Are you panicking about getting back to business without reliable Cyber Security Services? Well, if you are, today (June 18th) that’s fine because it is International Panic Day!

The organisers of the day suggest you can celebrate the day in two ways; one a day of panic, where you stress about everything, or alternatively a day when you sit back and relax, and enjoy a quiet day at home.

We don’t want you to be stressing about going back to work. We’re here to help you feel less stressed about preparing your teams to work from home long term – particularly in terms of setting up their tech.

Or getting back to a new, smaller office or upgrading tech that you have neglected and you now know it must be brought up to modern-day standards.

 

Is your tech and Cyber Security Services set up for your teams to work from home on a more permanent basis?

There are several things to think about which may have been overlooked during the extraordinary lockdown period.

However, if you wish to make WFH (the new acronym for ‘working from home’) permanent or semi-permanent for some of your staff you may need to consider their environment in a more strategic way.

You need to consider the office space they are working in if they’ve been using the kitchen table that isn’t a long term solution.

Is their connectivity adequate and secure? Do they have reliable Cyber Security Services on hand? – that requires investigation. You need to review and possibly upgrade or change the hardware they are using, the programs and tools they are working with and their communication channels.

Also, it may be down to you as an employer to kit out an office space that’s more suitable. It may even be a small build in their garden – as an employee may not wish to give up a bedroom to create a ‘free’ office for your company.

Even if they are – is this space secure for insurance purposes? Is it far too open for other visitors to the home to see sensitive data? These issues now need to be looked at to avoid a situation where there’s a very real need to panic!

 

Office Space:

Does your team member have a dedicated workspace, where everything is accessible and is there a door that can shut out everyone else? Or do they want you to create one for them?

You may think that’s unreasonable, however, is it? Would you give up your bedroom for someone who once employed you?

It’s important to think about privacy in an employee’s home office. If they have other people in the house, perhaps ensure they have a ‘no-entry’ sign on the door to stop people’s continuous interruptions.

Is your team member the only one using the tech you’ve provided? Or are they using their own laptop? It is important to distinguish between work and home life in terms of the tech being used. Other family members should not have access to what may be sensitive documents.

Allow staff time to move away from the screen for breaks; working from home, makes it far too easy to sit in front of the screen longer than at work. It is crucial that all of your employees are aware of this and know that they have reliable Cyber Security Consulting Services on hand if they need them.

 

Tech and cyber security tips:

 

    • Ensure the security protection is updated and active. Virus checkers, firewalls and device encryption.

    • Provide VPN access – which adds an extra layer of cyber security, hiding the user’s IP address, encrypting data transfers, and masking the user’s location.

    • Password audit – two-factor authentication should become mandatory. Ensure all business-critical passwords are stored safely, should anything happen to key personnel.

    • Ensure all software is updated.

    • Ensure use of approved cloud services.

    • Reset default Wi-Fi router passwords. This is important to check because not all employees will have reset the default password on their routers.

    • Mandatory backups to cloud systems are preferable to employees backing up to storage in their homes – especially if you are working with sensitive data.

    • Provide security knowledge about phishing attacks as these have risen during the lockdown, and are not likely to go away when we reopen for business.

 

We can help you with all of the above and also support you in finding the best programs to facilitate a productive working environment:

 

    • Collaboration apps (Office 365)

    • Team chat (Microsoft Teams)

    • Cloud services and asset management

    • Project management

    • Website development

 

Communication

It is important to communicate well with your team while they are working at home. For that, you need to consider your leadership style.

Have you always been a leader who wants to control everything? Have you relied on seeing your staff on a daily basis, a bottom on a seat between 9 am and 5 pm?

Lockdown will have inevitably interrupted that for you and hopefully, it has allowed you to understand that transformational change can support your business to move forward more rapidly.

We’d advise being task, rather than time, focussed. Couple that with excellent communication and productivity will soon return to normal – and may exceed normal.

Ensure any information you give is clear and concise and gives expectations of when projects/work should be finished.

Set up regular team chats via video, and also make time for non-work chats, so that you can keep the office relationships working. Now is the time to make our team members feel important so that they invest personally in getting your business back on track.

In our next blog, we’ll talk about what to consider when your office, factory or premises re-open fully? Is your tech still fit for purpose?

 

It’s easy to forget about Cyber Security services until you need them, but by then it may be too late. Don’t get caught out.