With many businesses now operating remotely for the first time ever, you’ve probably discovered that there are upsides and downsides to telecommuting. One positive of remote work is location flexibility, but this comes with its own set of risks for both you and your customers.
At a brick-and-mortar store or office, you may be able to establish extra security for your internal network such as using a firewall or installing anti-malware software. When working remotely, however, your employees might use unknown (and unsecure) IP addresses, thus putting your company data at risk. If a customer uploads an application or buys online from your site while at their local coffee shop, their data is open as well.
The reality is, if your employees or customers are uploading confidential documents on unsecure Wi-Fi networks, this can leave you vulnerable to a data security breach.
The good news is, secure forms can help. Using services such as Jot Forms and Cognito Forms to create your forms allows better control over who can access your data. These services encrypt sensitive information (such as credit card or social security numbers) to ward off potential cyberattacks. Here are a few other ways secure form services can keep help you run your business:
- House your data on their highly secure servers, which is invaluable for global businesses.
- Help discourage spam.
- Provide you with specific data (such as email addresses) from your forms, saving you time staring at spreadsheets.
- Diving into the new world of ecommerce in the wake of COVID-19? Both Jot Forms and Cognito Forms integrate with payment gateways such as Paypal, Authorize.net, Stripe and Square for safe and reliable checkout.
As telecommuting becomes more and more commonplace, taking the proactive step of adding additional levels of security can pay off big by protecting you from a breach. This includes educating your team on data security best practices, performing password audits, and providing your employees with VPN access.
We’re all learning how to navigate working remotely, including our team here at Infomedia. We are committed to guiding you towards a safer solution for online forms for both your business and customers.
Curious about how to get started? Learn more and fill out this form — we’ll get to know what you need and walk you through making your site a safe place to land.
