Keeping your employees healthy and safe may be the reason you began allowing a remote workers policy, but cutting costs and efficiency may be the reason you have those employees remain working-at-home. If this is the case, you may want to review your security practices so that even the employees that are sheltered at home can follow best practices for the security of your business data.
Fortify User Accounts
Sadly, the likelihood of security breach increases when employees are working outside the company’s perimeter. Secure each employee account by making some small changes that will fortify the access capabilities to your client data. One way to achieve this is by setting at least 12-character long passwords with numbers and special characters mixed in to make them more difficult to guess. More importantly, these passwords must be unique to each account, to minimize the damage if hackers do manage to compromise one set of credentials. In an earlier blog this month we went into detail about the benefits of using a password manager for all the accounts that your employees may need to access. Please refer back to this blog.
Update Patches and Software Regularly
If your team is spread out across the region, this step may be easier said than done. Have each employee practice good security protocols by updating software and installing security patches whenever they are available on each device and network. These updates will include protections for the most recent security vulnerabilities.
Use a VPN
A Virtual Private Network is a connection method used to add security and privacy to private and public networks. A reliable VPN creates secure connections between devices and networks by encrypting internet traffic. This hides web activity from prying eyes, protecting your employees’ online privacy, and mitigating the risk of hackers stealing company information.
Secure Home Routers
One precaution that employees working from home will want to confirm is that their router is completely secure. Make sure that the router has the latest firmware update to eliminate any security vulnerabilities as well as a strong password. Another smart idea is to check whether your router has Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) encryption settings to secure inbound and outbound traffic. If it doesn’t have this setting, you may be overdue for an upgrade.
Be Alert For Scams
Unfortunately, covid-19 scams are multiplying daily. Remind your employees not to open emails that could be fraught with malware or phishing scams related to topics around the coronavirus. You may want to publish a current list of covid-19 scams that could help your employees working remotely avoid them in their inbox. Do you have remote workers and need IT assistance? Talk to our team at Spectra Networks about how we can keep your business data secure regardless of where they set up their workspace.
