Remote work. What about security?

Remote work. What about security?

It may be that your company has found itself in a completely new situation recently. Medical experts and the government advise us to stay apart, even as most companies must continue to operate, albeit at a reduced scope. But how?

There is no doubt that we should remain at home. This is not just the right thing, but a basic responsibility, requiring we forget about offices for a while. Especially as that other solution has been available for a while now. The one that has been at the forefront of all theories of modern work processes: remote work.

Remote work: why exactly?

Before the outbreak of the coronavirus the main arguments for introducing remote work were lower costs and reduced commuting. Then there is also a higher level of adaptability between work and private life, which makes remote workers often more productive. Now we have a new, highly persuasive reason to disperse as much work as possible beyond the office.

There are many ways.

From simple data sharing through one of the online services, VPN connections to the corporate system, and a lot of companies have their work processes already operating through the cloud, where we can login also from home, if and when administrators allow us.

Problem? Yes, security.

Everything is nice and proper, but a mass switch to remote work can cause major security issues. Some employees connect from home into the most critical parts of the system. Even if we presuppose that the company has a flawless security policy, the critical point is the connection itself, if it does not include end-to-end encryption.

And of course, there is the user’s side of the connection and their devices. This includes several types of threats: from weak passwords, to a poorly configured home router, to malicious codes that have been gathering in the system for years.

The ocean of computer viruses that has surrounded us for the past years is unpredictable enough that a single careless click is enough to infect all the devices in the house within minutes, and serve blackmail messages into your inbox.

Cyber criminals are setting up coronavirus-related phishing websites en masse, praying on naive information seekers.

Criminals are coming

It is of key importance now more than ever to establish certain critical security measures in our households. Family members should have a grasp of basic secure browsing, email handling and be broadly informed about how social engineering works. They need to understand the methods of the criminals that they use to elicit information from us, for example usernames, phone numbers or even a password that they can then use in their illicit operations.

But most importantly, we need to have experts supervising how remote workspace is set up, and to use professional tools and services. Your company has most likely already established a high-end VPN connection, so it is best to use it.

Since we live in an era when business environments have moved into the cloud, and work environments into the browser, you will most likely access your work tools using these methods.

Why not trust the experts?

Microsoft Teams is a solution that many of you have already been using as a collaboration tool, however, it is also an excellent tool for working remotely. It is powerful, customizable and most importantly, Microsoft’s experts make sure it is secure.

Elements like two-factor authentication are a sufficient assurance that you will be the only one looking at your trade secrets. The data is encrypted at all times, both in storage on the server, transfer across the connection and in your local client.

Then there is communication, the heart of modern business operations, where MS Teams truly shine. The solution makes it possible to plan and organize meetings, which becomes important for remote working, as many organize their remote working hours differently than they would at the office.

For anyone who might miss an important discussion, you can simply record them all, and then create an automatic transcription that those who missed the meeting can then analyze at their own time. This feature is supported for fifty global languages, including Slovenian. Remote work has numerous positive effects; however, much like all good things, it comes with a downside.

Morning coffee with coworkers

For example, the feeling of isolation after a long period of working this way. Consequently, it is important that Teams also supports less formal communication methods, such as chat, which will under these new circumstances attempt to substitute the lighthearted morning discussions at the coffee machine, and connect the staff a few times a day.

Let’s find a positive perspective!

Current situation is what it is, but in the long run we can learn to find something positive in it. Including being compelled to participate in a mass remote work experiment that may in the ultimately have an impact on future work conditions.

Workers may realize that this method of working can have a positive impact on family life, and the management will lose the prejudice that people working from home mow their lawns and play golf on company time.

However, most important is the awareness that there is a way to keep our work and our lives moving forward without being a threat to anyone.

 

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