Securing Remote Work: Key Strategies to Protect Your Corporate Data

Securing Remote Work: Key Strategies to Protect Your Corporate Data

Remote work and BYOD are now standard, but they bring new security challenges. During our recent webinar, Sam Foot, our seasoned security consultant, shared essential strategies for protecting corporate data in this evolving landscape.

Network to Identity: Securing the Modern Attack Surface

Cyber security thinking has undergone a fundamental shift. The traditional network perimeter once defined by firewalls, secure gateways, and office boundaries has eroded. With employees now accessing corporate resources from coffee shops, airports, and home networks, organizations can no longer rely solely on network-based protections. Security must evolve to focus on identities, devices, and data, wherever work happens.

This shift is especially evident with the rise of bring your own device (BYOD) policies that allow employees to access organizational resources using their own phones, laptops, or tablets. While offering flexibility, BYOD also introduces significant risks. Personal devices often lack enterprise-grade protections, making them vulnerable to malware, unauthorized apps, and accidental data leaks. The diversity of devices and operating systems further complicates the enforcement of consistent security policies. And when corporate data resides on unmanaged personal devices, compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA becomes even more challenging.

To address these realities, organizations must adopt a Zero Trust approach, one that assumes no implicit trust and continuously verifies every user, device, and interaction. This model is built on three core principles:

• Identity verification through multi-factor authentication
• Device compliance with security standards
• Least privilege access, ensuring users only access what they truly need

In a world where the perimeter is no longer physical, securing identities and devices is the new frontline.

Balancing Control and Privacy: MAM in the BYOD Landscape

In BYOD enabled environments, securing corporate data while respecting user privacy is a key challenge. Traditional Mobile Device Management (MDM) gives IT full control over personal devices, which can feel invasive to users. As a more privacy-conscious alternative, Mobile Application Management (MAM) focuses on protecting data at the app level, without managing the entire device. With Microsoft Intune, organizations can apply targeted app protection policies, such as:

• Restricting cut, copy, and paste between corporate and personal apps
• Enforcing encryption within corporate apps
• Controlling printing and data sharing
• Requiring PIN authentication for access
• Integrating with conditional access for context-aware security

To strengthen data protection, Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels add document-level encryption that travels with the file, ensuring only authorized users can access it, even if shared externally. Combined with strong identity controls and a security-first culture, this approach helps organizations secure BYOD environments without compromising user trust.

What You Can Do Today to Secure Remote Work

Here are a few practical steps you can take today to strengthen security for BYOD and remote work environments:

• MFA is a must: Enforce multi-factor authentication across all users and scenarios, no exceptions.
• Protect BYOD with Intune: App protection policies balance security and user privacy.
• Safeguard sensitive data: Use sensitivity labels and data loss prevention (DLP) controls to protect corporate information.
• Focus your efforts: Tackle one security area at a time through dedicated sprints.
• Build a security culture: Train employees and foster open communication around security concerns.
• Engage with experts: Stay updated by collaborating with cyber security communities.

Remote work and BYOD are here to stay. Securing this new reality means incorporating identity-based security, applying app-level controls, and layering data protection. The goal is to balance security with usability, protecting data while respecting user privacy. Success requires ongoing evaluation, smart investments, and a strong security-first culture.‍

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Ready to strengthen your remote work security strategy? Connect with Beazley Security's cyber security experts to assess your current posture, explore tailored solutions, and stay ahead of emerging threats.