Since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has become the new normal mode of operation. Today, many organizations have embraced this working system. Remote work allows employees to have a more flexible work schedule. The method has assisted employees in saving time and money, increasing productivity, and promoting better work-life balance. However, although its benefits are numerous, it has its drawbacks, one of which is the ever-prevalent issue – cybersecurity.
Over the past few years, the remote working system has been a source of concern for many organizations. Remote workers are more vulnerable to cybersecurity risk. According to Alliance Virtual Office, remote workers are the top target of cybercriminals, with cyberattacks increasing by 238% in volume since the pandemic began. This has led organizations and security teams to proactively look for tips to navigate the biggest remote risk and cybersecurity issues.
This article will highlight essential tips for managing the most serious remote-risk cybersecurity challenges.
Cybersecurity Issues Faced from Remote Working
Below are some cybersecurity issues encountered with the risk of working remotely;
Business Email Compromise (BEC)
A business email attack is one of the most financially destructive cyber-attacks affecting remote workers. The cyber-attackers gain information on business partners and potential business partners to gain the victim’s trust. This cyber-attack often results in great financial damage to the business and sometimes is never recoverable.
Webcam Hijacking
Employees who work from home commonly engage in teleconferences and video calls that necessitate the usage of their cameras. Unfortunately, cybercriminals can simply and unauthorizedly gain access to their webcam, infringing on their privacy. Worse, if they have sensitive documents lying around the office, intruders could see them by hacking their cameras.Weak Security Controls
Remote workers are unbound from the company’s IT services and, as such, have no cybersecurity teams monitoring what happens on their home networks leading to vulnerabilities in remote workers’ networks.
Tips for Navigating the Biggest Remote Risk Cybersecurity Issues
Below are a few tips you can implement to navigate the biggest remote-risk cybersecurity issues:
Secure Your Wi-Fi Network
One benefit of working remotely is working from anywhere and anytime in the world. However, you have to use your own Wi-Fi network for internet connectivity. 90% of remote workers use public Wi-Fi to carry out their tasks. While it is cost-saving, it is the worst idea in terms of security.
However, using unsecured public Wi-Fi networks is vulnerable to cybercriminals. This is because such Wi-Fi lacks encryption. Cybercriminals often use unsecured Wi-Fi networks to steal professional or financial data.
Therefore, protecting your network with the best network security support is essential. One way to do this is to secure your Wi-Fi network using a strong VPN. This will add another layer of protection to the Wi-Fi network, as well as offer supplementary cybersecurity needed to access confidential data.
Encrypt Your Data and Devices
The importance of encrypting data and devices cannot be overemphasized. It is a data security measure all remote workers must adopt. Encryption is converting data or sensitive information to a non-readable format. The encrypted information or data must be unencrypted or deciphered before being read intelligibly. This security measure prevents unauthorized access from breaching the data or network.
Therefore, ensure all files sent by your remote workers are encrypted. Also, ensure it is a policy in your organization that everyone must adhere to.
Use Strong Passwords
Weak and easy-to-guess passwords make access to confidential or business information more vulnerable. Employees who use weak passwords or generic ones for several accounts provide organizations with a typical remote working security issue. An attacker may obtain access to a remote worker’s account and use it to access business resources remotely.
Therefore, enforce the use of strong passwords (a combination of alphabets, characters, and numbers) and discourage the use of the same or easy-to-guess passwords for multiple accounts. Implement the use of a password manager to help keep track of all usernames and passwords belonging to various accounts. This keeps information related to your business secure and improves your password security.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication
To navigate cybersecurity risk, remote workers must adopt multi-factor authentication. Regular login credentials are not enough to prevent hackers from accessing your account. But implementing multi-factor authentication will add extra protection to your account, ensuring your data is secured. MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) offers additional security to a user’s account by requiring them to give information in addition to their username and password before accessing it.
This security measure prevents unauthorized access from accessing the user’s account.
Limit Access
Limiting access is critical to mitigating cybersecurity risks because it helps organizations safeguard their professional and financial data from data breaches and cyber threats by limiting access to various information.
You can’t trust everyone, and by making data and information available to everyone in your business, you open the door to more significant security breaches.
To avoid this, organizations must utilize Identity Access and Management (IAM). Identity access and management is a security tool that manages access levels, regulates remote workers’ operations, and limits user access to sensitive data and information within an organization.
Establish an ongoing security awareness program.
Company security teams must recognize the threats their remote staff faces and give guidance on what cybersecurity risks look like. They must also educate staff on various forms and methods of cyber-attacks and security measures they must take to avoid them.
Awareness of phishing attacks and exploration of internal chats by cyber criminals must be discussed with remote workers by the company security team to keep remote workers on the lookout while working from home. This training can be held virtually or in-house and should be conducted once a month or quarterly to help keep your employees informed about the latest cybersecurity trends.
Install Antivirus software
Antivirus software is an excellent way to effectively navigate the remote risk from cybersecurity threats, as the installation of the antivirus software ensures the security of remote workers.
It is common knowledge that cybercriminals target home networks, and setting up a comprehensive antivirus solution helps automatically detect probable threats and fight them from penetrating your home network.
Secure Your Network with B-Comp
B-Comp Services can assist you in securing your network and providing IT security recommendations and tactics to safeguard your data from intrusions. Learn about us as your preferred IT team. Contact us today for a consultation. You can call 303-282-4934 or reach us online.
