While most of us are glad to see the back of the COVID pandemic and its myriad of lockdowns and restrictions, many organisations are now having to deal with the repercussions, including a heightened risk of cybercrime due to changing workplace dynamics.

That’s according to Jolene Castelyn, Marketing Executive at Ricoh Southern Africa, who says the shift to a hybrid work from home (WFH) model, however attractive it may be for employees, brings with it additional threats that their employers need to account for.

“To safeguard cybersecurity in the current work environment, where employees use both home and corporate networks as well as public networks offered by establishments such as airports and cafes, it is important to include this factor in our risk assessments,” says Castelyn.

“The main concern nowadays is granting access to devices and endpoints located anywhere globally, which increases our reliance on the user logging in to be an authentic employee and their device to be entirely secure.”

South Africa was ranked as one of the top 10 countries affected by cybercrime according to cybersecurity firm Surfshark. Another recently-published PwC security review found that 71% of business and security leaders in South Africa are experiencing a rise in their cybersecurity budgets due to the increased exposure to cyberattacks resulting from the widespread adoption of digital technologies.

Castelyn says it is crucial to evaluate the magnitude of the attack surface - the total number of ways that an outsider can enter your company or access data - and find ways to decrease it without compromising the necessary features for users. According to Gartner, expanding attack surfaces will be one of the key security threats for organisations going forward.

“The problem here is that the attack surface has broadened beyond what was previously restricted by the perimeter firewall and what was being used in the cloud,” says Castelyn. “It now encompasses every company device located in employees' homes, as well as any personal device an employee might use to log in.

“In effect, this includes every username, password, and identity used within the organisation,” she says. “Furthermore, all cloud assets, data centers, web applications available on the Internet, and even supply chain routes are also vulnerable. Taking all of these factors into account, comprehending the attack surface can be a daunting task, and reducing and safeguarding it is an even greater challenge.”

Castelyn says the solution to minimising the attack surface is to have a clear understanding of the assets that are being used, and their location. Once this information is obtained, the next crucial step is to identify all the vulnerabilities present on these assets. After identifying the vulnerabilities, the next priority is to mitigate them through remediation efforts, which may also involve reducing the number of assets in use, ultimately leading to a reduced attack surface.

“What works best, in our experience, is a multi-pronged approach to cybersecurity services, hitting the various touchpoints that South African employees are increasingly being exposed to in the new workplace dynamic,” she adds.

“Businesses need to recognise that the potential points of cyber-attack are constantly changing, just like the numerous working locations their employees use, and it’s absolutely crucial to deploy effective strategies and technologies that can cover the areas where attack surfaces cannot be minimised.”

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable individuals to work smarter from anywhere.

With cultivated knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history, Ricoh is a leading provider of digital services, information management, and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation and optimize business performance.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group has major operations throughout the world and its products and services now reach customers in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2022, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,758 billion yen (approx. 14.5 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh-europe.com