From Remote to Now Hybrid – Ensuring Employee Safety

Did you know that 90% of cyber attacks are a result of human errors? If you want to protect your company from damage of such kind, you need to start with maximizing the safety of your employees and establishing safety-first behaviors.

After the coronavirus outbreak, state governments forced companies to establish work-from-home schedules for their staff. The organizations were reluctant to do so. One of the reasons companies had trouble practicing remote working standards was the expected increase in cyber-attacks.

While remote workers neglect cyber security hygiene, cybercriminals are more active. With the mega work transition, many employees, businesses operating from home, and people in general were unable to subscribe to the best TV and internet deals. Many people working remotely continued suffering from a slow and intermittent internet service for a good one year.

Nevertheless, as the virus situation has started settling in the country, companies have decided to bring back employees to the office at least some days a week. By establishing the hybrid work model, the companies will push employees to resume working from the office but allow them to continue working remotely.

In such a scenario, balancing out cyber security will be more crucial. Employees working from office would have guidance from the IT team, but those working from home should establish a safety-first behavior.

Following are tips that can help companies in introducing cyber security training for employees.

Control the Right Access

Those working in the hybrid environment and those working from home bring control and access questions. Employees that worked remotely during the pandemic spent most of their time at home. However, after lifting pandemic-induced restrictions, remote employees are heading over to cafes coffee shops, and other places to work. Working from these places can increase risk of cyber threats as people will connect to public Wi-Fi and give an easy pathway to hackers to take control of their devices through unsecured internet connections.

Those working from home can have a better and stable internet service provider like Spectrum.

The first line of defense here is to use a stable and recognized internet service, but apart from that, having strong passwords for the devices can help at work. Strengthening password requirements and making frequent mandate changes can help increasing security for devices employees working from home.

These measures make it harder for the outsider to have gained control of the devices or misuse the data.

Other than this, companies should work on giving employees specific data and system-based control as per the roles. For example, a marketing manager should not have access to a company’s financial record.

The Tools Used

When left on their work devices, those working remotely and in a hybrid office environment will use company laptops for their activity. They will access their personal Google drive or watch a video online on YouTube or just talk to their colleagues on messaging apps through the laptop they use to access company networks.

Most of the employees do such activities to become productive at work and to refresh their minds, but this habit can lead to major cyber security blunders.

Make sure that employees understand the cruciality of IT security guidelines. Organizations should create policies that can restrict employees’ performing activities that can put the company data at risk.

Context-Based Training

If you want to train remote workers, you need to be empathic and understanding in your approach. To explain to employees the outcomes of stepping out of the cyber security guidelines, you should not force them to understand the mandates and policies.

Here CEOs can play an important role. CEOs can take forward the training part and guide employees on how they are part of something bigger than the actual role they are performing in the company. CEOs can guide them in how taking small measures can save them and the company from major damages.

Practice and Preach

If you want your employees to learn cyber security hygiene, you need to have complete awareness and knowledge. Make sure you practice the security measures yourself and then train others into doing the same.