In a survey conducted in 2019, more than 60% of those polled said they operated remotely or on the go. Over 80% of respondents said they had operated remotely at some point in the past in the same survey. Over half of the participants have mentioned that they would like to operate remotely in the near future.
In today’s world, the physical location of your employees’ office operations can no longer have an effect on your company’s productivity. However, because of the world’s short-term climate, the number of remote employees and travelling executives is expected to rise.
There are also third-party associates, contractors, customers, and partners who work for the organisation or are affiliated with it in any way but are not required to work inside the office perimeter. These organisations can need access to your data and records in the same way as your employees do. To provide encrypted access to suppliers and third-party associates, most companies rely on unreliable and inefficient data transmission methods such as VPNs. However, such systems may be unsuccessful in thwarting a data breach and have no control over how a document may be used by an approved user (e.g., edited, printed, copied, etc.).
Although there is more flexibility in integrating and communicating with staff and third-party associates remotely to ensure efficiency, this also comes at the expense of massive data protection risks.
With the rise of remote workers, it’s critical to remember that data remains safe regardless of its location. Remote employees are only given rights in a few situations. Any workers who work outside the organization’s network may need access to some business information. Others, on the other hand, may include critical business details such as sales figures, marketing data, payroll data, human resources data, and more. Similarly, external IT service providers who provide helpdesk services which need access to the same information that internal IT departments do. Both of them contain sensitive and confidential information that must be protected no matter where it goes.
We’ll look at various types of remote workers that need access to sensitive documents, data, and systems, as well as how digital rights management can help you have safe access to critical data while maintaining control over how it’s used.
IT security employees working remotely
When travelling or operating outside the office networks, team members such as network managers, domain administrators, IT executives, and others who use sensitive internal data systems from inside the organisation can be expected to do so remotely. In this scenario, companies must determine the exact levels of access required by remote employees. It will aid in the implementation of least-privilege privileges, which are available in PDF DRM, to ensure that they only have access to what is needed to complete the mission. Traditional protection systems, such as VPNs, are unable to provide the granular level of security required to effectively protect information. Only by using digital rights management can you assign granular access and avoid cases where people have access to data that isn’t related to their job. Integrating digital rights management allows you to have automatic and precise access while also allowing you to remove access once the work is finished.
Third-party associates and vendors
The majority of businesses have third-party associates and contracted suppliers that offer remote services and maintenance. To access certain types of information, certain organisations usually need elevated privileges. On a case-by-case basis, identify these users and determine their individual levels of access to particular documents and data. Digital rights management will secure your proprietary and other important business records in a number of ways if you are required to exchange copyrighted content with those vendors. You could do the following with DRM:
- Set a limit to how many times a PDF file or document can be downloaded.
- Disable copying, printing, forwarding, downloading, and taking screenshots of the material.
- Limit the number of devices that can access the content and make sure that all devices have first been approved by the company.
- Limit the amount of time users have access to the content until it is automatically revoked.
- If you suspect unauthorised use, revoke the file right away.
- Keep track of who has viewed and printed the documents and when they were viewed and printed.
- Ensure that records can only be accessed from a limited number of places.
Business and IT consultants
External consultants who work closely with organisations may need privileged access to sensitive documents and information on occasion. Such information will assist consultants in becoming more effective on their projects. However, you must only grant access for a limited period of time, after which the file must be immediately deleted or revoked. External contractors could have unrestricted access to areas of the business they don’t need if automatic revocation isn’t in place. Identifying your contractors and the data they need access to will help you avoid data theft and keep your sensitive documents and information secure. You will keep a close eye on external consultants’ access and protect records from being misused with digital rights management.
Since a growing number of businesses depend on remote workers, it’s critical to consider the different types of users who access the organization’s system from outside the office. Furthermore, it is critical to use digital rights management to control, track, and protect the access.