The pandemic led to the emergence of remote work and work-from-home concepts which completely changed the way people work. From hybrid to remote work, companies have been trying to find the best solutions to ensure a seamless flow of work in all situations. Employees also demand or expect remote work options from their employers due to the greater work-life balance it provides.
During this, one of the key aspects of remote work that has been in the spotlight is cybersecurity. The companies are implementing innovative and robust solutions to ensure a heightened level of cybersecurity for everyone no matter which location they work from.
According to a report by IBM and the Ponemon, data breaches have cost around $4 million globally and remote work has been cited as a significant factor. Various remote work cybersecurity statistics prove this. This means you have to focus on cybersecurity more than ever. This list of best practices followed by other companies aims to make your work easier.
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Implement endpoint security
Desktops, laptops along with smartphones and tablets are the main points of entry into corporate networks. Endpoint protection solutions for ongoing checks, malware detection, data protection, and automated response features should be an integral part of your endpoint security systems. If some remote workers choose to use their own devices or gadgets, they should inform your IT teams first who can then optimize them for company use.
Macs are widely used in company setups so there should be password-specific guidelines for the Macs and MacBooks. Data on various cybersecurity hats suggest that endpoint security is not taken seriously by businesses which makes it a prime target for hackers. Cybersecurity for Mac can be ensured with the use of a good third-party tool which makes it easily accessible and understandable for all. Mac cybersecurity should be given priority both by the employees and employers.
Technology is for everyone, whether it’s a human resource employee or a finance employee. This is why software that ensures seamless cybersecurity for everyone, whether they hold technical expertise or not, is a must.
Educate employees on the use of strong, unique passwords:
Weak and unprotected passwords pose a serious security threat. You need to educate employees about the importance of using strong passwords and create policies around it. Simple passwords like 123456 or 123abc are a recipe for disaster.
In today’s world where hackers use AI methods to crack passwords, your first line of defense in terms of login has to be strong. Employees should use password management tools, use suggested passwords by browsers like Chrome, and change them regularly to enhance remote working cybersecurity.
Enforce the use of MFA
A simple password login is a thing of the past. Most of the companies that prioritize cybersecurity in remote work setups promote the use of 2FA or MFA This adds a critical layer of security that requires multiple verifications. This makes it difficult or mostly impossible for hackers to break into the systems. MFA includes:
- fingerprints
- palm scanning
- iris scans
- voice verification
- facial recognition
- retina scans
Secure home Wi-Fi networks
Remote workers mostly work from home. When working from home, they usually don’t take security-specific enhancements casually. You should educate them on how home networks are hotspots for cybercriminals because they represent easy targets. The significance of creating strong Wi-Fi passwords, the newest encryption protocols including WPA3., etc should be promoted. To see that it is being considered seriously, regular online checks or audits must be carried out.
Use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
It is normal for employees to access websites or apps that are not in sync with the company’s browsing policies. They might use proxies to access the banned sites for purposes like downloading movies, playing games online, etc.
Let them do it as a complete restriction is not possible but make them do it through VPNs. The use of VPNs will protect company data by encrypting traffic. This will prevent any interception attempt from hackers whenever employees connect through public or home networks.
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Promote software and system updates
Whether it’s an online tool or the system (laptop, desktop, tablet, etc), regular updates should be made mandatory. It costs less to renew licenses and subscriptions of tools and systems you use than to lose everything to hackers.
To begin with, you should renew licenses and keep an update of software and system versions. Whenever a new update rolls out, install them or renew the software licenses wherever applicable. The hackers exploit vulnerabilities present in outdated software and system versions so make sure that remote employees also follow these steps whenever necessary.
Spread phishing awareness
Phishing attacks are the most common form of cyberattacks that hackers use. To make it more challenging for businesses, it happens in various forms and keeps evolving. The best method to prevent phishing attacks is to make your remote employees aware.
You should organize frequent online training workshops to help employees develop the skills necessary that are important to identify and counter phishing attacks at their ends.
Use threat intelligence data and current industry trends to customize training modules. For example, update your data regularly about social engineering tactics that hackers use and send out emails to remote employees from time to time.
Data backup and recovery
Attacks happen. That’s something unavoidable in different situations despite your best efforts. Not just attacks but there are times when hardware might crash or some other incident like a physical theft might happen. Looking at these multiple factors, you must use the best data backup features. If possible, you should use cloud services instead of physical servers on your premises.
Regular audits to ensure data backup systems are in place should be held. Data is the lifeline of every business. Data breaches have closed down several businesses in the past and caused unimaginable levels of reputational and financial losses to many others. This makes data backups and safe storage more important than some other factors.
Create, implement, and follow security policies
The foundation of cyber security for remote workers largely rests on developing security policies that are in pace with current trends and follow real-time data. You should create comprehensive and clearly understandable remote work guidelines that cover every employee equally. Audits should be held regularly and assigned to both internal teams and reputed external agencies so that there is wide coverage and fairness in the findings.
Proactive threat monitoring and response
In a world that is fast-evolving and where hackers are using more and more sophisticated techniques using AI to penetrate the cyber defenses of businesses, you have to use proactive threat monitoring strategies. 24/7 real-time monitoring, advanced threat detection, AI-specific detection and protection tools, and automated response capabilities should be an integral part of your remote work cybersecurity systems.
Conclusion
A data breach can set back companies by millions and the reputational loss cannot be defined in monetary terms. Seeing this sensitivity, you need to invest time and money in cybersecurity defenses to develop a secure and productive remote work environment where you and the employees feel safe about the company’s information and its overall data. Remote work is here to stay and will become more and more important in hiring new talent and retaining them so you have to create policies that can create an ecosystem where remote work is not seen as a threat to your company’s cybersecurity systems.
