Check out these network tips for remote employees

Our office has been involved in workflow studies for the offices of our attorney agents, and one point that comes up often is that allowing employees to work at home increases employee satisfaction and retention. We’ve witnessed many paralegals permanently move to remote locations and successfully retain their jobs. Telecommuting seems to work successfully in many instances.

In our own office, all our employees have the capability to work remotely. We learned when our office building suffered a fire in 2012 that the ability to access our network from remote locations allowed us to continue our business without interruption. The day after the fire, we disbursed the funds for a large commercial transaction for an agent from my kitchen at home!

And since South Carolina routinely finds itself within the maze of the spaghetti models during hurricane season, the ability to work remotely is important if not necessary to maintain contact while taking care of school children and hunkering down at home.

American Land Title Association (ALTA) published an article on September 5 attaching The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS) Telework and Small Office Network Security Guide.

This 25-page paper provides useful, up-to-date guidance on keeping your networks safe when employees are allowed remote access. The guide provides recommendations for buying equipment, setting up networks, setting up devices, securing home routers and protecting against digital threats.

The ALTA article refers to a Forbes study that found 38 percent of teleworkers lack the technological support they need to do their jobs. Securing devices and networks that allow telecommuting is critical. The guide includes a network security checklist and tells users how to map security configurations to provide cybersecurity protection at remote locations.

Thanks to ALTA for pointing us to this valuable resource, and thanks to CIS for publishing it!