Business security in the ‘new normal’

Our latest campaign on #ClosedtoCrime has more information about crimes which affect businesses. 

Crimestoppers London Board member Brett Lovegrove, Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce, gives us some useful advice about continuing to work from home and avoiding falling victim to criminals, who are adapting quickly to the ‘new normal’.


 
Can you see it? I can. The moment when we are all cautiously released back to the working environment, whatever that will look like in the next few weeks. You will have noticed (unless you really are head down with the family helping them with their own home working) that there is a plethora of webinars aimed at guiding you back to a safer 'new normal'. 

Crimestoppers also has a strong voice when it comes to providing a service to the vulnerable; a reassuringly independent, totally anonymous service for reporting crimes with a real focus on helping people to prevent and report crime.  How do these two things come together?  Well, if you believe that we are entering into a completely new way of working, we do need to make sure that our colleagues don't fall foul of the criminals who are, in turn, adapting the way in which they steal our identities, our intellectual property, our hard-earned money and our company assets.
 

Protect your business from vulnerability

So, we have to brief and otherwise prepare our colleagues to maintain the same levels of security that we would expect if they were in the office environment; and we have to start making arrangements now.  The good news is that they don't have to dramatically change what they would normally do, but we the leaders will have to consider what kind of additional support we should put in place to avert any chance that the company will become more vulnerable with our people helping to run your business in the home environment. In terms of IT security, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides a source of great advice ranging from imposing dual authentication, setting up Virtual Private Networks, managing removable media and encrypting data, and I strongly recommend that you visit their site for guidance.
 

Communication is key

The not such good news is that the criminal will take advantage of the initial confusion especially where colleagues are new to the working from home regimes. Therefore, it will be increasingly important for leaders to embed an effective means of being able to communicate on a daily basis with their colleagues, providing a much-needed portal to answer security issues, instances of wrongdoing or criminal behaviour, reporting theft or loss of equipment and notifying you when scams are attempted. Issuing clear guidance on your expectations will be more important than ever, at a time when your colleagues could be feeling more exposed than usual.
 

How have recent changes affected us psychologically?

For me, one of the most important considerations for all leaders will be how these changes will affect our colleagues psychologically. They may be more stressed than usual, and so monitoring how our people will manage distractions and crises at home, how they keep to the disciplines of company compliance and regulation, how they will keep a sense of 'team' in order to achieve company objectives, and how they are able to maintain their ability to identify scams such as 'phishing' will become important issues for effective and safer working. These extra pressures may lead to them to be more open to making mistakes, or become complacent; and that is precisely what the criminal fraternity are looking for.


 
Others will take working from home like ducks to water, but developing a wider company culture (no matter how remote it may be) of personal safety, IT security and effective communication will help to ensure that you and your colleagues don't become victims of the criminals' success.
 
Brett Lovegrove MA FRSA FSyI joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1978 and, having retired as the Head of Counter Terrorism for the City of London Police in 2008, is today the Chief Executive of the City Security and Resilience Networks (CSARN) covering the UK and Australia; Chairman of Paratum (Counter Terrorism Engineering); Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce; Managing Director of Valentis Bridge Ltd, and sits on the London Board of Crimestoppers. He is also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence.