TECHNOLOGY


How to keep your employees and data safe while working remotely


With many organisations unprepared for remote working prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, the quick transition to a fully home-based workforce has left business leaders around the country scrambling to find the right resources to support employees and enable continuation of operations. Lee Johnson (pictured), Chief Technology and Information Security Officer at Chamber strategic partner Air IT, outlines the steps businesses can take.


Ensuring your business has the appropriate security measures in place should be a priority over the coming weeks and months. Sadly, criminals have been quick


to exploit any gaps left in organisations’ cyber security during the move to remote working, putting many businesses at an increased risk of a cyber attack or breach.


Luckily, there are steps that can


be taken to help minimise this threat and safeguard your data and employees. The first step is ensuring you


have a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in place. Critical to any organisation that


has staff working remotely, a VPN will enable your team to connect to your network safely, even when using a personal device. Unbeknown to some, home wifi


isn’t always safe, so using a VPN is recommended. Since early March there’s been a


huge spike in phishing emails, so it’s important that businesses and end users are taking extra precautions to protect themselves from this kind of scam, now more than ever. Our advice here is to always


treat emails or any form of communication that requests personal information (such as login credentials and bank account numbers) with extreme caution. Where possible, pick up the phone to the sender and make sure the request you’ve received is legitimate. If in doubt, delete. Virtual meetings and other apps


can also expose vulnerabilities for hackers, so make sure you and all other staff members are only using trusted platforms. Using cloud services and collaborative tools such as Microsoft Teams are not only convenient for remote working, but they are also much more secure. Platforms like Teams use end-to-end encryption and store data privately, meaning that


60 business network May 2020


Security is a key consideration when allowing your employees to work remotely


‘Unbeknown to some, home wifi isn’t always safe, so using a VPN is recommended’


your team can work remotely while not having to worry about your data being intercepted by hackers. Whether you’re completely new


to remote working, or it’s something that’s already in place at your organisation, it’s important to educate and train your employees on how to keep your data and devices as safe as possible during this time. Communicating your cyber


security policy to all employees is key to developing a cyber safe culture within your workforce. This should include appropriate password management and multi-


factor authentication on accounts where possible. Employees working remotely may be working around other people, so ensuring they have strong and varied passwords is critical to preventing anyone other than the intended user gaining access to accounts. Implementing a password policy to provide clear guidelines will help your employees create those harder-to-hack passwords and boost security. Adopting multi-factor


authentication (MFA) is one of the easiest yet most effective ways to improve security. MFA requires an additional element such as a


thumbprint or unique code to log in, making it much more difficult for unauthorised users to gain access to an account. Simple to set up and manage, we recommend MFA to all businesses. Delivering regular user


awareness training will help to train your workers on the risks and threats of working remotely, and will help ensure they follow best practice to reduce the risk of your organisation being hit by a security breach. While cyber security is complex and rapidly evolving, it simply cannot be ignored. Applying these measures is a step in the right direction to safeguarding your accounts and data and keeping your remote workforce much more secure.


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