There are many perks to having a remote team, from the chance to hire from anywhere to the money you can save on expensive office space. However, one concern that many business owners forget is that they need to secure remote workers’ devices and computers just like they would in-house, or the chance for a breach is great. The importance of cybersecurity for business must be recognized because you cannot afford to lose valuable data or take a hit to your corporate reputation. The solution is to train your remote team about cybersecurity and the waning signs — but also to keep from overwhelming them to the point of exhaustion.
Let’s look at how to understand the threats, protect your team, and do it with as little frustration as possible.
Threats That Impact Remote Workers
When employees work in an office with an IT team across the hall to save them, it’s easy to forget that they need to be proactive when preventing scams and data breaches. However, when they’re at home, they must be vigilant because hackers know that many companies are not taking their remote security seriously and will be on the attack.
Numerous threats, including phishing attacks, could pop up at any moment and catch your remote team off guard. Hackers will send phishing emails, pretend to be a boss or HR rep at the company, and ask the associate to click a link that will give the criminal instant access to their computers. When working in an office, an employee may be more likely to lean over to a coworker and ask about a suspicious email, but when they’re at home they may not reach out, and they may fall for the scam.
Many employees may also try to work off of personal devices like tablets and cell phones, but if they’re not secured and encrypted, hackers can gain access. If the employee sends an email to their work computer, then the hacker could get access to the network. That’s why employers need a strict device policy that prohibits using unsecured tech.
Then there are the simple things that employees working alone from home can forget, such as using strong passwords that hackers can’t easily guess. Sometimes, an employee with a lack of proper oversight can make a mistake and accidentally delete files that they should have saved. It’s a possibility that can also jeopardize your company.
Train Your Team
The solution to these potential issues is to regularly train your employees. Teach them about common scams, what to watch out for, and how to report a problem to management. Cybersecurity training can be daunting at first, but the employees will likely be more comfortable at work knowing the warning signs and can be proactive in their security.
During training, teach them how to create proper passwords, enact two-factor authentication, and learn how to identify phishing emails. You should also train them on risks unique to remote work, like keeping kids off of your devices because they could leave them unsecured. Also, instruct them to log out and turn their computers off after every shift so that other people in the house can’t log on and cause an issue.
You also need to give the employees a straightforward way to report an issue as soon as they see it. That alert could be sent through an email, chat channel, or phone call, but whatever it is, ensure they can reach a human being who will pay immediate attention to their concern.
Continue to have cybersecurity training sessions throughout the year. Since you don’t want to bog down your business or overwhelm the employees, keep these training sessions short or use videos that make the instruction entertaining and informative.
Don’t Overwhelm The Team
It’s fair to think that employees should be thrilled to learn about all the ways that they can thwart cyber criminals from hurting their business. However, today, when tech has made it so easy for hackers to cause havoc at every turn, it’s possible many folks are already dealing with security fatigue, where they can get exhausted due to so many precautions and security measures. It can get so bad that some employees could ignore warnings on their computers or use an unsafe password just to get into the system quickly and move on with their day.
While your teams should be on watch for security issues, some home security measures you can put in place don’t require a lot of input from the employees. An example is creating a software-defined perimeter that connects all users on the network and protects them and the internal traffic from the public eye so your teams are always protected. You can also eliminate the possibility of errors or breaches by implementing zero-trust network access, where employees only have access to the programs they need, so they can’t even accidentally allow a breach.
Finally, consider installing a virtual private network on all remote work computers. It will automatically encrypt any incoming and outgoing data so hackers can’t use it even if they catch it. This is another hands-off solution to protect the teams and prevent security fatigue.
It’s far too easy for companies to forget about protecting their remote employees, but failure to meet these cybersecurity challenges could be catastrophic for your business. Take the proper security steps for all in-house and remote employees, and they’ll be safe, happy, and productive.