Safe, Secure, And Remote: 3 Ways To Protect Enterprise Data
Remote workers come to your company in two main ways: some are current employees who manage working from the home with appropriate scheduling and space, while others are hired specifically as remote workers because they have specific skills your company needs. These remote workers might be hundreds or thousands of miles away, even in different time zones, but they remain valuable members of your team.
Regardless of how you ended up managing remote employees, however, it’s important to recognize that allowing employees to work outside of the office poses certain risks to enterprise data. From your standard unsecured network to lack of technology backup, it’s easy to end up in a situation where information is lost or stolen…precisely what every company wants to avoid.
In order to avoid these kinds of IT issues, it’s important that you set up safeguards before initiating extensive remote working relationships – or at least that you move rapidly to protect current remote work situations.
Here are three ways you can easily protect your valuable information when working across distances and locations. With these tools, you’ll feel confident that your business is in order, and that it’s going to stay that way.
Supply Devices
Remote workers and staff that work from home mean a drop in costs at work, right? Instead of workstations for these staff, they’re at home using their own devices. This sounds good in theory, but we recommend supplying remote staff with the necessary technology, particularly their computers.
Why supply what people already have at home? The answer is security. Simply put, you can’t be sure what kind of malware protections, passwords, and other kinds of security your staff members have on their home computers. It’s the same problem faced by companies that allow in-office employees to bring their own devices.
By the time you go through all the required programs and protections you want staff to use, you’ve likely overextended their home computer capacity and put a strain on your working relationship. If you want to control how a device is used, then you need to supply it.
Is Encryption Enough?
When your remote employees need to access company information, where are they getting it from? This is a major security question – you’ll need to decide whether they’ll be working with encrypted emails, a VPN, or some other system to connect with company information and tools.
If you’re primarily emailing assignments and information back and forth, you’ll want to make sure those messages are end-to-end encrypted. Many people are uncertain about the way encryption works, so do your homework. It’s not uncommon for something we think of as safely encrypted to actually be full of openings that could allow your information to fall into the wrong hands.
This was recently a problem with Google Drive and Dropbox, both of which provide encryption services. Known as a “man-in-the-cloud” attack, this vulnerability had the potential to bypass encryption for both systems. Relying on this kind of external encryption provides few guarantees, particularly if you work with sensitive information.
The Value of VPNs
One alternative to the encryption problem is to supply a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Using a VPN provides the same level of security as a standard network, creating a protective wall around your remote workers. Only those with authorization can access a VPN, so you’ll be sure your data is safe. In some cases, you may even feel comfortable allowing employees to use their own devices, as long as they login through a VPN.
VPNs also couple especially well with remote desktop access for workers who are only remote part of the time. By allowing them to access their work desktops from a home computer, these workers don’t have to worry about duplicating their work on an office computer and a home computer.
With this information, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about how to structure your technological relationship with remote workers in order to ensure data security. While the digital age is rife with risks and challenges, smart management can reduce those concerns.