#WFH Archives - anteelo

On one hand, while the world is struggling with the pandemic COVID-19, another struggle is going on. Offices are now vacant and people are working from home. Employees do matter and so does the business. This is the reason behind the worldwide active adoption of ‘work from home’ culture.

However, work from home culture has its own drawbacks. Offices are secured with strong cyber security infrastructure along with a dedicated security team that monitors suspicious activities. Even after such stringent monitoring, cyber attacks still occur on organizations. One can imagine how vulnerable cyber security becomes when employees work from home.

In research conducted for the month of February and March, it was realized that there was a whopping 600% increase in cyber threats related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 40% of companies which enabled work from home policy for employees reported an increase in cyberattacks.

Simple Security Measures for Employees to Safely Work from Home

1. Provide cyber security awareness to employees

Employees must be provided with the knowledge to identify cyber-attacks such as awareness against phishing emails, risks associated with the use of public Wi-Fi, to ensure the security of the devices being used for work.

2. Secure medium of communication

Always use a secure medium of communication for official purposes. Make sure that security protocols such as DMARC are set in your email domain to secure it against any attempt of spoofing or abuse.

3. Deploy a phishing incident response team

In such a critical time when businesses are being hit hard, neglecting security can be an extremely dangerous situation for any organization. Every single effort matters and each form of vulnerability has to be taken into consideration. Since the majority of cyber attacks occur via emails. Therefore, a Phishing Incident Response tool is the need of the hour. A single vigilant employee can save the entire organization. A phishing incident tool empowers employees with the capability to report suspicious emails.

4. Deploy a VPN

Deploy a VPN for secure data transfer between the core system and work systems that employees are using remotely. It adds on as an additional layer of security by encrypting data while travelling.

5. VDI

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) allows employees to work in a virtual environment as if they are connected to company’s local network from any place, at any time and from any device that is connected with the Internet. With VDI, data is stored on a server rather than the individual system. Not only does it significantly lower down risks to data but also, a lesser amount of bandwidth is required to store it.

6. Encourage employees to use cloud services

Encourage employees to use cloud services like doc, spreadsheet, etc. since this minimizes the risk to data as it is not stored locally.

7. Deploy an MDM solution

Deploying an MDM solution helps the organization in retaining control over business-related sensitive data. The solution allows administrators to remotely lock the devices and wipe all the data in case the device gets stolen. This prevents sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.

Do You Want to Keep Your Organization Secure?

We are providing a 30-day free cyber health checkup for your organization. This will consist of free cyber security consultation and solutions including:

SaaS-based email authentication and anti-spoofing solution KDMARC
Anti-phishing, fraud monitoring & take-down solution KPMonitor
Phishing incident response tool TAB
Risk detection & threat analysis and
Code risk review.

Let’s pledge to support each other in these difficult times and make sure that the human race survives and thrives once again!

Last year, around this time, we were contemplating how to shift our office to remote work. It’s going to be a year soon and it’s unbelievable how comfortable we are now with this new setup. I remember some of my colleagues worrying about the new rules of remote working. They had never worked from home before, even for a day. They believed that with family around, home is a place of distractions. Most of them worried about how they would participate in distraction-free meetings, concentrate on their work, and be productive.

A few days back, I asked how are you dealing with the ‘new normal’. And I was surprised to hear that they have started liking this new way. They even expressed a little hesitation in coming back to the workplace.

I totally get it. As Robin Sharma says-

“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and so gorgeous at the end.”

Last year, the work-from-home culture was barbaric for everyone. And now that all of us have adjusted to the humdrum of the WFH routine, going to the office seems like a hard task.

I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the coming days, office spaces become obsolete. Buffer and AngelList even released a State of Remote Work report where they shared insights on how the workplace of the future would look like.

Now that we know what the future of work looks like, shouldn’t we prepare ourselves for this new change? Absolutely. So in this blog, I’ll share what individuals and leaders can do to make WFH more effective and productive-

What can individuals do?

In the remote setup, one of the most important things is setting up a work desk for yourself. You don’t need an elaborate arrangement to make way for that. Just a table and a comfortable chair in a corner where you can work without any disturbance.

This and a robust internet connection. Now that remote work is going to stay, investing in this setup should be your first priority.

Next on your priority list should be– create a routine.

Why, you ask? Because the only thing we miss about the office is a routine. A routine of commuting to work, reaching our desk, participating in team rituals, working on individual tasks, taking breaks when we need them, and then wrapping up the day to come back home to family.

In the remote world, building a routine will help you wade through endless distractions (from home or mindless internet browsing) and the guilt of under-achieving your planned tasks. So create a To-Do list and plan your day in advance. Dress up as you would do for work and have a start and end time, just as before.

The next thing that you can do is make meetings interesting. Now that you can’t see your team in person, switch on video calls to maintain that human connection. In my team, we have this unsaid convention to be on video everytime we call each other. And we always start our team meetings with casual chit chat, asking questions about how everyone is doing. Even if we have nothing new to share, we just keep it casual for a few minutes before jumping on the agenda of the meeting.

Ask yourself– what did you do in the office that made it easy for you to go there everyday? When you have your answers, recreate the same atmosphere for yourself at home.

What can leaders do?

Get things in order: The remote work culture puts additional responsibility on the leaders. Now, you have to figure out the what, how and where of everything– what will be the new way of doing things? How will the communication happen? Where will the team collaborate? How to arrange for access to client networks on personal laptops? What would happen if someone’s laptop breaks down? How would your IT-support team interact with those facing software issues?

It would have been much better if we all had got the time to prepare for these infrastructure changes. But, as they say, problems don’t matter, solutions do. So, as a leader, your first responsibility is to get things in place for the remote setup.

Check on the mental health of your team members: The next thing that leaders have to make sure is that people are focused, committed, and happy in their work. Remote work can be harsh for people who live alone or who only have workplace colleagues as friends to keep them company. Help them wade through this time by guiding them on how they can take care of themselves. All they need is a caring and empathetic leader who understands their point of view.

Don’t let productivity take a dip: The biggest advantage of remote work is the time you cut down on commuting. With more time on hand, there is no reason for productivity to take a dip unless there are some serious issues. Of course, there will be some changes in the work-schedule. Afterall, your home is a makeshift workplace. But that shouldn’t affect productivity for the long-term.

So, constantly keep a check on the quality of deliverables and raise flags whenever anomalies appear. When you see someone doing extraordinary work, or someone slacking off, share your feedback immediately.

In case you have to do some intense conversations– be it work-related or behavioral– come prepared with incidents to back up your observations. Ask them what they need from you in order to succeed. There is a chance that your team members wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking up on video call. In that case, give them the freedom to share their feelings through email or voice call.

Communicate transparently: Share everything with the team even before they begin to realize something is amiss. It’s natural for your team members to feel intrigued about what’s going on in the organization– when would the office open up? How long will they be working remotely? When the office opens up would they all be required to join or can they continue to work remotely if they wish? How is the sales and hiring pipeline shaping up? Has pandemic affected revenue streams? If yes, how bad is it?

All of these questions and many more are bound to crop up in their mind. As their leader, you need to answer to everything so that they feel connected to the organization.

At times, all of this can be a little overwhelming for the leaders, especially the new ones. In that case, just hold on to your values and lend an empathetic ear to your team members. Give them the benefit of doubt. It’s a challenging time for everyone. The best you can do right now is trust them (not blindly) and ask them to trust you.

There is a lot that we can do as individuals, leaders and organizations to better deal with this pandemic. But if you want to continue with remote work even after the pandemic is over (is it ever going to be over, I wonder?), this is not the time to do everything in one go. It’s the time to take things slow, experiment and see how we can expand our capabilities.

Opening gates to remote work gives opportunities to organizations to tap into the global talent pool. And if that’s what organizations are looking for, this is the right time to invest in creating practices and guidelines for the team members and set them up for success.

Tag: #WFH

Tips and Tricks of staying Cyber Secure while doing WFH