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As we constantly say, technology is the true enabler of remote work, and there are plenty of solutions to assist you in managing security with a remote workforce. These solutions, when used in conjunction with
intranet security best practices, can help your company dramatically reduce the risk of security breaches. We've developed a list of our top 10 working from home security tips, five of which are the employee's responsibility and five of which the organization can apply.
Why is Intranet security: best practices?
The modern digital workplace is a centralized location where employees may get all of the tools and information they need to execute their jobs. Everything is stored in a cloud-based internal network that employees may access with a single login. While this saves your employees time, it also means that hackers and cyber thieves only need to obtain access to a single location to gain access to your entire organization's data.
Internal and external threats are common
Hackers and cybercriminals, of course, pose a significant danger to business security. However, there are other more intranet security concerns that businesses must guard against, both internal and external. Employee mistake, for example, is responsible for about 70% of data breaches, regardless of whether malicious intent is present. Internal negligence is considered to be one of the top three causes of breached security; unauthorized user access and unintentional online exposure are also among the major causes.
With this in mind, it's critical to ensure that your intranet security is as strong on the inside as it is on the outside. Internal dangers that result in a compromising security breach can be considerably reduced with proper training and safeguards.
There are five ways that remote workers might contribute to intranet security.
Employee error is the leading cause of data breaches, so it's critical that employees take an active role in
intranet security management. These precautions should be communicated together with extensive training to emphasize the importance of security and set clear expectations.
Simultaneously, be sure you're not cultivating a blame culture that makes employees unwilling to disclose potential security breaches. Remote worker intranet security should be a collaborative effort in which everyone participates. Mistakes will inevitably occur; the goal is to reduce them through increased awareness.
- Create a safe home network
When workers work from home, they must connect to the workplace intranet via their home Wi-Fi network. For a variety of reasons, these networks are often less secure than workplace networks. For starters, employees may create weak passwords for their network or fail to password-protect it at all. There's also the risk that other family members would link their own gadgets, allowing hackers access.
For example, a cybercriminal may use a child's game system to obtain access to the entire home network and everybody linked to it. Employees can build a separate network for their work devices as a workaround, which can be done with modern routers.
Minimum standards for home network security, such as password strength, whether a separate network is required, and whether a VPN should be utilized, should be communicated by companies. Alternatively, some organizations may choose to provide secure mobile hotspots to their staff in order to avoid accessing home networks in the first place.
- Use comfortable passwords (and trade them frequently)
One of the most effective strategies for employees to preserve data security is to use strong passwords. While employers can define minimum intranet password criteria automatically, such as a minimum amount of characters or the use of special characters, it is up to the employee to use them appropriately. Employees, for example, should not use the same password for multiple logins and should change their passwords every few months. While remembering these passwords can be tough, make sure your staff is aware that they should not use password managers without first consulting IT.
- Keep a watch on phishing frauds.
Phishing is a significant danger because remote employees communicate mostly through digital techniques like email and instant messaging. Hackers may impersonate company executives and send emails to employees with malicious links or requesting sensitive information. Employees should be aware of phishing warning signs and should never click a link, open a file, or react to a message without first verifying the sender's identity. It's probably a phishing attack if the email address originates from a non-company domain.
- Physically secure devices
When it comes to protecting intranet security against virtual threats, firms sometimes overlook the possibility of physical theft. Employees should never leave business devices such as laptops or smartphones in an unprotected location unattended. Devices, whether secured or unlocked, should never be left in plain sight in a parked car. Doors should always be locked if an employee leaves their devices at home.
- Only utilize gadgets and apps that have been authorized by the company.
Employees may find that the technologies given by the organization are insufficient and instead choose to develop their own alternatives. By providing unknown programs access to critical data, this practice, known as shadow IT, exposes the organization to intranet security vulnerabilities. Employees should never use a gadget or app without first receiving approval from IT and having the technology reviewed. Even checking work email on a personal device that isn't secure could result in a data leak.
It would not have to be hard to manipulate intranet safety for far-flung workers. This list of safety suggestions for operating from home is a great place to begin, however, is your intranet doing the heavy lifting for you? Powell Intranet is a Microsoft 365 intranet answer that includes multi-element authentication, automatic logout, governance, and more.
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