As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, most organizations made a quick transition to a remote workforce. This has also created new security vulnerabilities. In 2023, attackers will still seek to exploit the gaps opened when telecommuting employees use insecure devices and networks. Listen to James Fair, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations of Executech, why security is one of the top priorities to consider while shifting to remote work and how to maintain awareness and overall work hygiene of all employees, for now and in the future.

About our Guest: James Fair

His adorable dog Lola kept him and his wife good fun company during the current covid restrictions. She always wants to play and is enthusiastic when she sees him. Taking care of her is a new task that he shares with his wife now.

Remote work and cyber security: Possible trends and vision for 2023 :

Research by Stefan Stefanovic

Possible trends for 2023:

• Permanent training and education of their employees working from home about cyber security will become high priority for all companies • Companies will invest more money in the security of their IT systems • The global cybersecurity market will experience high growth • Personal data breaches may be on the rise • Voice interfaces and chatbots – companies will increasingly start to prefer the interaction with their remote employees via these communication techniques • Facial recognition will become a trend, although we will not see some greater regulatory control • Big personal data concerns regarding the use of facial recognition technology • Companies will have to improve their remote work policies and capabilities • 5G wireless technology will become a trend – it will though raise cyber security concerns

Vision for 2023:

Before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the trend of working from home had certainly good outlook. After the pandemic is finally gone, this trend will undoubtedly continue to rise and slowly but surely become a standard of our working habits in the years to come. However, one of the biggest challenges regarding this new dimension of our everyday lives that will be put to big test is certainly the question of cyber security in home office. We are going to live in a world of even more sophisticated hackers and cheaters, who will want to steal data from companies and employes for various reasons.

New 5G wireless technology will certainly change our daily habits and working surrounding forever. The fact is that this technology brings lots of controversies. On the one hand, there are people who think that one of the biggest benefits of having 5G service is the dramatic increase in bandwidth. Greater bandwidth means that files will download faster, accessing the internet will be much faster, and there will be little to no lagging during streaming. On the other side, however, there are people who think that IoT, which is a major component of 5G network architecture, remains a major security risk. IoT devices are one of the most-attacked types of hardware. The problem here is that if an IoT device is plugged into the network, and it doesn’t have protection in it, it’s infected in three minutes or less, Working remotely requires the employee to be in an area with reliable, high-speed Internet. Typically, that means the home office or a shared public workspace. But with 5G and its incredible speeds, workers may soon be able to have connections speedy enough to truly work remote - on the road, in a hotel room, at a park. Wherever you can get 5G, you can do the things telecommuters need to do in today’s workforce (collaborate in real time, share and transfer large files, have seamless video conferencing, etc.).

Taking into account all previously mentioned, it is undisputable that some tectonic changes in the field of remote work will start to happen in post-corona time. Not all of them will be for the benefit of remote employees. Facial recognition will be significant threat to personal data, which will give rise to the debates, no only among the lawyers, but it will trigger a general debate in the society about the acceptability of this log-in technique. Additionally, it remains to be seen in which way will the 5G wireless network affect our everyday lives and the way we work. Undoubtedly, its impact will be strong.