Based on the current Covid19 scenario, several companies asked employees to work from home. Google and Facebook have said that most of the employees need not come to the office till 2021. Several companies provide the company’s assets (Laptop, internet facility, etc.) to the employee to work from home. Several employees work using their personal laptops as well.

Well, we assume that this condition will go on and there is no clear indication that how long it will. This becomes a reason for employers to think differently and consider the WFH as a serious method. At some point, it rescues the operation cost as well. For example, paying huge rent, internet, electricity, etc.

When WFH is a good choice for companies, the security measure should be in place as WFH always a security risk. There could be a chance for confidential data leak and other privacy issues.

How can we secure the users’ environment?

1. If the company provides the computer to employees to work from home:
   • The IT policy of the company can be applied to the systems. A cloud-based firewall and content filtering service will be also required to enhance the security and track the activities.
   • VPN connection to access server resources
2. If the company does not provide the computer to employees to work from home:
   • Go for cloud-based desktops( Eg. AWS Workspaces). Employees can use their computers to log on to cloud computing and work on that. No data will be stored on his personal devices.
   • A cloud-based firewall and content filtering service will be also required to enhance the security and track the activities. Your IT team can take control of the cloud UTM to setup policies in the cloud desktops.

Amazon Workspaces

Amazon WorkSpaces is a managed, secure Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. You can use Amazon WorkSpaces to provision either Windows or Linux desktops in just a few minutes and quickly scale to provide thousands of desktops to workers across the globe. You can pay either monthly or hourly, just for the WorkSpaces you launch, which helps you save money when compared to traditional desktops and on-premises VDI solutions. Amazon WorkSpaces helps you eliminate the complexity in managing hardware inventory, OS versions and patches, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which helps simplify your desktop delivery strategy. With Amazon WorkSpaces, your users get a fast, responsive desktop of their choice that they can access anywhere, anytime, from any supported device.

Consult with a security expert