The Importance of Cyber Hygiene and What It Means For Your Remote Business
Regular cyber security checks and updates are an important part of any business. Check out why below!
With the number of remote businesses on the rise, so have the number of cyber attacks. Recent studies show that 20% of organizations have experienced security breaches because of remote work. And when we discuss the cost of cyber attacks on a global scale, companies lose approximately one trillion dollars annually. Year after year, the number of cyber attacks alarmingly increases despite global efforts to prevent them. With all this alarming data on cyber attacks, you might wonder: how can I keep my remote business safe? Three words: practice cyber hygiene. Yes, you heard that correctly – hygiene, the word associated with cleanliness.
What Is Cyber Hygiene?
More often than not, the word “hygiene” is associated with cleaning our bodies. But now, hygiene doesn’t only apply to keeping your body clean, it applies to cyberspace too. Cyber hygiene refers to the practices that an organization performs regularly to maintain the security and health of users, devices, and data. These practices must eventually turn into habits to maintain the highest level of cybersecurity. To practice cyber hygiene means ensuring that the proper safeguards are set up to prevent malware attacks. Even the act of simply updating browsers and software falls under good cyber hygiene practices.
Why Is Cyber Hygiene Important?
For anyone connected to the world of the Internet, cyber hygiene must be your highest priority. Remote workers, in particular, must practice good cyber hygiene habits to ensure that their business is safe from attacks. This prevents confidential information from leaking to the public. Even financial losses are prevented by practicing proper cyber hygiene. Read on to find out why your remote business should regularly practice good cyber hygiene:
Protects Your Computer From Threats
Here’s a giveaway – proper cyber hygiene can do wonders for your computer’s safety. In the context of cyber hygiene, that includes updating your security software regularly. With hackers devising new ways to retrieve your precious data, it’s integral to update outdated software. Doing so prevents your computer from staying vulnerable to cyber attacks. If you cannot keep track of updates, allowing your software to update itself automatically can help.
In the case of remote work, humans pose the biggest internal threat to the company. Possible culprits include present and former employees and business partners. The best solution to this is monitoring and managing access – allowing you to detect threats as early as possible.
Ensures Data Security
When you lack cyber hygiene, you run the risk of losing your data. Data is everything – and when businesses lose their access to this, it can be a huge source of headaches. Practicing good cyber hygiene keeps both client and company data safe and secure. To further ensure data security, it’s best to back up your data regularly – whether that may be your hard drive or online cloud. That way, in the worst-case scenario of hacking, you can easily retrieve your data. To practice cyber hygiene also means to organize your data. With so many places to store your files, it can easily get lost with all the noise. That’s why it’s integral to organize your files so you can retrieve your files the moment you need them. After all, data security is essential in all stages of a company’s operations – from project planning to execution.
Prevents Financial Loss
A major consequence of poor cyber hygiene is financial loss. In fact, there are steep costs associated with cyberattacks. Recovery costs, for instance, must be taken into account after an attack has occured. A major cyberattack can also lead to reduced customer trust – further aggravating financial loss. Of course, there are GDPR penalties that may cost a lot more than the actual data breach event. These are costs that may remain for years, even after the event of the data breach. To ease the financial burden, remote businesses may invest in cyber insurance for extra protection.
Improves Productivity
Viruses are silent killers. You’ll only find out they’ve infected your system once your computers slow down to a crawl. This is a huge productivity killer for your employees. And, it can render your remote business unoperational. By implementing cyber security measures such as automated backups and virus scanning, you significantly reduce the downtime your company could experience from cyber attacks.
Cyber Hygiene Practices For Remote Businesses
There’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to practicing cyber hygiene. That’s why it can be overwhelming for some remote businesses to consistently maintain a high level of cyber security. Fortunately, we collated the best tips that can help your remote business stay safe in the digital world. Here’s how you can do it:
Environment
When working remotely, it’s best to check your environment. For employees, it’s important to find working spaces that are approved by remote businesses to ensure that confidential information does not spill. Workers must be briefed on proper remote work etiquette. Here are some rules remote employees must follow:
Ensure that confidential conversations through virtual meetings cannot be heard.
Do not leave work documents unattended – whether at home with your family members or at a public working space.
At the end of every work day, log out of all your accounts on digital platforms.
Internet Access
The IT department in your remote business must instruct employees to connect safely to work networks. To take this a step further, it’s advisable to provide laptops and smartphones for remote employees. And don’t forget that these must be password-protected, too. It helps to have an IT help desk that’s available at all times in case a security event arises.
Final Word
Although the consequences of cyber attacks to your remote business may sound grim, it shouldn’t be something to worry about when you’re aware of proper cyber hygiene. With many companies making the transition to remote work, it’s important to stay safe to avoid the dire consequences these attacks may bring. It’s simple – follow the tips above, and you can run your remote business worry-free.