With the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of employees had to head home and do work from there. Even with more companies opening up, there are a lot of people who will continue to work remotely. While there are a lot of benefits that come with this, there are also some potential risks.
Companies that want to let some of their employees work remotely need to consider some of the cybersecurity risks that can happen. From the type of computers that are used, working with a VPN, and even working through email security, the right steps can keep you safe and protect the personal information of your customers.
Remote work can be beneficial to your company and to your employees, giving them more of the freedom that they need. Some of the ways that you can improve the cybersecurity of your remote business include:
Top 5 Working from Home Cybersecurity Tips for Remote Businesses
1. Issue Company Controlled Devices
When it is possible, your company needs to issue all of their remote workers with laptops and mobile phones that are company-controlled, ones that are used exclusively for work. If you need to make a quick switch to some employees working remotely, then they may need to work on their own devices to start. But change them out when you can.
These devices are important if your employees tend to work with confidential or personally identifiable data. You can also choose to ask the employees to sign up for any personal device they use for work into a mobile device management service that you provide. This gives a bit more control and some of the security that you need.
Your employees are going to need to do a lot of work remotely to help them get things done. Having the right device will matter. Whether you give them a device or let them use their own personal device, you will need to have the right security measures in place.
2. VPN Provisioning
The security of your network is so important, no matter where your employees work. But it becomes even more important when your employees are working remotely. A VPN can help make this a little bit easier.
With a VPN, your employees and yourself are able to search online anonymously. This will make it harder for others to find out what you are doing and makes it less likely that an attack will happen against you. A good VPN will remove a lot of the risks of being online because it can securely tunnel corporate traffic under a layer of encryption.
The best part is that these VPN services are not expensive and you can roll them out to all employees. You do need to pick a good VPN provider who will keep you safe. Consider one with high security on it, one that has multi-factor authentication to keep you and everyone else safe.
3. Consider Email Security
You need to have some email security protocols in place for employees when they work remotely. There is likely to be a need for emails to communicate, especially when people work at different times. Sharing sensitive information through emails is never a good idea and can risk a hacker gaining access to places they should not.
Consider educating your staff on proper email use with anything done within the company. Remind them about phishing attempts to steal their information and go through some of the company policies on sending secure information to those who are not in a secure location, such as at an open Wi-Fi location.
Let employees know to double-check before clicking on a link and to be careful when they get an email that looks suspicious. Have certain protocols in place for sending information between employees so it is less likely that the phishing scheme will happen.
4. Enforce Good Password Protocols
Passwords can be so important when your employees are online and need to get into some of their work. You need to have some stringent rules in place to ensure that your employees are not using weak passwords that will allow a hacker to walk right in. Passwords are one of your first lines of defense so they need to be secure.
Educating your employees on how to pick strong passwords is the first step. Some companies take it a step further and set up guidelines that must be met before a password is accepted by the system. This can give you some extra precautions as well.
You can choose just how strong the passwords can be. Some good rules to follow include:
● Have a mixture of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and special characters.
● Do not pick a password that has anything to do with your name or other personally identifiable information.
● Do not share passwords with more than one account.
● Consider multi-factor authentication to make it harder to get onto the system without approval.
● Require that the password is changed frequently to make it harder for a hacker to get onto the system.
If employees are concerned about remembering their passwords, you can recommend a good password manager to make it a little bit easier. This will store the passwords for the employees and can make it easy to log into their work accounts, even when they work with a password that is difficult to remember.
5. Keeping Your Data Secure with Remote Workers
Allowing your employees to work remotely can be beneficial. It opens the door for more employee satisfaction and can help you find more of the employees that you need because they can work from anywhere. Having the right security protocols in place will make it easier for you to keep your data safe and hackers out.
There are a number of different options that you can use. Having a comprehensive plan ahead of time will make a world of difference. Come up with the plan, follow the steps above, and educate your employees to make sure that you are on the same page when it comes to cybersecurity while your employees work remotely.
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