybrid and remote workforce has had a negative impact on their organization’s security. New strategies are being developed to protect workers’ browsing security, such as Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) Solutions. Unfortunately, rates of adoption are lower for employees working in a remote or hybrid environment (47%) than they are for employees working primarily in-office (55%). Dor Zvi, SEO at Red Access says, “Web browsing has become the operating layer on which hybrid and remote work run, and organizations ought to do as much as they possibly can to secure it.”