Given the unpredictable nature of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many employees across the country will continue to work from home for the foreseeable future. As I mentioned in previous articles, companies must continue to evolve and adapt, not only to serve their customers but also to protect themselves.
This period of volatility is posing a new wave of security threats for businesses, and the ability to efficiently manage and safeguard valuable data will determine who will be the real winners of the digital era.
At Kyocera, we have been long aware of the growing importance of enterprise mobility, as well as its inherent cybersecurity risks. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, we implemented an e-Info Security Committee in coordination with our parent company in Japan.
This global committee helps ensure all Kyocera group companies adhere to and enforce the standard Kyocera e-Info security framework for protecting company and customer information. Incidents and changes are immediately communicated via the committee’s worldwide platform for quick action and increased awareness. This is a united effort; by working together we provide strong data security for our customers all over the world.
This is, of course, a process of continuous learning, and we will not stand still. When it comes to security, we must be proactive and act with conviction. We have a duty of care to our customers and partners to ensure that their data is safe.
We can no longer turn a blind eye to the concept of cybersecurity and assume that the IT department will take care of it. It is now the responsibility of each and every employee to play their part.
Naturally, we do not expect our staff to be IT experts; however, we do provide training to equip them with the necessary tools and knowledge to implement good business practices. This has also been integrated into the onboarding process for new employees.
As enterprise mobility continues to increase in importance, so too will our efforts to further enhance both access control management and mobile device management. Here at Kyocera Document Solutions America, all employees require enterprise virtual private network (VPN) connections to use sensitive systems and applications.
Meanwhile, multi-factored authentication helps protect other email, collaboration, and file-sharing systems. In recent years, our workforce has enjoyed greater mobility and, since the onset of the pandemic, we have mobilized 100% of employees whose role did not require them to be in a physical office.
The drastically increased number of endpoints – laptop computers, smartphones, or tablets – accessing our databases has shown the importance of remote device management software. Kyocera provides the ability to automatically lock out users after a set number of failed logins with the capability to erase devices remotely in the event of an attempted attack. In addition, authenticated print server access and secure print release permit only authorized users to process documents through our print management software and release those documents when they are at the device.
We refuse to rest on our laurels, and we will continue to invest further in these areas, along with malware threat management and infrastructure security management, to ensure that we have strong foundations upon which we will build our future.
What does this all mean for our industry? Firstly, as customers continue to demand more agile printing and document solutions, digital processes will dominate. We will see a further rise in cloud-based collaboration and automated tools such as electronic signatures.
Therefore, we need to provide our customers with the platforms and tools they can rely on. We will continue to invest in research and development so that users can quickly print, scan and share documents with the peace of mind that Kyocera has their data privacy covered.
It also means that we need to work hand in hand with our dealers to transform the change presented by digital transformation into exciting opportunities for new growth. By sharing our expertise and experience in deploying secure solutions, even in remote circumstances, to help drive businesses forward.
Looking ahead to the coming months, remote working will continue to pose many security headaches for businesses that lack a standardized printing fleet. A standardized service gives companies greater control over both data security and costs, and employees can work more efficiently in their homes without jeopardizing customer security.
We understand our responsibility to each and every customer. By combining our world-class talent with our cutting-edge technology, we are determined to exceed all expectations in the months and years to come.
