The presence and spread of coronavirus doesn’t only have us fearing for our health and physical wellbeing—it has also had a major impact on businesses in just about every industry.
In order to comply with social distancing and social isolation measures, companies around the world have had to alter their modes of operation. Essential businesses and services that have had to continue operations on a face-to-face basis have had to enforce contactless payment and service options that minimize contact.
But perhaps one of the most major changes to take place in business operations since the start of the pandemic has been that any business that has been able to operate online has had to undergo a rapid and unprecedented digital transformation over the past few months.
Making the Switch to Remote Work
While some businesses are used to operating online and already have safe and secure systems set up, others are completely new to remote working and have had to set up new systems to manage huge quantities of private data.
This poses a huge risk to data management and cyber security within your business. This, of course, could prove devastating to your company if data becomes lost or stolen. To keep your company up and running, it’s absolutely essential that you complete a secure digital transformation.
Here are the steps your business can take to complete a secure digital transformation:
1. Work With a Reputable IT Company
Of course, the best thing you can do for your business right now is to work with a reputable IT company to ensure your remote network is set up as securely as possible. These professionals will be able to strategize a digital transformation that will prepare your business for security and success now and in the future.
After all, chances are that this is all relatively new territory to you. You don’t want to miss out any aspect of security through lack of knowledge or inexperience in the area. An IT company can identify any issues, help you to update your privacy policies, implement MFA on your company’s devices and complete a number of other steps that will help to protect your business during these difficult times.
2. Carry Out an IT Risk Assessment
It’s essential to know where your business’s cyber vulnerabilities lie, as this will allow you to tackle them head on and eradicate or at least minimize them.
A thorough IT risk assessment will identify security threats and vulnerabilities, identify the maturity level of existing controls and tool usage, enhance company-wide security policies, and gauge your employees’ security awareness and readiness. It will also allow you to determine the best course of action to take to keep your business as safe and secure as possible. It really is an essential first step on the road to optimum security for your company.
3. Update Your Privacy Policies
It’s likely that your existing privacy policies won’t be appropriate for new working situations. You are going to have to update your company’s privacy policies thoroughly and effectively.
Renewal of your policies will ensure that your staff are aware of the safest ways to access data and use personal and company devices, as well as the guidelines for safe Internet and program usage. Make sure to focus on WFH (work from home) and BYOD (bring your own device) policies.
4. Use MFA on All Devices
MFA, or multi-factor authentication, should be being used on all devices that your employees are using. If you only have single-factor authentication, cyber criminals and hackers only need access to one password to have complete access to all of your business’ data and information.
Multi-factor authentication ensures that anyone attempting to access your data or information will have to go through a multi-step process to do so—and multi-factor authentication makes that extremely difficult. Because MFA is a combination of either a password, fingerprint, face ID, or text message code, it successfully blocks 99.9% of hacking attempts.
These are just a few tips and tricks that can help you to protect your business during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. As you use these strategies in this guide, you can position your business for success and ensure that you stay ahead of the digital curve, even as times and circumstances change.
