Organizations invest significant resources in protecting their systems, networks, and corporate accounts. Hybrid work has become the standard in most companies: some work is done in the office, some from home, and some in other locations. This flexibility has improved productivity, employee experience, and work-life balance, but it has also created a situation where organizational boundaries are no longer as clear as they once were.
In the past, information security was based on a simple assumption: most work took place within a defined environment, on corporate infrastructure, and under centralized supervision. Today, a large portion of work occurs outside this framework – on personal devices, home networks, and cloud services. Employees perform everyday tasks that are not always visible to the organization’s security systems, creating a gap between perceived security and actual exposure.
Despite this shift, organizational decision-making processes and security metrics have not always been updated accordingly. Many organizations still assess their level of protection based on tools designed for a world where employees were mostly “inside the office.” As a result, some real risks remain invisible in reports, even though they affect day-to-day operations.
Part of the gap arises because many essential activities take place through channels that are not monitored. Documents, access to cloud services, personal messages, or even VPN connections are not always included in KPIs and security reports. This leads to situations where management may be unaware of risks, even when employees are performing perfectly normal work tasks.
In some organizations, solutions that provide protection outside the traditional corporate infrastructure serve as a way to close the gap created by the shift to hybrid work. ← This is where you can add a link to your products or relevant page. Such solutions allow the organization to have a more complete view of risk, even when work is performed on personal devices or through channels that are not fully monitored.
The managerial implication is clear: information security should not be measured only by the number of tools deployed, but by actual coverage of all work channels. Hybrid work changes the reality, so only when management understands that employees are not confined to the office can a strategy be built that provides meaningful protection for all employees, wherever they work.
Additional recommendations for management include:
- Ensuring that risk metrics reflect all work channels.
- Including personal devices and external cloud services in monitoring.
- Implementing processes that allow reporting and tracking of events outside traditional boundaries.
This approach helps organizations close existing gaps, make informed decisions, and reduce risks that could impact business operations, reputation, and regulatory compliance.
