Most business managers agree that competition never sleeps, and constant workflow optimisation is always needed. Hiring freelancers is one splendid method of achieving this, especially when businesses are small and must allocate their spending deliberately.

Working with freelancers is known for its flexibility and is often more economical for your business than hiring full-time employees. They can be a great helping hand when working with finances, marketing initiatives, or even technology development.

However, when you bring in the freelance workforce, you must ensure that your business’s cybersecurity measures are strong and refined. Otherwise, all your precious business data can be compromised, and clients’ trust destroyed.

Best Practices When Leveraging Freelance Workers

Hiring freelancers comes with great responsibility because extra caution must be taken regarding your business’s cybersecurity. Here are some tried and trusted protective strategies that can help ensure your business doesn’t trip and fall into the cyberattack trap.

Use Password Managers To Distribute Credentials

When working with freelancers, sharing confidential information or granting access to your business’s internal systems is often unavoidable. After all, if they can’t tackle the problem head-on, they’re not going to bring much value to the table.

So, if you need to give freelancers access to your business’s internal systems, the easiest and safest way to share login credentials is with a team password manager. This tool lets you securely share credentials, monitor activity, control who gets access, and revoke it whenever needed. This way, you reduce the chances of unauthorised access and maintain the security of internal systems.

Implement VPN Tunnels When Freelancers Access Internal Systems

Do you think that password sharing via dedicated tools might not be enough? Then add an extra layer of security by requiring freelancers to access your internal systems using VPNs.

For those who don’t know what is a VPN, it’s a tool that creates a secure data transmission tunnel. Essentially, this tunnel encrypts all traffic between connected devices and the VPN server, so even if someone’s trying to snoop on your freelancer, they’re out of luck. Once the freelancer connects to your VPN, you can relax knowing that no one else will see the data they’re working with, even when accessed remotely.

Define Clear Access Controls And Permissions

The same freelancer doesn’t need access to everything your business uses on a daily basis. So, as part of your risk management strategy, it’s recommended that your team sets up strict controls over what systems and information freelancers can access.

This can be quickly achieved by implementing role-based access control (RBAC). Such an approach helps assign a freelancer a role based on their responsibilities or the project they’re working on. Typically, your IT teams or project managers should handle this, as they’re responsible for integrating freelancers into the workflow.

Use Encrypted Tools For Communication With Freelancers

If you found your freelancer for an ongoing project, you’ll probably need to communicate more often as projects progress. In that case, the platform you initially used to connect may not be the best choice for everyday chats and updates.

That’s why choosing the right communication platform that suits your needs and is secure is essential. Check if the platform you want to use offers end-to-end encryption, supports secure file sharing with passwords, and has clear data retention and deletion policies to protect any data you share.

Wrapping It Up

Integrating freelancers into your company can do magic. Their unique expertise, ease of access, and affordability make them great resources in the cutthroat business environment. However, as you adopt this collaborative style, it’s just as important to take the necessary precautions to protect your business’s internal systems and ensure information security.

Using password manager tools, requiring VPN connections, granting role-based privileges, and communicating via secure platforms makes it possible to ensure your business is safe from any potential data breach or cyberattack. Now, go and skyrocket your business’s success with the help of freelancers—you have the right cybersecurity measures in place!