qnectU-cybersecurity-complianceHow to Ensure Cybersecurity Compliance When Working Remotely

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented businesses across the world with many unique challenges when it comes to their day-to-day operations. With every business trying its best to survive in this unprecedented climate, remote working has become a critical factor in keeping operations up and running. However, this adaptation has exposed businesses to a whole new level of cybersecurity and compliance threats.

With cybercriminals preying on vulnerable home networks and work-from-home employees saving files on their local drives, the threat to business data is at an all-time high. According to the Coverware Ransomware Marketplace Research report, the average ransomware payment for Q2 2020 stood at $178,254. This is a whopping 60 percent increase from the Q1 2020 average payment.

Despite the increasing magnitude of cyberthreats, organizations can still make the most of all the great solutions available to them to successfully overcome this menace even when their entire workforce is working remotely.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the major compliance and security concerns associated with remote work and how to overcome them.

Challenges to Security and Compliance With Remote Work:

When remote working became ubiquitous across the world, most organizations were forced to adapt to this change without any solid policies or processes to maintain standards. Due to this, even some of the top companies are still catching up on their compliance adherence measures while facilitating remote work.

Businesses of all sizes face the following challenges when working with remote employees:

  • Reduced security: When the lockdown started, employees took their business devices home and used them on their home networks. They also occasionally use their personal devices for office work. This poses a great threat to business data since organizations have very little control over security.
  • Inability to enforce best practices: When operating within their office environments, companies can ensure data security best practices are followed by their employees. However, the scenario is vastly different with remote work. There’s every possibility that employees may use shared networks or public Wi-Fi connections to perform their work, adding to security complications.
  • Inadequate backup: With remote work becoming the norm, the threat to data is significantly higher now. Unfortunately, data backup failure is quite common as well. That’s why organizations need to make sure they have multiple copies of their critical data in case their remote servers are compromised.
  • Lack of employee awareness: Although most organizations follow best practices with regards to employee and customer data, human error is still a major threat to security and compliance. Remote employees need to be provided with proper awareness training on how to handle data and on the best practices to follow.

Best Ways to Ensure Cybersecurity Compliance During Remote Work:

Although remote setups make compliance more challenging than usual, organizations can incorporate the following best practices to boost their security and stay compliant with various regulations.

1. Create a cybersecurity policy

If you don’t have a cybersecurity policy in place already, it’s time to create one. It is vital that organizations create a cybersecurity policy suitable for remote work. This policy should cover the various steps employees need to follow at personal as well as professional levels. By establishing proper standards and best practices for cybersecurity, organizations can minimize their exposure to risk.

2. Incorporate a consistent data storage policy

Without a standard cloud storage policy, employees are likely to store and handle data the way they see fit, which is certainly not advisable. There should be a shared repository on the cloud to back up files instantly from different sources. In many cases, the rogue copies that employees store on their local drives can pose a major threat to data security and create inconsistencies in storage policies. You need to make sure that data storage policies are strictly followed throughout the organization.

3. Increase remote monitoring

During remote work, endpoint management and cybersecurity policies are impossible to incorporate without the power of automation. You need a strong remote monitoring solution that manages all your endpoints and helps you adhere to compliance regulations. When you have complete visibility into the entire remote working network, you can minimize vulnerabilities and security threats.

4. Increase employee awareness through training

Since human error is extremely likely in all organizations, proper training should be provided to remote working employees. This training should focus on major issues such as clicking questionable links, being wary of messages from untrusted sources, having strong passwords, implementing multi-factor authentication, etc. If your organization falls under specific compliance regulations, you need to provide additional training to data-handling employees regarding the best practices to be followed.

5. Use the right tools and solutions

As cybercriminals and their tactics continue to evolve, you need to make sure that you use the right software tools and solutions to combat this threat. In addition to remote monitoring software, you need to use the right antivirus, cloud backup, password manager and more. You also need to make sure that these solutions are properly integrated into a comprehensive platform.

What Businesses Need To Do Now:

Ensuring compliance with cybersecurity regulation for the various government agencies is a critical task by itself. Doing that while implementing remote working policies and security guidelines can be extremely overwhelming for organizations. You need to invest in a security solution that allows you to protect your valuable data and meet compliance regulations even in a remote working setup.

Reach out to us today so we can help you zero in on an effective compliance strategy customized for your needs. With a simply yet comprehensive compliance audit and audit report we can help you determine your current risks and develop a plan to take corrective actions right now.

Get the BEST Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Compliance!

qnectU-call-us

qnectU-calendar

Call us at 801-572-4000 opt 1

OR click HERE to schedule a call at your convenience.

https://app.harmonizely.com/qnectu/techreview

 

 

 

Not ready to chat? Then download the Cybersecurity Best Practices Checklist to find out the 8 Most Critical Things You MUST Be Doing To Protect Your Business Now!

Click HERE to download or copy and past the following url:  https://bost.link/QLFd1F

 

 

Want even more info? Here are some great online resources to check out!

  • Compliance Regulations and the Future of Cybersecurity

Today, cyber actors are relentless in innovating new security risks, malware, trojans, and programs for compromising organizational security. Also, emerging technologies have always brought along unprecedented security risks. For example, the use of virtual currencies like Bitcoins, Monero, Ethereum, etc., have caused crypto-jacking attacks to rise, edging out attacks like ransomware attacks, which have been dominant for years.

It is, therefore, vital for organizations to understand the current and the future of cybersecurity and how they can best protect themselves from emerging threats. A primary response has been the establishment of international and local regulatory bodies to develop security standards to enable companies to harden their security postures.

Source: (cyberexperts.com)

  • Regulatory Compliance for Cybersecurity

ISACA SSH Audit Practitioner Guidance HIPAA Security Rule ISO/IEC 27001:2013 NIST Cybersecurity Framework NIST IR 7966 on SSH Keys NIST SP 800-53 / FISMA Law PCI DSS Compliance SANS Top-20 Critical Security Controls Sarbanes-Oxley Act EU GDPR BASEL Accords for Banks Compliance is a critical component of any security program. Compliance lives by the rule that states We Trust but Verify . The concept is that we must obtain evidence of compliance with stated policies, standards, laws, regulations, etc. in order to issue the proper attestations as required.

Compliance, which is only a point in time, is directly impacted by the ever changing and always evolving rules and regulations which makes it quite challenging for organizations to maintain a sound compliance posture. The continuous expansion and extension of our production environments also adds to the compliance challenges we all face today.

Source: (ssh.com)

  • Best Practices for Building a Cybersecurity Compliance Plan

Cyber threats and data breaches aren't just issues for your IT department. The impact can have a rippling effect across your entire organization – from your legal counsel, entangled in litigation, to frontline workers, who can't utilize the tools needed to complete their jobs. Every employee in your company must play a part in managing cyber risks , in addition to staying compliant with ever-evolving privacy and security regulations.

These requirements and regulations vary by location and industry, making it tough for businesses to maintain their compliance . New privacy mandates, including the Data Security and Breach Notification Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act, can make it difficult to wrap your head around the numerous changes.

Source: (securityscorecard.com)

 

 

 

Article curated and used by permission.