Working from home has pros and cons. Studies show that mobile employees are 5% more productive but are also using potentially unsecured devices to access work data. Hackers target these weaker security points to infiltrate and wreak havoc on the corporate network. So how can your business reduce the risk?
To protect your network, you should increase visibility, enable multi-factor authentication, and backup your data. Let’s look at each of these points a little closer.
1. Network Visibility
Knowledge is power, and the ability to gather and analyze data about your network health is crucial to protecting employees. A cloud-based platform allows your IT team and/or Managed Services Provider to monitor traffic and detect threats without disrupting operations. Set up virtual machines to provide remote employees with a secure method to log in and work from home. A fully transparent network is only one piece of your security puzzle; the next is about authentication.
2. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
COVID has changed our working patterns and increased vulnerability, but MFA can provide a second layer of protection for your network. To access your company’s data, an employee must confirm their identity twice. This might seem like overkill, but an extra login step is worth it if your network remains secure.
You should also restrict specific types of data per user group. For example, a Customer Support Rep has no need to view/edit your company’s finances. Your IT team can set permissions that provide access to relevant data for each department. Ransomware often needs a high-level account to be successful, so authentication and access controls help decrease risk.
3. Backups
What happens if ransomware slips through your defenses (knock on wood)? It’s scary - the thought of losing sensitive data or being forced to pay millions on a gamble that the hackers will give it back. Regularly backing up your network saves you worry and money. A cloud-based backup solution replicates, stores, and restores your data quickly so you can continue working from anywhere. Set your systems to backup every day, every hour, or every few minutes; as part of your custom RTO and RPO objectives.
Remote work and security don’t have to be enemies. Technology makes it easy to protect your employees and your data. Talk to an expert today: https://www.iservworks.com/contact