7 Security Tips for Remote Working Employees

If your employees are working remotely due to the coronavirus outbreak, then there are various security issues that you need to consider. More than 50% of the world is currently in lockdown. Thus, most employees are working from their homes now. However, there are many consequences of this that you need to consider. Your employees are using their personal devices for accessing your database. They are remotely accessing your company database. Thus, hackers can use this opportunity for stealing critical data. They can intercept the communication between your database and your employees. Thus, they can steal critical data from your database. In this article, we are going to share some security tips that will minimize these risks.

1. Educate your employees

Your employees should have basic security knowledge. They should know about phishing emails. Thus, it will help them in avoiding these scams. Also, you should tell them to use private Wi-Fi networks only. If they are using a public network, then their connection can get intercepted. Many hackers are using this outbreak to hack into enterprise databases. Thus, the phishing attacks are going to increase during this period.

Your employees should not click on any unknown links. Also, they should not use any third-party applications for completing their work. Your company should have an emergency response team for dealing with security breaches.

2. Provide your employees with VPN access

VPNs are very important for people that are working from home. It will act as a layer between your employees and the company database. VPN will help you in masking your employee location. Also, it will encrypt all the data. Thus, hackers can’t intercept the communication.

Almost every large enterprise is already using a VPN service. Thus, they can provide VPN access to their employees. However, even small companies should buy VPN access for their employees. There are some free VPN services available in the market. But, premium services will provide you better security. Thus, you should consider buying VPN services for your employees.

3. Time for a password audit

You need to check the passwords of your employee accounts. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to ask for their personal details. You should check the passwords that they use for accessing enterprise services. It is important to ensure that they are using strong passwords for accessing your database.

Make sure that they are using alphanumeric passwords. This will ensure that only employees are accessing your databases. There are various password managers available in the market that you can use. These password managers will help you in generating and storing strong passwords. Thus, your employees don’t need to worry about remembering these passwords. They can use tools like LastPass for storing their passwords.

4. Use corporate services

Most companies provide tools like Slack and Office 365 to their employees. You should use these services for communicating with other co-workers. Your IT department is responsible for setting these tools. However, they are not responsible for the access settings. For example, they can’t check the files in your personal Google Drive. You need to ensure that you are not storing any critical data in your drive. If you are sharing the link of drive files, then the search engines can show it in results. Thus, sometimes people can do google search for finding these confidential files.

It is very important to ensure that your employees are only using corporate resources. They should use corporate services for exchanging information and documents. Cloud drives that are configured for business are more secure when compared to the free cloud drives. Also, corporate mail gets very less spam due to security filters. This will ensure that your employees will only get important emails.

5. Use cloud services

You should ensure that your employees are not storing any confidential information in their local storage. Hackers can hack their systems for stealing confidential information. They should use cloud services for storing confidential data. There are many cloud-based apps available in the market that your employees can use. If your employees are using any third-party service, then your security team should verify them. This will ensure that your employees are using legit services only.

6. Mandatory backups

You need to ensure that your employees are backing up their data. They can use online backup services for backing up their data. If online backup services are not available, then your employees can use external devices. They can also use another laptop as a backup device. If you are using an EDM or MDM service, then you can also initiate automated backups. This will help you in backing up your data.

7. Use antivirus solution

Companies use various security measures for protecting their systems. These solutions avoid employees from installing any third-party applications. Also, they can’t use unauthorized devices for connecting to the internet. However, it is difficult to provide the same level of protection to remote workers. You can’t leave these computers vulnerable. Hackers can steal your important work documents if these systems are vulnerable.

You can prevent this by using a reliable security solution. Thus, it is important to ensure that your employees are using a security solution for protecting every device. They should even use antivirus for protecting their mobile devices. If you have a low budget, then you can use a free antivirus. It will provide some level of protection to your employee computer.

Conclusion

The coronavirus outbreak is forcing everyone to work from their home. However, this can be a big problem for many companies. It is important to ensure that your employees are protecting their systems. This will help you in protecting your critical data from hackers. You need to ensure that your employees are using security solutions like VPN and antivirus. This will protect your data from hackers. Also, your employees should have basic security knowledge. They should know about simple things like phishing emails and keyloggers. This will ensure that they won’t click on unknown links. You can use these tips for protecting your critical data. If you need more security tips, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.