Top 5 WFH Security Policies You Need to Implement

Keep your remote workforce as secure as possible so your organization can remain productive. Join our webinar to learn more about WFH security.

Webinar: Top 5 WFH Security Policies You Need to Implement

This event has concluded. Please register to view the full-length presentation free.

Presenters

Alan McDonald

CEO, AllConnected

Richard Pressler

CTO and Architect

Dawson Caputo

Cyberstone Security

AllConnected is a premier Cisco-certified managed service provider of security and data loss prevention solutions for small-to-midsize businesses. As an active member of Trust X Alliance, AllConnected expedites the most effective, cutting-edge solutions to its clients.

The Status of WFH in 2022

In 2021, SalesForce announced that traditional 9-5 workday is dead and they’re implementing a “work anywhere” policy. While it’s true that remote employees like working from home (or wherever they want), employers also need to make sure they are prepared for the challenges so organizations can remain competitive for the long term.

But how do you create an effective remote workforce that doesn’t compromise your team members’ and organization’s security?

Factors contributing to organizations becoming less secure with WFH teams include: unencrypted devices, remote access software opening holes from public networks into organizations, and a general lack of email security or authentication practices. A good IT security solution can help close all these security gaps.

We want to talk about how employers, and small business owners in general, can equip their organization with important WFH security policies. Implemented correctly, these polices can help keep cybersecurity standardized throughout your organization, even with your remote team members. With the help of our Chief Technology Officer, Richard Pressler, we have identified 5 of the most critical WFH security policies necessary to secure your remote workforce and better protect your organization against cyber crime.

The Top 5 Policies

During our webinar, you’ll be able to hear from AllConnected’s Chief Technology Officer and Architect about the most important security policies that business owners should implement to secure their work-from-home teams.

The most important areas of security to address when implementing WFH security policies include:

All the policies discussed during the webinar are based on NIST 800-171 cybersecurity framework guidelines, making them ideal for all businesses with remote team. In particular, these are relevant for any organization operating under strict compliance regulations for cybersecurity.

Many of the policies include investing in advanced security tools to support your organization’s journey toward security for your remote workforce. However, some of the most crucial security policies should be about your people.

Security is not a box you can check or a one-time purchase you can make to solve all vulnerabilities. In fact, some of the main challenges with workers moving to remote locations to continue working arise from the fact that the employees themselves are not particularly well-versed in cybersecurity threats or best practices. If you don’t have these security policies in place now, it’s likely your workforce is unaware of what to do to prevent cyberattacks against themselves and their devices. It’s also unlikely they know how to respond if they notice something has been compromised, for instance.

Why is Securing Your WFH Team so Crucial?

Remote teams create new avenues for cyber criminals to infiltrate your network.

2020 saw an unprecedented number of cyberattacks, particularly attacks targeting remote employees.

Having a compliance checklist, for instance, is a good first step to making sure you are addressing potential security risks for your organization before they become a problem for you and your remote workforce.

And before you say, “Well, we’ve never had a breach before, so I don’t think we’re a target.” Remember that approximately 2/3 of all businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees have experienced a cyberattack. Plus, let’s not forget what happened to a large critical infrastructure district in Florida when it’s remote work system wasn’t properly secured.

How Do You Enforce WFH Security Policies?

As mentioned above, the easiest way to enforce more strict, consistent security policies for your organization — particularly for your remote workforce — is to invest in the necessary tools to help secure your team.

If you have a policy related to ensuring secure authentication, it would make the most sense to license a multi-factor authentication software like Duo for your whole team to use, which would better protect access into your organization’s information systems.

This logic applies to every security policy you’ll require to secure your remote workforce.

Need to secure your team’s email communication? You’ll need to look into a solution for advanced threat protection.

We’ll discuss the specific tools we feel best protect companies with remote teams and how to implement them consistently.

We’ll also provide insight into how you can provide your team simple, secure access to your organization from anywhere. Plus, we’ll explain your option if you can’t reliably secure the desktop: hosting it yourself.

Learn More

WFH Maturity Quiz

How prepared is your organization to meet the challenges of today's remote workforce environment? The following Work-from-home Maturity Quiz will test your cybersecurity strategy for remote workers.