The idea that this pandemic is alive and well after a year is kind of incredible, yet this is the reality many nations are facing. The news is not all bad though. The Pandemic provides some solutions to the technology industries faced with the Brexit issue.
For example, many executives in London have been able to see that staff is able to successfully work from home.
Several companies will need to keep some or most of their staff working remotely indefinitely. This will require businesses to start planning for a remote work revolution. But this does present a new problem: cybersecurity.
Why is This an Issue?
To put it simply, everyone is not fully protected from cyber attacks. Sure, a business can secure its network against attacks, but remote workers are on their own.
It’s up to them to figure out how to protect against these types of attacks. Some people are probably doing that, but a chunk of people aren’t doing much. Businesses can’t take those types of risks, and they aren’t there to monitor their employees since they’re working remotely.
Alex Williams, owner of HostingData, says: “This whole pandemic situation caught most business owners in the UK unprepared. While most of them scrambled to keep everything from falling apart, cybersecurity concerns kind of took a backseat in the order of priorities. In many cases, workers were sent to work from their homes, without properly addressing cybersecurity concerns. This left a glaring weak spot that hackers can exploit.”
Businesses go to great lengths to make sure internal, sensitive material is safe because business owners know how much they stand to lose should they get attacked.
How to Increase Security?
Addressing this problem is crucial because remote workers are vulnerable to an attack. Company staff members and management in the UK must find a secure way to perform basic business functions such as sharing data, collaborating on projects, and tracking their time.
The good thing is business owners have options. One thing business owners can do is make sure every employee uses a VPN. A VPN is a virtual private network that encrypts information sent to and from a computer. Remote workers will need this to help protect themselves from attacks.
Employers should also invest in training employees. Many times, security breaches happen because the employees don’t know how to protect themselves from cyber attacks.
There’s a lot the training must go over, like how to tell if an email is legitimate or suspicious. Employers may need to pay for this education unless you have someone at your place of business who can get an e-course together and send it to your remote workers. This might take some time because each person learns differently, but it’ll help keep data safer.
Employers should also make sure each employee has adequate virus and malware protection software. Employees must keep this software on and should run the software every so often to make sure nothing has found its way into their computers or smart devices. The security software should cover all connected devices. It may be a good idea to do a little research to find the best malware and virus software out there.
A company’s employees should change their passwords regularly, and passwords must be challenging to strengthen security.
Employees should also avoid sharing personal information online as much as possible. Folks should avoid posting information that can identify them on social media platforms. This is common and cybercriminals know about this because they examine people’s social media platforms. Folks generally share information like this because everyone does, but hopefully, warnings can help employees understand the dangers on the web.
There’s another danger worth pointing out. Remote workers with families have to worry about folks in their households who might be sharing the internet. Children and teenagers aren’t always careful. Employers should offer suggestions and tips to help keep the rest of the family safe. Employers should encourage employees to share the lessons they learn through their cybersecurity training with their families to keep things safer.
Why is This so Important?
Most business owners in the UK are aware of the dangers associated with a data breach like the exposure of a customer’s personal data. This exposure could put customers at risk of identity theft. This is a problem most companies can’t recover from, but there are other reasons all of this is vital.
Employees might not take this as seriously as business owners are taking it. Maybe employees won’t take it too seriously because they think cybercriminals won’t attack them.
There’s a common misconception that cybercriminals only attack big fish, but that’s not true. Cybercriminals are aware that smaller companies and individuals are easier to attack.
Most of the time, these entities lack the expertise and resources to maintain adequate cyber protection, making the crime much easier to do.
Indeed, due to their size, SMBs may not have the resources or expertise required to maintain an adequate security posture and they may not have established procedures should a successful attack or infection occur.
On top of everything else, employers need to put in work to make sure employees take this seriously. Company owners need to communicate the dangers of a cyber attack, not only to their company but also to the remote workers themselves.
