How cyber security boundaries are changing with the Australian modern workplace

Are you a Modern Management workplace?

Together but apart seems to be the way many companies are operating across the country. Government figures show that two-thirds of Australians now work from home sometimes or always, compared to 42 percent two years ago.  These changes look permanent with many organisations suggesting that the office become a place for collaboration rather than work, a place for team members to consume experiences in-person.

While some businesses are levelling up to trial a four day week, Atlassian, for one, suggests employees only come to an office four times a year. Deloitte Australia has gone fully flexible with “no one size fits all working week anymore and no requirement to be ‘in the office’ for any set amount of time.”

All of this will require a change in thinking from IT departments so that teams can work productively and securely from anywhere and anytime.

Managing the ‘new world’ user experience

Indeed, central office locations in the past were traditionally secured and hardened based on business requirements to allow all computer assets and staff to work. A network perimeter with remote VPN access was offered to a select few workers.

In the past year, businesses have been forced to rapidly expand their protected environments to allow staff to take their computers home and connect to the corporate network over a home internet connection.   

Welcome to the new world of work – a new hybrid workplace no less, which blends in-office and remote workers empowered by technology to choose where they work for the day. While businesses secure network perimeters remain largely intact, they are much more stretched, leaving some organisations at more risk and needing to review how they provide secure employee environments in this modern workplace.

With a permanently distributed and decentralised workforce now a reality, the often thought about but usually less critical initiatives of enabling today’s business with ‘Modern Management’ must be considered as part of offering business as usual services with Cyber Security taking centre stage.

The rise of Modern Management

‘Modern Management’ offers the best of both worlds in the hybrid work environment.  It is fast becoming an umbrella term for a collection of strategies, services and software designed to help businesses to deploy, secure and manage assets in the ‘new world’.

It can be used to protect employees and the devices and systems they are logged into, regardless of what they are doing, where they are doing it from, and what they’re working on.  At the same time, it can ensure that all people and devices requesting authorisation to connect to a business’s network or applications at their own moment of needs meets appropriate security standards before they can log in, and then that they can only access resources that are appropriate to their level and associated permissions. 

Strategic Technology Roadmap

As cities and states continue to move in and out of lockdown, it’s time to put strong foundations in place to accelerate your evolution towards a dynamic distributed working environment that encompasses offices, employees’ homes and everywhere in-between.

Implemented smartly, businesses looking to chart a course in this space should first review the steps they’ve already taken to enable new ways of work over the past year. A trusted IT partner can also be called upon to support how you determine your future vision, and provide a clear strategic roadmap of the steps and solutions needed to enable this /Modern Management/ and ultimately a dynamic distributed workplace.