Keeping Your Remote Office Space Secure
Going remote makes work a lot more convenient, but also a lot more vulnerable. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in spring of 2020, 32% of Canadian employees aged 15 to 69 worked most of their hours from home, compared with only 4% in 2016, Statistics Canada found.
In fact, a Bloomberg article suggested that “remote work habits are likely to outlast the pandemic in Canada”. 80 per cent of Canadians who began working remote during the pandemic would like to work at least half their hours from home in a post-COVID world. That being said, remote work is here to stay.
At the same time, cyber-attacks are aware of the implications that come with remote work. As IT Governance UK states, there is only so much that the IT security team can do for home workers. Here are some ways you can be proactive about your cybersecurity concerns:
Use dedicated computers set up by your IT team. The proper equipment will be installed with anti-malware programs and have a number of extra security measures. Using personal devices for professional use can be convenient, but can be fairly risky. According to a CISCO Benchmark Report in 2020, 52% of respondents said that mobile devices are a major challenge when it comes to cyber security.
Ask about phishing emails. There was a whopping 600% increase in reported phishing emails, Info Security Magazine says. 38% of untrained end users are susceptible to phishing, which is an increase of over 8% from 2019 figures. On the brighter side, this number can decrease dramatically after phishing training. The conclusion? Learn about phishing and install tools that help you detect what could be a scam email. Furthermore, it allows your IT team to monitor and be notified of any incoming suspicious emails targeted toward your business’ network.
Learn what security measures and cloud service providers are in place. What infrastructure does your organization use to manage files while everyone works remotely? How does your organization select who gets to see what information, and how do we know it is barred off securely? What sort of standards does the CSP follow?