Remote Work Needs to Be Secure Work…Here’s What You Can Do

Remote work has seen unprecedented adoption in the past few years. While we’re all for the benefits that this trend brings, it is critical that any business that embraces remote or hybrid work does so securely.

Let’s discuss a few measures that your business can and should implement to achieve this security.

How to Secure Your Remote Operations

Let’s review some of the most key safeguards that anyone working remotely should have in place.

Use a Virtual Private Network

Which sounds like the more secure option to you: your organization’s protected and monitored network infrastructure, or your second-favorite coffee shop’s GENERIC-5G network, with password coffeebeans247 scrawled on a chalkboard for its patrons to use?

If you answered the latter, please give us a call right now, because we need to have a serious talk about cybersecurity. 

Of course a properly maintained network is going to be more secure, but what happens if you need to get some work done while you’re waiting on and/or sipping your macchiato? The smart answer is to use a VPN, which encrypts your connection and shields its contents from spying eyes, while allowing your team members to safely access the materials you’ve saved on your network.

The use of a VPN should be enforced wherever a remote worker happens to be operating from, whether that’s at home, away on a business trip, or if taking a working lunch at a cafe.

Only Use Approved, Secure Devices and Software

On a related note, it is important that wherever your team members might be operating from, they are using the right tools to do so. Unapproved technology being used for business purposes without IT’s knowledge or approval—given the ominous designation of shadow IT—brings a variety of issues with it. Not only do you not have any form of control over the device or the data stored on it, there are compliance issues to be considered. 

The same goes for software. If your team members aren’t using the software that you’ve designated they use, instead seeking out alternatives online and downloading potentially dangerous data packets, you are vulnerable to some serious issues and compliance concerns.

This makes it paramount that you provide your team with access and support for the exact tools you want them to use.

Maintain Your Equipment and Software

It’s also critical that the tools your team members are using are kept in proper working order, as this will not only make them more efficient, but more secure as well.

Your remote workers will need to have devices that are remotely monitored for threats and other issues, helping ensure that they remain secure even while they aren’t in the office under your watchful eye. The same goes for the software that gives these devices some direction—threats are actively being developed to undermine it, so it is important that you are just as diligent in keeping these devices up to date. We can use the same remote monitoring and maintenance software we use to manage your in-office devices to ensure your remote team is properly equipped.

Establish Basic Security Standards

We’ll never stop talking about how important it is for businesses to maintain their cybersecurity protections, and this importance is in no way diminished by remote work practices. More than ever, you need to ensure that your team is maintaining the cybersecurity standards you expect them to. Reinforce that they’re to abide by best practices—keeping an eye out for phishing, using secure passwords with multi-factor authentication, and others—and hold them to that expectation.

We’re Here to Help Businesses Operate Effectively and Securely, Regardless of Where Their Team Members are Working.

Give us a call at 607.433.2200 to learn more about how we can assist you in making the most of your business’ technology.