The onset of Covid-19 turned the workplace as we knew it upside down. IT departments were forced to adapt very quickly to the new way of working from home and deploy remote systems to enable employees to connect securely and easily.
While equipping employees with the tools they needed to work remotely has enabled businesses to maintain their operations, it has also left them more vulnerable and open to security breaches.
Here we explore the top 3 security challenges faced by IT professionals when it comes to securing their business in the new norm and how password managers are helping close the security gaps.
#1 Shadow IT
Employees turning to their own unsanctioned applications – email accounts, messenger platforms, video conferencing products, collaboration tools and file-sharing services – in order to do their jobs more efficiently, has been an ongoing challenge for IT departments. But as remote working continues, the prevalence of shadow IT continues to grow. This is increasing businesses’ exposure to risk, leaving intellectual property and data open to cyberattacks.
#2 Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks are particularly challenging for IT departments to combat because they target the individuals within an organization, rather than the organization’s technology and infrastructure. Fraudsters, pretending to be legitimate business contacts, entice users to click on a malicious link, download a malicious file, or give them access to sensitive information, account details or credentials. Phishing attacks are getting more and more sophisticated… and thrive on human error. Adhering to security best practices at the best of times can be difficult for employees, and the distractions associated with home working increases the likelihood of them letting their guard down and clicking on a link that isn’t legitimate.
#3 Poor password management practices
Passwords have long been the weakest link when it comes to IT security and a leading source of data breaches. In fact, of the 5,258 data breaches recorded in 2021, 60% were password and credentials related. To address this, businesses are putting stricter password policies in place. But given the sheer number of passwords the average employee uses, adhering to these policies without the tools to help them, is just too much. Consequently, employees are creating weak passwords because they are easy to remember (and subsequently easy to crack), writing down more complex passwords on sticky notes and in plain text files, or using the same password across multiple accounts. All of these actions are compromising data and putting businesses at huge risk.
More and more IT professionals are considering deploying password management solutions as part of their multi-layered cybersecurity strategy to help:
- Define and enforce strict password policies
- Generate strong and unique passwords that employees don’t need to remember
- Automatically fill in passwords and other credentials on trusted web pages
- Prevent phishing attacks – password managers won’t be fooled by disguised URLs and will only enter credentials for genuine websites
- Share passwords and files securely across teams
- Prevent storage of passwords in plain text files
- Alert employees to weak passwords or data breaches
When considering password management solutions, it’s important to remember that not all password managers are made equal, especially when it comes to where data is stored. The majority of password management solutions require passwords and credentials to be stored in the service provider’s cloud. Many businesses however, aren’t comfortable with their most sensitive data being stored outside of their IT infrastructure, or they have mandates in place which prevent them from doing so.
At Enpass, we’re giving businesses the peace of mind that their data never leaves the trusted boundaries of their IT infrastructure. Find out more about Enpass Business.
Download Enpass, and if you have any feedback or suggestions about your experience, drop us a line at support@enpass.io.