Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, South African organisations too, have taken drastic steps to ensure the safety of their employees
By Claude Langley, regional sales manager: Africa for extended access technologies at HID Global
When the very first lockdown was announced in 2020, IT and security teams at companies across the country have burnt the midnight oil to ensure that those who can, can work from home and business can (almost) continue as normal.
Businesses soon realised that this pandemic was not going to go away any time soon, and as so typical of our passionate South African culture, have taken further steps to ensure that employees can work from home. In fact, a recent study highlighted that South Africa has emerged as one of the countries that would embrace fully remote work, with 44 percent saying they want to work fully remotely compared to a global average of 24%.
It is fair to say that remote working is here to stay. When the new lockdown was announced by President Ramaphosa, disruption to businesses was less dramatic and today, at least 38% of the country’s active workforce can work from home, compared to only 4% pre the pandemic. Local employers estimate that 33% of their employees would still be working from home in three years’ time.
However, when we look at the working-from-home scenario, coupled with the new POPI (Protection of Personal Information) regulations that has everyone talking, this “new normal” brings it owns headaches and challenges.
Employees working from home and being efficient is one thing – employees working from home with access to critical and sensitive data, posing potential security risks, can unfortunately open Pandora’s box.
While most of our country’s businesses have taken steps to put policies in place to ensure the safety and security of data, many continue to rely only on passwords. Although passwords continue to be a crucial element of living in a modern world to help protect our identities, they often come with a level of frustration, since our increasingly connected and digital world requires remembering numerous passwords for different systems. But… what if you could authenticate your identity with just a quick touch of a finger, or your face?
Today, it is possible for businesses around the country to implement solutions that will allow those employees working on digital devices outside of the safety of the traditional office environment, to have a single-sign-on (SSO) solution, which supports password-less authentication. Biometric fingerprint readers can be deployed to validate employees’ fingerprints and offer an end-to-end solution that transforms how organisations can protect their digital integrity.
The past few months have taught us many things. The way of life has changed, and we have fully embraced these changes. 40% of professionals in South Africa have expressed their desire to move to full-time remote working, with a further 27% wanting at least 50% remote working this year.
This “new normal” will soon become “just normal” and now is the time to prepare.