What Every UK CIO Should Know About Securing a Hybrid Workforce

Hybrid work is now far more than just a temporary measure or a niche perk offered to senior management. It's now become a large percentage of how UK businesses operate.

According to recent data from the Office for National Statistics, around 28% of working adults in Great Britain split their time between home and the office. That's more than one in four employees working in a way that would have been considered pretty unusual just five or six years ago.

On the one hand, this is a big win for flexibility, recruitment, and even cost savings (for both the employee and the employer). But for CIOs, it's also created a fresh headache.

How can you keep everything secure when your network is scattered across living rooms, coffee shops, and co-working spaces? The perimeter that security teams worked so hard to secure has disappeared, and the old office-only security strategy isn't enough anymore.

The New Security Reality

With people working from anywhere, the number of endpoints you need to protect has exploded. Laptops, tablets, and phones are all potential entry points for attackers, and not every home router offers the kind of protection your corporate firewall does.

Threats have become more sophisticated, too. Phishing emails look more convincing than ever before, ransomware is hitting organisations of all sizes, and remote staff are attractive targets because they're often outside the traditional safety net of an office network.

On top of that, regulations like GDPR and the NIS2 Directive keep the pressure on, so you can't afford a slip-up when it comes to data protection; otherwise, you may face penalties and fines.

To sum it up simply, hybrid work means that the 'castle and moat' model (where you focus on defending your office perimeter) doesn't make sense anymore. There's no single perimeter to defend. Your workforce is everywhere, and so are your risks.

Why the Old Tools Don't Cut It

For many companies, the default reaction to remote work has been to roll out more VPNs and lean harder on antiviruses and firewalls. While these are absolutely essential features of a solid security stack, if they are your only defence, you will have some glaring gaps that can be exploited.

VPNs, for example, weren't really designed for the scale we're seeing today. They can become bottlenecks when hundreds of employees are trying to connect at the same time, leading to slow performance that frustrates users and encourages workarounds.

Traditional endpoint protection is also feeling the strain in this new hybrid environment. Many legacy antivirus solutions rely heavily on signature-based detection, which can easily miss zero-day threats and many of the more sophisticated attacks. They're also not particularly great at spotting unusual behaviour patterns that might indicate a compromised account or device. This creates dangerous blind spots.

The Shift Towards Zero Trust and SASE

Modern security thinking flips the old assumptions on their head. Zero Trust works on the principle of 'never trust, always verify', meaning that every user and device has to prove who they are before getting access, no matter where they're connecting from.

Taking it further, Secure Access Service Edge, otherwise known as SASE, brings networking and security together in one cloud-based service. Instead of bolting together separate tools, you get a single, consistent way to protect your business across every location and every device.

For UK businesses, it's a chance to simplify operations, cut the risk of misconfigurations, and make sure people can access what they need quickly and safely, wherever they're working from. This significantly reduces the risk and friction that hybrid work agreements can bring to security teams.

Think of it like replacing a patchwork of mismatched locks with one well-engineered system that works the same way everywhere.

What CIOs Can Do Now

The first step is to get a clear picture of where you stand. That means running a proper security audit to identify vulnerabilities. This could be unpatched software, outdated devices, or poor password habits.

Multi-factor authentication should be standard by now, but if it's not, roll it out as soon as possible. It's a simple way to block a massive number of attacks.

Training is another non-negotiable. Most breaches start with human error, so regular awareness sessions on phishing, password security, and safe data handling can go a long way. But it has to be done in a way that sticks and resonates with people. If you put them in front of a computer with mandatory training, it's likely to go in one ear and out the other. That's not their fault, it's the fault of the training method.

Finally, think about your approach holistically. If you're still managing security and networking through multiple systems, consider exploring unified models like SASE, which can reduce complexity and improve visibility. The easier your systems are to manage, the faster you can respond when something doesn't look right.

Compliance in a Hybrid World

In the UK, compliance is tied directly to customer trust. GDPR demands strict data protection measures, whether your employees are in an office in Manchester or working from a kitchen table in Cornwall. That means securing both the data and the channels it travels through, no matter where your people log in.

Data sovereignty is another growing concern. Hosting sensitive information within the UK or EU not only helps avoid regulatory troubles but also reassures clients who care deeply about where their data lives (which is a growing percentage of the population). With new regulations such as the NIS2 Directive targeting critical infrastructure, the compliance bar is only getting higher.

And if you're in a regulated industry like finance or healthcare, you'll be all too aware that there's an added layer of scrutiny placed on your business and its security practices.

The security tools you adopt must enforce consistent policies across all users, devices, and locations, while maintaining clear logs for any audits you need to complete. And remember, compliance is never static. Laws evolve, threats change, and your security strategy needs to adapt along with it.

Final Word

Hybrid work has clearly become a mainstay in the UK business world, and it doesn't look like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. If anything, it's only going to get more flexible, which means your security strategy has to keep pace.

The organisations that get this right will stand out, not just because they're secure, but because they give employees the freedom to work anywhere without sacrificing performance or trust. Security will stop being a barrier and start being a business enabler.