You may well think that the role of IT within your business is to support your workers, regardless of wherever they happen to be working, in their daily job roles. However, when it comes to cybersecurity, it goes far deeper than just support, and it becomes even more of a necessity when you employ those individuals that are not working from your main office.
This is because weaknesses can emerge – or be taken advantage of – in situations like using public WIFI rather than a far more secure WIFI network.
#1 Who are remote workers?
It is important to understand what a remote worker is to understand why security risks could be involved. A remote worker is somebody located outside your business premises for all of their working hours. They may work from their home office, or a more adventurous person may decide to travel either locally or globally and carry out their daily duties while out and about on location.
This will no doubt mean that they will occasionally be taking advantage of public WIFI, which, as stated above, isn’t always the most secure. This is because cybercriminals such as hackers patrol these areas as they can contain very little by way of security measures, therefore, making life very easy for the criminal to gain access while your remote employee is none the wiser about what is happening.
#2 Why should you employ remote workers
However, there are some very strong advantages to hiring remote workers to join your workforce. This is because it opens up your candidate pool to a much wider audience, even as far as other countries across the world. These countries may have lower hourly rates, which means that your business could save money while also ensuring (due to time differences) that your business is run over a full 24-hour period without paying additional premium rates for unsocial hours.
In addition to this, you will also have savings on office rental and utility bills as each of your remote workers will be paying for their own working environment and utility usage.
#3 How can you protect your business when employing remote workers
You will, however, have to invest in other areas of your business, like additional cybersecurity and hardware such as Firewalls, which play a large part in it. You may find that you require more than one firewall to ensure that your business stays safe, but it is important that you gain the knowledge of an expert to ascertain how many and which ones you require to cover all your security bases.
You will also have to invest in additional communication software, as your remote employees may struggle with working completely on their own. Feeling cut off and unsupported are the main reasons remote workers fail, so you will have to initiate a good solid method of communication and encourage your workers to talk to each other, not just about business but also to form strong friendships with their co-workers. This can be easily done by putting on virtual games nights or quiz evenings or trying at least twice a year to get all of your workers together so they can meet each other in person.
