With working from home now the new normal for many office workers at businesses of all sizes, cyber security has never been more important. And with so many employees logging in to work from home, ransomware and other cyber crime attacks can be even more dangerous, infecting equipment at multiple addresses in all different locations. So what are the important considerations for safe remote working and the risks of ransomware? And how can you reduce the risk? Well, here at Creative Network Solutions, we are Manchester’s leading IT support and network services experts. From secure remote access services to business VoIP, we are the team you can count on. And this is our guide to everything you should know about ransomware and remote working.
Remote working and the risks of ransomware
So, with your employees and staff spread out over a large area, all in their individual homes, the very real risks of ransomware and other cyber security breaches are amplified further. This includes:
- Breaches to the office network- with all of your staff logging into the office network from their homes, just one breach at one point can spread to each location, infecting hardware for each employee. This means that security will need access to the laptops and equipment at each address, which makes resolving the issue even more lengthy and problematic, increasing your system downtime and cutting your revenue.
- Breaches to home networks- at the same time, with all of your staff working from home, there may be an increase of company information on home computers, of which you cannot tell who has access, or how safe these computers are. For example, although your employee may have had thorough training on ransomware and phishing attacks, someone in their household may not, and may infect the home network. This can in turn reveal access to sensitive company information, leading to a data breach or worse.
What are the advantages of secure remote access?
These risks can be detrimental to any company, of any size. But for SMB’s the effects can be felt almost immediately. So what can you do to protect your company, and keep working safely through the pandemic? Well, our secure, remote access service can be the perfect solution. This can allow your staff to login to a virtual desktop on the company network and have access to all of the apps and tools needed to continue working, without needing to download these to each computer. But in terms of cyber security risk, secure remote access can offer:
- Restricted access to files and data, such as consumer information and financial data- this means that in the event of a breach, your attackers are much less likely to gain access to sensitive information. You can also ensure that only your IT team have administrative access to the virtual desktop, so that admin features cannot be used to allow criminal activity.
- A safe virtual environment- our remote access is extremely secure and safe, connecting only to trusted devices that are pre-authorized. The software runs from a virtual computer, powered by our servers here at Creative Network Solutions. Both of these factors significantly reduce the chances of your company suffering a cyber crime or ransomware attack while your employees are working from home.
- Automatic backups- our virtual desktops are set to automatically back up on a daily basis, and roll back to a pristine condition each day. This means that if the virtual desktop ever did become infected, this would be removed on a daily basis. As a result, only the user who clicked the malicious link would be infected, and anti-software could be used easily to correct this.
For more information or advice, why not ask the experts today, here at Creative Network Solutions.