Remote Work and IT Security

When you work in a regular office building, it’s typical for the company to hire a team of highly qualified IT security professionals whose primary responsibility is protecting the sensitive information and digital assets of their company.

These people are always available to all employees to answer questions, identify and prevent potential threats, and help the occasional person whose laptop won’t turn on. However, these safeguarding measures are most often unavailable to remote workers.

For this reason, remote workers are the first to face digital security threats. Typically, they’re the main source of network security incidents that can quickly take down the rest of the organization. This article will explain everything a remote worker and their employer should know about maintaining a secure and private network while working remotely. Let’s dive in!

The Biggest Cybersecurity Risks for Remote Employees

Let us review the most significant cybersecurity risks facing remote workers and their organizations.

Phishing Attempts

Cybercriminals specializing in phishing scams try their best to lure individuals like your employees into providing sensitive information about the business or the employee, including banking, credit card, and password information.

Using a VPN can provide an extra layer of defense against phishing. A VPN secures your employees' internet connection by encrypting the data they send and receive, which is crucial when you inadvertently land on a malicious site. Locations like the U.K. and Switzerland are universally considered to be the best VPN locations for safe browsing.

Device Ownership

When your employees are present at the office, you can pinpoint who uses a specific device by looking at their cubicle and confirming that only Jimmy is using a device you’ve assigned to Jimmy. However, this becomes much harder when your employees work from home or a cafe in town. Maybe Jimmy goes to the bathroom and leaves his laptop behind, or Jimmy’s weird roommate finds the computer unattended at home?

It’s particularly important to educate your employees on how protecting their work equipment is entangled with the cybersecurity of the company they work for and their digital assets. Establishing cybersecurity training and maintaining a culture of responsible ownership is critical to protecting company devices. An educated employee is a safe employee!

Frail Passwords

It should be common knowledge that passwords like “password123!” or passwords that include your name or your dog’s name aren’t the safest for protecting your accounts and devices. When working, the threat of a hack increases significantly because a hacker could access your Slack account and compromise the entire organization’s network of sensitive data.

Cybersecurity experts recommend that employers urge their workers to create complicated passwords or passphrases with a variety of numbers and special characters and update these passwords regularly. You can also use password managers and generators to generate complex and hard-to-guess passwords.

The stronger your password, the harder it is for hackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. Maricopa County businesses always consult Mesa cybersecurity to devise comprehensive security strategies that go beyond just password protection. Implementing multi-factor authentication, regular security audits, and employee training sessions can significantly reduce cyber threats. By staying proactive, businesses can safeguard their data and maintain a secure digital environment.

Weak Recovery Systems

A good offense is the best defense. If God forbid, the worst-case scenario occurs, having a reliable backup and recovery system can save your business. Having a team of experts to take you from a break-fix mentality to a proactive maintenance schedule is worth its weight in gold.

A safely stored backup of your company data and a robust recovery system can genuinely save your business from bankruptcy. There were cases in the U.S. where ransomware criminals threatened to delete the entirety of a company’s digital presence if they didn’t pay the hackers a hefty sum of money. If you’re prepared with a backup and a recovery system, these attacks won’t keep you up at night!

Stay Safe When Working Remote

With remote work becoming increasingly sought after by employees worldwide, your company’s sensitive data and cybersecurity in general are at risk. It’s now up to you to maintain your security by following the best safety practices recommended by digital security experts.