Reopening your business soon? Here are important things to consider

A couple walks in an almost empty Outlets at Traverse Mountain in Lehi on Friday, May 1, 2020. A select few stores at the shopping center are open. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

As the state begins to lift restrictions on businesses, a cybersecurity executive offers advice on how to say safe — physically and digitally — as Utahns get back to work.

As sure as the sun rises, we will overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolve of the American spirit is strongest when tested, and history is replete with horrors and hardships that we have endured and overcome, such as plagues, pestilence and war.

In the coming days, weeks and months, Utahns will return to normal working conditions. Small business owners will turn the lights on for the first time in months, restaurants will welcome customers to their dining rooms, and manufacturing assembly lines will begin moving at full speed ahead.

This is an important step in our nation’s road to recovery — but before we take the steps of reintegrating our societies from social distancing to close proximities again, we must also reintegrate our employees. To do so, here are a few things you should consider.

To start, make sure you physically clean thoroughly, not just for viruses and bacteria, but dust, mildew and any potential mold that has settled. This serves not only to ensure good health but also raises the morale of your workforce when they enter back into a clean environment. After all we’ve experienced, this simple step will help bring an air of security and comfort to our work atmospheres.

Then, just as your work areas have been stagnant for an extended period, it is likely that you have many computers and network appliances that have remained off or in extremely low usage. Bring in your IT and network operations personnel first. This is a great opportunity to bring up your network environment in a deliberate fashion where systems can be scanned, cleaned and patched.

From there, you should review and update your Incident Response and Disaster Recovery procedures and documentation. Ensure that you have a written analog version of your critical systems and infrastructure. Keep a printout of your software versions, vendors, contract and contact numbers, and the physical and logical topology of those systems. This will save you hours, days and even weeks of heartache and misery should you fall prey to ransomware or another cybercrime.

Next, check your backup and disaster recovery infrastructure. You are going to have a heightened vulnerability footprint while you are getting back up and running, so make sure if you have to recover and reset you can do it quickly.

Another key factor for consideration is if your staff is returning to the workplace with devices they may have been using at home. To minimize the threat of connecting these devices to the corporate network, you should ensure every device is scanned, cleaned, patched or, as necessary, reimaged to ensure that any necessary security leniency is tightened back up before the device enters the greater network.

Speaking of security, have all your staff redo their annual security training. Put it fresh in the team’s mind as they ramp back up to day-to-day operations.

Lastly, and arguably one of the most important, rally the troops! You have not been together in a while. Ensure your team is mentally, spiritually and physically ready to get back to business. Be positive, be present, be available and be empathetic. We have all atrophied a little in many different ways — just be patient and caring.

This will take time. It will take blood, sweat and tears, but we will overcome and be better for it if we stay positive. In the immortal words of Margaret Meade, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Terrence McGraw serves as President of PC Matic Federal. He is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, where he served as both an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer leading critical cyber operations for various Army commands, including the Network Enterprise and Technology Command, Army Cyber Command and Signal Intelligence agencies.

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