During this COVID-19 lockdown, many business are supporting Work From Home and actively using on-site resources. While this is great and we hope the transition was seamless and properly migrated, many companies don't have the staff to support or implement ideal tools to fully support a long term WFH strategy.
Below you will find some tools, ideas, and general topics to consider during this time, and preparing for the future. |
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Review current security policies and implementations for flawsMany states implemented strict rules and enforced essential work only policies, causing many businesses to deploy remote workers for most if not all of their organization. Due to this short amount of time to prepare, hardware has been difficult to acquire for some, forcing employees to use personal devices for work. This is an understandable solution, but by no means ideal. Allowing users to access company information, from any device, especially a personal device, needs to have a strong security policy wrapped around its access. Reviewing your current state of WFH security policies and taking a close look at what and how users are accessing data should be considered a high priority.
Utilizing VDI and RDP solutions to access corporate resources on a BYOD will greatly increase security posture and reduces the risk of compromise. To learn more about these solutions, please view our Remote Work Solutions Cheat Sheet. Update and implement tools to make WFH security easierNow that you have reviewed your policies and identified any gaps in our security posture, its time to find and implement new tools to secure, while enabling the end users. Our Security Line Card, categorized by NIST Cyber Security Framework, can help you identify products, vendors, and Ingram Micro Contacts to get you started.
Plan for long term WFH and new hire remote roll-outsCurrent estimates on societal restrictions points to the possibility of rolling lock-downs through 2021 or even into 2022. This not only means that workforces will likely remain remote for the coming months, but that any new additions to your teams will require them to be remotely deployed.
For both cases, a follow-up policy should be in place to determine that the employee has received their equipment and can successfully connect to company resources. Certain team members with access to privileged capabilities (such as conducting financial transactions and access to sensitive data) should be required to conduct verbal check-ins on certain levels of activity, such as authorizing a large wire transfer. These measures are to prevent abuse by malicious actors trying to mimic a remote employee.
Plan for the return to officeOnce you have a secure and solid remote work force, its time to start planning for the migration back into the office. This migration may seem easy at first, but we have a few things to watch out for before we open the doors and start letting workers back into the office.
Ask for helpAt Ingram Micro we have various programs for Financing, Education, Professional Services, as well as numerous Reseller and Vendor Partnerships to assist any business of any size succeed in accomplishing their goals. If you need assistance with anything mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact us for deeper discussions.
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