Cybercrime is the fastest growing crime globally and affects businesses and individuals, so it is no surprise that preventative measures are upscaled amid privacy and security concerns.

Real estate agents must consider absolute security and privacy concerns when hiring virtual assistants, especially as most work from their personal computers.

All businesses face security and privacy challenges and must guard against compromised sensitive data.

Most virtual assistants work from home and risk data security breaches if they don’t implement the proper security measures.

This article focuses on five vital steps to help protect against cyberattacks.

Reducing Privacy And Security Issues With Remote VAs 

Here are five things you need to consider for your VA team. 

1 – Set Up Firewalls Around Your Business Systems

All businesses should regard data security as vital to their organisation’s IT management by investing in up-to-date firewalls to guard against data hacking.

A firewall monitors and encrypts all the messages to and from your computer network and helps prevent harmful viruses from entering through a third-party source.

When you hire virtual assistants, malware threats can increase, and a firewall doesn’t protect their computers. However, a firewall helps stop harmful emails from infecting a staff member’s inbox, which could spread throughout the network.

It also prevents outside sources from secretly installing harmful malware software on your company’s network.

2 – Require VPN Access To In-House Data And System

Security risks can be reduced by installing virtual private networks (VPNs) onto your computer or business network system.

VPNs have increased in popularity and are heavily used by companies with remote employees performing data entry tasks to safeguard against data collection fraud.

Using a VPN hides your network’s internet protocol (IP) address to prevent others from seeing and attacking it. An encrypted server hides your actual IP address to stop cyber criminals from attacking your systems and mobile devices.

A VPN won’t prevent your virtual assistant from accessing your company’s IT network, but it will allow them to work on your systems with extra protection against cybercrime. 

3 – Limit Access To Data

With general data protection regulation laws in place, businesses must only share data on a need-to-know basis.

If a business is constantly bombarded with irrelevant information, the chances of a system crash increase, which is very harmful to all organisations of all sizes.

The more information you harvest on your database system, the higher chances of that information becoming compromised and targeted for a cyberattack.

Security measures must be in place when hiring a virtual personal assistant, as they will potentially have access to personal details of clients and veondors.

Always help prevent sensitive information and trade secrets from being leaked. Your IT network must always be secure, especially when dealing with financial information. Robust security lessens the chances that your company falls victim to cybercrime.

4 – Encrypt Communication

When hiring virtual assistants, using two-factor authentication encryption password methods is vital.

Ensuring all your passwords are updated and renewed on a regular three-month basis is vital as it adds an extra layer of protection against a cyberattack.

Emails are meant to be private, so using encryption ensures that only the sender and the recipient can read the content of the email.

Strong passwords, including letters, numbers, and characters, make it harder for hackers to work out the password and gain access to your systems.

Using weak passwords that don’t contain numbers and characters will make it easier for cybercriminals to access your company information which could compromise your sensitive data.

5 – Use Secure Cloud-Based Services

Businesses use cloud-based services to store sensitive data, such as customer credit card details, because they know the service providers spend millions of dollars ensuring their security systems are robust.  

Brainstorming over paper. Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons

Companies who provide cloud services charge a premium monthly or annual fee for storage, but it is money well spent and is far safer than trying to store information on your in-house company servers.

Even with high service charges, it makes sense for companies to use a cloud-based service provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Alibaba Cloud because these world-class companies invest millions into protecting their data storage systems and are less likely to come under attack from cyber criminals despite the increase in network traffic.

Get Help With Reducing Privacy Concerns 

Ensuring you install suitable robust security systems and software will help protect against cybercrime, identity theft and email phishing.

Hiring a virtual assistant can be tricky at the best times, but adding genuine concern around data breaches heightens the stress for business owners.

Take away all that concern and stress by adopting a hands-off approach and contact our team of experts to see how we can identify, hire, train, and manage your virtual assistant.

Our service is easy and cost-effective, and we can customise the service to your company’s requirements. Call us to learn more about the high-quality virtual assistants we provide.