The challenges of cyber security and working from home

Social distancing is one of the key measures put in place to reduce the spread of Covid-19. For most organizations, this means instructing staff to work remotely– in some cases, for the first time. This unexpected shift in our ways of working brings a whole series of cyber security challenges. 

Due to the current pandemic more of us are finding the need to work remotely but moving from the seemingly trusted cyber-secure office to working from home at short notice can create security risks and/or concerns. It’s more important than ever to ensure business owners and staff are doing anything they can to ensure they stay safe. 

The changes are rapid, meaning organizations that have never had to consider working from home before are having to change the way they work quickly without previous planning. Remote work means a rise in the number of employees using online tools, remoting into their working environment via their own Wi-Fi networks, and a rise in the number of devices they are using for their jobs– such as their personal telephones and laptops. 

While some things are out of your control, as a business owner or employee working from home, there are some best-practices and tips to follow that can go a long way towards helping protect you and your organization when working away from the office.  

Be wary of suspicious emails – It’s a good idea, where possible, to validate the source of any suspicious emails, even if they seem to come from a trusted contact. Simply picking up the phone and calling the sender before opening an email or clicking on any links can be enough to avoid a major security breach.  

Secure Wi-Fi connection – Your office Wi-Fi will probably be secure, encrypted and hidden. Most Wi-Fi systems at home these days are correctly secured, but some older installations might not be. If your Wi-Fi system at home is not secure or password protected, we suggest getting this fixed, immediately 

Strong passwords – This is a given and should be followed whether you’re working from home or at work. Simple passwords will make it easy for cyber criminals to login to your companies’ network and access private data and the results can be extremely damaging. Creating a complex password, containing at least 10 characters and a mix or numbers, symbols, and capital letters as well as updating passwords regularly and using different passwords for all your accounts helps ensure you’re as secure as you can be.  

Ensure software and applications are updated – Software updates help mitigate against the risk associated with security breaches and patch any known security vulnerabilities. Instead of clicking ‘Remind me later’ it’s probably a good time to finally give in and update any systems you use such as Slack, Teams, Zoom and Anti-virus software 

Consider the use of cloud-based products – that are designed to promote secure operation across any device from the web browser. 

myairops and security 

Our suite of cloud-based SaaS products allows our users to remotely access their working environment wherever they are in the world on any internet enabled device all within a totally secure environment 

All our cloud native products have security built in at no extra cost. myairops customers benefit from monthly product releases which include product updates, enhancements and security patches. Being a cloud-based environment, this means all updates are totally seamless and automatic and you don’t need to do a thing.  

To learn more about the security features across our platforms please see our previous blog post here

The myairops team are currently fully operational and there is no change to our offerings of 24×7 support. If you’d like to find out more about how seriously myairops take cybersecurity, or what other measures you could be taking to improve your own cyber security then contact us today.   

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