Remote work has brought convenience for employees, allowing them to stay at home and avoid the hassles typically associated with the traditional office setup. In the pre-pandemic period, many enterprises already operated on a remote work model while other companies considered adopting this setup.
However, when the novel coronavirus broke out, industries had to expedite their shift into telecommuting. Businesses needed a way to keep operations going despite the limitations of lockdown protocols and physical distancing mandates. While remote work was meant to deliver a safer working environment for employees, its rapid implementation poses security risks among companies.
Traditional offices have an IT infrastructure built to curtail cyberattacks. But in a remote work model, employees usually do not have the same resources to protect their network or devices. Connecting to public networks and poor online habits can easily open their devices to security threats. Additionally, outdated knowledge-based authentication (KBA) methods, like passwords, are no longer sufficient barriers in a digital world.
Criminals continually innovate ways on how they can infiltrate the system to perform illicit activities. These persistent threats push enterprises to shore up digital security, ensuring a safe and seamless experience for their remote workers.
To ensure that only legitimate employees have access to the network, organizations must implement effective knowledge-based authentication alternatives like biometrics and passwordless login. Most mobile devices already have built-in support for facial recognition and fingerprint scans, making the process easier. Moreover, biometric traits are difficult to fake and are not susceptible to common tactics for bypassing knowledge-based credentials.
Supplementary to biometrics, device-based authentication requires users to register their known device to their account as an additional layer of protection. This login option provides simplicity and security, eliminating the need for passwords.
There is more to know about the role of modern identity verification in telecommuting. See this infographic from authID that discusses the need for biometric identity assurance in the remote workforce.
