The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to rethink and adjust their ways of doing business. Many of you may have your employees work remotely.

The circumstances surrounding security for remote workers, and even office workers, needs to be updated or changed. If you don’t already have strong security measures in place, now is the time to implement them.

It is important for you to make sure you are prepared and that you are using strong security measures to protect both your business and your customers. In the event there is a breach or other issue in the future, these measures will help a great deal in an investigation to help you track where the issue began and in knowing how to fix it.

Employees working remotely? You need a policy. Download the free Remote Work Policy template.

Here are some suggestions for keeping your business safe.

Strong Passwords

Utilize strong password management. Every employee needs to use strong, complex passwords for their company devices. These passwords should have at least eight characters with a capital letter and symbol included. Make sure they use this password only for accessing your computers. If they need to log in or use other devices, they should use different passwords.

Encryption Services

Use encryption services if you need to transfer sensitive information. All sensitive data, including employee records, SSNs, health and credit card information should never be used or stored on a laptop or a mobile device and should never physically be transported out of the office in any format.

Use a VPN

Establish a VPN. This is a virtual private network that uses encryption and secure tunneling to protect your employees’ online communications and data transfers.

Security Software

Make sure your security software is up to date. If you don’t have security software, get some! This is one of your best lines of defense against viruses and malware.

Website Security

Make sure your website is secure. Unfortunately, during this stressful time, there are people out there who want to take advantage of the situation. They are skilled, invisible and fast. Make sure your customer information is secure, especially if you keep customer details or credit card information on file. Use a web firewall or other security applications.

Regular Backups

Always backup your data on a regular basis in case you are a victim of cybercrime and need to erase and reinstall your data.

Monitor Accounts

Keep a watch on your financial accounts. Know how to freeze or to close your accounts in the event of cybercrime.

Update Software

If your company uses software like Zoom and Skype for communications, be sure that your employees update their software to the latest versions as soon as they become available in order to ensure maximum security.

Provide Training

Increase your employee training to help them recognize email scams and to better protect your company data. Webinars are a perfect way to do this and still maintain distancing. You need to equip your employees with the right tools and knowledge to quickly detect a threat and how to respond according to industry best practices.

Incident Response

Create an incident response plan. This should be a part of a larger crisis communications plan but in the event you don’t have one, create a plan and make sure all your employees know what it is. It should include instructions for reporting the incident and to whom it should be reported.