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How to Maintain Cybersecurity in the Remote Work Era

While adapting to the current global crisis, businesses had to rapidly transition to a remote workforce to meet customer demands through digital channels. However, this sudden transformation to remote operations presented a whole new challenge of cyber risks. While working remotely, employees may be using home computers to log in to company networks and access confidential information, relying on home internet networks instead of the company's secured network. For remote workers, the importance of cloud infrastructure has increased. They may also be using third-party apps to stay connected with others. And since a work-from-home setup, unlike an office environment, may be slightly more relaxed when it comes to data security, the users are not vigilant enough for cyber risk.

Cybersecurity Risk in a Remote Work Setup

  1. Using unsecured endpoint devices: This makes the system more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
  2. Personal use of laptops: Employees are using office laptops for personal use like opening personal emails, shopping sites, or any social sites which may put company data at stake.
  3. Lack of physical security: This could take place by leaving the laptop open or leaving the device in an open car. 
  4. Phishing attack: There are more chances of phishing attacks while working remotely as compared to work in an organizational environment.
  5. File sharing: Many companies encrypt their files while storing or transferring in their network but that's not possible for remote employees.

How to Protect Against a Security Threat While Working Remotely

When it comes to protection against security threats while working remotely, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. There are lots of measures organizations need to take to secure their employees. Let’s look more closely at the measures that should be taken to secure remote employees from cyber threats:

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Some Advice for WFH Agile

Introduction

The now popular Agile methodology, with Scrum methodologies being popular cousins to Agile, has taken off since the publication of the Agile Manifesto in 2001. Many things changed with the coronavirus, however, as remote working became one solution for the current problem. This imposed changes in the current approach of managing Agile teams. Since these teams work based on close groups and one location, the main challenge is to keep the same productivity level in a sudden transition. 

Agile teamwork enables direct contact, immediate communication, and problem solving. This will speed up the decision-making process, allowing for better fact-based decisions. Agile teams that don’t have experience with remote working will find the sudden change difficult. The new approach will decrease cohesion and, therefore, obstruct the whole process. 

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Dev Interrupted: Async Dev with DuckDuckGo Engineering Director

This week on the Dev Interrupted podcast, I spoke with Cate Huston, Director of Engineering at DuckDuckGo. She’s an expert in asynchronous development and shared tons of interesting ideas: 

  •  How DuckDuckGo utilizes transient and permanent spaces differently
  •  How product feedback sessions are completed asynchronously
  •  How to help new remote employees feel a sense of belonging and accomplishment. 
  •  The unique relationship between asynchronous managers and developers  

Cate is really smart and has a super-awesome sounding accent so check it out! 

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The 9 Best SaaS Tools For Remote Teams

Software as a service, popularly known as SaaS in the corporate world, is a cloud-based service. 

To put it simply, it is a software distribution model or, more so, an application. A service provider hosts these applications for customers and makes them available to the customers via the internet. SaaS refers to providing a software product or services to the client over the cloud.

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7 Tips for Negotiating a Work-from-Home Arrangement with Your Boss

According to a 2019 LinkedIn survey, roughly half of employees work from home at least one day a week, while 82% want to have the option of doing so. There are plenty of companies that offer flexible work arrangements already, including Amazon, Lionbridge, Dell, Hilton, Working Solutions, Williams-Sonoma, Xerox, Salesforce, and American Express. Whether you’re […]

The post 7 Tips for Negotiating a Work-from-Home Arrangement with Your Boss appeared first on WPArena.

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8 Hottest Work from Home (WFH) Jobs of 2020

In the past 6 months, everything that we thought “made sense” sort of stopped; forcing us to think about our lives, the people we hold dear, and even our jobs in a whole other way. This phenomenon even resulted in having us contemplate different work from home jobs.

When the pandemic hit the world, more than half of the businesses around the world had to rethink their business processes. This caused a spike in unemployment. Fortunately, it also paved several possibilities for people looking to find the best work from home jobs.

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12 Strategies to Maintain a Secure Testing Environment While Working Remotely

The recent pandemic has led to a major lockdown across the globe. The IT industry is no exception - engineers are now working from home more than ever.

Remote working has enabled convenience, however, when you're working outside the secured office environment, there's an increased risk of internet fraud, data loss, system compromise, and more. As it becomes difficult for some enterprises to monitor and maintain network security, QASource continues to ensure that nothing is compromised.

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Quality Sense Podcast: Facilitating Agile Teams and Training Remotely

In this episode of the Quality Sense podcast, host, Federico Toledo, interviews Janet Gregory, co-author of three highly influential books: "Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams”, “More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team”, and “Agile Testing Condensed: A Brief Intro.”

Gregory is also a consultant who specializes in helping companies promote agile quality processes and is co-founder of Agile Testing Fellowship.

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Managing Burnout During COVID-19

During this crisis, we’re all trying our best to keep ourselves and others healthy, manage chaotic homes, and prioritize our mental health. However, this can be difficult even when we’re not experiencing a pandemic. With the added stress, burnout is occurring at an alarming rate with people unable to separate home from work, the increased burden of keeping everything on and heightened on-call loads, and the strain on communication.

Somedays, you might find it difficult to unplug and relax. Others, you may dread logging on. However, this doesn’t mean you’re not good at your job or capable of remote work. Instead, this is likely a version of burnout that none of us have experienced before. It’s difficult to overcome, but there are some ways to combat this and keep yourself and your team from burning out.

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How Engineering Leaders Can Support Remote Working Teams

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has swept across 100 countries with no signs of abating. In light of COVID-19 your software development workforce is, at a furious pace, adapting to; extreme remote working policies – it is a fundamental challenge for all technology leaders to maintain productivity and maintainability of the software engineering organization

In this article, you will find practical tips on best practices to maintain a proper work from home setup for your software developers.

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3 Dev Leaders Open Up About Remote Software Development

I’m writing this from my new “office”, which is a small desk in a large closet located under the stairs of my house. Harry Potter style. We have our first baby on the way so I got kicked out of our second bedroom, and I’m embracing the office-under-the-stairs life.

This isn’t a normal work-from-home situation for any of us. No one had time to prepare.

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Dev Productivity Is Way Down

Dev team productivity is way down at LinearB right now. Over the last two weeks, many of our outputs are down 60-75%.

From the iteration overview dashboard in LinearB.

Our cycle time (the amount of time it takes us to deliver work from start to finish) is up almost 80%.

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Remote Agile (Part 3): Mastering Zoom

In this third post of the Remote Agile series, we address the tool at the heart of working with a distributed team as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Product Owner: Zoom. While Zoom is an excellent video conference application — particularly for larger groups of twelve or more attendees — by all standards, its killer feature is breakout rooms.

You may also like: Suddenly Remote? Here's How to Regain Your Productivity in Record Time

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The Day After — an Officeless World?

In the consultancy company I work for, 99% of us are now working from home. All this was done in a very few days. On the evening of Friday 13 March, I was still thinking of going to my client's office, but only on Monday to facilitate the logistical aspects of a full day's meetings.

But overnight, confirmation was received that I should only go to my client's office if absolutely necessary. So the logistics will pass! It's the evening of Tuesday, March 14th when I write this article, and the episode I'm living and sharing with many of us is just beginning. However, I think there will really be a before and after these events.

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10 Telework Tips for Teams Working From Home Because of Coronavirus

two people on computers

The rapid global spread of Coronavirus has compelled many teams to become "virtual" teams. Google, Microsoft, NTT, Amazon and tens of thousands of companies have advised their employees to work from home in affected parts of the world.

While some companies, especially tech companies, already offer the "telecommuting" option, it is a completely new experience for many teams. This is reflected in the surge in people searching for phrases like "telework" just in the last month.

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[Discussion] Commuting to Work

Commuting to work has been the worst for a long, long time.

The opening scene from the 1993 Michael Douglas film Falling Down (above) could very well have been shot yesterday. No, I'm not talking about the 90s buzz cut or the short sleeve collared shirt, but I am talking about its spot on depiction of the hell that is gridlock.

Traffic is at a standstill, the weather is sweltering, and Michael Douglas just can't even -- to the point where he actually abandons his vehicle under an overpass to alleviate the stress of it all. And let's be honest, we've all dreamt about doing the exact same thing at one time or another.

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Telecommuters Are More Productive, No Matter the Task

Of course telecommuters are more productive. They get to work like this.

The virtues of working remotely have long been trumpeted, whether in terms of lower stress levels, higher productivity, or better work/life balance.

6 Pro Tips for Getting Your Boss to Let You Work From Home

A recent study from the Florida International University College of Business explores whether telecommuting retains the productivity benefits even when working on highly complex projects. And (not at all suprisingly) their findings suggest this is indeed the case, largely because working remotely ensures that the worker suffers from fewer interruptions.