By Mashum Mollah
The rise of wireless connections continues to complicate data privacy and security. Hackers, viruses, and other threats easily travel along these invisible corridors to breach and rapidly infect entire systems. If you want your business to stay safe, you must regularly examine and reevaluate both in-house and remote defenses.
Travel Concerns:
Your data privacy and security program must go beyond the borders of your office. No matter how secure your in-house solutions may be, a single error from an employee in the field can invite threats into your system. Staying safe while out of the office boils down to two critical elements. First, make sure you protect your portable hardware as well as your stationary desktops and servers. Second, ensure your policy provides sufficient guidelines for all remote work.
Overlooking mobile device security is easy. However, many users forget that a portable device is just as, if not more, vulnerable than any desktop computer. Not only is portable hardware at risk from the majority of the threats stationary hardware faces, but portable devices also face unique threats due to their changing environments. Many of the places people are most likely to use portable devices, such as coffee shops and airplane terminals, are notorious for cyber threats. Remember to layer remote hardware security the same way you’d layer in-house security.
All of those precautions could go to waste if your employees invite threats into your system, however. Make your policy about remote work as detailed as possible. Limit the files and security classifications that remote users have the authorization to access. Teach employees additional encryption techniques to mask any transmitted data. Most importantly, train all remote employees how to protect themselves while using an unfamiliar WiFi network. Just clicking on the wrong WiFi connection can ruin the most thorough security plan.
In-house Concerns
Infections spread quickly, and hackers rely on lax data privacy and security regulations to leapfrog between systems. The fact that someone outside of your business can quickly gain access through a wireless connection complicates data privacy for digital data. While hardcopy files require someone onsite to commit a theft, hackers are notorious for remote breaches. There are many great systems to help keep your data secure, and layering makes these products more effective. However, if you want to step up your security, always revisit your network. How secure is WiFi? What are your password protocols? If a virus infects just one device, how easily can that virus spread through wireless connections, printer links, and other in-house necessities? Data privacy and security requires much more than an exterior wall of defenses. You must mitigate risks internally as well.
Wireless connections have changed business forever. That means your company must rethink security measures in order to keep up with these changes. As mobile devices gain questionable new features, such as automatic WiFi connections, businesses must keep pace or leave themselves open to attack. The advantages wireless connections provide are more than worth the risk, but you must never mistake convenience for an absence of threats.
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