Securing Company Data With a Remote Workforce

In 2018, BlueFace predicted that remote work would start competing with office work by 2025. Little did they know that the COVID-19 pandemic would accelerate this process tenfold. Businesses were thrown into the deep end when they were forced to switch to a fully remote workforce. While some adapted to this new normal by taking immediate measures to deal with the shift, many were unprepared to manage such an enormous transformation.

Amid this chaos, a host of challenges emerged. Among them was an unprecedented surge in cyberattacks. Cybercriminals caught businesses in a state of panic and exploited their lack of preparedness to wreak havoc. A survey by Barracuda found that 46% of global businesses encountered at least one cybersecurity scare after moving to a remote working model during lockdown.

With today’s decentralized work environments here to stay, it's vital to be proactive and secure your business’ data from unauthorized access, accidental loss, and willful destruction. A remote workforce makes an important case for enterprise-class business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions. 

5 Reasons Why Your Remote Workforce is a Prime Target

Remote work makes businesses uniquely vulnerable to cyberattacks, and the additional strain of the pandemic raised the stakes. Here are five reasons that your remote workforce is a target for cybercriminals.

1. Unsafe home networks: Remote workers logging in from home networks pose a greater threat than onsite workers using their company’s secured network. Though most business are aware of this vulnerability, most businesses still tend to invest heavily in onsite security while cutting corners on securing remote work.
   
   
2. Extended vulnerabilities: When a major chunk of work happens over the internet, it introduces threats that target web services and applications. The greater the number of threats, the higher the possibility of at least one threat breaking through the limited barriers set up to secure remote work.
   
   
3. Challenges with technical support and virus cleanup: Infected or vulnerable machines need immediate technician attention, which is usually easy in a conventional office environment. But carrying out cleanup efforts on remote computers is far more challenging.
   
   
4. Limited security: Most cybersecurity solutions don’t do as good a job securing remote workstations as they do with onsite technology. This leaves the safety of remote devices—especially personal devices—in the lurch.
   
   
5. Isolated devices: Devices that have been updated with standard security settings that apply to all IT assets of a business are less vulnerable to security lapses. But personal devices used by employees for company work don't have the same security safeguards, so they are easier targets.

You know your remote workforce needs protection, but what can you do to achieve it?

Securing Your Remote Workforce Promptly

The longer you take to secure your remote workforce, the more you jeopardize the safety of your business’ critical data. Here are six measures that will help secure your company data:

1. Cloud-based Backup and Recovery: When you manage an increasingly remote workforce, a reliable cloud backup platform can be a lifesaver. Cloud platforms allow you to efficiently back up data—even on remote computers—and recover it whenever needed.
   
   
2. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR): A comprehensive BCDR strategy can ensure no incident is capable of grinding your business to a halt. As you develop the strategy, revising your recovery objectives based on the reality of remote work is important.
   
   
3. Regular Recovery Testing: Implement a strategy to ensure your data recovery solution doesn't give way when you need it most.
   
   
4. Safeguarding Software as a Service (SaaS) data: Most businesses don't have a strategy for securing their SaaS data because they assume SaaS platforms secure it on their own. Unfortunately, that isn’t true. Your SaaS data is your responsibility, especially when most of your workforce is using SaaS applications while working at home. While building a policy for SaaS, consider optimizing the storage for each user to ensure no data is lost in transit.
   
   
5. Awareness Training: 51% of businesses that responded to the Barracuda survey admitted that their workforce wasn’t proficient enough or properly trained on the cybersecurity risks associated with remote work. Is this the case at your company? If so, taking steps to rectify it is vital. The more aware your employees are, the better they will follow your backup policies.
   
   
6. Ongoing Risk Management: Don't just plan for day-to-day fixes; a plan for the future will save you time and frustration. Assess the potential risks your network and backed-up data are exposed to so you can address any backup needs as soon as they emerge.

Tackling remote work-related threats and securing your business data isn’t as taxing as it seems when you have the right assistance and backing. If you don't know where to start, CHR Solutions can help. Contact us today to learn more.