Council Post: Technology Issues Remote Workers Need To Let IT Teams Handle

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Hybrid work has empowered many employees to tackle technology issues independently, resulting in time savings and fewer support tickets. However, not every problem is safe to troubleshoot without involving IT. Some seemingly simple fixes could introduce security risks or complicate the diagnosis of underlying issues.

Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share the tech issues that remote employees should escalate to IT rather than attempting to resolve on their own.

Connectivity And Access Workarounds

The biggest risk isn’t the connectivity issue. It’s the workaround. When employees can’t access the tools they need, many turn to personal email, consumer AI tools or unapproved apps. Those shortcuts create security gaps that are much harder to detect than the original problem. When security or access is involved, employees should ask IT, not improvise. - Alex Spokoiny, Check Point Software

Suspected Security Incidents

Any suspected security incident should be escalated. If a device shows signs of malware, phishing, unauthorized access or unusual account activity, employees shouldn’t try to “fix” it themselves. Disconnecting, deleting files or installing random tools can destroy evidence and worsen the damage. IT teams need immediate visibility to contain threats and protect the broader organization. - Irina Shymko, Langate Software

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Persistent Digital Friction And UX Problems

While most people will immediately jump on the security bandwagon, I think user experience issues that people just put up with and find workarounds for or tricks for should be reported. Most IT organizations don’t have visibility into those. They’re not measuring the right metrics, and not understanding what causes digital friction for your employees is probably also causing unintended consequences and workarounds. - Erik Jost, Black Box

Security Certificate VPN Or Device Trust Errors

Remote employees should not try to “fix” security certificate VPN or device trust errors on their own. That warning is often the digital equivalent of a locked door, and bypassing it can expose company data, credentials and internal systems. The best rule is simple: If the fix involves disabling security, installing a workaround or approving a mysterious access prompt, stop and call IT. - Mark Vena, SmartTech Research

Unauthorized Software And Vendor Sprawl

Vendor sprawl is a growing issue. Remote employees often adopt tools independently to move faster, which, over time, leads to teams losing visibility into what data lives where and who has access to it. Unmanaged tool sprawl creates significant security and compliance gaps that are much harder to close than prevent. - Ashish Agarwal, OMNIA Partners

Broken Identity, Access Or Security Controls

One issue employees should never troubleshoot on their own is anything involving identity, access or security controls. Resetting permissions, bypassing MFA, installing remote tools or creating workarounds may solve today’s problem while creating tomorrow’s breach. If access is broken, involve IT. Convenience should never outrank security. - Doug Shannon

Unauthorized Use Of Personal AI Accounts

The issue IT needs to see: when someone stuck on a task quietly pastes work into a personal AI account to get unstuck faster. It does not look like a security problem. It looks like initiative. But the moment company data lands in a tool IT cannot see, it has left the building for good, and no password reset brings it back. This is the one a confident employee should not solve alone, because the convenience is visible and the exposure never is. - Anna Drobakha, Groupe SEB

Complex Technical Problems

Anything genuinely complex should be reported. Remote employees default to what they already know. Cognitive diversity—different backgrounds, different angles on the same problem—accelerates creative solutions. That dynamic doesn’t survive a ticket queue. Complex problems need a room, not a thread. - Joseph Byrum, Consilience AI

Network Security Configurations

Network security configuration should be escalated. Here is the risk: When remote employees troubleshoot VPN issues or adjust router settings, they often disable protections without knowing it. One wrong setting exposes company data. The fix: Give IT visibility into home network changes. Create a simple escalation path before problems become breaches. - Ganesh Ariyur, Transform Smarter

Data Inconsistencies

Employees shouldn’t troubleshoot data inconsistencies on their own. A missing record or mismatched number may seem local but could signal a broader systems issue. DIY fixes can overwrite evidence, corrupt audit trails and make root-cause analysis far more difficult. - Shuchi Agrawal

Employee-Shipped AI-Written Code

The issue IT needs to own is AI-generated code employees are shipping themselves. It works in demos, breaks in production and creates dependency bloat nobody audits. The Apple source code leak exposed exactly this: layers of AI-written files with no business being there. Remote employees shouldn’t touch anything near auth or core integrations—ever. - Ivan Kan, Hackindia

VPN And Routing Issues

Persistent VPN and routing issues are something IT needs to be involved with. When remote employees lose network connection, they shouldn’t adjust routers, DNS or firewall policies. Unauthorized fixes bypass security and expose company data on unencrypted home networks. These self-fixes create shadow IT gaps that break audit trails and compliance posture. It’s not gatekeeping; it’s governance. IT escalation protects organizational risk. - Asad Khan, TestMu AI

Personal Devices Connected To Company Systems

The connecting of personal devices to company systems should be brought to IT. When a remote employee pairs a personal tablet or phone with work accounts to make life easier, they’re introducing a device that IT has zero visibility into. No managed security, no encryption standards and no remote wipe capability. Convenience is the enemy of security here. If a device touches company data, IT needs to know about it and manage it properly. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC

DDoS Attacks

Nontechnical and tech employees alike should not try to fix distributed denial of service attacks as a DIY project. Possible ransomware back-propagation is likely already into corporate networks, causing an exponential increase in affected topology and collateral damage. - Jo Debecker, Akkodis

Unexpected System Behaviors

Sudden system slowdowns, unfamiliar processes or unexpected pop-ups should be escalated, not investigated by the employee. Attempts to end tasks, install cleanup tools or run free utilities downloaded from the internet often make things worse—installing additional malware or destroying evidence. IT needs to inspect the device with proper forensic tooling before any remediation is attempted. - Nitin Agarwal, Luminace

Issue With Data Synchronization Or Record Integrity

Remote employees should never try to resolve data synchronization or record integrity issues on their own. A missing file, duplicate customer record or out-of-sync system may look like a local problem, but it can signal a broader issue affecting multiple users and business systems. One well-intentioned fix can overwrite data, erase audit trails and create far bigger problems than the original issue. - Arun Goyal, Octal IT Solution LLP

Endpoint Security Alerts

Endpoint security alerts should not be resolved without IT. When an employee sees an antivirus warning or suspicious pop-up, the instinct to click “fix” or restart can destroy forensic evidence and spread a threat. These situations need IT immediately—a well-meaning reboot can turn a containable incident into a full breach. - Steven Singer, Julius Silvert, Inc.

AI Agent Permissions

The new mistake isn’t resetting a password; it’s clicking “allow” on an AI agent. One approval hands your inbox, files and calendar over to it, and most people never read what they’ve granted. That’s not a self-serve fix. Every agent permission needs to run through IT, period. An over-permissioned agent is the new phishing link, and remote staff shouldn’t approve one on their own. - Harshil Shah, AltaDX

Encryption

Encryption is the one domain where well-intentioned tinkering courts catastrophe. A misconfigured recovery key or a carelessly reset device doesn’t degrade your data—it entombs it, irrecoverably. In security, the most expensive mistakes are the ones that look like routine maintenance. Leave encryption entirely to IT; the consequences of amateur intervention are permanent. - Nitesh Sinha, Sacumen

Disabling Endpoint Protection

Disabling endpoint protection to fix a slow laptop shouldn’t be done on your own. When performance suffers, employees often pause antivirus or disable the EDR agent without realizing it. The device looks fine on the network, IT has no alert and the exposure window can last days. Any action touching security tooling belongs to IT, even if the goal is just making it faster. - Manas Chaudhari, Meta