The Coronavirus pandemic has affected virtually all areas of our lives, including how we work. Whereas we would normally work in an office, now many of us find that we’re working from home. While there is no reason why your business should suffer because of this, it does mean that business owners have to think about the precautionary measures involved with making you business remote. A cybercrime attack can affect businesses of all systems, for instance. You can have a Business Continuity Planning Software to help you plan to run your systems, processes, and protect your people, even in times of disaster and pandemic.
While protecting your business from cybercrime is a little more than downloading the latest anti-virus software on your devices, here are some guidelines for protecting you from those taking advantage of the COVID-19 adjustments.
1. Ramp Up Your Security
Cybercriminals have operated since the early days of the internet, but the threat has become more pronounced during the lockdown for two reasons: first, with people spending more time indoors, criminals have more time to plan and enact their attacks on underprepared companies. Second, companies are more vulnerable as they jump into remote work without proper awareness and protection.
It’s one thing to be working at your office computers that have the security protection and potentially the IT staff to jump in when there’s a hitch in the system. It’s a whole new ball game when each employee is suddenly working off their own personal laptop, and using their own personal wifi.
To help keep your company’s information secure, it is recommended that you work with a reliable IT Managed Service Provider. They have the resources to keep you one step ahead of the cybercriminals, using a variety of solutions. For example, they can provide the management of firewalls, spam filtering, and anti-malware solutions.
IT providers also have the expertise to instruct teams on the best way to keep their network secure, such as creating secure passwords, and how to safely navigate the internet without accidentally downloading a virus from visiting a malicious website.
2. The Security Benefits of Using a VPN
An IT provider can help you to set up a VPN, which stands for a Virtual Private Network. There are advantages to using a VPN that stretch beyond security, but let’s just focus on that aspect for now. Not only can you access your favorite shows through player VPNs, like BBC iPlayer VPN, but the best thing about VPNs is that they keep your company’s data secure and your company safe from cyberthreats. So how does a VPN help keep your company safe? Without a VPN, the online actions of your employees are more vulnerable; it wouldn’t take much for a cybercriminal to break through and capture data to either sell or use against you. This is especially true if they’re connecting to a public wifi connection, but also true if they’re using their home internet, which may be the best option (visit Eatel Business).
VPN software helps to encrypt what you and your employees are doing online, which means that a potential hacker would be unable to see what they’re doing. In fact, not even the ISP (Internet Service Provider) can see what’s going on. It’s also easily possible to use a different postal address for your business if you run it from home, just use a service like bristolvirtualoffice.com and you get a completely new address and all post forwarded to you.
3. Invest (and Save) in Security and Productivity with a Managed Service Provider
While you’re working hard to weather the economic impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic and surface safely on the other side, it’s also true that now is not the time for complacency. It’s important that everyone is working as efficiently as possible, and that your business isn’t spending any more money than it needs.
Working with a Managed Service Provider doesn’t just keep your business safe. It’s an investment that will ultimately allow you business to function more productively. It’s one thing to have productive employees, but they can only be as efficient as the time it takes for their browser to download.
With the right tech setup at your business, remote or in-office, you have the platform for supporting more employees, with speed and security. And of course, the investment of preventing a cyber attack has a far greater return than reversing the effects of a security breach.
4. IT Training for Remote Employees
Your staff has likely undergone training in the office for the different types of scams to keep a look-out for, but when transitioning to new appliances, you might consider a refresher on the minimum for the devices they’ll be using and accessing sensitive data.
An MSP can help provide IT training for remote employees so they’re able to work just as well from the comfort of their home as they would in the office, and maintain the integrity of your business’s security.