How Can Companies Improve Cyber Security For Their Remote Workers?

Remote working increases the cybersecurity risks to a great extent simply because people stay out of supervision and control of the office administration and infrastructure. But business processes increasingly tend to rely on remote work simply because of cost savings, flexibility, job satisfaction, and of course, health safety during the pandemic. 

While these security concerns will continue to address remote teams, there are several effective and proven measures to improve cyber security. When you manage remote development team for your next app project, you can enforce several tested-end tried measures to keep security threats at bay. 

Enforce Strong Passwords

Passwords are regarded as the first line of defense to prevent unauthorized access to smartphone devices and all personal details stored within the app. Since sophisticated bots can now try thousands of combinations in seconds for detecting passwords, a strong alphanumeric password that is hard to guess is essential.

Let’s have a quick look at some of the critical things you need to ensure a stronger password.

• Always avoid using easy to guess words and combinations of characters in the password.  
• Always go for a little longer passwords consisting of at least eight characters, including alphabet, digits, and some symbols.
• Lastly, avoid using identical passwords across all devices and operating systems.
• To make it easier to remember countless passwords from different apps, it is recommended to use a password manager or keychain.

Insist on Two-factor Authentication

Let’s be honest about the fact that creating strong passwords is not always enough. In cases when the account credentials of someone get leaked because of a data breach, the strong password is no longer effective. This is where Two-factor authentication comes as a more viable solution. 

In two-factor authentication, after making password inputs, the user needs to confirm a One Time Password (OTP) or should carry out an email verification or answer some questions that the user has selected while opening the account.

Taking Automatic Data Backups

To prevent security risks to the app data, it is important to take automatic backups of all crucial files. If the system is affected by malware and all the data is lost, the app can again be rebuilt by retrieving backed-up data. To make things easier, you can manually store backup data in the cloud.

Use robust internet security software. 

Employees working remotely from home should always use a strong, powerful, well-equipped antivirus and internet security suite. It is better if the company uses the same suite at its premises and by the employee at his home.

The cyber security attack globally costs businesses more than a billion dollars every year. As work from home protocol is gaining momentum, the home internet networks can also fall within the target ambit of enterprise hackers in the near future. This is why remote home workers must ensure all preventive cyber security measures to keep threats at bay.

Antivirus and internet security suites can prevent common types of attacks include DDoS attacks, ransomware, malware, Trojan, spyware, bot attacks, identity theft, etc. 

Enforcing Strong Firewalls

The security Firewalls also act as a significant defense barrier to prevent security threats and hacking attempts to make entry into the company’s system. The firewalls create an impenetrable barrier between the employee-run devices and remote servers, and it only allows safe ports for data transfer and communication. 

The firewalls can easily prevent the entry of malicious programs and malware into the remote computer. It is also capable of checking data leaks from the system used by the employee. Though every operating system software has a robust firewall, you may have to turn it on. The routers also use hardware firewalls. 

Network Security

Network security happens to be a significant area of concern for the overall cyber security threats. When you hire remote developers for a project, you need to ensure that the employee will not use unvalidated Wi-Fi connections in public places to invite security threats and malware attacks.

Many employees use extremely unsecured public Wi-Fi when traveling or when working from public libraries and cafeterias. This can always expose the device to security risks of all types and should be avoided when working on business projects. Even while they sit and work in public premises with their systems, they should switch on their routers with a secure configuration and strong password. 

Another crucial and tremendously helpful approach to ensure network security is to use trusted VPNs equipped with end-to-end data encryption protocols to safeguard all data that passes through the network.

Another major effective approach that many businesses use for network security is to facilitate two distinct tires of networks, such as the core internal network reserved for role-based access by management and key staff and an external network for cloud-based services. The use of powerful cloud-based SaaS applications is an example of how many companies have embraced this approach for network security. 

Conclusion 

The recent shift to work from home and remote work processes has also presented security concerns for the companies. As the pandemic forced companies to abruptly embrace remote work without preparation, these concerns will take time to sink in. In the meantime, the measures mentioned above can help businesses deal with security attacks and threats. The future of cyber security largely depends upon how well you can manage the threats and vulnerabilities created by remote work processes.