Given the current global circumstances, many organisations are requiring their staff to work remotely or from home. This means that your BCP plans are likely to be kicking in, and you may be reviewing the services you currently use to ensure that your business can continue to function.
You need to bear some key considerations in mind:
- Have you ensured that your corporate policies provide the appropriate guidance and allow your staff to continue working from home?
- Maybe you need to prepare a work from home policy for staff
- Have you considered how you would provide remote support if required?
- Do you understand whether you have considered the options needed to replace hardware in order to allow your staff to continue working?
Cloud solutions are extremely useful when enabling a seamless remote working environment. As a Google partner, Appsbroker delivers all of our solutions - and manages our internal collaboration and operations - through Google Cloud and SaaS solutions.
These services can be delivered remotely, removing a requirement to be in a physical office or to connect via a VPN to continue to deliver all our business services, as we are instead able to function normally through the use of G Suite and other solutions.
That does not mean that appropriate security controls are not provided to ensure secure working, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and limiting the opportunity for malicious code to affect devices or data. G Suite, for example, provides a number of controls to define the acceptable scenarios that connectivity can be achieved from and which services are available remotely.
Some of the controls to be aware of include:
G Suite Context-Aware Access Controls
Granular Context-Aware Control policies can be applied to apps based on attributes such as user identity, location, device security status, and IP address.
These policies give you control over which apps a user can access based on their context, such as whether their device complies with your IT policy.
Additionally, features such as the use of 2-Step Verification, which can be enforced at Organisational Level, provide a flexible way to extend protection over multiple devices that your teams may be using, while locking individual services down to individuals. This also provides security when operating from different devices - for example, if your IT estate is mostly fixed, you will still be able to securely continue working from newer devices.
Learn more: https://support.google.com/a/answer/9275380
These policies should be reviewed regularly so that employees can always use the tools they need when working remotely.
Chrome Browser Cloud Management
This is another G Suite add in, allowing you to implement additional controls through the use of Chrome Browser Cloud Management. From a central location you are able to apply over 100 policies for Chrome usage across your organisation, giving you extensive control over and assurance around security.
Configuration options include browser security policies, network policies, app management and extensions that reduce the risk of your end-user devices being impacted by malicious tools and services. These policies can be applied regardless of the location of the end point device, which gives you the flexibility you need to securely operate a cross-team remote working setup.
Data Leakage Protection
G Suite’s cloud file management solution, Drive, gives you secure, role-based access from any location to centralised files, allowing you to migrate a huge variety of workloads to a remote setting. One of the built-in features is Data Leakage Protection (DLP) across your entire Drive, which allows you to safely collaborate on sensitive files even when working remotely. Additionally, custom content detectors allow you to automatically look for certain text matches to be sure that any potentially uncomfortable content can be flagged and managed.
To learn more about how G Suite can allow you to securely and confidently manage your remote workforce, download our guide or speak to one of our team:
