With the sudden outbreak of Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest things that happened overnight was the transition to new work culture in organizations across the world. Except for a few, 99.9% of the organization did not have a business continuity plan for such a long time. It has brought multiple challenges to organizations and their employees. One of the biggest challenges that organizations are facing is the security of their enterprise data on employee’s personal devices. We’ll talk about some of the security tips and best practices for working remotely.
Best Practices for Working Remotely To Achieve Enterprise Security
1. Effective Briefing
It is pertinent that organizations should brief about data security to all their employees at regular intervals of time. It could be initiated in the form of training through a webinar or periodic emails about the importance of data security.
2. Basic Hygiene
The training should include “Basic Hygiene” from a security perspective each employee should follow such as
- Employees WIFI password should be stronger
- Don’t install any applications without the permission of their IT team
- Don’t click on URL that request to change password
- Any information related to the payment to a vendor new bank account should be verified through a phone calls
3. Stringent Firewall Policies
Considering the employees are now working outside firewalls, the firewall policies will be ineffective. IT must use third-party applications to manage firewall policies on employees’ desktops/laptops.
4. Regular OS Updates
IT should ensure employee’s desktop/laptops are updated with current versions of the antivirus or DLP solutions. It is also essential to ensure regular OS updates are done on these machines.
5. Prohibit External Device
IT should ensure that USB storage devices should be disallowed to prevent any form of data leakage
6. Constant Device Checks
For an organization which is into creating intellectual property such as design, diagrams or software development, the IT should ensure that desktop/laptop used by the employee is completely checked against all security norms to ensure it doesn’t become a point of leakage for the organization
7. Secure Email Solutions
Use third-party vendors to protect the use of personal email or storage solutions on their assigned laptops/desktops.
8. Regular Device Audits
The IT should either use a third-party solution or manually audit each employee’s machine for security at a regular interval.
9. Safe Server Hosting
The IT should ensure access to servers hosted within the organization’s premises should be done through secured channels and credentials.
10. Proper Data Backup
The backup policies should ensure data at each employee’s desktop is backed up at regular intervals.
Key Takeways
And there you have it! Prepare your business to deal with this pandemic with best practices for working remotely.