How work is done is changing and at the root of this change are people that need to be able to work anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

From distributed teams putting greater demands on productivity and engagement and collaboration constructs, to hyper-evolving business models seeking to exploit and leverage their investments in digital tools to connect and support their employees; the phenomenon we call ‘the modern workplace’ brings with it complex security issues that span beyond the rote concern of protecting the ‘perimeter’ of any given digital footprint.

AMTRA's approach to protecting the modern workplace is anchored in a pragmatic ethos that seeks to maintain a healthy balance between security and usability.

With a dedicated focus on driving modern workplace transformation to provide a seamless communication and multi-device experience, to bring teams together, and to enable productivity; our methodology and practice for securing the modern workplace is built on the following guiding principles:

1. Secure the Foundation: By establishing a solid foundation for protecting IT assets, and for promoting good cybersecurity practices in a holistic, integrated way.
2. Secure the Controls: By preparing a security pathway to move to the cloud where good internal controls around areas such as authentication, authorization, and data protection will be even more critical.
3. Secure the Attack Surface: By creating policies and controls to help ensure that a secure IT infrastructure within the organization provides an effective defence against attacks
4. Secure the Data: Thereby decreasing the probability of data loss, costs of fraud from theft, loss in revenue, employee downtime, costs to reinstall lost data, costs of customer support, and - by extension - minimizing the risk of negative impact on reputation.

The first step in securing the modern workplace requires an acknowledgement and an awareness of the risks we collectively face in the digital world.

This hyper-connected, always-on modern workplace is inherently vulnerable...data breaches and exploits will occur, as will uses of data and systems in ways that none of us can foresee.

Failures in the world of security and privacy are inevitable. To pretend otherwise is to undermine cybersecurity efforts from the start.

The follow-up step from there is to build and sustain a culture and a community of trust around us - one that is aware of the inherent risks we all face and that is committed to a shared-responsibility approach to dealing with that risk.

It is within the context of this ethos, and with the four guiding principles that serve as the foundation of our methodology and approach to securing the modern workplace; that AMTRA successfully continues crossing boundaries to create value in the modern workplace.

For more information on how you can secure your workplace, send us a note info@amtrasolutions.com or sign up for our Security Assessment.

About the Author | Rahim Dawood is AMTRA's Vice President of Technology.  He oversees the development and implementation of strategic IT initiatives and best practices for clients. Connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahimdawood/.