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Cybersecurity Guide: Enabling Secure Home Working JT Group Limited

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This last year has had a significant impact on the way businesses operate. With many teams having adopted remote working set-ups, understanding how to keep IT systems secure continues to be increasingly critical for organisations of every size. Which is why it is essential that all businesses assess how best to mitigate any vulnerabilities that could make existing challenges even worse. When considering how to mitigate the impact of remote working and the pandemic we need to keep in mind the Cybersecurity fundamentals of Availability, Integrity and Confidentiality.

Availability Possibly the most significant challenge to overcome when first asking people to work from home is making sure that all your business systems and documents are available to everyone. If you expect people to work as effectively as if they were in the office – you need to give them access to the tools they need to be productive. Regulating access to your network and resources can be done via a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, or with a remote desktop solution like Citrix. Remote desktop solutions require more setup, but they offer far superior security and control. Cisco and Mitel offer video conferencing tools and collaboration solutions, so users can stay in contact while working from home. Given the current situation, it looks like home working is going to be necessary for the foreseeable future. Therefore, investing in a remote desktop solution now will save time and potentially money over the long term, as it reduces your likelihood of being compromised.

Integrity Not all businesses have laptops to hand out to all of their employees, and many are relying on the use of personal computers as staff transition to remote working. This in itself doesn’t have to be problematic from a security perspective, so long as workers have up to date antivirus software and a strong internal firewall. The best way

to ensure this is for the business to extend licenses to users’ home PCs. It’s also incredibly important to set clear security policies for your staff. This should make it very clear what people can and can’t do on their home computers. As a general rule of thumb: no one should be storing company documents on personal computers or USB drives, and everyone should be extra vigilant around phishing emails. Criminals work fast, and Coronavirus scams are already in wide circulation.

Confidentiality VPNs and remote desktop solutions provide a way for workers to access everything they need, but they might also allow hackers a backdoor in, too. Access to your network should therefore be carefully managed, and a great way to do this is by implementing 2-factor authentication (2FA). Token generators can be installed on phones or SMS authentication can be used to only allow access to authorised individuals. Microsoft estimates that using 2FA makes you 99.9% less likely to be hacked, so it’s arguably the single best thing you can do to protect your private network. If you don’t already have 2FA in place, now’s the time to do it.

Building on this, we’ve set out 15 tips on security advice during Home Working…

Security Tips To Protect Your Business During Home Working Now we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive into a series of practical tips that you can use right now to make your business more secure while people work from home.

Keep all computers up to date with the latest patches and updates

Keeping up with the regular updates for Windows 10 and macOS will ensure that all computers being used to access businesscritical resources remain secure against malware and other forms of hacking.

Make sure that your computer’s firewall is up to date and active

All PCs — corporate or personal — will have an in-built firewall. For PCs running Windows, this can be found in Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Security. From here you can also manage the in-built antivirus and how regularly the PC is scanned for viruses. For Macs — On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Firewall. If the firewall is turned off, click Turn On Firewall to turn on firewall protection. Click the Firewall Options button to change firewall settings.

Make sure that all systems are totally up to date and being scanned regularly, and clearly communicate expectations about how frequently staff should be updating their firewall protection in your remote working policy.

Use secure Wi-Fi, VPN or remote desktop only

Making sure that everyone uses a secure Wi-Fi connection is the bare minimum requirement, but ideally you should also ensure company systems are only accessed via a secure VPN (with 2FA) or remote desktop. Opening up access on any network, including public networks, is asking for trouble. More trouble is the last thing that any business needs at the moment.

Install antivirus on all computers being used for business activity

We strongly advise adding an extra layer of antivirus protection by installing specialist software on all business computers and any personal ones being used for business purposes. There are plenty of free options such as Bitdefender, AVG, Panda, Sophos and Avast. You can ask your people to install these themselves or opt to create a business account and run the installation across all devices, allowing you to manage security across all of them from an admin account.

Equip as many people as possible with business laptops

We’re not suggesting you go out and buy laptops for all your people, but if you have spare laptops then you should make sure they are set up for a team member to use at home.

Avoid using removable storage devices like USB drives

Ideally, you should aim to set your business up with a secure and encrypted cloud storage solution so that you can share files between people.

Advise anyone using a business PC to avoid personal browsing on the device for security.

If team members do have to use removable storage, make sure every device is checked, formatted and secured before being used.

If possible, divert office calls to home phones or mobiles

If you operate cloud-based telephony then you can manage this from your admin console, but if you have a traditional PBX you should check every incoming line is forwarding to a member of staff on their home or mobile number.

Ensure your people use strong and unique passwords for anything work-related

The cardinal sin here is to reuse passwords from personal accounts. If you are worried about people not remembering their password, you can direct them to a secure password manager like Dashlane or LastPass. These apps can be installed on their phone, which should be secured by fingerprint or face recognition.

Warn your teams about phishing scams

We have already seen an increase in phishing emails regarding Coronavirus and bogus travel refunds. This is just the start, so please advise everyone to be extra vigilant and report any emails that look amiss. Send regular updates on any new known phishing scams so that your teams know what to be aware of.

Implement 2-factor authentication for access to business resources

As we’ve already mentioned, 2FA reduces the risk of being hacked by a staggering 99.9%, so it’s essential that you have this set up for all business related account access. Most tools have in-built 2FA settings, or you can roll out tools such as Authy and Google Authenticator.

Ensure all data is backed up in the cloud

Share links to any cloud-based services

To save everyone having to bookmark business resources or take home frantically written notes of everything they need to access, create a secure shared document that contains all relevant links and email this to your teams.

You should be doing this already, and if you run most or all of your business applications in the cloud already then this will largely be business as usual.

Cloud-based services include Office 365 or G Suite applications as well as things like Salesforce, HubSpot CRM and web-based accounting software.

If, however, your business uses on-premises services your team will struggle to work from home. Moving to cloud-based productivity services like Office 365 or Google Business is essential to keep everyone up to date and able to access everything they need remotely.

Take advantage of free offers from the big tech companies

For information on the current offers from our partners Mitel and Cisco, contact us on the link below and we’ll advise on the latest trials and the best software packages to suit your needs.

Get in touch >

Test all services before it’s too late Anything you are planning to use to support remote working should be tested as much as possible before it is implemented. Be prepared that many things will likely go wrong as you transition from office to home. The most important thing is that you remain nimble and agile to make changes where needed to avoid significant issues.

Provide training for how to access resources A quick 30-minute brief should be sufficient to get everyone up to speed, but you may have to take more time if some of your team are less tech-savvy. If you are really pushed for time, you can focus on implementing and testing solutions first and then use video conferencing to provide training on the first morning people work from home.

Finally... JT is committed to supporting businesses through the current pandemic and beyond. If you are looking for the best way to move your business to the cloud, secure applications, more on Mitel or Cisco, while protecting the health of your business and employees by enabling them to work from home, please get in contact with our Business Solutions Team.

Get in touch to find out more > JT Group Limited

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