Allowing employees to work on projects outside the office premises and having a mobile workforce is globally on the rise. According to the prediction made by IDC, the remote worker population in the United States will increase steadily over the next 4 years, and will reach 105.4 million by 2020. That accounts for almost three-quarters of the total workforce in the US.
Though a remote workforce offers several advantages to a business, it often leaves company owners worried about data security. Employees can bring in completed tasks in devices that are not under company supervision and may be carrying malware that can infiltrate the enterprise network and steal valuable company data. Also, when remote employees connect to a company’s network through their own or public internet connection, an outsider can easily cause a data breach.
As a result, you should take steps to reduce the risks of adverse incidents. Below, we mention the measures you can take to improve your enterprise security posture when it comes to deploying a mobile workforce.
1. Full Flash & Disk Encryption Is Key
Electronic malware and theft is on the rise, so what happens if someone remotely logs into your employees’ PC when they connect to a public WiFi network? What happens if their Mac device gets lost? Sensitive company files go in the hands of adversaries.
The solution to the possible breach of company files lies in Secure USB flash drive encryption as well as full hard disk encryption. Options like these make it easy to protect your data with plug and play that runs alongside a personal encrypted PIN code. Also, apart from encryption, the company data gets backed up and stored on the cloud, so it can be restored from anywhere while features like password protection prevent an adversary from accessing it, in case of device theft.
2. Ask Employees to Install Updated Anti-Virus Software
As mobile staffers will be using their own software and hardware configuration to complete office tasks, it’s important that they install the most up-to-date malware and virus protection to prevent infections of business networks as well as any data they store on their computer. You can, in such an instance, invest in an enterprise wide anti-virus license and distribute it to workers. You can occasionally check their systems to see if they’re using the distributed software.
Use of company distributed software can also be listed on employees’ contracts of work as it will make them bound to follow security best practices.
3. Use Remote VPNs
Deploying a reputable VPN for remote employees is imperative to keeping company data secure. Top-notch virtual private networks deliver end-to-end encryption between the machines of mobile workforce and the enterprise network. The key lies in Secure Sockets Layer and IP Security. Through these technologies, workers are able to access the applications and resources hosted on the company network that’ve been assigned to their user accounts.
With a private VPN, you can also access the logs it generates and monitor employees as to who is logging in and which applications are they using. By monitoring logs on a semi-regular basis, you’ll be able to check for any suspicious activities.
Conclusion
These guidelines, whether it’s a mobile workforce or internal employees, are essential for cutting down on unauthorized access risk.
