SECURE WORKSPACES FOR FIELD TEAMS AND HYBRID WORKERS Protect Users in Every Location

2SECURE WORKSPACES FOR FIELD TEAMS AND HYBRID WORKERS

Challenges With Protecting Remote And Hybrid Teams Hybrid and field teams need seamless, secure access to corporate resources in a variety of locations: a hotel, the office, home, a customer site, and numerous others.

Because of their vulnerability, remote and hybrid workers are the targets of a wide range of cyberattacks. These members represent a potential pathway to an organization’s sensitive systems and data, which cybercriminals are keen to exploit.

With 71% of companies permanently accommodating remote work and 63% of high growth organizations using a hybrid work model, these challenges are here to stay.

The pressure is on IT and security teams to keep malicious actors out of their networks. Compared with the traditional office model, there is less predictability when workers require access to corporate resources from a variety of locations.

Remote and hybrid teams require secure, easy access to corporate resources from a variety of locations

Let’s review a few of the security challenges associated with remote and hybrid teams.

https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work/2023 https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/business-functions-blog/hybrid-workforce https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/business-functions-blog/hybrid-workforce

3SECURE WORKSPACES FOR FIELD TEAMS AND HYBRID WORKERS

Cybercriminals Have Devised Numerous Ways To Introduce Ransomware Attackers continue to intensify their ransomware attacks, with an estimated 90% increase in extortions in 2023 vs. 2022 – it’s easy to understand why. There’s greater potential for a quick payday when an organization’s data or applications are being held for ransom, especially if daily operations are impacted.

Ransomware can target remote and hybrid workers in a variety of ways – from phishing emails to exploit kits to drive-by downloads and more. And even large enterprises, with large security teams, can be victimized (see Kronos, Maersk, Accenture).

Unsecured, Sluggish Connections To Corporate Resources Whether your users are 100% remote or road warriors, they require convenient access to corporate resources. These might include datacenter-hosted applications or databases or one of the dozens of SaaS apps the business depends on.

Using a legacy VPN to connect to business applications can introduce latency, as data is routed through a handful of servers before reaching its destination. VPNs also create opportunities to get into a network and move laterally because they are not designed to restrict users to only specific applications. Additionally, network administrators have limited visibility and control over VPN users’ activity (legitimate or otherwise) on the network.

Internet Access Without Impacting Productivity If remote team members access the internet with an unprotected connection, it exposes the organization to malware and other web-borne threats. An unsuspecting visit to a compromised website can easily expose an employee’s device to malware that ultimately affects the corporate network. While this scenario is not new, the magnitude, sophistication, and devastation of today’s breaches are unprecedented.

Organizations often use secure web gateways to defend against internet threats, but this can lead to new headaches. Cloud-based SWGs can cause congestion and affect performance of critical internal business applications. To avoid this, many companies use split tunneling to bypass part of, or all, web traffic from the secure tunnel. The bypassed traffic is therefore not be protected by the SWG, leaving an exposed attack surface.

Split tunneling is often required to improve app performance but it leaves an exposed attack surface with cloud-based SWG implementations

https://research.checkpoint.com/2024/2024s-cyber-battleground-unveiled-escalating-ransomware-epidemic-the-evolution-of-cyber-warfare-tactics-and-strategic-use-of-ai-in-defense-insights-from-check-points-latest-security-re/ https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252513513/Kronos-attack-fallout-continues-with-data-breach-disclosures https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-maersk-cyberattack-20170817-story.html https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/accenture-confirms-data-breach-after-august-ransomware-attack/

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Alternatively, using an on-prem SWG backhauls remote user traffic through an on-prem office or other location where the SWG is deployed. This creates the “trombone effect” which adds latency, impacting user experience and productivity.

Email Represents A Significant Threat Vector The remote worker’s workspace extends, of course, to their email platform, which is a leading attack vector for ransomware. But most email security tools are simply not up to the challenge of keeping the user – and their organization – safe from cyberattack. They allow zero click attacks, phishing links and malicious attachments to slip through at an unacceptable rate. As a result, business email compromise costs organizations billions of dollars every year.

xls* includes common Office Excel files such as .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm doc* includes common Office Word files such as .doc, .docx, .docm, and .dot

Top malicious file types sent via email in 2023

Addressing the Threat Some organizations address these threats with different vendors’ tools for secure remote access, internet security, and email protection. But sourcing from different vendors is inefficient and often results in higher overall expenditure, cumbersome management, and gaps in protection.

Organizations gain several benefits by simplifying their security strategy and consolidating controls with fewer vendors:

• Better visibility and control as tools can coordinate cross-platform and tap into centralized threat intelligence

• A far more efficient procurement process when dealing with fewer vendors

• Reduce TCO by bundling multiple security tools within a single platform

https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/three-common-initial-attack-vectors-account-for-most-ransomware-campaigns https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/three-common-initial-attack-vectors-account-for-most-ransomware-campaigns https://www.avanan.com/blog/zero-click-attacks-continue-to-proliferate https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-us-lost-record-125-billion-to-online-crime-in-2023/

5SECURE WORKSPACES FOR FIELD TEAMS AND HYBRID WORKERS

Harmony Secures the Workspace, Wherever Workers are Located Harmony SASE provides secure private access and hybrid internet security that safeguards remote and hybrid teams against a wide range of threats. Adding Harmony Email and Collaboration, also managed within the Check Point Infinity Portal, delivers enhanced workspace protection.

Examples of Secure Workspace Use Cases Field sales teams

• Spend a lot of time on the road, moving from airport to customer site to hotel • Often need to connect to public WiFi • High volume of inbox activity increases the potential for missing a malicious attachment or link

How Harmony protects the team • Automatic WiFi security encrypts data traversing any connection, allowing the team to connect to

and work over public Wi-Fi, worry-free • Email protection blocks malicious emails before they hit the inbox

Support and services personnel • Occasionally work at customer sites • Have direct access to sensitive customer data to streamline support and services • The nature of support is to work with previously unknown contacts, making them susceptible to

phishing attacks

How Harmony protects the team • Secure encrypted connections over a high-speed network, from any location or device • Security controls such as device posture check and IP allowlisting protect against unauthorized

access even if user credentials are stolen • Email protection blocks phishing attacks

Secure Private Access Harmony SASE uses a private mesh network to securely connect remote users to company resources in the cloud or on-prem.

Hybrid Internet Security Harmony SASE Internet Access uses a hybrid approach that lets employees connect directly to the web without sacrificing security thanks to on-device malware protection and web filtering.

Unrivaled Email Security Harmony Email and Collaboration (HEC) offers industry-leading protection that blocks malicious emails before they reach the inbox.

Centralized Administration Harmony SASE and HEC are managed from the Infinity Portal, which centralizes the administration of workspace security controls and offers greater visibility across team members’ activities.

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Harmony SASE The internet is the new corporate network, leading organizations to transition to SASE. However current solutions break the user experience with slow connections and complex management.

Harmony SASE is a game-changing alternative that delivers 2x faster internet security combined with full mesh Zero Trust Access and optimized SD-WAN performance—all with an emphasis on ease-of-use and streamlined management.

Combining innovative on-device and cloud-delivered network protections, Harmony SASE offers a local browsing experience with tighter security and privacy, and an identity-centric zero trust access policy that accommodates everyone: employees, BYOD and third parties. Its SD-WAN solution unifies industry-leading threat prevention with optimized connectivity, automated steering for over 10,000 applications and seamless link failover for uninterrupted web conferencing.

Harmony SASE enables any business to build a secure corporate network over a private global backbone in less than an hour. The service is managed from a unified console and is backed by an award-winning global support team that has you covered 24/7.

Harmony Email & Collaboration Harmony Email & Collaboration prevents malicious emails from reaching inboxes, guarding against the No.1 attack vector for threat actors. Recognized by all leading analysts and trusted by some of the world's largest companies, Harmony Email & Collaboration is the top email security provider on the market.