Sadly, the average business owner only thinks about sensitive information on the day they’re about to hand over access to an at-home employee. It’s an operation started by one person that’s expanded to a considerable level, and suddenly, all of your client information, employee data and finances are no longer under your immediate control, and it’s mildly uncomfortable.
Yet in today’s world, remote work is commonplace; this doesn’t change the standards for what sensitive data requires safeguarding but instead, allows it to be protected through training and systems instead of physical presence. Instead of crossing over someone’s desk to glance at their screen or paper documents, a screen door must do the protecting on your behalf.
What Real Compliance Training Consists Of
Real compliance training doesn’t take place from a 20-minute video watched with one eye while someone consumes a sandwich. Realized programs delve into specific regulations prevalent in your workforce. If your organization interfaces with healthcare-related information, finance based inquiries, or any compliance regulation with direct regulations – your training will be extensive.
Generic “don’t share your password” training is not enough when you’re subject to regulatory requirements. Instead, responsible programs include data breaches and how those data breaches impact operations, an understanding of phishing, standards for confidential communication, and required responses for question management. They include punishments – and more.
Training often incorporates active learning models where people navigate real-life scenarios. What do you do if someone calls you asking for your client’s information? How do you respond if you have a form that needs to go to a third-party affiliated entity? What should you do if you suspect your system has been compromised by someone else’s actions?
Why Physical Presence Doesn’t Matter
There’s a misunderstanding that sensitive information is safer when someone is situated right there with you. Think about it – a person working in your office can just as easily forward an email from their work station as a person working from home. A person working in your office can take a photo of a sensitive document with their cellphone. A person working in your office can leave sensitive items unsecured on their desk overnight. Proximity does not ensure integrity.
Instead, systems and programs implemented by the business that provides the information coupled with educated employees who understand how and why the aforementioned steps are effective help safeguard sensitive information. More often than not, remote workers who’ve received this type of robust training focus more on what they’re doing than the in-house worker who’s never had training once.
More companies than ever are employing HIPAA-trained remote staff and similarly endorsed remote workers who maintain compliance standards despite where they’re physically located. Access comes from accountability – not eyeballs monitoring movement.
What Technicalities People Don’t Realize
Compliance training for remote workers comes down to many technological aspects that people disregard. The allowance for secure wi-fi networks, VPNs – virtual private networks, device encryption, password management systems – are all advanced expectations drilled for anyone working remotely with sensitive information.
For example, most remote workers receive training on software expectations. How to use two-factor authentication, how to know if they’re on a trusted site when entering their login information, how to spot a sketchy email with an attachment boasting free insurance. Which applications are able to be downloaded – or prohibited from file-sharing.
Those who’ve been trained have stricter regulations on their devices than the office worker would ever have. Their work computers can be locked from downloads from any unwanted software at all. Their access is monitored (with knowledge). Their systems automatically log them off after certain periods of inactivity. All of this is implemented in remote work settings when they wouldn’t be otherwise necessary.
How Training Is Ongoing
It’s not a one-and-done program. Regulations change. Threats change. Technology changes. Real protection comes from training programs that include updates and refresher courses.
Annual recertification is typical; some industries require more frequent assessments. In addition to certifying policy changes and threat assessments in-between formal training sessions, it’s a never-ending course instead of a one-and-done checkbox.
The best programs involve testing – not tests you can Google online – but functional assessments that gauge whether someone truly understands what’s being taught. If someone cannot pass a simple test the first time around, they undergo additional training until they can comply.
What To Do When It Happens
Part of comprehensive training involves incident assessments regarding what to do when something happens – not if – but when it eventually does. Because no matter how comprehensive training and systems are, things happen. Devices get lost. Accounts get hacked. Human error happens.
Trained remote workers understand what they need to do. Who they need to report to first. How to document what’s occurred, what the next steps are to secure the situation, what needs to be reported back to compliance boards or regulatory agencies. Training helps maintain system integrity instead of blowing it out of proportion from fear or confusion.
The Paper Trail For Validation
Certificate of training and tracked attendance is not for show – they’re critical paper trails for remote employment situations where sensitive matters arise. It’s not uncommon that certain industries require documentation showing specific training was provided (to whom) and who is new or existing trained employees, when it was included and when it was completed.
Some industries require certificates from external organizations; other industries can control internal trainings as long as certain standards are met. Regardless, there’s proof that whoever you gave access to your sensitive information has completed appropriate training.
In addition, many industries are looking for continued training versus a one-time experience. If someone completed their compliance training two years ago – and nothing since – you need to raise red flags. Up-to-date threat assessments for up-to-date persons rendered access mean they know current threats.
The Trust Factor
Ultimately, rendered access is still based on trust – but not blind trust without reason; knowing where they’ve come from training-wise and where systems hold accountable for your provision makes sense – it’s not guesswork – it’s educated enough to provide access.
Companies that thrive allowing remote workers access to sensitive information do not do so on a whim – they assess training, certifications, system protocols – and maintain their own oversight; eventually companies find that the trained remote worker might be just as secure – or less secure – than the in-person employee who has no compliance background simply because it doesn’t matter where someone works – it matters what they know they can do with what they’ve accessed.
