Security Hacks While Working From Home
With more and more people working remotely these days, it’s as important as ever to keep you and your company’s data safe. Around 90% of data breaches are caused by human error. So with that said, here are some examples of the security risks that come with working from home and how to solve them.
The most obvious risks are physical. It’s much easier to have a laptop or phone stolen than a desktop computer that’s permanently located in your office. Never leave your devices unattended to in case you are working from public places. Always keep your devices within reach. Put them away and take them with you, even if you plan to only get up for a second. Be sure to also watch out for looky-loos peering at your screen. Avoid working in areas where people can look over your shoulder, such as in front of windows or the middle of a cafe.
Be keen and always out fork kids and pets while working from home. They can easily delete work by accident or access files that shouldn’t be tampered with. It’s good practice to create separate accounts for work and personal use with different passwords for each and to get in the habit of locking your screen when you walk away from your computer. You can even place your computer in a locked cabinet or room for extra safety when you aren’t working.
The less obvious risks are digital and can come in many forms. Many personal computers may not have the proper anti-virus and anti-malware software installed. This can leave you wide open to phishing scams and hackers hijacking information.
Whether you’re using your personal computer or work computer, the best method here’s to never open emails from people you don’t trust or click on links or open attachments that seem suspicious. You should also always use company approved software for your work.
Not all software is developed with the same security standards and third-party software can easily compromise the security of your device. Password security is also extremely important, leaving posts with passwords attached to your monitor or reusing the same password for all of your accounts is like having no password at all. It’s best practice to use a password manager, which makes it easy to create and update strong individual passwords for all of your accounts.
Just remember that the password manager software you use should be approved by your company ahead of time. Lastly, whether you’re connecting to the internet through a private home network or a public shared network VPNs are the best method to keep you as secure as possible VPNs work by routing all of the data coming from your computer through a private server, essentially blocking any unwanted visitors that may be connected to the same network. Follow these guidelines while working remotely to ensure you work as securely as possible.
