Why Cybersecurity in Remote Work Is Now an HR Priority

For every company that has decided to bring its workforce back to the office (think: Amazon, Dell, JPMorgan and Zoom), another has doubled down on a hybrid or completely remote workplace model.

Companies in the latter group spend a lot of time considering what remote work will mean from a payroll and productivity perspective, but often overlook what it will require in terms of cybersecurity in remote work – and the critical role HR plays in managing it.

For them, onboarding, policy enforcement and employee device usage are no longer just operational concerns – they’re cybersecurity flashpoints. If HR doesn’t help shape how remote work policies are communicated, enforced and updated, they risk becoming the weakest link in the company’s security posture.

Consider, for instance, an employee who has decided to work from Costa Rica for the week. She’s connected to an open, unsecured Wi-Fi network. Unbeknownst to her, this simple act could expose her device – and by extension, the company’s entire network – to cyber threats. Such scenarios are not isolated incidents; in fact, 74% of data breaches involve a human element, often stemming from lapses like this.

This scenario exposes a critical gap in employees’ understanding of how their actions on company devices affect overall network security. HR can’t leave employees as the last line of defense against risks related to cybersecurity in remote work. Instead, HR must lead by embedding clear cybersecurity expectations into policies, training, and ongoing communications, partnering closely with managed service providers (MSPs) to ensure smooth transitions from traditional offices to remote and hybrid work models. This approach builds a culture where every employee knows their role in protecting the organization.

Even a single incident can reveal a major blind spot: Many employees don’t fully understand how their actions on company-connected devices can compromise broader systems. But they shouldn’t be expected to act as the final line of defense. HR leaders have a key role to play in building a culture of shared accountability, where cybersecurity in remote work isn’t treated as an IT issue alone. Partnering with managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams, HR should help design and reinforce security protocols that reflect the realities of distributed workforces and reduce risk across the organization.

5 Ways to Strengthen Cybersecurity in Remote Work

Here’s an overview of five of the most important ways companies, their HR teams and MSPs can work together to secure evolving networks – ideally before going remote.

1. Introduce a Cybersecurity Plan Grounded in Real-World Threats

In the past, companies often adopted a reactive stance on cybersecurity in remote work,  addressing threats only after they materialized. However, with a dispersed workforce, the potential vulnerabilities companies are exposed to are too significant to deal with as they come, making a proactive approach necessary. Rather than “wait and see,” they should start with a comprehensive risk assessment to identify and address vulnerabilities inherent in home offices, co-working spaces and mobile setups.

While IT spearheads the technical aspects, HR should collaborate closely to:

• Develop clear policies for cybersecurity in remote work
• Ensure those policies are communicated effectively and followed by employees, and
• Facilitate frequent and ongoing cybersecurity training to keep employees aware of evolving threats.

By embedding HR into the framework for cybersecurity in remote work, companies move beyond one-off training sessions and toward a sustained culture of accountability and cybersecurity awareness. As hybrid and remote work introduce security risks tied to behavior – like device sharing, poor password practices and unsecured networks – HR is critical to shaping expectations, enforcing protocols and building habits that protect company assets every day.

Planning for this shift should begin with a thorough risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities common to home offices, co-working spaces and mobile setups – from unintentional eavesdropping and unsecured devices to risky network access and browser-based workflows. Understanding these risks, and the potential business impact of a breach, allows organizations to put stronger protections and response procedures in place before an incident occurs.

2. Address AI-Driven Threats and Emerging Risks

Don’t overlook the growing threat posed by AI, automation and advanced reconnaissance. Even if your company isn’t using AI directly, you still need to be protected from it – and, ideally, by it.

AI has become a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. On one side, attackers are using it to scale their efforts, automate fraud and create social engineering tactics that are more personalized and harder to detect. On the other, defenders are racing to deploy AI tools that can strengthen threat detection, reduce response times and identify suspicious patterns that traditional systems might miss.

For HR, this means working with IT to ensure employees are aware of new, AI-powered risks, especially those that mimic legitimate messages or workflows. As the line between human and machine-generated threats continues to blur, awareness training needs to evolve just as quickly.

Cybercriminals are using AI tools, including ChatGPT-style bots, to generate highly personalized phishing messages that mimic the communication style of real employees – even CEOs. These scams often target HR and payroll teams directly. One common tactic: an email that appears to come from an employee, requesting a last-minute bank account update in the payroll system before the next pay cycle. You can imagine how quickly that can go wrong.

Another growing risk is the unintentional exposure of sensitive company information. Employees increasingly use public AI tools to summarize meetings, draft communications, or analyze internal reports – and in doing so, may unknowingly upload proprietary data. That content can then be referenced in unrelated prompts by external users, creating dangerous opportunities for data leakage.

Deepfake technology raises the stakes even further. With AI-driven voice cloning and increasingly realistic avatars, attackers can impersonate candidates, pass virtual interviews, and embed themselves inside your organization. These tactics are no longer theoretical – they’re happening now.

The same AI tools that create these risks, however, can help mitigate them. MSPs can support businesses by implementing continuous threat detection tools that monitor patterns and behaviors and deploy defensive AI to counter malicious activity in real time.

For HR, this means evolving how internal requests are validated. Secure, multi-channel verification processes should become standard practice – especially for payroll changes, access requests and hiring decisions. AI may be making fraud more convincing, but HR has the power to make it less effective.

3. Ensure Software Updates and Device Compliance

Don’t let your workforce skip critical security updates.

When employees are in the office, companies can schedule regular software updates, track which devices have been updated, and follow up in person if needed. But remote work reduces this control. Off-site employees are more likely to delay or forget updates, making their devices prime targets for cybercriminals who exploit outdated software vulnerabilities, one of the key challenges in cybersecurity in remote work.

Skipping updates increases the risk of malware infections and company-wide data breaches. Updates don’t just improve functionality – they include security patches that fix known vulnerabilities. Although updating software is a simple task, ignoring it can have major consequences.

Companies must create and enforce policies requiring employees to keep devices, applications and operating systems current. Regular reviews of device lifecycles are also critical, since unsupported devices no longer receive updates and become high-risk.

HR can play a vital role by ensuring that update compliance is embedded in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies. Non-compliance should be addressed through regular audits or employee performance reviews, reinforcing that cybersecurity in remote work is a shared responsibility – not just IT’s job.

4. Establish a Backup Plan for Critical Data

All it takes is one compromised device for a cyberattacker to gain access to a company’s entire network – potentially resulting in millions of dollars in data loss.

Beyond cyberattacks, accidental deletions, hardware failures and other oversights can also cause significant data loss. That makes it critical for companies to safeguard their data and back it up more than once.

A widely adopted strategy is the 3-2-1 backup rule. This means:

• Maintaining at least 3 copies of data
• Stored on 2 different types of media
• With 1 backup kept offsite 

Companies should ensure backups happen frequently and that these copies remain secure. There’s flexibility in how organizations apply this rule – what matters is that the process fits their needs and effectively protects against data loss.

For HR, supporting cybersecurity in remote work includes reinforcing policies around data protection and employee responsibility for safeguarding information, especially as remote devices become gateways to critical systems.

5. Involve Employees in Building a Security-First Culture

Don’t work around employees. Work with them, especially when it comes to cybersecurity in remote work.

Many companies try to prevent employee-created threats without involving employees in the process. At a minimum, teams should understand the threats the company faces so they can be the eyes and ears, reporting issues as soon as they arise.

Proactive awareness programs build a strong first line of defense. Every employee should be trained to:

• Recognize phishing attempts
• Understand basic secure network practices, such as disabling unnecessary device services and enabling firewalls, and
• Follow clear policies on incident reporting, confidential information handling, software updates, and device usage – no matter where they work.

Holding employees accountable for learning and compliance drives program effectiveness. Some organizations measure this by running simulated phishing campaigns to test awareness and response.

Security awareness should be a tracked KPI – especially during onboarding and annual reviews. HR and IT must partner to ensure training sticks, measuring true readiness rather than box-ticking.

As hybrid and remote work expands, cybersecurity becomes increasingly critical. Companies need networks that withstand evolving risks, backed by the right tools and a workforce that’s both aware and engaged.

Security isn’t a perk of office life – it’s the cost of doing business anywhere. Remote or not, if you aren’t ready, the threat is already inside.