With remote working becoming the norm, people need to have access to their organization's networks in order to get the work done, and need access to servers, email, and data without being in the office. But with the need for remote working and so many employees and full organizations working from home, remote access could also be opening up organizations to security risks.
When we look specifically at industrial networks and the organizations charged with maintaining, operating, and securing them, the security stakes become that much higher. Right now, it's more important than ever to make sure these networks are secure. These industrial networks — electrical grids, manufacturing plants, oil and gas, and transportation, among others — are critical to our nation's infrastructure, yet because of our rapidly shifting working environment, they are being accessed and sometimes maintained by people from all over the globe, not just on-site personnel. If these networks were to be compromised, it could be detrimental if a city's electrical grid were breached, or access to a manufacturing plant's systems got shut down.
The stakes are high, and we know that remote working isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so it's increasingly crucial for industrial organizations to have a good hold on the safety of our infrastructure, and protecting their remote access points and remote users is critical in doing so.
