Though for my day: Things we can do to protect staff working remotely

• Identifying Weaknesses in Remote Connectivity
  • Security Review: Ensuring workers using personal devices to connect to organization resources are properly protected to ensure the organizations network is not exposed to outside threats.
  • Home Network Review: Reviewing remote worker home internet speed or hardware to get the best experience possible, especially over wireless. 
    
  
  
• Reviewing Workstation & Server Security
  • On Premise Security Review:  If your staff is working remotely, is your office protected from outside threats?  It's important to have multi-factor authentication into all systems when working remotely.
    
  • Regular Network Maintenance: Continued patching and maintenance of network hardware ensures your systems aren’t exposed to threats. 
  • Regular Device Maintenance: Workers on organization owned devices should have data encryption enabled, anti-virus installed and be fully patched with windows and third party updates.
  
  
• Maximizing Work from Home Efficiency
  • External Hardware Review: Identifying opportunities for remote workers to use additional hardware like printers and multiple monitors.
  • Communications Review: Ensuring phone, messaging and remote meeting access is available to allow for efficient communications.
  
  
• Controlling Costs
  • Licensing Review: Checking for unused licensing and software usage on monthly subscription costs can yield instant results to the bottom line with the IT budget.
  
  
• Reminding Employees of Security Awareness
  • Remote Patching Reminders: Reminding remote workers of the importance of following the normal method for ensuring updates are installed on their organization owned device and personal devices.
  • Email Security Review: Running phishing campaigns to expose training needs for staff in relation to handling malicious emails that harvest personal and organization data.
  
  
• IT Business Process
  • Business Continuity Planning: Create or refresh plans to continue access to key IT business resources and consider how that impacts keeping your business running if key staff are out sick or otherwise unavailable.
  • Password Management Review: Determine the current processes in place for sharing and storing passwords to ensure that other individuals have credentials in the case someone is out sick or unavailable.
  • Communications Review: Identify additional methods and tools you can use beyond email to communicate with workers

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