5 Security Tips for Working Remotely from Home

While most office-based staff are now working from home, it’s important to follow security advice.

Here are the top 5 tips that we recommend if you are now working from home.

1) Physically secure devices

At the end of the workday, keep your work devices secure.  Your employer may have a different insurance policy which could be in breach if you are not securing your work devices at the end of the day.

We recommend a locked desk drawer or cupboard.  Wise from an insurance perspective, but also if the devices get into the wrong hands, there is the possibility of a data breach.

To help minimize the effects of this, we recommend device encryption.  The most common type of encryption on a Windows-based device is using the inbuild BitLocker security feature.

We strongly advise if you do want to use BitLocker that you leave it to an IT professional to set up and manage on your corporate network.  It’s very easy to get this wrong and lock yourself out of your device.

2) Lock your computer screen

When away from your computer it’s best practice to lock your computer screen.  Not only will this keep your data safe, but if you’ve got kids or pets that can quickly start pressing keys on the keyboard, this ensures there’s less chance of disruption to your desktop.

The quickest way to lock your screen in if you are on a windows based computer is by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and choosing “lock” from the menu.

If on a Mac the option is Command+Control+Q.

Both Windows and Mac have an option to automatically lock the screen after a certain period of inactivity. This is useful if you forget to lock.

3) Don’t display documents with sensitive info.

Don’t leave documents with sensitive information or password laying around on your desk – this is best practice in both the home and office environment.

From an IT security perspective if people have trouble remembering your passwords they tend to write them down instead using a passphrase to make it more memorable.

Passphrases are usually more secure than passwords as they are longer and easier to remember.  Here’s a passphrase generator that can give you some examples.

4) Keep all devices security patched.

Most IT providers will do this for you, but when working at home, it sometimes can be missed if your device is not in regular contact with the server that controls patch management.

It’s also worth noting that if you are using a non-company device or computer to access or do work, then it’s your personal responsibility to keep this updated.

5) Secure your wifi

Most home-based wifi solutions tend to be less secure than office-based solutions.  This makes it important to make sure you are using a secure wifi password on your internet router.

If you weak wifi security this can be all that is required for a hacker to gain access to your company data by impersonating other websites.  This is known in the industry as a man in the middle attack.

If your wifi becomes compromised, it’s all too easy for a hacker to impersonate a website that you regularly visit and capture your login credentials.

This allows them to gain access to all sorts of information that otherwise would be secure.

If you are worried about the home IT security of your employees or colleagues, please not hesitate to get in touch with us and we can help educate your staff on best practices.