“Cyber attacks globally increased by 125% through 2021, and this upward trend only continued to increase during 2022
Remote working is widely accepted by businesses across the UK in favour of creating a better work-life balance for employees. More people are actively searching for remote roles as remote job opportunities have risen.
Businesses have noticed the time, money and productivity benefits of allowing employees to work from home. Reduced employee lateness, employee sickness, and a reduction in paying for office overheads are just a few of the many benefits.
The biggest challenge that businesses face whilst allowing hybrid and remote working is network security and the protection of business data. Cyber attacks globally increased by 125% through 2021, and this upward trend only continued to increase during 2022.
More employees working remotely means a greater chance of cyber criminals gaining access to all important business data if the correct security precautions aren’t put in place.
Would you know what to do if cyber criminals attacked? The right IT team can help you to prevent and regain control during a cyber attack.
Here are some easy steps you can take to increase your security whilst working remotely:
Choose Strong Passwords
A strong password should include numbers, character variations, and symbols and be uncommon. Your password definitely shouldn’t include personal information such as your favourite colour, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, or your workplace as these are all too easy to guess and find online. A great password should be long and completely random.
An example of a strong password is tUUX7E@!2v5BtJSyK and whilst this may seem hard to remember, autocomplete can be used to keep your passwords secure if nobody else has access to your device or accounts.
Update Antivirus Software
Most antivirus software will update itself automatically but you can do a quick manual check to ensure that you’re protected. A manual check involves opening up your antivirus program and looking for “Update”, “Live Updates” or something similar. Even with antivirus software installed it’s easy to fall for phishing scams if staff aren’t properly trained in cybersecurity. Ways to spot phishing scams include unknown senders, spelling errors, suspicious links and misspelt domains.
Use a Secure Network or VPN
A secure network can’t be accessed by anyone other than the network owner and authorised people or devices. A secure private network often has a password in place and can’t be as easily hacked as a public network. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are used to secure a public network when working in public locations and two VPNs can be used for even more security.
Remote Virtual Desktops
A remote virtual desktop is a cloud version of all the apps and data that you need to do your job. The benefit of a remote virtual desktop is that it can be accessed securely from anywhere at any time.
At Intrasource, we offer virtual desktops that are stored within state-of-the-art UK data centres so that you can rest assured that you have the highest level of security whilst remote working.
No matter what size your company is, we will be on hand to assist with your cyber security and remote working technology to allow your business to run smoothly from anywhere in the world.
If you would like to learn more about Intrasource IT support, see our full list of services here or contact us today via telephone at 01482628800 or email [email protected]
