This past March, the number of remote workers in the United States grew by 16 million. It’s also expected that anywhere between 25% to 30% of the global workforce is going to be working remotely by the end of next year, and over 70% of CFOs have said they’ve made long-term plans for working remotely at their companies. With this widespread shift, new challenges in corporate data security are arising. What are they, and what can we do about it? Tune into our latest podcast by Minim and Telarus: Solving the WFH Security Problem.
The remote worker threatscape
In the podcast, Minim VP Channel Sales and Business Development Tyler Craig and Telarus VP Business Development, Cybersecurity Dominique Singer sit down to explore the remote workforce security challenges businesses are up against today.
“In a given month, 38% of homes experience some sort of malware event—and it’s happening in a variety of forms. It can be Mirai, Gumblar, Ramnit, Matsnu, Suppobox, and Banjori; those are just a few of the malware variants that we’ve detected on remote worker networks,” explains Tyler based on Minim data.
With an average of 12 smart devices per remote worker home network, the new work environment is attack vector-ridden and is putting corporate data at risk. Here’s a snapshot of what some of these home network threats look like:
- Zero-day vulnerability found in 79 NETGEAR routers and modems dating back as far as 2007 could allow an attacker to take over an entire home network and the devices connected to it
- Fake flash installer malware (a new, unique variant of the Shlayer malware) hits 1 in 10 macOS users and causes users to download malicious adware
- A new UPnP exploit dubbed CallStranger affects millions of home devices, with the ability to steal user data and orchestrate DDoS attacks
“Home users are absolutely exposed to more targeting,” says Dominique. “Whether it’s phishing, whether it’s based on COVID-19 fears—whatever it is, users are so much more likely to click on things [that are security risks].”
Dominique and Tyler continue on to share a sneak peek at Minim’s Bring Your Own NetworkTM Defense-in-Depth solution, which delivers a series of layered defense mechanisms for employees WFH networks—to fill the gaps where other layers such as endpoint security and VPN fall short.
Tune into the full podcast episode to learn more about the threats targeting remote employee networks and how a Defense-in-Depth strategy is needed for any business adopting a remote work model.
Access the full podcast episode to learn more
