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Work from IT home security

The pandemic hit businesses all over the world.  With many workforces moved from the office into their home.  The biggest priority at the time of the initial epidemic was the functionality of IT – “get us set up to work from home.” The most crucial goal was being able to still do your work out of the office and in the home. This is the functional layer of your business IT.  However, many have overlooked the security layer of your IT when working from home.

In this article, we will outline some of the most crucial steps you should take a business to stay secure when working from home.

1: Virtual Private Network

Commonly referred to as a VPN a virtual private network will secure all communication from any internet connection.  This is an important system to have in place as most staff are now working from a standard home broadband connection which is usually shared around the household over a semi-secure wifi connection.

2: Backup of Endpoints

If a system were to ever be compromised in your organization, more than likely files would become encrypted, and your staff will be unable to work. The data held on that system will be “held to ransom.”

The easiest way to recover from this is to have a daily backup in place for all user devices. This does come at a cost but it far cheaper than paying the ransom for an infected machine.

3:  MFA/2FA

Multi-factor authentication or 2-factor authentication can help stop the problem of someone clicking a phishing email and accidentally mistaking it as a simple sign-in page. It also secures your systems from easy to guess passwords as all users must sign in using not only a password but SMS or an authentication app on their mobile device.

4: User Awareness

The most effective security is aware of threats by staff.  This can be as simple as how to spot a phishing email or to make sure to check a link is safe before clicking it.  How do you keep staff aware of the latest threats?  Quarterly lunch and learn sessions with an IT provider like ourselves.

5: Web Security

The temptation has never been greater for many to surf the web and access shopping websites in work time.  With no prying eyes on a computer monitor, there’s a good chance that this is happening more often than you think.

In the office environment, all users are protected with the corporate firewall against malicious websites.  However, in the home firewall security is minimal.  How do you solve this problem?  A web security filter can block malicious sites and also generate a report on where your staff are spending their work time online. This is a great tool to reinforce security awareness and commitment to work.

If you would like a security assessment of your work from home setup, then get in touch with us.