As we all know by now, working from home has been a huge part of 2020 so far and judging by the surveys, it looks like it is going to continue to grow in popularity. IT teams have had to facilitate remote workforces and, in many cases, deploy new systems to provision working away from the office.
Unfortunately, during this process, corners may have been cut where security is concerned in favour of getting a system in place quickly so people could resume work faster and more easily. This is particularly worrying, considering the massive increase in cyber attacks since the pandemic started.
Of course, all security precautions matter, especially when working remotely, but one in particular we have noticed has become a little lax is data backups. Many workers are not following guidelines, saving work locally instead of on a central network, preferring the ease of access and speed over the security of the data. Most people do not backup their local machines the same as they would do at work, so this should be a particular concern for IT teams.
Companies need to maintain control over where data is stored so it can be backed up and secure. This may not just be to avoid data loss, losing the time spent on the work, but also protecting sensitive data. If a device is hacked, stolen, or damaged, there could be huge repercussions if sensitive data is involved.
Data security is at a high risk at the moment and it is up to us in the industry to ensure companies are well protected throughout this transition to working from home. For starters, all employees should undergo training to avoid risk and follow best practices, especially when working from home where they may be more relaxed. They need to follow strict guidelines about where data should be saved to ensure it is safe and secure, as well as being instructed on the many dangers that they could face, such as ransomware and phishing emails.
Obviously, this only works assuming that all devices the workforce are using from home can remotely connect to the network so the backups can do their job. Many are taking the approach of moving to a cloud-based infrastructure, which is a great solution, but again, we still need to be vigilant on data security for the cloud as it is a common misconception that data is backed up automatically. An easy solution to this is cloud-to-cloud backup, which copies data from SaaS applications, such as O365 or G-Suite, and puts it in a third-party repository.
Finally, you will need to ensure your disaster recovery plan is in place and followed rigorously, making sure to update policies to cover what happens when people are working from home, if it does not do so already.
For any more information on backup or data security please get in touch with Vitanium today and we will be happy to help.