Over the last few years, we have seen several tech companies, such as Buffer, Todoist and Help Scout, to name a few, switch to a fully remote or partial work setup. Most of these companies spent months preparing for the switch by training their employees, setting up remote work policies and ensuring the necessary infrastructure was in place to deal with Cybersecurity threats.<\/p>\n
However, many companies were forced to make the switch overnight when COVID-19 hit. Very few got the chance to fully prepare themselves, which left them more vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. And this is exactly what cybercriminals are capitalizing on.<\/p>\n
According to the latest data from the National Cyber Security Alliance, there was a significant uptick in the number of cybersecurity incidents faced by businesses globally in 2021. The study found that most businesses reported an increase in the number of incidents, with more than 60% of companies indicating that the number of incidents had increased by at least 25%.1<\/p>\n
Risks and consequences of not updating your security protocols and training programs<\/p>\n
For starters, your existing protocols and training programs were created in a pre-pandemic world. However, things have since changed drastically. Now, employees access critical company data through connections and devices that are beyond your control, making your company more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats than ever.<\/p>\n
Failure to update company security protocols and training programs could lead to the following consequences:<\/p>\n
To protect your company against cyberattacks and data breaches, you need to constantly evolve and grow to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals. If most of your employees are working remotely, it won\u2019t take much to breach your defenses. In fact, all it could take is a password shared publicly on a team chat app, an accidental click on a phishing link, or confidential company information accessed through a public Wi-Fi connection.<\/p>\n
This is why you need to have a new IT Policy in place that directly addresses remote workforce requirements. Apart from that, you must ensure all employees receive additional security training.<\/p>\n
Personal device security:<\/strong> If your company allows employees to work using their personal devices, it is your responsibility to ensure they are of a minimum standard. You must clearly define what is permissible and what is not — the type of devices, operating systems, applications and websites that can be accessed.<\/p>\n Besides that, give your employees a list of all security, remote access, VPN and other tools they need to install before they start. Your employees should also be aware of the level of access\/control you have over their devices, the type of technical support you can provide and the company’s right to wipe\/alter the devices.<\/p>\n Network security:<\/strong> Public Wi-Fi and home Wi-Fi networks are nowhere near as secure as the LAN connection in your office. That\u2019s why you must enforce minimum-security standards to ensure employees don’t put company data at risk. Define everything from Wi-Fi encryption standards, Wi-Fi password difficulty, network security software, router safety guidelines and the types of devices that can be connected to the same network. Cybersecurity training programs:<\/strong> Due to this sudden migration to a remote work setup, IT teams in most organizations are stretched beyond their limits. They have to take care of support requests and make sure data and digital assets are safe and secure. This is why you need to make sure your employees get adequate cybersecurity training and are equipped to deal with common and emerging cyberthreats.<\/p>\n The training program must include everything from password management, using multifactor authentication, identifying phishing and ransomware attacks, guarding personal devices against cyberattacks, operating\/updating security software, configuring Wi-Fi, setting up VPNs, email usage, reporting\/responding to cyberattacks and much more.<\/p>\n Time to strengthen your first line of defense<\/p>\n Cybercrime is on the rise across the world. The ongoing economic downturn is only going to make things worse. That\u2019s why you need to ensure everyone in your organization has their guard up at all times.<\/p>\n However, if you decide to take on this journey alone, it\u2019s going to be challenging and you might have to set aside a lot more time and effort than what you can invest. Therefore, it\u2019s ideal to collaborate with a specialist managed service provider (MSP) like us who can handle the matters while you focus on your business.<\/p>\n Additionally, to deep-dive into remote working best practices, feel free to download our checklist by clicking here.<\/p>\n Sources: Over the last few years, we have seen several tech companies, such as Buffer, Todoist and Help Scout, to name a few, switch to a fully remote or partial work setup. Most of these companies spent months preparing for the switch by training their employees, setting up remote work policies and ensuring the necessary infrastructure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24086,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions\/24086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cs-inc.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAlso, the use of public Wi-Fi must be actively discouraged. In case an employee has no other alternative, give them a list of essential safety guidelines that they need to follow — secure connection, WPA3 compliance, websites to avoid and so on.<\/p>\n
\n1. National Cyber Security Alliance (sec.gov\/news\/statement\/cybersecurity-challenges-for-small-midsize-businesses.html<\/a>)
\n2. Digital Information World (digitalinformationworld.com\/2022\/05\/ddos-attacks-see-450-increase-during.html<\/a>)
\n3. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (cisa.gov\/stopransomware<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"