Providing employees with the option to work from home or employing remote workers can increase productivity and morale and can also benefit your business’s bottom line. However, employing remote workers comes with new IT security challenges.
This is because, in a typical office setup, all users will access company information through the same secure network using company-owned devices. But, when employing remote workers, they will be connecting through their home networks and often using personal devices, making cybersecurity more complex.
The Top 3 Security Risks For Remote Workers
1) Weak Passwords
Using weak or repeated passwords provides cyber criminals with an easy way into your IT systems. Rather than having to circumvent sophisticated IT security software, hackers will take advantage of the poor password habits of your remote workers to gain access to sensitive business information.
Using compiled lists of common passwords, hackers can create a simple algorithm that will continually work to crack passwords using different variants until they gain access. Additionally, when using passwords based on personal information such as names and birthdates, hackers can easily crawl employee social media accounts to obtain this information.
Another common poor password practice is repeated use of the same password, especially across both personal and company accounts, as this leaves your company at higher risk of being hacked.
To best protect your business against cyberattacks targeting remote workers with weak passwords, implement company-wide policies that will empower your staff to create unique, complex passwords. For example, discourage the use of personal information when setting passwords. Enforce a minimum password length as longer passwords are harder to crack, and advise employees to use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Additionally, implement multifactor authentication as an added level of protection.
2) Limited Cybersecurity Knowledge
Another common security risk when employing remote workers is a lack of cybersecurity knowledge. There are many avoidable cyber threats such as phishing scams and unsafe downloads that can be avoided through professional cyber security training.
Phishing scams are becoming extremely sophisticated, bypassing the spam filter on company emails and posing as a reputable source to trick employees into opening unsafe emails and clicking on malicious links. As a result, cybercriminals are able to gain access to important business information, including login credentials that can be used to access company and even customer data.
To avoid preventable cyber threats such as email scams, you will need to provide training on cyber safety best practices for remote workers. With Tech Cover as your managed service provider, you will have access to the knowledge and experience of our entire team of IT specialists. We can also provide cybersecurity tips for your employees to reduce the risk of a data breach.
3) Personal Devices
Remote workers will often use personal devices for company work which can open your business up to potential cyber threats. This is because personal devices are unlikely to have the best and latest cybersecurity software installed.
By providing your remote workers with company-owned devices, you can mitigate this risk by controlling what security software is installed.
IT Security Management For Remote Workers
Outsourcing your IT security management to a managed service provider, such as Tech Cover, is a reliable and cost-effective way to keep your business data secure at all times, whether your staff are working in the office or remotely. Call Tech Cover today on 1300 832 326 for tailored IT management and remote data security solutions.
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