Post-COVID, we need to do a great deal more
It’s CybSafe’s monthly virtual All Hands meeting. We’re 15 minutes in. And CEO Oz Alashe has just announced some significant news:
Following COVID, no CybSafe employee will be bound to a physical office. Instead, CybSafe will be joining the growing list of organisations “working from anywhere”. Not temporarily. Permanently. And not “working from home”. Working from anywhere. Questions about office hours and moving overseas quickly begin. They showcase people’s excitement. But they also highlight an interesting point – For months now, most security professionals have been desperate to “secure remote workers”.
It’s now obvious we need to do more.
People are not simply “working from home”
Post-COVID, people are not simply “working from home”. That would be convenient. But it’s just not the case. Post-COVID, people are working – and indeed living – in an increasingly borderless world. Yes, the border between homes and offices has vanished. But so have so many other “borders”. The border confining security policies to offices. The border we convinced ourselves protected our office networks. And, with office demand down, weekend working up, the 9-5 is in jeopardy, remote recruitment and, soon enough, bespoke salaries based on hyper-local living costs, it’s clear numerous borders restricting mindsets have disappeared. There’s no denying it. What’s underway at the minute is much, much more than a simple increase in remote working. And we really need to stop trying to “secure remote workers” with methods that, actually, never worked anyway. In the new normal we need a new approach. We need Borderless Security Awareness.
Security awareness for a world without borders
Borderless Security Awareness is a new approach fit for an unprecedented period. It isn’t a tweaked version of the old, ineffective security awareness model. With borderless security awareness, things like posters, e-learning and simulated attacks take a back seat. Meanwhile, on-demand security help takes centre stage. There’s no forcing people to take lengthy e-learning courses. Instead, people get valuable security help whenever they need it. Like when they join unsecured Wi-Fi, for example. Or post to social. Or share their location. It’s helping people on their terms. Wherever they are, whenever they need help. A revolution, not an evolution. Security awareness – fit for the world as it is.
Borderless Security Awareness today
On paper, borderless sounds like a pipedream. In reality, it’s already baked into tools like Security Awareness Training, Phising Simulator and Nudges. Borderless isn’t “coming soon”. Borderless is already here. And just as well – because the “new normal” is also already here. We need to rethink security awareness in response.
