More and more small businesses are choosing to break free from the traditional office-based environment, allowing or encouraging their staff to work from home instead. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to show that doing so can lead to increased productivity, improved staff wellbeing, and removal of many of the traditional stresses of running a business (as long as it’s done properly, of course!)

But… if this is an approach you’re considering or have already taken, is your remote workforce secure?

It might come as a shock to learn how easy it is to gain access to the data stored on many business computers. And we’re not talking about “hacking” or guessing passwords here… No, we’re talking about using tools which can be used to gain access to the data on a computer within a few minutes. Many of these tools are freely available on the internet!

When your computers are locked in your secure, alarmed, CCTV-protected office, and they never go off-site, these things all help to keep your data safe. But those layers of security all disappear when your office becomes a coffee shop, train, pub, or even just a staff member’s home.

That’s where a combination of strong password policies and full-disk encryption comes in. It becomes infinitely harder for an unauthorised individual to gain access to your computers, if your using both of those tools in a properly configured manner. What’s more, they’re not particularly difficult to set up and often don’t require any additional hardware or software acquisition.

If you’re talking to Renaissance about moving your data to the cloud, or any kind of remote working, keeping your data safe is our number one priority. We can’t stop someone from stealing one of your laptops, but we can make sure that the physical loss and inconvenience is as bad as it gets!

Give us a call and discuss how we can implement a secure remote working environment for you!