Tips to Improve Remote Work Security

When COVID-19 hit, many businesses had to rush to adapt to working remotely in order to stay in business. That's when hackers went to work to find vulnerabilities in the way many organizations setup their employees to work remotely. Follow these tips to help make working remotely more safe and secure.

1. Use complex passwords: Every employee, including management, needs to use an alphanumeric password that they haven’t used before. Password managers can assist with making sure they’re never forgotten. We use RoboForm as our password manager, but there are others like LastPass that has a free version that can help generate and store complex passwords.

2. Enable multi-factor authentication: If you’re like most people, you use the same password for several websites. That means anybody who has figured out that password has access to everything you’ve logged into with it. Multi-factor authentication requires you must use a device, like your phone in order to sign-into your account. So, if a hacker guesses your password, they still can’t sign in without your personal device.

3. Use a VPN: VPN stands for virtual private network. Put simply, a VPN connects your computer to a shared or public network as if you're connecting to a private network. If your business has a commercial router, you can use a VPN to access your network shared files, just like if you were in the office.

4. Remote into your office PC: The advantage of having an office PC is the ability to remotely connect to it and use it like you were sitting in front of it. Windows has a built-in tool called Remote Desktop Connection that can be easily configured to allow you to connect to your office PC from your home. There are other 3^rd-party tools that do the same thing such as GotomyPC, LogMeIn, and Splashtop.

5. Share files securely: With your Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you have access to SharePoint and OneDrive to securely access and share your files.

-SharePoint is an internal content management platform that lets you customize team sites or groups and automate workflows and share resources within your organization.

-OneDrive allows users to securely share and collaborate on documents in real-time. You can share files with people outside of your organization as well. Secure access with limits on who can see what and specifying what actions they can take. You can even automatically revoke access after a set time limit.  

Need help securing your remote workplace or deciding on the solution that’s right for your organization? We can help. Contact us today at  (509) 433-7606.