It might be because of snow in March, it might be because of health advice about infectious diseases, or it might be for any number of reasons, but you find yourself thinking that working from home might be a good idea.
While you can get by for a while with the files you have on your laptop, what do you do if you find you’re missing a vital client list? get a colleague to email it to you? you might be in breach of the GDPR if you’re not putting sufficient protection around the files.
… and then you need another file, and some paperwork scanned in, and access to a restricted file on the server, and the ability to send an email from your work account…
A better, more secure and reliable solution would be a VPN.
What about the subscriber VPN services I see advertised?
If you’re only a subscriber to a VPN service, there are some issues that you need to consider;
How reliable is the service? is it always going to be there or will it let you down when you come to use it, and what level of support do you get with that?
Do you need to leave your computer in the office switched on to use it, potentially leaving it accessible to attack?
Is it GDPR compliant, what guarantees do you get on data security for your information that’s being routed through a potentially unknown third party server? and are they keeping logs of your activity?
How flexible is the service? can you configure it to meet your business needs?
Private VPN
A private VPN running from your company network can establish a secure link from your device at home to your business, allowing you or your staff to access all the files just as if you were sat in your office.
And it’s not just restricted to home. With the right security settings you can get mobile access to your business network, which means you can continue to work wherever you’re working from
#WeCanHelp
Contact us today to find out how a remote office connection can help keep you and your business running even when your staff are working from home.
Early mobile phones were big, heavy, and only had 20 minutes battery life.
Mobile devices are so much more than just a phone. In many cases, phone calls are the least used feature of a modern mobile. Having access to mobile internet and internet based apps for social media are by far the most commonly used features on them.
Modern smartphones can replace a lot of the functionality of a small laptop, with phone docks giving access to a large HD screen, full sized keyboard and mouse, the ability to hot desk and take your phone/computer with you is making their use in business more seamless.
Tablets
While smartphones have become a ubiquitous accessory on most people, the tablet has taken it’s place as the replacement of the home desktop PC.
Less portable than the smartphone, but with a bigger screen and a familiar operating system they are easy to get to grips with, and with apps like Microsoft Office being delivered over the internet, there’s less and less need for a traditional home PC or laptop.
BYOD
With the emergence of powerful personal smartphones and tablets, users began making use of the new mobility and doing a lot more data processing on their own devices. This is great for productivity but can be a security nightmare, how can you guarantee that the users own device is secure and that any apps they install are not going to steal your company data? And what if the device is lost, how can you be sure that the user had a secure and strong password, or that company data was in encrypted storage on the device?
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is one of the most popular ‘your own device’ technology solutions that is now making its way across the workplace. Other variants such as CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) where the company let the user pick from a predetermined list of devices, POCE (Personally Owned, Company Enabled) where a your company manages the use of your personal device, and COPE (Company Owned, Personally Enabled) where your company supplies you with a device and you can use it for personal use.
#WeCanHelp
We can help you make the most of your mobile device. For personal users, that might mean securing the device against fraudulent activity, and for business it could mean designing and deploying a policy to manage BYOD in the workplace.
Whatever your need, we can advise and implement the security and systems you need to manage your portable devices.
You might be a home user with a handful of devices connected via wifi or you might be a multi-office organisation running an in-house hosted commerce website, either way you need to protect your network at the point it connects to the internet to prevent unauthorised access, block access to untrustworthy sites, and watch for suspicious activity.
What it does
The firewall is often the outer-most line of defence around your precious data. At the perimeter it needs to be flexible enough to let you work uninterrupted, but robust enough to protect against the barrage of probes and attacks it’s likely to face. It should be configurable and dynamic to be able to adjust to your needs and to be able to identify the latest threats.
Hardware or Software
Both have their advantages and in a corporate situation, both can be used to offer multiple lines of defence against attack.
A hardware firewall will usually by faster at processing data and so reduce any potential bottleneck. They can be configured to use real-time virus checking on incoming data, monitor outgoing data for suspicious activity and provide advanced tools like reputation management, unified threat protection and bandwidth shaping.
Software firewalls have the advantage of being cheaper and easier to mange. They are installed on the device you are protecting so are portable with that device . They can offer more refined controls per device or per app, and can be configured to alert you to unexpected behaviour.
But I don’t need one at home
With more and more home devices becoming ‘smart’ the number of internet connected devices you have might be more than you think. You should be managing your internet connection because ultimately, you’re responsible for the content downloaded.
In a number of recent ‘botnet’ attacks on major sites, home internet connected devices that had been compromised were used in the attacks.
A number of home security devices, specifically those with cameras or microphones in them, have been compromised and their content streamed live to the internet.
#WeCanHelp
We can help you with with selecting, supplying, installing and managing a firewall that’s suitable for your needs. You might just need to protect your home WiFi connected devices, or you might need a corporate firewall that allows remote users to access the company network from anywhere in the world, but you do need a firewall.
