Remote work will remain a significant business practice for the foreseeable future. Ensuring that remote workers compute securely is necessary to ensure business data remains safe.

Top Security Risks for Remote Workers

When users work remotely, the cyberthreats come in many different ways.

1. Unknown, unmanaged devices.

Businesses have a hard enough time keeping an accurate inventory of the devices deployed in their data centers and on desktops in their offices. When employees work at home or using mobile devices, the number of unknown devices that lack corporate controls greatly increases.

2. Insecure access methods.

Employees continue to use weak, easily-guessable stolen passwords. Even strong passwords are insecure when large volumes of stolen credentials exist on the dark web and businesses don’t use multi-factor authentication. Users who connect on insecure networks are vulnerable to malware no matter how good their password.

3. Phishing and social engineering.

Employees accidentally expose data to hackers when they fall for phishing or other social engineering attacks. They’re often more vulnerable to these attacks when they work at home and when they mingle personal and business use of devices,

4. Unsafe software and filesharing services.

The software on home devices may not be approved by your business; if it was downloaded from an unofficial site, it may have malware built into the image. Additionally, employees may use unsafe filesharing services in an attempt to get around business controls and be more efficient at their jobs.

Keeping Remote Workers Cybersafe

Businesses should develop a comprehensive plan for ensuring their remote workers compute safely. Because a large contributor to safe computing is employee behavior, especially when they’re off-site, companies should plan to invest significantly in employee training.

Because it’s impossible for businesses to ensure that every device employees use is safe, businesses can consider placing limitations on the types of devices they allow to connect. Mobile device management software can limit access to approved devices and operating systems.

Once the devices that are allowed to connect are determined, you can proceed with software and tools that offer protection. A basic requirement is to have antivirus software on all devices used for work.

Ensure users connect securely by using VPNs. In addition, use multi-factor authentication to increase the security of the login process.

Finally, be aware that adding large numbers of remote workers significantly changes the traffic patterns. This can make it more difficult to detect malicious access attempts. Consider enhancing your log monitoring and analytics to ensure that hacking attempts can’t hide in the larger volume of remote connections.

Prescient Solutions provides cybersecurity, help desk, mobile management, and other services businesses need to succeed with their remote work strategy. Contact us to learn how our information technology consulting and managed services help businesses in Chicago and Schaumburg solve their IT problems wherever their employees are located.