The shift towards remote work that has taken the world by storm in the past few years has been fast and dramatic. After all, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, working entirely from home was far from commonplace. Today, things are totally different, but for many businesses and even entire industries, catching up on the technological side of things is still a work in progress.
The technology to maintain a safe and functional remote work environment has been around for a while, but implementing it and using it to its full potential is a tall order, especially for smaller businesses where each member of a team is being pulled in multiple directions. If your business does any work remotely, keep reading, because your data and network might not be as safe as you think! However, our team here at Progressive Computer Systems can help you to change that.
Cybersecurity Risks with Remote Work
Remote work introduces a whole new world of cybersecurity threats that differ from those of an in-person environment. The digital threats that exist for a company where everyone works in an office look much different from those of a partially or fully remote company. For instance, remote work introduces the risk of unsecured WiFi networks, as team members can be logging on from anywhere and might not have the proper precautions in place on their home network or on a public network.
Remote work also makes phishing attacks easier to fall for. Members of a remote team have to exchange messages like emails more frequently than those in person, who can just walk over to the next room to ask a question. This higher volume of messages can mean that a person’s guard is down, and they can be more likely to be deceived by a clever hacker pretending to be a client or team member.
Protecting Your Remote Work Environment
These possibilities don’t mean that remote work is impossible to secure from a digital standpoint, or even that it’s riskier than in-person work! All you need to keep your remote work environment safe and secure is to take a slightly different approach. Using cybersecurity tools like endpoint detection and response, or EDR, can be useful in a remote work setting. By keeping track of the activity on a network’s endpoints (devices such as laptops or tablets), these systems can scan for red flags and suspicious behavior that might indicate an incoming cyberattack. Tools like virtual private networks, or VPNs, for instance, can also help to eliminate the problem of unsecured WiFi networks, granting your team members the access they need without putting your network, their fellow employees, or your clients in jeopardy. For instance, organizations like law firms need to handle sensitive information for their clients, and unsafely accessing this data from home could pose a risk to the client and to the firm’s credibility. Using VPNs and other security tools like EDR can reduce or eliminate these risks.
Remote teams should also place a special emphasis on cybersecurity training for all employees, educating the entire company on how to protect themselves and avoid falling victim to attacks like phishing emails. Anyone, from a CEO to an intern, can be guilty of not following cybersecurity best practices, but required training can reinforce the importance of good habits like caution around suspicious messages and good passwords!
Upgrading Your Cybersecurity with Progressive Computer Systems
Using tools and practices like these can greatly increase the security of your remote work environment, but that doesn’t make implementing and understanding them any less daunting! If you want to work towards better cybersecurity for your organization but don’t know where to start, Progressive Computer Systems can help you today. Make sure to contact us for more information!
