Protecting Your Business and Remote Workers: The 5 Key Cybersecurity Practices You Should Adopt

The COVID-19 pandemic may be behind us, but its impact on the workforce still lingers today.?

During the shutdown periods, remote work had become the only way businesses could use to keep things running. With the help of technologies like Zoom, Slack, Google Drive, the transition from working in a traditional office setting to working remotely was seamless.?

This change created a new world order on how businesses conduct their operations.

Now, four years later, the trend of remote work has not only persisted but also grown stronger. About 16% of companies worldwide are fully remote, and ?68% of employees would rather have a remote or hybrid work arrangement. They expressed the benefits as being more productive and having a better work-life balance.?

However, with remote work comes an overreliance on Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions and digital tools. While these tech solutions enhance productivity and collaboration, they also expose businesses to new security issues such as data breaches, hacking, phishing, ransomware, and many other cyberattacks.

It has become more crucial for businesses to take preventive measures to protect themselves and their remote workers from these threats. Here are five cybersecurity practices every company should adopt.

1.? Establishing Security Protocols

Every company, no matter how big or small, needs to have cybersecurity policies, guidelines, or protocols in place. These protocols not only help protect you against threats like malicious attacks but also guide your remote workers on how to handle sensitive information.?

Some security protocols to have in place include:

1. Access and control limits: Decide who has access to what data based on their roles and responsibilities.
2. Strong password policy: Ensure the passwords to your business digital tools are complex and exceed the minimum length. You can also have regular password updates after a period of time.
3. Enforce multi-factor authentication: In addition to strong passwords, create a multi-factor authentication process for all remote access points to any sensitive information.
4. Educate and train your employees: Conduct regular training sessions to educate your employees on how to identify and respond to potential security threats.

2. Keeping Software and Devices Up-to-Date

A regularly maintained and up-to-date antivirus or security system has a higher percentage of working more effectively than an outdated one.?

This is because cyberattackers sometimes take advantage of the vulnerabilities of outdated software to access your business information.

Regularly updating the software and devices your business uses can protect your system from being hacked by fixing any security flaws from a previous update, adding new security features as they are released, and improving compatibility with newer technologies.?

3. Using Secure Links or Connections

Since every piece of information between your company and your remote workers is done over the digital cloud, it is important that secure links are used for all transactions or communication.

Don’t rely on or use any public wifi or internet provider to access any work-related sites or documents. Instead, your business should make use of secure business internet providers and VPNs to keep all the data and information encrypted and safe from hackers.?

Despite the doubts surrounding the use of VPNs in a business setting, research shows that VPNs are safe to use and encourages more companies to include them as part of their cybersecurity measures.

4. Avoiding Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are one of the most common and effective methods used by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. They can be very hard to spot. Especially when cybercriminals create convincing emails and websites that are almost identical to legitimate ones.

Sometimes, only someone with a keen eye may notice any disparities between a safe link or email address and a potential phishing one. That’s why you should always be on the lookout for one. It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is or what email security your business uses , you can be a victim at any time.

Here are some things to always look out for:?

• Fishy domain name.
• Poor grammar or punctuation.
• Unusual attachments or links.
• Suspicious email content.
• Sudden request for personal information or money.
• Weird writing style or tone from co-workers.

Whenever you’re not sure an email is genuine, check in with your co-workers through another secure channel such as Slack to confirm.?

1. Backing Up Data Regularly

Regular data backups act as a fail-safe in the case of any cyberattack. They ensure that even in the event of a security breach where your company’s data gets compromised, lost, or corrupted, a recent copy is available to be restored immediately.

This saves your company from any potential financial loss due to ransomware attacks.

You can make use of cloud storage or any backup services to store your business files or data. Decide what data to backup, how often, and which methods to use.?

We’ll also suggest encrypting your data during each backup session to add an extra layer of security and storing your backups in different locations.?

Bottom Line

Remote work has many advantages. Hubinit has been a fully remote company since day one, and we, alongside many companies and employees around the world, benefit a lot from the flexibility it provides.

However, it is important that we don’t overlook the security risks that come with running our businesses remotely.?

Adopting the cybersecurity practices mentioned above would help you mitigate these risks and ensure your business and workers are protected.

Like this post? Follow us to receive more insightful posts and join The Tech Tribe.