Home Did you know ? 5 Best Cybersecurity Practices for Your Offshore Development Team

5 Best Cybersecurity Practices for Your Offshore Development Team

by Mic Johnson

Technologies are not standing still, and with the newest solutions and innovations, new risks and cybersecurity challenges arise. With the rising number of remote employees in the IT industry, it becomes more and more important to know cybersecurity trends and learn the newest approaches to protect sensitive data and strategic points of your company.

In this case you might think, Why study Project Management with SCU Online? By implementing proven cybersecurity practices with planning and leadership skills, it is possible to reap all the benefits of cooperating with remote experts and protect your development processes at the same time

Although some IT businesses try to come back to small in-house development teams in regards to cybersecurity, outsourcing prominent IT specialists still deliver much more advantages than hiring local programmers. By implementing proven cybersecurity practices, it is possible to reap all the benefits of cooperating with remote experts and protect your development processes at the same time. In this article, we will take a look at the five best cybersecurity approaches that will help you to work with offshore IT services without worries.

Freelancers? Outsourcing? Offshoring? What Is Secure?

First of all, it is vital to understand the core difference between hiring a freelancer and offshore IT staffing. While the former may trade his talent with many different businesses at once and, thus, possess a real danger to the hiring company, by outsourcing software development team, you get dedicated professionals working on your project only. As you will have to open networks and sensitive data to remotely working employees that are not directly in control of the company, it is crucial to go for the most secure option possible.

What is more, when it comes to outsourcing vs. offshoring, the latter proved to be more effective and concentrated on the quality of the delivered products or services. The offshore security is on the higher level because of the dedication of such workers. So if you decide to hire an offshore development team, you are on the right path.

However, an offshore dedicated team is still more vulnerable than in-house business, being a third-party service that complicates cybersecurity risk management anyway. The good news is that although offshore companies have access to your technologies and data, they are fully responsible for any cybersecurity incidents that may occur. All specifics of data protection and usage should be spelled out in the contract signed between you and the offshore company at the start of cooperation. Thus, the offshore provider operates under your control, and there are regulatory fines, penalties, and spoiled reputation that will keep your dedicated development teams within the terms of the contract.

5 Cybersecurity Practices to Use When Offshoring Software Development

If you want to protect your data and avoid becoming a victim of a cyber-attack, take a detailed look at the tips mentioned below. When are you cooperating with a third-party company, make sure to perform the following risk management actions:

  • Create a separate repository for the offshore software development team. There, you can put only the information needed for completing the required tasks or the whole project, and the employees won’t have access to other important data of your company.

 

  • Establish a behavior pattern where the offshore team would have to notify you before accessing any of the information from the repository. This way, you will know what data was used and can monitor any additional activities.

 

  • Organize different levels of access for employees within the offshore team. For example, a project manager or senior developer should have access to the larger amount of information than a designer or SEO specialist.

 

  • Encourage a culture of responsibility in both your in-house and offshore employees. Every worker should be responsible for his or her actions and dedicated to keeping sensitive data safe.

 

  • Outstaffing is also a great solution when you are concerned about your cybersecurity and don’t trust third-party services. Outstaffing possesses a possibility to relocate outsourced specialists to your office for the duration of the project so that they could work as if in-house employees and you could control all the processes and communicate with them directly. This approach proved to be the most reliable and effective one as you can see your team members, how they work, and what information they access.

 

  • Don’t forget to terminate the access of the offshore company to core systems and sensitive data when the contract is completed.

Cybersecurity Practices Are a Must

As you foresee, cybersecurity is among the top things that matter in risk management, software development, and overall success of the company. Fortunately, it is possible to offshore a dedicated software development team and still keep all your cybersecurity concerns covered. Moreover, well-established cybersecurity practices can turn you to offshoring and its advantages if you have been thinking about outsourcing your project development tasks lately. Establish the latest cybersecurity approaches and enjoy the benefits of the offshore team!

If you need help with anything explained in this article Zen Zero offers IT support in Birmingham and surroundings.

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