working from home

 

Top tips for staying secure while working from home

How businesses can ensure safety in the hybrid world

One globally recognized benefit of the shift to this model is that many of us can now enjoy a much healthier work/life balance. The unexpected need for enterprises to transform their business models into remote or hybrid working meant that most businesses were unprepared for change

The pandemic also saw a rise in cybercriminals utilizing social engineering cybersecurity attacks, which created a significant problem for businesses.

Sadly, these sorts of methods are likely to continue to develop in the year ahead as cybercriminals grow smarter and expand their techniques. 

Enterprises are no longer working from one centrally managed office in today’s hybrid world but are running their business directly out of people’s homes. This means it’s more important than ever for business leaders to be aware of the importance of good cybersecurity, which will be key to protecting not only their business but also their employees in the year ahead. So how can they prepare and take learnings from the pandemic?

Ensuring your business is prepared

Organizations should start with clear communications and a remote management plan to make sure they can contact employees in emergencies – for example, if their platform of choice suffers an outage. 

Changing delivery of your messaging

Enterprises should also ensure their communications and guidance are tailored and relevant to their employees. For example, business leaders are more likely to secure and maintain interest from workers by focusing on outcomes and actions as opposed to talking about policies. They can also give short, sharp security briefings to employees, enabling information to be provided in more innovative and exciting ways than the dreaded “death-by-PowerPoint”.

The use of innovative training methods has been proven to be highly effective and should therefore be considered by organizations in 2022. Something as simple as bite-sized videos – such as an educational video on how to spot a phishing email “informing” the reader of a parcel delivery cost – is often well-received. Businesses can also tap into immersive experiences, such as breakout rooms with challenges, virtual escape rooms, and even quizzes or crosswords. They can even go a step further by providing prizes to encourage teamwork and engagement – after all, who doesn’t like to be rewarded for their hard work?

Create cybersecurity champions

T and InfoSec teams can famously be difficult to get hold of, which often results in employees feeling removed from this area of the business. By nominating cybersecurity champions within the business – that is, several trusted, go-to people to act as the voice and ears of cybersecurity – employees can feel confident that they have a friendly face they can approach when they want to ask questions.

Additionally, this is useful from a business perspective, as layering security through a champion network is a good method for organizations to scale up their cybersecurity messaging and encourage openness and communication.

Praise, don’t punish

It’s essential that businesses encourage and celebrate good cybersecurity practices instead of punishing people for mistakes. It can prove difficult to motivate employees to pay attention to cybersecurity if an atmosphere of fear is created around the topic – and it is in fact much more likely in this instance that workers will disengage and switch off from cybersecurity altogether

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