After the pandemic forced offices across the country to shut down, many businesses managed to continue their operations by having their employees work from home. However, this isn’t just some random anomaly; working remotely is a trend that has been quickly and steadily gaining traction over the last few years. The emergence of COVID-19 just happened to speed up the process of organizations embracing the business strategy.
This moment of time has opened the eyes of many business owners. Where some business owners may have once thought it was impossible for their workforce to go remote, they now realize they can operate perfectly fine without being in the office. Knowing that and that COVID-19 is still around, working from home isn’t going away any time soon. As such, it’s important to take appropriate security measures—like installing a virtual private network (VPN) or 2 factor authentication—to keep your employees safe and secure from cyber threats as they work remotely.
Securing a Remote Workforce
The cloud and the creation of reliable communication tools made working remotely a possibility years ago. However, it still took time before companies adopted the practice. Sure, this could be attributed to the fact that the business world sometimes moves at a glacial pace when it comes to change. But, there are legitimate concerns that have slowed the process down, namely security issues.
Take a moment to think about your office network, it’s likely heavily protected with enterprise-level cyber security infrastructure. This keeps everyone within your building as safe as can be from outside cyber threats. Unfortunately, most homes not only don’t have enterprise-level cyber security, but many don’t even have basic-level cyber security. To ensure your employees can continue to work safely, here are some cyber security tips for employees to follow.
Cyber Security Training
Believe it or not, but there is one thing every company has in common: employees are an organization’s biggest vulnerability. It doesn’t matter if you have the best firewall and monitoring services in the world, all it takes is for one employee to slip up and your protection will come crumbling down. That’s why cyber security training for employees is crucial to cyber security.
Through proper training, your employees will learn cyber security best practices and how to spot suspicious activity, like phishing emails. This will go a long way in keeping them safe, as well as your business.
Install Antivirus Tools
Businesses often take a range of measures to keep employee’s devices safe and secure. For example, your IT department may restrict employees from downloading and installing applications and may restrict employees from accessing the network from unauthorized devices. But, it’s much harder to enforce security rules when people aren’t in the office.
To prevent anything from happening, you’ll want to install reliable antivirus software on all company devices. While it may not be as robust as the cyber security offered within your workplace, it will provide at least some protection.
Use a VPN
As a rule of thumb, whenever you’re using an internet connection that you don’t own—say your on your laptop at a coffee shop—you should be using a VPN. A VPN is a virtual private network that shields your activities from nosy interlopers. These networks provide privacy and anonymity by masking your internet protocol (IP) address. This makes it so that employees accessing your network are virtually untraceable by others.
Sign Up for 2FA
Your employees likely use passwords to login to their various accounts. While that’s fine, it’s far from the most secure solution. In addition to using normal usernames and passwords, have employees sign up for 2-factor authentication (2FA). This is an extra layer of security that uses a 2 step verification process to make sure the employee is who they say they are.
This works by the employee first entering their login credentials. Before that employee gains access to their account, they will then be required to provide another source of verification. This can be a code sent directly to the employee’s smartphone, a fingerprint, or something else only employees would have.
Keep Your Employees Safe
At PCR Business Systems, we specialize in managed IT services. We offer a comprehensive list of cyber security services that can be tailored to the needs of your business. Our technicians work with your team to implement reliable cyber security solutions that provide peace of mind.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
Learn how multi factor authentication can keep remote and in-person employees safe here>>
