Best Cybersecurity Practices for Working Remotely
More and more companies allow their employees to work remotely, and this is a good thing. People spend less time commuting, and that saves them time and money, while reducing stress and pollution. Then, most companies report that people who work from home are more efficient than their office-based colleagues. And I could go on and on.
It's not all roses, though, because working from home has its challenges as well. Time management issues, fuzzy work/leisure zones, poor collaboration and less social interactions are just a few of the problems which have the potential to affect most of us. To add insult to injury, employees who are working from home may leak company info without knowing about it. Here's what you need to do to ensure that the company data is safe, even when your team works remotely.
1. Ensure that everyone uses secure devices.
It can be tempting to let team members use their own laptops for work, but some of those computers may be infected with viruses or are unpatched, and thus vulnerable to a great variety of cyber attacks. Check out the "How to Recover After a Ransomware Attack" article on our blog to learn about the risks of using devices which are powered by older Windows OS versions, for example. So, tell your employees that using their own IT equipment for work-related purposes is an awful idea, and using the company's devices to browse the web in their spare time is even worse.
2. Change the passwords regularly.
Good security practice requires that users change their passwords every 3-6 months. If people are going to work from home, then they'd better use strong passwords, which have at least 12 characters and use a variety of letters (including capital letters), numbers and symbols. Enforce multi-factor authorization (MFA) whenever it is possible to do it. While most service providers have already implemented SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) security, IT consultants know that it can be easy to get access to security codes which are sent via SMS.
3. Make sure that Wi-Fi networks are secure.
Have you ever thought that some of your employees may use outdated wireless security protocols for their Wi-Fi? This makes it really easy for hackers to connect to those networks, and then get access to company data through Man-in-the-Middle attacks, for example. If your team members are going to work from home, make sure they use wireless networks which utilize the WPA3 data encryption mechanism, or at least WPA2-PSK (AES). Consider buying a new router for each employee who works from home; most of them will thank you for it, and the company data will be much more secure.
4. Ask people to connect using a VPN.
Ideally, they should use your company's Virtual Private Network; we can help you set up a VPN server if you don't have one. A Virtual Private Network allows team members to connect to the company server securely, preventing hackers from eavesdropping.
5. Train your employees and set limits.
No software in the world will stop a virus if one of your employees chooses to run an infected attachment, which can open the door to even more dangerous malware. So, teach your staff to avoid clicking email links, and enforce security policies that don't allow them to download programs or use external storage devices (hard drives, USB flash drives, etc.).
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