Security and Remote IT Management in 2021

The pandemic has forced many companies to modernize and adopt alternative ways to work. The digitization of the work environment has accelerated significantly in 2020. Home office and remote work continue to be an important part of the worldwide economy. For many IT professionals and managed service providers (MSPs), remote management always existed as a part of their business, especially in international companies as offices are often distributed across the globe. Mostly in these so-called “distributed companies”, service providers are not always on-site with their customers, and it is much more convenient, efficient, and effective for them to support their customers remotely.

 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic more and more employees are working from home. More than half of the workers who have started working from home since the pandemic had no prior experience with teleworking. In terms of remote management & monitoring, it’s very different and challenging to manage someone who works in an office environment vs working from home.

 

Typically, employees access IT systems from a controlled environment, such as from within an office on a known and trusted network. But when IT staff works from home, they use personal uncontrolled devices or shared computers on uncontrolled networks to access sensitive corporate or government information, for which compliance regulations often apply. It becomes challenging for IT admins to manage several branch offices, each with different requirements and safety measures, instead of managing a central location. Home networks are less secure than office networks and have weaker protocols with higher chances of cyber-attacks unless proper measures are taken. A single vulnerability can crash a network and put an entire company at risk.

 

Remote worker management checklist:

With many organizations extending their work-from-home policies, security practices are more important than ever. FBI has reported a 400% increase in cyberattacks since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting SMBs. It is therefore imperative that security teams get better at controlling network access.

At a minimum, IT professionals should apply here below tips to not only protect their systems from cyber intrusion but also to secure their remote environments for employees or customers and better educate end-users about the risks.

 

  • Educate about phishing threats: 91% of successful data breaches start with a phishing attack, which means almost all cyberattacks are instigated from a malicious link or attachment that is only effective if an employee hasn’t been educated/informed about risks and fraud related to the scam. It is important to keep employees informed of the latest threats and train them to remain vigilant towards cyber threats. Cybercriminals are currently exploiting the fear of COVID-19 by focusing on relevant topics. Through understanding the problems with their current security strategies, employees can improve their habits and help form a strong security perimeter for their organization.

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  • Integrate a patch management program: Patched software is safe software. It’s a process of managing a network of computers by regularly performing patch deployment to keep computers up to date. As it’s important to prevent employees from running old versions or even end-of-life software at home. Exemplary technology partners make it possible to automate the installation and updates of the software via third-party providers. Patch management fixes all vulnerabilities on your software and applications that are susceptible to cyber-attacks, helping your employees strengthen their cybersecurity.
  • Enhance your home wireless network: When protecting home networks, it makes sense to think a little outside the box. For example, how secure are the employees’ router settings, and which IOT do they use that are connected to the home network? Wi-fi comes with lots of security issues and a vulnerable router makes a vulnerable access point. Securing home routers will allow users to keep stock of all connected devices. This requires a thorough inventory of all networked devices.
  • Multi-layered security: Keeping your business protected against cyber-attacks is a challenge therefore, multi-layer security—also known as the “multi-level security” approach to cybersecurity is the best solution for organizations. Layered security is a network security approach that uses several components to protect your operations with multiple levels of security measures. This can start with user training, followed by URL or script blocking, then file scans and integrity monitoring, and so on. Even if an attacker breaks through a line of defense, the next one is ready to stop intruders from breaching your networks.
  • Have a disaster recovery plan (DRP) ready: If all else fails, a robust disaster recovery plan will ensure you get up and running as quickly as possible. It’s a well-documented and structured approach that describes how an organization can quickly resume after an unplanned incident. It must include a plan for business continuity, protecting sensitive data, minimizing financial losses and disruption for end-users, and a plan for responding to incidents to comply with all relevant regulations. Similarly, companies should ensure that their technology and service providers understand the importance of protecting this type of unknown environment.

 

At this point in time, nobody knows what the “new normal” will look like. For many companies, the biggest challenge lays in finding the right balance between remote and in-office work, followed by learning how to manage remote teams and facilitating effective collaboration. All these skills will take time to master as IT professionals are learning and adapting as they go. Companies must ensure security and business continuity at the same time in this new hybrid world.

5 Tips for Effective Remote Work

 

Remote work attracts many employees as it offers undeniable advantages. Not only it allows you to have more time for yourself, you can get up later and finish earlier, without worrying about uniforms, you can work in your pajamas or sweats, but also to concentrate well as you organise your work and time yourself, and, above all, save time and money in terms of work-to-home commutes.

 

Remote working isn’t in hype because of the outbreak of Covid-19, it represents many benefits for business as companies that allow remote work have 25% lower employee turnover and employees who work remotely are more likely to be happy and productive.

Along with its benefits, it also contains a series of traps. Without a well-defined framework, it is indeed easy to let oneself be distracted with domestic duties.

In addition, we run the risk of becoming an outsider from the box. Here are 5 tips for effective teleworking.

 

  1. Focus on your to-do list

When you’re in the office, you’re used to a certain pace of sociability: between meetings, coffee breaks, hallway discussions and lunch breaks, it can be difficult to really focus on a task without being distributed by someone. Do not take the same reflexes when you work from home: do not check your emails/social medias every 5 minutes. On the contrary, take advantage of it to accomplish the tasks that require more concentration and set yourself specific times to answer your emails. You can check them once an hour. If the request is urgent, your team members will call you.

 

  1. Focus on a few essential tasks

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Don’t overestimate the number of tasks you can accomplish in a day. Forget the overflowing to-do list along with the feeling of unfinished business that accompanies it, and prefer a 1-3-5 to-do list: schedule an important task, three medium-sized tasks and five small tasks each day.

 

  1. Take breaks

Telework can also be a trap at your expense if you skip your well deserved breaks. Because at the office, breaks are imposed on you when you are interrupted by your colleagues or when you go out to eat lunch. On the other hand, at home, you may be tempted to skip the healthy midday break by quickly eating a snack in front of your screen. However working for long stretches without breaks leads to stress and exhaustion. Therefore, breaks are crucial for productivity and creativity. They allow you to recharge the batteries, refresh your mind, replenish your mental health and boost your concentration. Go for a walk. Cook yourself a small dish. Call a friend. Don’t forge to take some time for yourself !

 

  1. Keep your colleagues and supervisor up to date

Inform your colleagues of the advancement of project / tasks you’ve accomplished during your day. Write it down in the common calendar if necessary. Clearly leave the contact details to which you can be reached. Make videos for in-depth details or communications because study shows that people spend 5 times longer looking at video content compared to static content when they’re scrolling through their screens. You can also make live video calls to communicate with your team or company while boosting visibility. It similar of being together without the logistical, cost or health implications of a large in-person gathering in cast of Covid-19.Avoid relying on email or an intranet as it can be difficult to tell if anyone is actually paying attention.

 

  1. Stay in touch with your colleagues

Be careful not to isolate yourself from your colleagues. It is important to come forward and stay present and active in the life of the company. If you have an internal chat system, use it. Otherwise install Skype, Viber or WhatsApp, or exchange emails. Keep up with the latest updates, especially in a fast-moving situation like Covid-19.

Corona & Home Office: Best Must-Have Team Collaboration Tools for Successful Teleworking

 

Worldwide companies, no matter their size, are obliged to adapt work from home policies due to COVID19.  Thousands of millions of Belgians are now working from their homes. Not only they have to adapt a clear remote communication with their colleagues/boss, but also exchange sensitive information, shear corporate documents, collaborate in real-time and in some cases, also manage a project from distance. Remote work, telecommuting or having a distributed workforce, collaboration tools for remote teams are the must have. These advanced cloud technologies and screen-shearing applications make it easier to interact with virtual teams and get the same benefits as If they are working from offices.

 

Some of the more popular tools for remote teams are outlined below.

 

JIRA:

Jira is a project management tool for software development that helps all types of teams manage their work. It comes in several versions depending on the nature of the project such as, among others, Jira Software, the initial software, Jira Core, the variant intended for business teams, Jira Service Desk, the variant for IT services, etc.

With the help of several products and deployment options, that Jira offers, teams can plan, assign, track, report and manage work. The Jira platform brings teams together for everything from agile software development and customer support to managing shopping lists and family chores.

 

Confluence:

Confluence is a very comprehensive, collaborative tool that allows you to create files, shear it with your team and organize all of your work within a single platform. This tool enables, team members who has access, to the files an equal opportunity to see meeting notes, product sheets, marketing campaign, HR policies, etc.

This tool also allows you to create pages of your own creation or using a customizable template among the different templates that are offered. These pages can be commented, enriched with images, videos, and linked in a dedicated space, accessible by one or more people.

 

Google Sheets:

Who doesn’t know/use Google Sheets? It’s a well known, easy and more of a traditional tool. It’s completely free and available 24/7 in the cloud on your computer. With Google sheets you can do more together! You can create a new table in which each of the collaborators can work together in the same spreadsheet at the same time. For i.e. by iindicating their name in one column, and the tasks carried out, in another. Ideal for organizing remotely and managing a team.

 

Slack:

Slack is a popular collaborative tool “where the right people and the right information come together, helping everyone get work done”. It’s an instant messaging platform that offers a wide variety of actions. You can do just about everything in one application. You can organize your work in the form of channels, private or public, around dedicated hashtags, on computer or smartphone. This tool also allows you to share files, organize meetings in audio or video.

 

WeTransfer, DropBox, OneDrive to share and store files: 

These tools will allow you to shear/send large files around the globe. According to the supplier, mail servers don’t accept files beyond 20 or even 25 MB. But WeTransfer allows you to send documents, images or videos up to 2GB. Please note that documents are available until a deadline.

With DropBox you can store and share files via the cloud. The storage space depends on the version chosen 5gb for free version and sky is the limit for paid one.

OneDrive is a tool integrated into Windows 10, which allows you, not only to store and share documents in a personalized and secure space, but it also enables to do the back up and recover files from accidental deletes or malicious attacks.

 

Microsoft Teams, Skype and Zoom to communicate instantly: 

These tools will allow you to keep in touch with your colleagues and collaborators and to exchange, whether for a professional reason or just to take a break. Microsoft’s service includes Microsoft Teams, the social network for the Office 365 suite and Skype, the paid messaging and calling app. These two tools are very accessible and offer clear and structured communication.

Zoom is a communication platform, often used by professionals and companies. Among other things, it allows you to create virtual meetings, offer online technical assistance, organize webinars, chat via instant messaging, etc. This collaborative tool offers a free version limited to 100 participants and 40 minutes per conference.

Messenger, WhatsApp, Hangouts are also communication tools that allow you to centralize a conversation and chat with others, by written or video means.

 

Sources:

 

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