Companies were slowly shifting to the remote work model. However, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this trend. According to a report from Entrepreneur, more than 70% of founders are going to give the option of remote work even after opening their office. Also, more than 66% of founders are thinking about investing in remote offices.

The biggest disadvantage of remote office networks is that they are not secure. Home networks can be vulnerable. Thus, attackers can directly target your employee networks. They will use their network for gaining access to your network. Most employees don’t know about the importance of router security. Thus, they might be accessing your sensitive documents without using any security solution. The public Wi-Fi networks are even more vulnerable. They can be easily compromised by attackers. Attackers can use simple attacks like MITM attacks for stealing your data. In this article, we are going to share some tips that will help you in optimizing your remote office network.

Challenges of Remote Network:

Some of the challenges of using a remote network are:

Managing Remote Access Servers

You need to set up remote access servers for your remote employees. Your employees can’t access your systems and data remotely without these remote access servers. These servers will give access to your data and resources to your legit users. Also, they will ensure that attackers can’t access your systems and data by using a remote connection.

Slow internet

Every home network will have a different upload and download speed. Many ISPs are boasting about their high download speeds. This can be very important for your employees as they can quickly download files from your servers. However, these ISPs will never talk about their upload speed. There are many ISPs that are providing 10 Mbps download speed and 0.01 Mbps upload speed. Due to this, employees can’t upload their work to your server.

The upload speed is not important for basic internet usage. However, your employees need it for using video-conferencing solutions. Also, they need it for uploading files on your server. Make sure that your employees are getting at least 2 Mbps upload speed. If your employee’s home network is slow, then it will result in bad audio and video quality.

Router Security

Most employees don’t think about their router security. They will directly use the routers that they have. Also, they will use the default password for accessing these routers. This router will have access to all the remote features. Thus, it will be a network security risk for your business.

Personal devices

Most home networks are using an SSID. Thus, every device on the network will be connected with other devices. Attackers can use the same password for accessing all the devices. This is a perfect opportunity for attackers as they can use your employee’s personal devices for conducting their attacks.

How to set up a secure home network?

Use a VPN

VPNs or Virtual Private networks will help you in hiding your IP address it will also hide your employee’s traffic from other internet users. This VPN will start encrypting the network traffic. Also, it will ensure that your employees are untraceable. If your employees are using a VPN, then it will become very difficult to attack them. Attackers can’t trace the activity of your employees.

Change your router settings

You should never use the default SSID password and name. If you are using the default SSID password, then attackers can easily hack into your network. Attackers can do a simple Google search for finding your SSID password and username. The default router settings are easily available on the Google search engine. Thus, you should always change your SSID password and username. This will ensure that attackers can’t hack into your network. Also, you should disable the remote access features of your router. Attackers can use remote access features like WPS and UPnP for attacking into your network. You can protect your network by disabling these remote access features.

Use a separate network for personal devices

You might be using the same network for your business and personal devices. Make sure that you are never using your business network for accessing your Netflix or social media accounts. It is a good idea to set up a secondary network password and ID. You should set up a secondary network for your personal and home devices. Make sure that this secondary network is separate from your work network. You should use a private network for accessing your business files.

Find a good ISP

Your employees will have access to limited ISPs. However, make sure to check the details that are provided by your ISP. You should check the upload and download speed of your ISP. Try to find an ISP that can provide you good download and upload speed.

Configure your software and remote access servers

You need to figure out how your employees are going to connect with your company server and database. Your employees can use a remote connection for connecting with your network. Also, they can use custom remote access servers and software for accessing your network. You should configure a remote access server as it will help you in protecting your network from attackers. VPNs will help you in protecting your data and applications from attackers. Hackers might get access to your employee’s password. However, they can’t access your network until they have access to the right software and VPN connection.

Conclusion

The remote workforce is going to be very important in the next decade. Thus, every business is focusing on building its remote workforce. It is very important to deal with the challenges of the remote office network. If you don’t have access to a large IT team, then you should consider working with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in protecting your remote network and moving your applications to a cloud platform. If you need more information regarding the remote network, then you can contact Bleuwire.

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