How Can A Virtual Assistant Be A Security Risk and How To Manage It

Virtual assistants are everywhere nowadays. You delegate to them your e-mails and your social media accounts, so you get to exert more time and effort into nourishing your business. However, hiring someone you’ve never met yet and will be giving them access to your vital information and security systems regarding your business can be nerve-wrecking.

Here are a few tips and tricks for you to make you feel safe about your business before giving the private and important information to your virtual assistants:

Have Backup Files
Working with virtual assistants every now and then might require you to share files. In the process, some files might get lost. Hence, backups are recommended.

Backups prevent you or your assistant from losing any significant document or data. This is also useful in security violation situations where someone gets a pass from your logins and gets access without your consent. A few you can use for backups are external hard drives, USBs, and cloud storage like Dropbox and Google Drive.
 
Use Password Managers
Providing passwords on files, data and messages might not be as safe as expected. Also, it can be inconvenient if you have to go log in into a certain website to reach a specific file or folder. However, thanks to password managers, such as LastPass.com, you can store passwords in one place and share them to your virtual assistants for a specific period of time without letting them know what these passwords are.

Develop Data Security Policies
Don’t forget to include in your company documents the policies for data security, information privacy and other points related to your company’s security. Every virtual assistant should understand the need to be careful of their employers’ data and to establish your standards strictly and flawlessly. If you already have a security plan/policy established in your company, orient and assist your virtual assistants about these policies.
 
Place Limitations in Data Access
Give some thought to what will be delegated to your virtual assistant and what files, folders and accounts will they need access to. Require passwords access to certain files, and give invite links only to those you’re allowing permission to edit or view. Also, use shareable folders like Dropbox or Google Drive to share specific files they will be working on.

Educate Your Virtual Assistants
Invest time to orient your virtual assistants about the importance of having a secure workplace. Your virtual assistants represent your company, and the way they work shows how your company is perceived. Assist your virtual assistants with the software your company uses, their roles and delegated tasks. Once they’ve picked up what you have taught, lessen the times you meet them.

The possible security risks you could experience are endless. It is the one concern entrepreneurs often worry about before hiring virtual assistants, and that’s alright! Prepare your company ahead of time before considering hiring virtual assistants into your business. Put in a few precautions in place so your business will be safe.