The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the labor market to adapt to their crews’ remote work and work-from-home (WFH) setups with astonishing speed.

Nine in ten workers prefer a hybrid of office and remote work. Meanwhile, 82% of company leaders intend to permit remote work in the short term, and nearly half would continue to offer fully remote work after the pandemic. Filipino talent reflects these trends: 66% of Filipino employees want to travel less for work, and 50% of Filipino jobseekers prefer exclusively remote work. For organizations, making work-from-home an option has become not only a necessity to survive the pandemic but to retain talent.

According to OwlLab’s State of Remote Work Study, more than half of workers say that they will not return to jobs without the option for remote work and 80% expect to work from home at least three times a week. Not only are workers more likely to not return to the job, but the same proportion (50%) would actively move to a different place for a job that offered one in case their current job does not. The option to have remote work and work from home has also been shown to improve morale, trust, and productivity according to the same study. Thus, the option is a good deal for employers as well.

Organizations should also invest in active security measures to keep offsite work feasible. IBM’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report says that the average data breach took 212 days to identify and 75 days (287-day life-cycle). The longer a data breach is not detected, the higher the cost. Data breaches with life cycles under over 200 days, on average, cost an organization USD 4.87 million; and USD 3.61 million for under 200 days. The report found that training and active security are the most effective measures.

Work-from-home has its fair share of problems. For employers in the Philippines, the pandemic has put cybersecurity and technological literacy front and center for the ability to continue to do business. The surge in remote work has also triggered an uptick in cyberattacks. According to the 2021 Evil Internet Minute Report, 648 cyber-threats occurred every minute in 2021. Standard system protections for home devices such as router’s firewall settings are inadequate to repel determined attacks targeted at a business. Good places to start are: implementing multifactor authentication and acceptable use policies around websites or applications. While these are cost-effective first steps, organizations still need tools and experts in cybersecurity.

We at LZ Cybersecurity believe in realistic, tailor-made solutions for your organization. With our diverse pool of certified cybersecurity experts, seasoned advisers, and trusted tools, we will ensure your organization has the protection it needs to ensure work-from-home works for you. Talk to us today.

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Works Cited

CISCO, 2020. Workforce of the Future Survey, s.l.: Cisco.

Strack, R. K.-O. O. B. J. A. P. K. K. &. G., 2021. Decoding Global Ways of Working.

OWL Labs, 2020. State of Remote Work.

IBM, 2021. Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021.

RISKIQ, 2021. The 2021 Evil Internet Minute.