Scattered workforce: How businesses can deal with cyber vulnerabilities

The year 2020 has been a rough year so far. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every industry in some way or the other. Businesses have been forced to cut out jobs, while more employees are working from home than ever before. To add to that, as businesses limp back to normalcy, social distancing norms at the workplace must be adhered to. At a time when the workforce is scattered, dealing with cyber vulnerabilities is an important concern. In this post, we are sharing more on how to manage these concerns. 

Define the boundaries

In the current era, it is absolutely necessary and important to define boundaries and access rights. Find an access management tool that will allow your company to monitor rights and access to critical IT & network resources, and these rights must be edited, added, upgraded, and removed in real time. Make sure that your employees are aware of the dos and don’ts related to working from home. 

Establish password protection measures

Hackers often on various malware programs, phishing emails, and other tactics to attack employees and steal important information. Establish basic rules for better password protection and added security, such as – 

1. Use multifactor authentication where needed. 
2. Ask employees to create strong and unique passwords
3. Never allow employees to use default usernames and passwords
4. Recommend a password management tool
5. Use the lockout feature to prevent brute force attacks. 

Focus on network security

When your employees are using personal devices, home networks and unsecured networks for accessing company resources, you have to take security to the next level by defining rules. For instance, using a virtual private network, or VPN, should be mandatory. If you can, focus on offering a secure connection to select employees, especially privilege users. Focus on network security by using methods and means like firewalls, network segmentation, and spam filters. 

Communication matters

As cybersecurity concerns continue to evolve, you have to communicate regularly with your employees. Ask them to report any incident that may be related to security, and if needed, hire a team of cybersecurity experts, who can keep an eye on unusual network activities. If your company can afford a bug bounty program, there is no better time to implement one. 

Cybersecurity is a shared concern among teams and departments, and every employee should be made aware of their role in ensuring that. That may also mean doing regular workshops and training programs.