Remote working security

Remote working security

With many organizations going through their own digital transformation, remote working has been steadily increasing in popularity here in London and across the UK. According to research from Capita in 2019, 71% of people said they would like to work remotely. Then the Coronavirus pandemic struck and the resultant lockdown meant many more of us doing just that, from home. Now tech and enterprise experts believe remote working may well be the ‘new normal’ in post-Covid-19 Britain. Trouble is, remote working can leave your IT infrastructure, data, IP and confidential customer information open to even greater risk from hacking, from cybercriminals that are becoming ever more sophisticated. So to keep all those valuable assets safe, your remote working security has to be up to the job.

The importance of taking remote working security seriously

It’s mission critical that you help your people secure their remote devices and recognize the potential threats lurking in the online world for the unwary remote worker. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at the subject of remote working security and discuss:

• The benefits of remote working
• The conundrum at the heart of remote working security

The benefits of remote working

If you can get your remote working cybersecurity right, the many benefits to your business of empowering your people to work from home include boosted productivity and job satisfaction amongst your remote team, as well as the chance to shrink the size and cost of your business premises. The latter could amount to a considerable saving, especially if you’re based in London.

Meanwhile, the benefits of remote working for your team are a reduction in the cost, time and stress of commuting; improved wellbeing and work/life balance plus greater flexibility to manage stressful family issues such as caring for young children or elderly relatives.

The conundrum at the heart of remote working security

Research shows that nine out of 10 workers believe data security is your (i.e. their employer’s) responsibility when they’re working remotely.

However, while many workers still have concerns about security lapses, over 40% of them believe that company security policies make it more difficult to for them do their job when they’re working remotely.

This conundrum can put you in a difficult position as you strive to balance remote working with keeping your business’s IT infrastructure, data and networks secure.

How to maximise cybersecurity and minimise risk

There’s no doubt that enabling your team to work remotely can be a data security nightmare. In response, you have to aim to achieve an ‘in-the-office’ level of cybersecurity for your remote working people. Here then are our top tips to help you to get as close as you can to that objective:

• Train your staff

The chink in the security armour of any organisation is human error.  That basically means mistakes made, usually inadvertently, by your people.

Lost and unsecured devices, misplaced passwords and neglected log-in details almost all inevitability increase with flexible working. Without any offence being intended, you need to adopt a zero-trust approach to the activities of your people. And training them in cybersecurity is probably the single most important step you can take to protect your data. This should include:

-simple policies around not having friends or family use their work equipment (cybercriminals DO target the children of remote workers to breach security),

-helping your team to stop, think and check BEFORE they click on any link or open any document they don’t recognise the source of,

-enabling your people to identify, prevent and safely delete the most common hacks like phishing and malware attacks,

-educating your staff about the potential mission critical costs of falling victim to a successful cyber or data loss attack, from financial penalties (especially under international regulations such as GDPR) and reputational damage to the loss of customer confidence. 

• Deploy additional layers of security

Useful and simple to implement technologies to enhance your remote working security stance, such as encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA), will help your people stay ahead of ever-more sophisticated hacking strategies.

• Implement a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Have your remote staff use a virtual private network (VPN) or equivalent, so that you and they can benefit from the additional security these provide.  

• Use a password manager

We know passwords are the bane of modern life. But by using a password manager you can help your team create, share and use safer (i.e. more complex) passwords without having to commit them to memory.

• Update networks, apps and devices regularly

Have a policy to implement the updates, fixes and patches manufacturers provide for their solutions as they are released. These are often created specifically in response to an identified security weakness.

• Apply common ‘cybersecurity’ sense

In your office, chances are your team usually has several rings of security around them, from e-mail and web gateway security to assurances that AV (anti-virus) definitions are up to date.

When they work from home and these safeguards are not readily available, you can ask your people to exercise some common ‘cybersecurity’ sense. This could vary from avoiding public Wi-Fi and deleting old, unused documents, files and accounts to securely logging off of systems and closing down devices when they’re not in use.

How to ramp up your remote working security

Every day millions of people and the organizations they work for in the UK enjoy the benefits of successful remote working with no negative data security implications. This simply requires a little planning, preparation, implementation and communication beforehand.

Above we’ve outlined a shortlist of simple, essential steps you can undertake to enable your team to work remotely and securely, so that they know the potential risks, what you’re doing to mitigate them and what you expect of them in return.

However, if you’d like independent, objective, expert and highly experienced advice about enhancing your remote working security, simply give us a call for a confidential, no obligation chat about your requirements.

You’ll quickly discover why totality services is London’s go to managed IT support team and has earned two consecutive Feefo Gold Trusted Service Awards, Five Star ratings from both Trustpilot and Google and a 98% client retention rate.