Employing remote workers these days is slowly becoming a norm for many small businesses. This new setup is possible as technological advances have given workers from different parts of the world the opportunity to communicate easily with each other. These technological advances and tools have made work collaboration much more accessible, even when working apart.

Benefits of Hiring Remote Workers

As many companies start to venture into this kind of setup, it has become beneficial both for business owners and employers. Whether you are a startup company, a small business owner who’s in the market for quite a time already, or someone with a growing enterprise, getting remote workers will help you save financially, and it will exhaust your resources. It also allows you to hire someone who is globally competitive.

As for your employees, they can enjoy advantages like less commute time, which means less stress before starting a day at the office. Working remotely can also give lesser hassle as they can work anywhere as long as they can produce excellent results at the end of the day and fewer expenses as there would not be the usual lunch outs.

Threats Of A Remote Working Environment

While the spread of hiring remote workers seem to be in favor of businesses and employers, security issues for this kind of setup are slowing increasing and coming into light. As the working community starts to lean profoundly on this setup, it poses cyber threats too many businesses.

Issues like weak passwords, unsecured networks, lack of authentication, and more, can become a massive problem for your starting or growing company. When you do not secure your business correctly, hackers and cybercriminals can continue to seek out any chance to exploit vulnerabilities in any business’ back end system.

Hiring remote workers is a new environment, which means that there aren’t established security measures available these days. If you been doing this kind of setup already or if you are planning to move in this kind of working system, how can you apply security fundamentals in your business?

In this article, you will read some ways you can do to implement security measures in your company when hiring remote workers.

Ways To Secure Your Business With A Remote Workforce

Hiring employees anywhere on the planet is beneficial in many ways yet challenging when it comes to effective communication. For this reason, it is essential to be clear on ways how to secure your business structure so you can be sure that hackers and cybercriminals will not find any way to infiltrate your system.

• Require Multi-Factor Authentication

These days, data breaches and other security issues are linked to weak passwords and ineffective user authentication. Many companies are also failing to establish secure checkpoint when employees need to access a particular file online or open any work-related account.

To address this, it is a must to make multi-factor authentication mandatory. Require your remote workers to do it when using corporate email, entering a company website login, or even accessing payment channels related to your company.

Multi-factor authentication or MFA adds an extra layer of protection to battle against security threats. This added security feature can be very beneficial, especially to those who are just starting to venture in a work-at-home set up to guard against any hacks and possible phishing attacks.

• Use Complex Passwords

Using multi-factor authentication can never be an excuse to be lax in using a pet name as a password.  As a business with remote employees, it is essential to have effective strategies to ensure the safety of the system. These strategies should include a requirement for your employees to change the password from time to time frequently. Strong and complex passwords also include special characters, which make it harder for cybercriminals to guess. Long passwords that contain at least 12 characters can also help build a defense against any cyber-attack.

• Limit Access

Having remote workers is vital as it is a great way to save financially and maximize your business’ potential without exhausting your efforts and resources. However, it can be detrimental to possible access and exposure to confidential information of the company.

When granting access to your remote employees, make sure only to give access to those tasks, documents, company files, and other company information they need to finish their job functions.

To add another layer of security, provide your team with a reliable VPN access. Having a trusted VPN or virtual private network can provide added protection, especially when your remote workers do their tasks on an unsecured network. When transmitting sensitive data through email or accessing a company account, VPN access can help hackers and cybercriminals out.

• Move Your Data To Cloud

As a small business that has several remote virtual employees, a cloud-based storage system can offer several benefits. Sharing of files and collaborative working is faster, convenient, and easily accessible with the help of cloud storage. Your remote workers can also easily access company data anywhere they may be.

When your data is migrated to the cloud, it can boost and enhance your security. Since storing data in cloud storage means you are accessing an off-site server provided by a third party, it can implement security measures in your files. Using cloud storage can also help you save money as you do not need to hire a dedicated IT personnel, hire an entire team, or even buy an expensive personal security system.

• Install an Antivirus Protection

Some of the most common threats a small business faces are viruses and malware. It can pose a drastic and more significant risk, especially when you employ remote workers as they may use an unsecured network, computer, or device. Hackers often target off-site worker’s computer systems as they are often neglected. If budget permits, provide your employees with an antivirus protection system.

Final Thoughts

One of the most common reasons a cyber-attack happens is because of human fallibility. Even the most significant data breaches recorded in history are due to human errors. So, it makes sense that as a business with remote employees, you should be wary of your employees deal with cybersecurity. Aside from all the security measures you can implement, it is also crucial to always educate your remote workers on possible ways they can eradicate and prevent cyber threats. Your employees, no matter where they are located, can be your most excellent defense in securing your business from any attack.

AUTHOR’S BIO

MARICAR MORGA

Maricar worked as a marketing professional for almost a decade and handled concerts, events and community service-related activities. Leaving her corporate job for good to pursue her dreams, she has now ventured in the path of content writing and currently writes for Softvire Australia – the leading software e-Commerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand. A Harry Potter fan, she loves to watch animated series and movies during her spare time.