Remote working is any work that's done away from your physical office. This is often referred to as telecommuting or working from home. The benefits of remote working often centre around being able to achieve success in your daily tasks without the need to commute to an office each day.
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Whilst varying levels of remote employment existed before the pandemic in 2020, many workforces were forced to quickly adapt to allow more workers to work from home when lockdown rules came into effect.
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As well as fully remote workers, many businesses have staff who have flexible working environments, such as office workers who still want to ensure they have a traditional desk in the office to maintain personal connections with colleagues and meet with clients via the traditional office environment.
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Flexible working has long also been everyday working for workers who may not have the capacity to work from home on a full-time basis. This includes; legal professionals, field sales, building contractors, editorial freelancers, photographers and more.
What are the Risks of Remote Working?
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Cybercriminals typically prefer to target people who work in HR or finance departments, as their job involves opening and managing multiple 'office' documents and handling personal and financial data - often coming from a variety of sources - paychecks, invoices, CVs, application forms, etc.
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With the continued rise in the number of contractors, casual workers and freelancers, cybercriminals are beginning to shift their focus away from these traditional areas and onto self-employed workers. Freelancers often will communicate with vast numbers of people they won't know personally (prospective new clients), they will regularly open new files from emails and share personal information in their inboxes (invoices, bank details, etc).
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As many freelancers work on laptops, mobiles and tablets on the go, they can be using insecure networks - whether that's at home, in the local cafe, in a motorway service station - it all makes them the perfect target for cyber criminals.
How can you stay secure?
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Working from home can leave individuals and their businesses in a vulnerable position, making them bigger and more valuable targets to cybercriminals.
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According to IBM Security's 'Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021', the average cost of a data breach for businesses with 81% (or more) of their workforce working remotely was $5.54m. With a recent rise in device and cloud service usage to perform work-related tasks, cybercriminals have capitalised on this increase, leaving more and more people victims of cybercrime.
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Even though there are many ways a cybercriminal could take advantage of your remote working environment, there are many ways you can protect your workspace and mitigate your cyber risk.
Hover over these boxes to learn how you can mitigate your cyber risk
Anti-Virus & Firewalls
Ensuring firewalls are enabled is also another first step in protecting you against cyber-criminal activities. A firewall works by blocking or filtering network traffic, to ensure your devices are protected against malicious software. A firewall will only allow sources that meet particular criteria set in the firewall settings and restrict access to anything that does not meet these requirements. Similarly to anti-virus software, firewalls may already be readily available on your device, yet there are other options available that offer different security and protection levels.
Backup your Files & Devices
Ensure you perform regular backups of your devices and data, and keep these in an isolated, secure location. Conducting routine backups will also allow you and your business to continue operating and avoid downtime in the event of a cyber-attack or data breach.
Passwords
Keeping your login credentials secure and complex is a great way to ensure your accounts are protected. Cyber security experts now recommend replacing passwords with passphrases as they’re easier to remember and more secure.
A passphrase is a series of random words with no relation to one another, and including a number and punctuation will only increase its security levels:
‘Storm length month coal 7!’
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials certification is a government-backed scheme that was created to help demonstrate businesses have the appropriate levels of security in place.
Cyber Essentials works by evaluating a company’s technology defences to determine the current vulnerabilities and risk level. Once these risks are identified and managed, the company will be awarded the Cyber Essentials certification.
ChatGPT
If you are an employer or in any managerial role, then it's important that you educate yourself and those around you about the potential risks involved when using chatbots.
Make sure you clearly define the scope for which employees could use chatbots and the limitations that might be in place.