Common Security Risks of Remote Work Setups

If you’re an entrepreneur allowing a work-from-home set up for your employees, you may be exposing your organization to cybersecurity threats. Your remote staff may unknowingly put your firm’s sensitive data at risk.

Working from home can lead to severe security issues, including identity fraud, data breaches, and other negative consequences. Read on to discover the common cybersecurity threats remote working can pose to your company today.

Weak Passwords

While reading this guide, you will realize that even with virtual private networks (VPNs), firewalls, and regular security training, your employees can still be the biggest security threat to your company. The human element can be the biggest security risk of all, especially when it comes to making passwords.

Employees have a lot of codes and passwords to remember for various accounts. They often choose to list them in unsecured places, like a sticky note on a monitor or a digital note on their phone. Some even forget to lock their computers after working since they are at home.

These actions may seem simple enough, but employees do not know that they are putting their organization’s corporate network at risk.

Hackers know that people working from home are laxer in their cybersecurity practices because they feel safe in their personal offices. Malicious actors take advantage of this mistake to crack passwords and get access to sensitive company information.

Unencrypted File Sharing

Employees share a lot of sensitive data every day, from client data to product information. This problem means companies cannot afford to use unencrypted file-sharing services. This mistake can lead to hackers stealing information or carrying out ransomware attacks.

Organizations must share files and data using secure file-sharing services, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, and WeTransfer. They can also encrypt their emails to protect sensitive information.

Unsecured Personal Devices

When employees work from home, they use personal computers to access the corporate network. Because some employers do not provide office laptops and printers, employees have to use their own. This can pose security threats.

Companies with good cybersecurity usually have single sign-on solutions with encrypted tokens to keep their network secure. In contrast, the average person does not encrypt their devices or use a VPN to access the home internet.

Without corporate devices, employees use their personal computers with no security features like encryption, email filtering, and firewalls. Because of this problem, security teams will have no oversight into potential issues. Organizations will be at risk from hackers who may use the unsecured tech as entry points.

Printing anything that includes a company’s sensitive data also puts a firm at further risk. Remote workers print important business documents from WiFi printers, which can have features that malicious actors can exploit.

Additionally, employees at home do not have access to secure document shredding services like they do at a secure office.

Lack of Basic Physical Security Practices in Public Areas

Employers should not leave out physical security when protecting their company’s sensitive data. Workers outside the office must not leave private company data in public spaces, like coffee shops or internet cafes.

For example, some employees talk loudly on the phone while discussing work in public places. Some expose their laptop screen to other patrons in a coffee shop or leave their unlocked phones unattended.

It is an employer’s responsibility to teach their staff basic security measures. A gentle reminder for them not to expose sensitive company data when out in public can go a long way.

Unsafe WiFi Connections

An employee connecting to their home wireless network or logging into their corporate accounts using unsecured WiFi can expose your company to cybersecurity threats.

Hackers near them can spy on their connection and curate confidential data with no trouble. Your employees must not use unsafe WiFi networks unless they have a VPN to address this problem.

As remote work continues to be popular among many corporate businesses, data security is becoming even more crucial. To ensure data safety, watch out for these common security risks, even with your employees working from home.