Hiring a virtual assistant is commonplace throughout businesses globally, but with cybercrime, on the rise, the proper security measures must be taken to prevent cyber attacks.
Virtual assistants can leave themselves vulnerable if they don’t take cyber security seriously.
All businesses must implement the proper protection on their windows mobile devices, iOS and android operating systems to prevent data breaches.
Despite the security risks, companies shouldn’t refrain from hiring virtual personal assistants.
Here are some of the most common cyber security risks to consider and how best to prevent cyberattacks.
Accounting For Common Security Risks
Keep all these risks in mind before hiring a new virtual assistant.
1. Poor Password Choices
When you hire a remote virtual personal assistant, they must use strong passwords to prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to your company’s private data.
If a virtual assistant chooses a weak password, it is simple for criminals to hack, leaving you prone to compromised data and leading to identity fraud.
Serious security issues are less likely if an intelligent virtual assistant protects their computer using a strong password.
However, protecting your IT network against security vulnerabilities is your responsibility as a business owner.
Using a two-factor authentication password system will give you the best protection against cybercrime.
2. Use Of Public WiFi
There are countless security issues surrounding public WiFi, so you must ensure your virtual assistant uses a secure private internet link.
If your virtual assistant is using public WiFi, then the chances of your business becoming compromised are significantly increased.
Remote employees must always have a secure private connection when working from their computers.
It is your job as a business owner to ask if the virtual assistants you hire use devices that are fully protected and don’t pose a security risk to your business.
Remote workers need to access your business IT network, so ensure you do a comprehensive risk assessment before they start work for your company.
3. Exposure To Phishing
Even tech giants can be victims of email hacking when cybercriminals break into their IT networks. This is why your business email server must be secure at all times.
The emails exchanged internally and externally by your business contain sensitive private customer information and trade secrets, which will prove catastrophic for your business if it is compromised.
Email phishing has become the most sophisticated cybercrime and is proving more challenging to detect if the email sent by a company to a client looks genuine. When this happens, the customer becomes a victim when they click on the fake email link and has their data stolen.
When sensitive data, such as credit card details, are stolen, they are used to perform fraudulent transactions.
Therefore, ensuring that all staff, especially virtual assistants, access business emails securely is vital.
4. Personal And Confidential Data
All businesses handle personal and confidential data daily, so understandably, there is some concern when you hire new virtual assistants.
Imposing specific data security measures is paramount to all businesses, and an intelligent virtual assistant will always be up to date with all their antivirus software.
When you hire a virtual private assistant, if their devices aren’t entirely secure, it can lead to personal information being stolen.
5. Access To Meeting Recordings
All virtual assistants use mobile phones, which may contain windows based mobile apps which allow them to use interactive voice response to enable them to send recorded voice notes.
In some cases, they may also use Samsung wireless devices or an android operating system on their phone.
Unfortunately, hackers are using remote-operated spy apps that enable them to access and view all the data on a phone.
Data such as web browsing history, emails, photos, and texts lets them see all the calls you have made.
In extreme cases, they can hijack the microphone and record your calls and voice notes. In this instance, your business and personal life could be compromised.
6. Access To Financial Information
Whenever financial information is involved, a company must do their utmost to guard against any security concerns regarding your staff and client’s data being stolen.
As your customer’s credit card details are on your IT network, you don’t want to fall victim to a cyber-attack where all their details are fraudulently used.
The same also applies to the extensive details you hold on your staff. For example, you must ensure that their bank account details, pension policy, tax details, and health insurance data are secure.
Such is the importance of keeping all this information secure that there are substantial legal penalties to pay if a company compromises any financial data.
Reducing Security Risks
Follow these steps to reduce security risks.
1. Connect Through VPN
Virtual private networks (VPNs) have skyrocketed in popularity, with cybercrime on the rise.
When you use a VPN, it hides your IP address from being seen by others by using an encrypted server.
With your IP address hidden, criminals will find it harder to hack your computer or mobile apps.
A virtual personal assistant can access your business’s IT network while using a VPN, which gives you peace of mind that your data is significantly safer.
2. Improve The Use Of Encryption
When you hire virtual assistants, you must employ strong encryption methods.
All businesses should have that extra layer of protection against cybercrime, and up-to-date encryption techniques provide this.
When you send and receive an email using encryption, only these two people can view the information in the email.
When you use encryption password methods, you must ensure that the passwords are strong and must be changed at least every three months by virtual personal assistants and IT management staff.
3. Use Anti Virus Software
A vital part of any company’s IT security is to ensure all antivirus software is up-to-date to help prevent cyber attacks.
Your responsibility as a business owner is to stress the importance of antivirus software to any virtual assistant you hire. It is paramount that the latest antivirus software always protects their personal computers and devices.
Failure to have current antivirus software installed by any staff member, particularly virtual assistants, will leave your company’s IT systems open to being hacked.
4. Secure Cloud Services
Most businesses use secure cloud services as a means of storing all data used by their company.
Despite the additional cost of using a cloud service, companies use this method as the best safeguard against external and in-house data attacks.
Cloud service providers spend millions of dollars ensuring their service has the latest sophisticated software to protect against data breaches.
It makes economic sense for businesses to pay a cloud service a monthly fee to store and protect their data rather than under-invest in an inferior in-house data storage system.
5. Set Up Firewalls
All companies should invest in the latest firewalls to protect against data breaches happening,
A firewall encrypts and monitors all traffic to and from your IT systems while preventing viruses from entering your IT network remotely through an outside source.
Data and malware threats are blocked by the firewall. This method stops harmful emails from attacking the end user’s inbox, for example, a staff member.
And a firewall stops outside sources from installing secret and dangerous software on your business network.
6. Share Need-To-Know Data
It is seen as good business practice only to share need-to-know data. Otherwise, your company’s IT system can become bombarded with irrelevant information, leading the system to crash.
Not only could overwhelming the system with too much information cause a crash, but the more information you hold increases the harm to your business in the event of a cyberattack.
Identity theft is rising, so try to limit the chances by not sharing too much information about your staff and customers.
If you have a straightforward thought process around how best to secure your IT network and company data, then there is less chance of you falling victim to cybercrime.
Contact Us Today For Help With Managing VAs
Hiring virtual assistants can be daunting, and when you add the concerns surrounding data breaches into the equation, it is understandable some business owners refrain from hiring.
However, taking security measures, such as the ones discussed above, helps to give you peace of mind against cyber attacks.
If you would rather take a hands-off approach when hiring a virtual assistant, let us source, hire, train, and manage your remote worker.
Give us a call, and find out how easy and cost-effective it is to hire a virtual assistant who suits your company’s needs.