Protecting Your Business and Your Remote Workers

To protect your company against cyberattacks and data breaches, you need to constantly evolve and grow to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. The moment you lower your guard, there’s every chance a nefarious cybercriminal will look to exploit any vulnerabilities. With some or all of your employees working remotely, it won’t take much to breach your defenses. In fact, all it could take is a password shared publicly on a team chat app, an accidental click on a phishing link, or confidential company information accessed through a public Wi-Fi connection.

This is why you need to have new IT Policies in place that directly address remote workforce requirements. Apart from that, you must ensure all employees (including remote workers) receive additional security training.

Remote worker best practices

Personal device security: 

If your company allows remote workers to work using their personal devices, it is your responsibility to ensure they are of a minimum standard. You must clearly define what is permissible and what is not – the type of devices, operating systems, applications and websites that can be accessed.

Besides that, give your remote workers a list of all security, remote access, VPN, and other tools they need to install before they start. Your remote workers should also be aware of the level of access/control you have over their devices, the type of technical support you can provide and the company’s right to wipe/alter the devices.

Network security:

Public Wi-Fi and home Wi-Fi networks are nowhere near as secure as the LAN connection in your office. That’s why you must enforce minimum-security standards to ensure remote workers don’t put company data at risk. Define everything from Wi-Fi encryption standards, Wi-Fi password difficulty, network security software, router safety guidelines, and the types of devices that can be connected to the same network.

Also, the use of public Wi-Fi must be actively discouraged. If a remote worker has no other alternative, give them a list of essential safety guidelines that they need to follow – secure connection, WPA3 compliance, websites to avoid, and so on.

Cybersecurity training programs:

Due to this sudden migration to a remote worker setup, IT teams in most organizations are stretched beyond their limits. They have to take care of support requests and make sure data and digital assets are safe and secure. This is why you need to make sure your remote workers get adequate cybersecurity training and are equipped to deal with common and emerging cyberthreats.

The training program must include everything from password management, using multifactor authentication, identifying phishing and ransomware attacks, guarding personal devices against cyberattacks, operating/updating security software, configuring Wi-Fi, setting up VPNs, email usage, reporting/responding to cyberattacks, and much more.

Time to strengthen your first line of defense

Cybercrime is on the rise across the world. The ongoing economic downturn is only going to make things worse. That’s why you need to ensure every remote worker in your organization has their guard up at all times.

Data Sources:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-says-cybercrime-reports-quadrupled-during-covid-19-pandemic/

Nexusguard Q2 2020 Threat Report

2020 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report