With the emergence of the COVID-19 virus, employers are now compelled to pay more attention to cybersecurity and data privacy. The need to have employees work remotely is understandable. Still, organizations without a set plan to aid business continuity and solid asset management will face the threat of data breaches by hackers.
While the freedom and flexibility of remote work is convenient for many, two things are paramount to an organization and its employees: cybersecurity and data protection.
In this article, we explain the need for organizations to review security policies to help determine the components of a good security strategy for remote work.
How to Maintain Security When Employees Work Remotely
Enforce Authorization and Authentication
An effective way to manage the security threat posed to employees and organizations is to adopt the use of 2FA (2-factor authentication). This security move can further be backed up with solid password creation and a firewall to ensure that no systems are accessible to unauthorized persons.
Enforce Security on Third-party Collaborations
Several third-party collaborations and messaging applications like Slack and Microsoft Teams have gained popularity in the business world over the last five years. The number of users of these services has shot up with the switch to remote work.
However, the challenge is that most of these platforms remain open to cybersecurity and data protection challenges due to employee behavior. To address this security vulnerability, organizations must rely on a competent IT team to implement controls and checks.
Provision of VPN Services
Some remote employees would like to use their devices to establish certain connections. Some may decide to connect to some public Wi-Fi in a coffee shop, which opens their machines for attacks. Organizations should provide highly secure network connections for their remote employees to counter this activity. VPNs are a sure way of ensuring that network connections are secure and protected from cyberattacks.
The beauty of VPN services is that they enable your employees to establish anonymous connections without putting their private data at risk of breaches by hackers. This and many other tools make working from home more reliable and secure.
How To Maintain Data Protection
To comply with cybersecurity and data privacy laws, organizations are expected to ensure that employees’ data is safe and secure. Below are a few ways to maintain data protection:
Creating a Solid Data Protection Policy
First of all, it is crucial to establish a robust data protection policy and also work on enforcing it. At this phase, your organization must be ready to work with highly trained IT personnel to help develop a unique model that will work effectively for your employees. One important component that needs to be added to the data protection policy is best practices for handling organization data to avoid abuse. When this is properly set in place, every other thing will follow smoothly.
Providing Secure Connections
Most remote workers may only have the privilege of accessing organizational data from their devices. This may be achieved from their end by connecting to an unsecured network. To combat this and ensure that your employees' data is well secured, your organization must receive resources that enhance safe connection. This may include top-level firewall services, providing company VPN service and antivirus software, and ensuring that at all costs, they do not make use of public Wi-Fi connections which opens them up to attack from hackers out there in the wild.
Get the Required Tools
In addition to making available to your remote employees secure connections and the right data protection policy, there is also the need to provide them with the right toolset to carry out their tasks without the fear of giving away their data. This could comprise tools like spam filters and password managers to keep them focused on the job without worrying about security.
Other Ways to Maintain Data Protection
This segment of the guide presents the ways to ensure tight data security when employees work from the comfort of their homes.
Create Awareness about Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity and privacy awareness should be provided to employees in training. In addition, remote workers should also be provided with contact information of responsible IT personnel who can help resolve security and other technical incidents. By creating data privacy and cybersecurity awareness amongst remote workers, you are arming them with vital tools to help them avoid an attack on their data.
Encrypt Private Information
Organizations should always look to encrypt sensitive information where possible. Employees' financial or medical records should be treated with the highest level of security. It is recommended that full-disk encryption be adopted to prevent company or personnel data from being accessible, even when the computer or device gets into the wrong hands.
Choosing the Right Backup Solution
As data protection for remote workers becomes ever more important, the need for authentic solutions is taking center stage. A considerable part of this success story is advanced data backup software. NAKIVO offers a dedicated backup for Microsoft 365 as a lasting solution to remote workers' fear of data loss. More than ever before, you can now enjoy more work flexibility as you no longer have to worry about losing your data forever.
About the Author: Mariia is an entrepreneur and a blogger who is passionate about sharing news and updates on technology, business, and marketing topics. She is the owner of OlmaWritings.com business writing service and a freelance writer for Nakivo, Backup and Replication company, which offers fast and reliable data protection and backup solutions for businesses.