Working from home doesn’t mean you need to abandon the security safeguards put in place as there would be in a corporate office environment. In addition to making sure your work-from-home setup is comfortable and efficient, don’t forget to also ensure you are following these best practices for a secure home office.
1. Implement multifactor authentication
The benefit of laptops is that they are portable, allowing you to work from anywhere. However this also increases the risk that your laptop can be lost or stolen. Creating a multifactor authentication provides additional barriers for any hackers to try and access your device. Speak to your IT department about getting this setup for all your work devices.
2. Use strong passwords
Connecting your work computer to your private home network can increase the risk of leaked data. Prevent hackers from accessing your information by making it as difficult as possible to guess your password. Consider using a password manager that generates strong passwords for you, using a less predictable series of lower and uppercase letters, numbers and special characters.
3. Follow company policies to the letter
Your employer likely has clear policies for accessing the company network outside the office. Those guidelines and rules should always be followed. Also be sure to report any suspicious behavior to IT immediately, and continuously run any updates pushed through for your operating systems and antivirus/malware software.
4. Keep your physical workspace secure
It’s equally important to make sure that your home office is physically secure, much like it would be if you were in a corporate office environment. In addition to expensive equipment, you could have documents containing sensitive information that should also be protected. Consider options for locking up equipment and documents within your home, like locking cabinets, or even installing a home security system.
5. Don’t allow family members to use your work devices
Gavin Silver, director of operations at Blue Fountain Media, reminds remote workers that the computer they do their work on is for employee use only – it’s not the family computer.
“Treat your work-issued laptop, mobile device and sensitive data as if you were sitting in a physical office location,” Hay added. “This will help you continuously associate your actions with a security-first and data-aware mentality in mind. For example, in a physical office location … your child [couldn’t] use your work-issued mobile device for games or movies. If you think of your laptop and mobile devices as work-only assets, it makes it far easier to control access to sensitive data and remain data-aware.”
If you’re looking for more tips or product solutions for ensuring a safe & secure home office environment, we can help! Contact us and one of our product specialists would be happy to discuss your specific needs.