Keep your remote workers secure

Telecommuting, or more commonly known as remote work, has exploded in today’s era of mobile connectivity, Technology advances have made it possible for employees to be productive from anywhere. While remote working includes a world of benefits for employees and employers, it poses unique security challenges for companies. However, there are steps you can take to mitigate these risks.

Employees can’t follow your company’s security practices if they don’t know what they are. Identify the threats your company is likely to face and create guidelines that will help steer your employees away from them as much as possible. Remember it’s not just enough to have a security policy – it’s equally as important to teach your employees exactly how to follow it.

While remote access security training won’t evoke much enthusiasm around the office, there are things you can do to make it a little more exciting. Make it a competition. For example, keep a tally of employees who continuously report suspicious looking emails or other online activity and offer incentives for whoever has the largest tally count at the end of the month, quarter or year. By making security fun, more employees will want to follow the guidelines in place and more easily remember what the guidelines are.  

Virtual private networks or VPNs are networks that extend across public wires to connect multiple users to one shared and secured network. Essentially, it’s a way for remote workers to still connect to your company’s Wi-Fi from wherever they are. VPNs will help throw off intruders, keep you anonymous, and make it significantly more difficult for hackers to spot you and your team.  

Ensure your employees are using company hardware rather than their own personal devices. While bring-your-own device policies are becoming more common in today’s workplaces, you should still consider investing in company hardware. Letting employees use personal devices creates weak spots and points of entry for intruders to more easily gain access into your business network. Once you’ve invested in this hardware, you can encrypt your devices. Encryption encodes data and information on the device, making it even harder to crack. 

Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. This is one of the main technologies that allows workers to be connected from anywhere. Don’t just use any cloud service though. It’s important to research the security features of each one. A couple things to look out for are API and Two Factor Authentication.

Two Factor Authentication or 2FA is a method of confirming a user’s claimed identity by utilizing something they know – for example, a password – and a second factor other than something they have. This ensures passwords and access to company systems stay secure – because we all know the cost of bad security can cause irreversible damage to a business. While this step requires a little extra effort, it’s a small price to pay to for a secure workforce. 

The more security measures in place, the more secure your workforce will be. Plow can implement the necessary steps to keep your team secure. Contact us today.

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