This month is Cyber Security awareness month and we wanted to share with you some tips on how you can help keep your organisation secure.
Over the last 20 months we have all had to adapt our ways of working, initially for a pandemic that went beyond standard Business Continuity Planning, and now organisations are returning to a “new normal”. Whether you have chosen to remain with your staff base from home, to return to your office in a hotdesk or part time approach or to return your staff to the pre pandemic levels we have some tips that we hope will help your organisation. Is security still at the forefront of your plans or have covid considerations taken its place?
Staff working from home
Have you decided that your organisation actually works well from home and decided to adopt it as a long term strategy?
- Have you created and distributed a secure working from home policy? You may have done this at the start of the pandemic but have you updated it and reissued it to staff now that this is your long term strategy?
- Are your staff’s devices and systems being updated from home? If not, have you got a plan on how to release updates to ensure devices are maintained to a secure level?
- If you have chosen to keep staff working from home have you updated their employment contracts to reflect this?
- Staff engagement issues could be starting to surface or be bubbling in the background. Have you been encouraging team building or interactions from home? Remember a disaffected staff member can be a huge security risk to your organisation. How confident are you that your staff are keeping your data and systems secure?
Staff returning to site
So your organisation has decided to return to site whether that be full or part time have you considered the below?
- Workspace – Have you made changes to your workspace? You’ve put in distancing if possible, hand gel stations, COVID risk assessments and potentially hotdesking instead of full time desks, but in making changes have you impacted your site or data security measures with the changes that you have made? Has security been a consideration or have Health and safety concerns superseded your security goals?
- Updates – while staff have been working from home have their devices and systems been getting the updates they need to stay secure? Worried about what will happen when they come back to site and connect to your office infrastructure?
- If you have chosen to only have staff return to the office on a part time basis have you updated their employment contracts to reflect this?
- Have you found staff have enjoyed the work from home flexibility and don’t want to return to the office causing them to find jobs elsewhere and you now have a security skills gap?
Supply Chain
- Have you conducted a supply chain assessment regarding how your suppliers have been and or continue to work in a COVID world?
How confident are you that your company’s valuable customer data and systems are still being maintained with the integrity and security that you expect? - Have you as a company looked to redefine your supplier agreements and assessment methodology based on your expectations if your suppliers are remaining to work from home?
- Did you implement technology quickly as a short term measure that has now become part of your standard working practices? If so, have you looked to reassess the suitability and security of this with long term use in mind?
If you need assistance helping your organisation the new normal remember Mondas can be on hand on site or remotely to help build your organisation back to strength! Get in touch to find out more…
