Working from home has presented a large number of obstacles for businesses across the country. From operational challenges to communication issues, companies have been wrestling with previously unheard of complications due to the current work-from-home reality we all exist in.
One ominous problem that has business owners seriously concerned is the ability to keep their employees, their data, and their information secure when each individual member of the company is operating from a different location. The challenges are many, but the good news for business owners is that the solutions already exist.
Follow these steps to keep your company secure while your employees work remotely.
Have a Clearly Defined Cybersecurity Policy
Cybersecurity is almost definitely not the first thing on your employees minds. In some cases, your employees may not even understand that data security is a legitimate issue that could affect them, and your company, profoundly.
A common misconception about information and data security within a company, is that it only applies to employees who are working directly with private customer information, or to C-level or management level executives. In reality, a company can be breached at any level due to the missteps of any one of their employees. It’s up to management to ensure all company employees understand that simple yet vital fact.
If your company doesn’t already have a clearly defined, detailed cybersecurity policy, you shouldn’t wait one more minute to create one. If you’re unsure of the information, rules, and regulations to include in such a policy, call our team of IT experts for a consultation. We specialize in helping companies and their employees understand the areas in which they are vulnerable to cyber threats.
A clearly defined cybersecurity policy should make it easy for employees to continually check the document to ensure they are safely transitioning into their work-from-home responsibilities. The policy can even act as a detailed checklist that employees can follow.
Update Passwords Consistently – Ensure Passwords are Strong
Frequently on our blog, we discuss passwords and password management. Most everyone with an internet connection has an online account that requires entering login credentials (e.g., username and password), be it a Facebook account, email, or a college or university student portal. This means your employees are familiar with the concept of password security, but now that everyone is working remotely, it’s time to crack down on the quality of your passwords.
According to research done by Infosecurity Magazine, 80% of cyber security attacks involve a weak password. And now that your employees are connecting to different networks across an extremely wide area, there are far more potential access points for cybercriminals to target. Even if your employees do everything right in regards to your cybersecurity policy, weak passwords can make your company an easy target.
If you don’t want to expend the energy racking your brain for a strong password, there are a number of password generators that can do the work for you. Change your passwords, use a password manager to organize them, and ensure your employees are logging into company accounts on safe networks.
If you’re like many concerned business owners, you don’t want to rush your employees back to work until you’re entirely sure that it’s safe to do so. But as time goes on, cybercriminals are identifying more and more potential weaknesses in the cybersecurity of your employee’s networks.
If you need assistance in implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity policy to keep your company and employees safe, contact our team at M&H Consulting. It’s our job to keep your company, and your employees, secure.
Categorised in: Business Management, data management, Health & Safety