This article is a part of the Working From Home Series
What are the best security practices for working from home?
There are probably more people working from home right now (that are usually in an office) than in any point in history. Advances in technology have paved the way for this fantastic option to keep your business moving forward, but precautions must be taken to ensure the security of your information. Here are a few tips to help with security and efficiency…
#1 Always use a VPN
Techradar.com provides a great summary of what a Virtual Private Network does for the user:
“A remote access VPN works by creating a virtual tunnel between an employee’s device and the company’s network. This tunnel goes through the public internet but the data sent back and forth through it is protected by encryption and security protocols to help keep it private and secure.”
With open remote desktop and sharing options, hackers are quite easily able to access your remote PC and then everything on the network to which it is connected. Paid screen and content sharing services are becoming more convenient and user friendly - often boasting enhanced levels of securty; however, the transmission of data is still not as secure as using a VPN to create a secure connection to your remote computer.
Firewall and VPN configuration can be done quite quickly and the initial training and setup for the end users is simple and convenient - Seras can even do this for most of our customers during our own remote session with them!
#2 Protect your Data
When was the last time you replaced your “home PC”? How often was it used before you began working full time from home? What are the chances of a hardware or software failure on your home PC versus the enterprise-level machine at work that was managed by an IT service provider?
These are important questions to ask yourself as you begin to save critical data to your home computer or network. Not only does “protect’ indicate a security or virus threat, but also a continuity risk. Working from home with kids, pets, a spouse, and often limited workspace can create risks before the computer is even turned on - we have assisted with data recovery and repair for machines that were dropped, knocked off the table, received a generous spill from a family member’s juice box, and more!
So, maintaining a work space that is free of potential hazards to your equipment is a start and often easy to do. Once you are working, you have to figure out where to save your data so that it can be recovered in the event of a crash or other critical failure on your computer. The great news is that many organizations are using free or inclusive file-sharing options that are available from places like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox. However, we receive at least one recovery request per week from a user that felt it was easier to save documents and files to their desktop instead of their dedicated shared drive that was backed up to the cloud and synced with their other devices.
With the risks of age, equipment failure, and electronic threats to personal machines, Seras always recommends saving critical data in a location that is synced to the cloud - we even have our own Seras Vault Backup Service that many customers use to keep their file servers backed up and accessible at a moment’s notice in the event of a critical device failure.
# 3 Communicate
Efficiency, security, convenience, and employee morale are all at a greater risk as assets spread out and begin working from home. The day-to-day oversight and peer support that many take for granted suddenly disappears and leadership is often left to assume that requests are resolved and information that is typically shared on-site is being shared remotely. Examples range from brief summary conversations that take place among peers before an important meeting to visual verification that a supply chain employee in fact received the document that was handed to them. Furthermore, remote employees that are accustomed to getting up from their desk to hand critical information to a co-worker are now tasked with getting that document sent electronically and verifying that it was received.
From brief conversations to scanning and sending important paperwork - combining technology with policy-creation can help to keep synergy in place and make everyone’s life a little easier. How about scheduling a brief pre-meeting conversation with key players to make sure information is still relevant and up-to-date? Or maybe simply requesting an email reply with “received” or verification to provide peace of mind? What about reviewing free applications to assist with scanning and sending pdf documents straight from your phone? How many new applications have emerged as essential during this crisis (Zoom, Tiny Scanner, Slack, Whatsapp… the list goes on and on)?
