Covid-19 has forced companies to develop work-at-home policies to keep office workers safe. While some corporate workers are heading back into the office, others are continuing with a WFH or hybrid workspace. While this helps keep workers safe from disease, it makes it more challenging to keep those workers safe from cyber-attacks? If you are worried about the cybersecurity of your remote office staff, here are three tips your remote office workers should follow to help keep their data secure.
- Follow company security policies
This is common sense; however, workers don’t always know what the policies are. If you are a remote worker and are unsure of policies, make sure you ask your manager. Employers need to ensure remote workers are not forgotten about when it comes to cyber awareness training activities. If your company policy does not allow external devices on corporate networks, be sure to follow it. Not following these policies could put your company’s network at risk for viruses and malware. Whether company policy allows users to use their own device or a company-provided one, all devices should have business-grade security solutions installed on them and be controlled by the company IT department.
- Keep systems up to date
Hardware and software manufacturers put out system updates regularly. These updates are designed to patch any flaws in the systems and make them more secure. Remote workers must follow the advice of their IT department and run systems updates and patches when they are available.
- Think over passwords and consider multifactor authentication
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) advises that people use passphrases. Rather than just using a short word, think of a phrase you would easily remember. Even better than passwords alone, also use multifactor authentication. Multifactor authentication “is a method of confirming a user's claimed identity by utilizing a combination of two or more different factors: 1) something they know, 2) something they have, or 3) something they are.” As hacking tools to crack passwords become more sophisticated, multifactor authentication is a must!
Following these 3 tips can help keep your remote workers cyber-safe. For more cybersecurity tips, visit the QuickProtect learning centre.
