Cybersecurity Awareness Month: The Single Most Important Step in Protecting Your Business
No organization large or small can afford to let its guard down in the fight against cybercrime. While cybersecurity requires year-round vigilance, every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month serves as an important reminder to strengthen security practices and build habits that help protect your organization from evolving threats.
This year, Hughes is focusing on what we believe is one of the most important first steps your organization can take to reduce cyber risk: your workforce.
Remote Work is Rising
As of May 2026, 52% of U.S. employees work in a hybrid arrangement, 26% work exclusively remote, and 22% work on-site, according to Gallup research.
There are so many obvious reasons why it’s smart for companies to offer remote work options to employees. For one, the research found that workplace flexibility is associated with higher employee engagement and wellbeing. Collaboration and productivity are also higher for remote workers. Organizations also benefit from access to a broader pool of specialized talent, greater employee retention, and lower employment costs.
This trend isn’t going away anytime soon. According to a World Economic Forum report on global digital jobs, by 2030, the number of these jobs is expected to rise to around 92 million.
Managing Security Risk with Distributed Organizations
As the workforce becomes increasingly distributed, organizations must ensure their networks and security strategies can support employees wherever they work, without compromising performance, productivity, or security.
Traditional VPNs often increase risks, causing high latency, reduced performance, and inadequate security. Shadow IT and shadow AI bring additional risks. Employees working from home often use personal devices and applications not approved by the IT department. Another significant risk factor is improper data handling and storage on unsecured local drives when employees download sensitive data.
As an immediate first step, Hughes recommends a Zero Trust approach to mitigate these issues.
Why Zero Trust?
Zero Trust changes the way organizations think about access. Rather than automatically trusting users or devices once they’re inside the network, every access request must be verified.
Traditional VPNs can give authenticated users broad access to network resources. Zero Trust takes a more granular approach, granting access only to the specific applications and resources a user needs. Even after access is granted, trust isn’t extended to other parts of the network.
But Zero Trust is just one piece of the puzzle. Organizations still need to adopt comprehensive cyber risk management strategies that integrate technologies, processes, and policies to strengthen resilience and reduce enterprise risk.
Securing Your Remote Workforce
To secure a remote workforce, CIOs and CSOs need a practical roadmap for building a resilient, future-ready security posture that incorporates Zero Trust and other advanced cybersecurity technologies. Here’s why:
Protect Data Everywhere
As distributed organizations embrace cloud applications, data can move across locations, devices, and environments. A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) that includes Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities helps protect your data wherever it resides or travels, enabling employees to work securely from the office, home, or anywhere business takes them.
Build Trust Through Security
Strong security builds customer confidence. Solutions such as Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) and Next-Generation Secure Web Gateways (NG-SWG) help protect network traffic, block malicious applications and websites, and prevent unauthorized traffic from reaching your network. The result is a stronger security posture, reduced risk, and greater confidence that your customers’ data is protected from anywhere.
Reduce Risk and Control Costs
Many in-house IT and security teams find it challenging to keep up with compliance demands and the complexity of today’s networks and security environments. Partnering with an MSP gives you access to experienced security professionals and decades of expertise without the burden of recruiting, retaining, and training specialized talent, helping reduce operational costs while strengthening your security posture.
Create a Strong Culture of Security Awareness
Organizations that implement ongoing employee security awareness training programs are more successful at creating a culture of vigilance and greatly reducing the risk of breaches. According to research by Fortinet on security awareness and training, comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training programs reduce human-layer security risks by up to 70% for enterprises.
Cybersecurity is a Year-Round Responsibility
Cyber threats don’t take a month off, and neither should your defenses. While cybersecurity requires year-round vigilance, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an opportunity to strengthen security practices, reassess your strategy, and remind employees that good security habits are essential to protecting your organization.
Discover how Hughes can help.