Increasing shifts to telework and hybrid work environments create opportunities for rural ISPs. I’ll share some trends on telework in a future post, but for now let’s consider that discussion as the dessert to the main course of how rural ISPs can be advisors to local small businesses for not only tech platforms and software aimed at creating remote work environments, but also cybersecurity guidance for at-home workers.
A recent article broached the delicate topic of making hybrid in-person/remote meetings less awkward. You know the drill – 10 people around a table, who in their Hollywood Square (or Brady Brunch) Zoom box look like grasshoppers to individuals working from home, who merit a full box of their own. And yet those at home can fall prey to a sense of disconnection borne of not being “in the room where it happens.”
Recommendations to overcome this sense of disparity include directing all meeting participants, including those participating “in person,” to use laptops so that everyone appears on-screen in equivalent measure, i.e., every face fills a box. Or, to take advantage of multi-camera arrangements that will automatically track and focus on whoever happens to be speaking in the conference room. And as attention is paid to the tech of at-home offices, those environments benefit from such measures as proper lighting and ergonomic arrangements. What may have passed as “livable” during a temporary period of pandemic is no longer suitable for regular, long-term telework arrangements (I broke down after 20 months and purchased a proper chair).
And if the physical environment warrants a look, then cybersecurity, if not addressed aggressively until now, demands careful attention, as well. At the very least, distributed work environments enlarge the field of attack for adversarial actors. Remote access to office networks opens additional risk gateways to secure environments. Multi-factor authorization may seem inconvenient but then consider that 70% of cyber attacks target small businesses. The Wall Street Journal reports that data breaches at small businesses increased 152% during 2020/2021, compared to 2018/2019. And during that same period, the rate of breaches at large organizations increased at less than half that rate (75%). And 60% of small and medium businesses that are attacked will likely go out of business in six months. Suddenly, confirming one’s identity through a text message or facial recognition does not seem so inconvenient.
But these steps require expert advice, and rural ISPs, often the first stop for their customers with network or hardware-related questions, are well positioned to suit up for play. This can include advising on embedded security; risk training and awareness; updating local businesses on emerging risk factors; and assisting with deployment and management of cybersecurity defenses.
And there are cultural challenges, as well. It is neither difficult nor unusual for someone to holler to co-worker down the hall, “Hey, did you just receive that message from the Botswanan prince?” But there might be a little reluctance to dial in with that query from the home office. And the fortified defenses of office workspaces may embolden workers to contact IT when they think something has gone wrong. After all, potential feelings of culpability can be expected to be countered by, “It’s not my fault if something slipped through IT's fortress.” In contrast, a potential trespass at home could leave a worker wondering whether he was as vigilant with his home office as he should have been. And acknowledging that potential lapse to IT might be difficult and hence discourage the opportunity for firms to mount even a post hoc defense.
Ultimately, there is no definitive end to cybersecurity. It is an ongoing effort. I often invoke the words of the alarm guy who set up my house. As we identified (and ultimately included) redundancies, he remarked, “Mister, if someone wants to get to you bad enough, I can’t stop them. My job is to slow them down and make them go next door.”
The rural tech expert can slow the adversaries in many ways, including helping small businesses implement MFA; monitoring systems for patches and updates; serving as a detached, non-corporate cybersecurity detail to whom employees can report suspected breaches without reluctance; securing home networks; encryption; setting up VPNs. These are steps that can be critical to the survival of a small business in an increasingly online world.
Next week: A look at trends in telework, and the possible impacts of a slowing economy on work-from-home movements.
Learn more: NTCA’s CyberShare: The Small Broadband Provider Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) promotes the resiliency and continuity of operation of small network operators across the United States.