From Remote Work to Remote Risk: Securing a Decentralized Team

By Todd Wentz • June 14, 2025

Your team may be remote, but your risk didn’t get left behind. With employees working from home, coffee shops, and hotel rooms, the old office firewall no longer protects your business. Today, access comes from everywhere—and so do the threats.

When Convenience Cuts Security

Imagine an employee logging into your CRM from their 5‑year‑old laptop on an unsecured Wi‑Fi network—or worse, a family-shared PC. Shadow IT—like personal cloud storage, AI tools, or unapproved conferencing apps—starts creeping in. Suddenly, your network perimeter is everywhere.

Real-World Risk: The LastPass Breach

In August 2022, a LastPass engineer’s home computer was compromised, which ultimately led to encrypted vault backups being stolen. According to KrebsOnSecurity, criminal hackers had compromised encrypted copies of some password vaults.
LastPass later confirmed that attackers used a keylogger on a developer’s machine to access credentials, then exfiltrated encrypted backups along with source code and internal data — details laid out in their December 2022 incident update.

This wasn’t a targeted enterprise hack—it was a remote access vulnerability waiting to happen. And it shows how hybrid teams can unknowingly introduce enterprise-grade risks.

Lock It Down: Foundational Remote Work Controls

• Conditional Access – Require device compliance checks, identity validation, and location confirmation before granting access.
• Multi‑factor Authentication (MFA) – Mandatory across all systems; avoid SMS MFA for high-risk accounts.
• Endpoint Protection – Deploy EDR/XDR that monitors activity even off-network.
• Role‑based Access – Limit remote access based on user roles and device health.

Beyond the Basics: Hybrid & BYOD Best Practices

• Enroll all work devices in a management system, or enforce minimum security standards.
• Use DNS filtering to block malicious domains on roaming laptops.
• Implement cloud DLP to catch unauthorized data transfers.
• Ensure offboarding wipes access and clears corporate data from personal devices.

Final Word

You can’t control where your team logs in, but you can control how safely they do it. Every remote endpoint needs to meet your security standards—period.

🛡️ Ready to protect your remote workforce? Download our free Remote Work Security Kit and ensure your perimeter protects your people.