When the COVID-19 pandemic pushed companies across the globe to shift to remote work, most organizations adapted to this change without any solid policies or processes to maintain standards. While it granted employees increased flexibility and kept businesses afloat, remote work also exposed businesses to a whole new level of cybersecurity and compliance threats.
Here are just a few challenges organizations of all sizes may face:
- Reduced Security: When remote employees use their work devices on their home networks—or their personal devices to do work-related tasks—it gives their organization very little control over security.
- Inability to Enforce Best Practices: When operating within their office environments, companies can ensure employees are following data security best practices. But when working remotely, there’s every possibility that employees may use shared networks or public Wi-Fi connections, adding to security complications.
- Inadequate Backup: Both security threats and backup failures are constant—and common—risks for any organization that adopts remote work. That’s why organizations need to ensure they have multiple copies of their critical data, in case their remote servers are compromised.
- Lack of Employee Awareness: Regardless of intent, human error is still a major threat to security and compliance. Ensure your remote employees are provided with proper security awareness training to reduce your risk.
5 Ways to Ensure Compliance During Remote Work
Although remote setups make compliance more challenging than usual, organizations can incorporate the following best practices to boost their security and stay compliant with industry regulations:
1. Create a Cybersecurity Policy
If you don’t have a cybersecurity policy in place already, it’s time to create one. This policy should cover the various steps employees need to follow at personal as well as professional levels, especially when working remotely. By establishing proper standards and best practices for cybersecurity, organizations can minimize their exposure to risk.
2. Incorporate a Consistent Data Storage Policy
Without a standard cloud storage policy, employees are likely to store and handle data the way they see fit. There should be a shared repository on the cloud to back up files instantly from different sources. In many cases, the rogue copies that employees store on their local drives can pose a major threat to data security and create inconsistencies in storage policies. You need to make sure that data storage policies are strictly followed throughout the organization.
3. Increase Remote Monitoring
Endpoint management and cybersecurity policies are impossible to incorporate without the power of automation. You need a strong remote monitoring solution that manages all your endpoints and helps you adhere to compliance regulations. When you have complete visibility into the entire remote working network, you can minimize vulnerabilities and security threats.
4. Increase Employee Awareness Through Training
Since human error is extremely likely in all organizations, proper training should be provided to remote working employees. This training should focus on major issues such as clicking questionable links, being wary of messages from untrusted sources, having strong passwords, implementing multi-factor authentication, etc. If your organization falls under specific compliance regulations, you need to provide additional training to data-handling employees regarding the best practices to be followed.
5. Use the Right Tools and Solutions
As cybercriminals and their tactics continue to evolve, you need to make sure that you use the right software tools and solutions to protect your business. In addition to remote monitoring software, you’ll want to invest in antivirus, cloud backup, a password manager and more. You also need to ensure that these solutions are properly integrated into a comprehensive platform.
By investing in a security solution that allows you to protect your valuable data and meet compliance regulations even in a remote working setup, you can have peace of mind knowing your business and your data are protected. Our experts can help you develop a compliance strategy and recommend security solutions that meet the unique needs of your business. Contact us to get started.
