An Empirical Study on the Information Security Threats Due to Remote Working Environments

The abrupt and unexpected transition towards “Remote Work” has made it evident that both seasoned internet users and newbies were unaware of cyber security issues. Insecure human internet use habits (unprotected home networks, unpatched software), organizational policies regarding cyber security during remote work, insecure teleconferencing and video conferencing practices and sophisticated cyber-attack techniques are a few of the reasons responsible for the information security threats faced during remote working. The research studies these factors and identifies the significant factors that impacts cyber security compliance while working from home. The research analyzed the mentioned factors to understand the gaps which are resulting in opening up new vulnerabilities. The study uses empirical research with primary quantitative data collected through online surveys. The research's target sample is the individuals working from home during the pandemic. The study involved collecting primary data and analyzing the same using PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling). From the outcome, we were able to prove that human internet habits, secured video conferencing habits, employees’ awareness about recent cyber-attacks and employee awareness of cyber security best practices positively correlate with employees’ compliance with the company’s cyber security best practices. Based on the result of the hypothesis, company guidelines and security policies are found to not have an impact on the security compliance of an organization, neither on cyber security awareness among employees. Further research can be conducted to address the above-mentioned gap in the current study.