Secure Home Environment When Working Remote
After Covid struck across the Globe more people than before are working from remote, i.e., mostly their home. This has forced organizations to booster their VPN connections so more users can be connecting at the same time, but little or even no thoughts have been given to the security around the organization’s laptop connecting from a usually less protected environment than in the office.
There are a couple of things for each remote worker to investigate, helping their employer to stay secure, or rather the information of the organization.
Below is a non-exhausted list of things to do for every user working from home:
Starting from your organization’s laptop
- Always lock your laptop (Windows – click windows button and L at the same time) when there are several other persons in the home.
- Make sure to always approve updates that your organization is providing to the laptop including updates of security software such as malware detection etc.
- At least during weekends shut down laptop so it reboots fresh for the next time you are using it.
In the home environment
- Make sure that you have replaced the default password on your network device that is connected to Internet.
- Secure that regular updates are done on the device so that vulnerabilities found are fixed.
- Enable encryption of wifi traffic towards the network device and set a good level on the passphrase, i.e.., instead of complex password use a phrase e.g “The spring has come to Helsinki”.
- Take care of printed documents especially if they are containing confidential or personal data so nobody else in your home can access it.
When working from another remote place than your home you still need to take some precautions, mainly related to the laptop as at home.