Remote Working: Security
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The New Normal…
Working away from the office has always been a contentious issue for employers and employees alike for many years. Covid-19 has forced many businesses hands into trialling working from home and it is suggested that it has accelerated the movement by a number of years. It has proven that people can be productive outside of the office setting. So much so, that big tech companies are already advising their staff that they don’t have to return or are offering flexible home working options indefinitely. A post-COVID-19 world is likely to look much different with far more people swapping rush hour traffic jams for a slow meander to their home office in their dressing gown.
Higher productivity and lower overheads make flexible working just as attractive to business owners as it does to employees who can save several valuable hours a week in commuting or work around a busy family life.
Remote working is here to stay – are you ready for it though?
“Security”
Covid-19 has meant that numbers of people remote working has been accelerated far quicker than otherwise would have happened. A technical revolution can be a great thing but speedy change can often leave security overlooked.
Just as you can access these centralised cloud systems from anywhere, so can hackers. As such, it is important that you cover off the basic security assessment to ensure that your system is protected. With some basic security settings, your cloud systems are likely to be more secure than your historic onsite servers.
Here are some key areas to consider:
• MFA – So traditionally we would log in to systems with a username and password. Adding an additional credential gives us Multifactor Authentication. This additional password is normally something like a 6 digit code that changes every 30 seconds (like what the banks use). This means that even if you accidentally give away your login details, your account will still be safe because you have this additional factor of authenticating that the ‘bad guys’ don’t have
• External Sharing – Many cloud systems including Office 365 have the facility to share data with your customers directly. This is a great feature that can improve your service delivery. However, it can be a nightmare to control and manage. As such, we recommend that certain areas of your cloud systems should be designated and configured to block all external sharing. This gives you the certainty that anything in those areas cannot be shared by accident. Very important in the world of GDPR!
• Audit Logs – When things do go wrong you will want to know how it happened. The great thing about a lot of cloud-based systems is they can store a continual log of activity, unlike the older systems they often replace. This is not always on by default though. So, make sure you go in and turn on audit logging before you actually come to need it!
