Home working: preparing your organisation and staff a guide by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

How to make sure your organisation is prepared for an increase in home working, and advice on spotting coronavirus (COVID-19) scam emails.

Since the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many organisations have offered flexible working, so their staff can work from home. This presents new cyber security challenges that must be managed.

This guidance recommends steps to take if your organisation is introducing (or scaling up the amount of) home working.

Asking your staff to work from home

Whilst working from home will not be new to many organisations and employees, the coronavirus forced organisations to consider home working on a greater scale, and for a longer period of time. You may have more people working from home than usual, and some of these may not have done it before.

Setting up new accounts and accesses

If you need to set up new accounts or accesses so your staff can work from home, you should set strong passwords for user accounts.

The NCSC strongly recommend you implement 2-Step Verification (2SV) if available.

Preparing your staff for home working

Working from home can be daunting for people who haven't done it before, especially if it's a sudden decision. There are also practical considerations; staff who are used to sharing an office space will now be remote. Think about whether you need new services, or to just extend existing ones, so that teams can continue to collaborate. For, example you may want to consider services that provide chat rooms, video teleconferencing (VTC) and document sharing. 

The NCSC guidance on implementing Software as a Service (SaaS) applications can help you choose and roll out a range of popular services. If you are already providing such services, you'll need to plan for a potentially large increase in users, and any new services you provide will also need to be supported. 

Here are some general recommendations to support secure home working.

Remote users may need to use different software (or use familiar applications in a different way) compared to what they do when in the office. You should produce written guides for these features, and test that the software works as described.

Depending on the experience of your staff (and the applications you provide), you should consider producing a series of 'How do I?' guides so that your already stretched support team isn't overwhelmed with requests for help.

For example, you might produce a 'How to log into and use an online collaboration tool' guide.

Staff are more likely to have their devices stolen (or lose them) when they are away from the office or home.

Make sure devices encrypt data whilst at rest, which will protect data on the device if it is lost or stolen. Most modern devices have encryption built in, but encryption may still need to be turned on and configured.

Fortunately, the majority of devices include tools that can be used to remotely lock access to the device, erase the data stored on it, or retrieve a backup of this data. You can use mobile device management software to set up devices with a standard configuration.

Make sure staff know how to report any problems. This is especially important for security issues (see looking after devices below).

Your staff might feel more exposed to cyber threats when working outside the office environment, so now is a good time to use B22's training service.

Controlling access to corporate systems

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) allow remote users to securely access your organisation's IT resources, such as email and file services. VPNs create an encrypted network connection that authenticates the user and/or device, and encrypts data in transit between the user and your services.

B22 can deploy VPN's as well as set up the new Zero Trust Network Access technology for you.

If you are already using a VPN, make sure it is fully patched. Additional licenses, capacity or bandwidth may be required if your organisation normally has a limited number of remote users.
If you've not used one before, please refer to the NCSC's VPN Guidance, which covers everything from choosing a VPN to the advice you give to your staff.

Helping staff to look after devices

Devices used for working outside an office environment are more vulnerable to theft and damage. Whether using their own device or the organisation's, encourage staff to lock their screens if left unattended, especially if there are children or housemates present. When the device is not being used, staff should keep it somewhere safe.

Make sure that staff know what to do if their device is lost or stolen, such as who to report it to. Encourage users (in a positive, blame-free manner) to report any losses as soon as possible. The early reporting of such losses may help minimise the risk to the data, and staff who fear reprisals are less likely to report promptly.

Ensure staff understand the importance of keeping software (and the devices themselves) up to date, and that they know how to do this.

Removable media

USB drives can contain lots of sensitive information, are easily misplaced, and when inserted into your IT systems can introduce malware. When USB drives and cards are openly shared, it becomes hard to track what they contain, where they've been, and who has used them. You can reduce the likelihood of infection by:

disabling removable media using MDM settings

using antivirus tools where appropriate

only allowing products supplied by the organisation to be used

protecting data at rest (encrypt) on removable media

You can also ask staff to transfer files using alternative means (such as by using corporate storage or collaboration tools), rather than via USB.

Using personal rather than work devices

If you are permitting people to use their own devices to work remotely, please contact us to discuss BYOD options and how we can help

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