As the pandemic rages on and the world races against time to manufacture enough vaccines to inoculate the global population, organisations are grappling with the issue of addressing IT security for home workers.

Having a remote workforce comes with several dangers due to them having to rely on their home networks and sometimes their personal devices to complete their work tasks and responsibilities. On top of that, you have to pray they possess enough technical skills to troubleshoot any problem should they experience any technical issues as there’s only so much your IT team would be able to do to help them out.

As per the Velocity Smart Technology Market Research Report 2021:

• Around 70 per cent of remote workers admitted to having experienced IT problems during the pandemic

• More than 54 per cent revealed that they had to wait for up to 3 hours to get the issue resolved

Despite the teething problems experienced by organisations, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Remote working is here to stay.

As per a survey conducted by Gartner, 47 per cent companies would give their employees the choice of continuing to work remotely full time once the pandemic gets over and 82 per cent said their employees can work from home at least once per week.

Importance of Cyber Security in Remote Work

If you’re one of those firms who’ve given their employees the option of working from home, you need to assess your remote working practices and ensure that they’re safe. It doesn’t take long for a disaster to wreck the most carefully laid plans.

Without the security protections such as firewalls and blacklisted sites that office systems afford us, remote workers are more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Since, the majority of tasks are executed online, there’s always a possibility of our systems being targeted for a cyber attack.

Be it your cloud documents, emails, instant message chats and clients, or third-party services - all of them are vulnerable since they’re being shared online digitally leaving you all the more exposed.

Benefits of Employing Cyber Security for Remote Work

There are a number of advantages of managing cyber security especially when it comes to working at home. These are:

• Protection against unauthorised access to networks and sensitive data

• Enhanced information security and business continuity management

• Better security due to employment of correct security protocols

• Quicker recovery times in case of a breach or malicious ransomware/malware attack

So, with all that said and done, cyber security is essential for protecting your company’s resources. Let’s find out how you can do that.

Tips to Ensure Cyber Security while Working Remotely

• Secure your home router: Cybercriminals tend to exploit default passwords on home routers as most people don’t bother to change or update them regularly. This leaves your home router vulnerable and open to a cyber attack. Just by simply changing your home router password to something unique would go a long way to securing your home network against cyber threats.

• Keep your work and personal devices separate: Though, it might be a bit bothersome to have to switch between work and home devices, it’s a good practice to follow it as you may never know if one of them has been compromised. This helps in reducing exposure of sensitive data on your device keeping it safe from external threats.

• Encrypt your devices: Encryption goes a long way in protecting your device in case of theft as it prevents strangers from accessing your device without the correct password, PIN, or biometrics.

• Keep your software up-to-date: To protect your system against cyber attacks, you need to update your software regularly be it applications or web browsers. Also, apply security patches automatically while for others you can update them periodically.

• Use a strong PIN/password on your device: Most people use easy to guess passwords that can be easily hacked such as your date of birth, name, address, etc. This should be avoided at all costs as having a top of the line security system would matter little if anyone can guess your password easily. Use strong passwords that use special characters that seem random but make sense to you.

• Use an antivirus: It goes without saying having an antivirus installed on your system would help protect it against viruses, spyware, ransomware, rootkits, trojans, and other types of malware.

Best Remote Working Solution with Cyber Security

Even after taking all the above mentioned steps and precautions, you still need a remote working solution that’ll help you make sense of remote work and get you on board easily. Try Webtel’s Work At Home (WAH) remote desktop solution. It not only allows you to access your data and software remotely in a seamless fashion but also offers top notch security protection against various cyber security threats. Go ahead and give it a shot!

Want to know in detail about Webtel's Remote Desktop Solution, then feel free to ask us by sending an email to contactus@webtel.co.in or by simply commenting to this article.