Quick Guide to Keeping Your Remote Employees Secure

You are probably like most people at this moment, on pandemic overload! We know your time is valuable right now, so this guide will get right to the core content of making sure your remote employees are secure.

Your workforce is likely working from home a large percentage of the week, if not full-time. Unfortunately, the end is unclear but why not set the stage for a new business-as-usual?
During this time of trial-by-fire, SANS has deployed their work from home kit which provides tremendous resources to help keep your business and employees secure while working from home.

Download the SANS full guide here:
SANS Security Awareness Work-from-Home Deployment Kit

The SANS Institute covers three main areas of security that you should communicate to your employees during our mass work-from-home experiment.

Social Engineering

This is a broader term that categorizes the type of attacks that deal primarily with human psychology. Some common social engineering attacks are:

• Email Phishing
• Malicious Social Media Posts
• Phone calls to key employees; seeking private information.

SANS released a couple of videos that provide more information on the topic, available here:
Social Engineering
Phishing

Updating Systems

Working from home means corporate IT will have to have a plan in place for updating assets that are deployed in a home office. Further, if a business computer is deployed at a
home, it is important to be diligent about updating your home network and corresponding home equipment. Vulnerabilities in a network can be introduced from many different devices. While your employees are working from home, it is helpful to mitigate that risk by turning off unnecessary devices and ensuring that core devices are up-to-date.

SANS released the following resources for creating a safer home work environment:
Creating a Cybersecure Home
Working Remotely Training

Create a Security Advisory Committee

Some of us are venturing in to new territory. Probably the single biggest issue will be your team’s ability to effectively communicate. If working from home is not an integral part of
your culture, miscommunication can create a huge gap in your organization’s ability to react to potential threats and proactively provide support.

SANS recommends creating an advisory committee that would meet regularly and report important subjects like: Known IT issues, Required Maintenance, Security News, and equally as important, allow your employees to provide feedback on their experience. IT does a great job of creating a consistent experience while at work, but how does that translate to an acceptable work-from-home experience? All of these issues can be discussed and solutions provided as a team. No employee should feel like an island and be too dismissive of their own technical challenges or questions.

If your company needs help with navigating work from home policy or you need additional technical resources, please email [email protected] or call us at 314-219-7887.