5 Cybersecurity Tips for Remote Working Capabilities in 2021 | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

With the pandemic, remote working has increased due to restrictions of the physical workspace. However, remote working has been around for quite some time now but never has been of this scale. 

According to Forbes, a survey was conducted among different HR executives in April and September of 2020. Half of the survey respondents believed that 40% of their workforce would work from home even a year after the pandemic. 

While there are many instances where productivity has increased due to remote working, security concerns have been observed. The most significant cause of security concerns in remote working is the lack of proper measures at an employee’s home. 

These remote employees work on their home network, which does not have special cybersecurity measures. Here, you need to ensure that there are proper cybersecurity measures for employee’s access to data stored on your cloud network or on-premise data centre. 

So, here are some of the best cybersecurity tips for remote working that you can use for your organization.

#1. VPN for Cybersecurity

VPN or Virtual Private Network is a way to encrypt your traffic through a remote server that redirects it to hide the identity. It will hide your IP address which the network service provider provides. When you surf online or search specific content online and even access the organizational data. 

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and every third-party website you visit through the browser track data. A VPN will help you deceive such trackers and stay anonymous. It encrypts the data in such a way that hackers can’t identify the source server.

This is especially a great way to ensure that access to organizational data from remote employees stays anonymous and can’t be masked by hackers for malicious intentions. There are free VPN services like:

• Cloudflare
• OpenDNS
• Comodo
• Quad9
• Yandex

However, for better security and advanced features, using a paid version can be beneficial. Some of the best-paid VPNs are:

• ExpressVPN
• NordVPN
• SurfShark
• ProtonVPN
• Windscribe

While VPNs are a great way to ensure cybersecurity, nothing is more assuring than a strong password.

#2. Password Management

Passwords are your security keys that will enable secure access to data. Unfortunately, an easy-to-remember password is the most prone to cyberattacks. However, there are specific remote working security tips to follow for your employees. The first one is to create or reset strong passwords. 

Here are some tips to follow for stronger passwords,

• It would help if you used special characters for stronger passwords along with alphanumerical attributes.
• Create longer passwords that are hard to guess
• Try to use different passwords across platforms to avoid security breaches.

Another way to ensure password security is to use a management tool. There are several password management tools that you can use for your organization. Some of the best password managers to use are, 

• LastPass
• Dashlane
• Bitwarden
• Enpass
• 1Password

Creating strong passwords or using VPN is one of the best cybersecurity tips for remote working, but you need more enhanced solutions.

#3. Secure Portals

From ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) portals to CMS (Customer Management System), there are several systems that you need to secure for your remote workers for access. For example, if your portals are not secure, a single phishing attack can make your organization’s data vulnerable. 

So, here are the best ways to improve the security of your systems.

Multi-factor authentication- It is a process of adding an extra layer of protection through authentication by users on their devices. You can even design authenticator applications customized to your organization’s cybersecurity systems to help employees access data remotely.

HTTPS protocols- Secure your portals through HTTPS protocols that you can obtain by installing an SSL/TLS certificate. An SSL or Secure Socket Layer scrambles the data between the browser and user’s device to keep it hidden from hackers through encryption. You can buy a cheap SSL certificate or even a hosting provider that offers pre-installed certification. You can buy a cheap SSL certificate or even a hosting provider that offers pre-installed certification. There are multiple SSL providers who offer low priced SSL certs with different brands and types. For example, comodo positiveSSL wildcard is available at discounted price from many resellers that can secure unlimited subdomains under a main domain.

WAF (Web Application Firewall)- A web application firewall will help you protect the organizational applications from different cyberattacks like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and others. These attacks on the applications can cause data breaches and even expose your business information. 

While securing your portals is an excellent cybersecurity tip for remote working, you need to train your employees for such cybersecurity measures. 

#4. Employee Training

Employee training is one of the essential aspects of cybersecurity for your organization. You need to design an inclusive program with several different departments of the organization. Whether it’s sales, HR, procurement, or manufacturing sector, all the departments need training for cybersecurity practices.

Especially remote working employees need the training to leverage tools like VPNs, password managers, or firewalls. Another essential aspect is updating devices which can leave your system vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

#5. Updating Security

Updating your system for security policies and devices is quintessential. For example, if remote employees are using an outdated operating system with obsolete security policies, your data is bound to get exposed. Using outdated devices and operating systems can hurt your organization.

Similarly, if you are not employing compatible software for your devices, the heterogeneity can lead to information exposure. Especially if you are planning to leverage cloud capabilities, try to check for compatibility of legacy applications. If these apps are not compatible, it can lead to vulnerabilities for hackers to leverage, and data thefts become eminent. 

The best cybersecurity tip for remote working with cloud-based services is to leverage pre-installed tools like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). 

Conclusion

In the future, you can leverage cybersecurity tips for remote working discussed here to enhance your organization’s security. First, however, you will need an assessment of systems, applications, databases, and existing security measures to develop robust policies. 

Employee training on cybersecurity policies, tools, and complete assessment of the system will enable you to ensure that the data is intact. One important thing is to track pre-defined metrics of cybersecurity policies and the integrity of the data, as it will allow you to adapt the system before the scenario gets worse quickly. 

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