5 Secure Ways to Work from Home

With one in three Americans being ordered to stay at home in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, more companies than ever are allowing employees to work from home. Working from home may be a struggle for those trying to juggle time between getting work done and attending to family. There are probably dozens of things going on in your head while adapting to this change of lifestyle. But there is one more vital task that is most likely being overlooked; maintaining cybersecurity best practices.

As an MSSP, we have noticed a few trends over the past couple weeks in regards to working remotely that we wanted to share. Not only can remote workers have their own privacy put at risk, working from home could also result in breaching company security. To help you stay safe online so you can do your job with peace of mind, it is important to follow these five best practices:

1.When using home equipment:

While your IT department or MSP is doing their best to help you during this time, the results will depend upon the setup, configuration and stability of your home infrastructure and whether the home equipment and internet speed are up to the required standard to perform the tasks you are requiring. Remember not to get frustrated if something goes awry.

Home computers that will be used to access your corporate networks should not be shared with other household members (especially kids) in order to provide the best user experience and safest working conditions. Prior to these systems connecting to the office network the first time, you should ensure that anti-virus utilities are installed, up-to-date and a full scan of the machine has been run.

2. If you are using public wifi:

Most workers will be working out their home where they can secure their wifi. But some may have to use unsecured public wifi networks which are prime spots for malicious parties to spy on internet traffic and collect confidential information. Don’t connect to public Wi-Fi without VPN. If you must use them without, avoid accessing personal or business accounts with sensitive data while connected to that network.

3. Secure your home router:

Do you know if you changed your router password when it was first installed? Many people didn’t, which results in a vulnerable home network. It’s important to take simple steps to protect your home network to prevent malicious parties having access to connected devices. Changing your router password is a good first step, but there are other actions you can take. For example, you should make sure firmware updates are installed so that security vulnerabilities can be patched. The encryption should be set to WPA2 or WPA3. Restrict inbound and outbound traffic, use the highest level of encryption available, and switch off WPS.

4. Back up your data:

Data can be lost in a number of ways including human error, physical damage to hardware, or a cyber attack. Ransomware and other types of malware can wipe entire systems without you having a chance to take action. When working from home, always save documents to shared drives that are backed up to cloud. NEVER save important documents locally on your desktop.

5. Beware of COVID-19 related phishing attempts:

Hackers always look for ways to benefit from hard times. As the Coronavirus continues to circulate in the news, there will continue to be an uptick of COVID-19 related scams and cyber threats. Most cyber threats are only successful because of human error. Cybersecurity awareness training is crucial. Always beware of any external sites you visit, clickable links in emails, and communications requesting financial actions. For a more in depth look at this threat, take a look at our previous blog post https://kybersecure.com/coronavirus-phishing-threats-arise/.

Moving at short notice from a trusted office environment to working remotely can create security risks. During this time of unknowns, it is important to exercise these best practices to ensure that your organization doesn’t encounter a cyber breach in the midst of the chaos. If you have any questions regarding work from home strategies, please reach out to us. We are here to help.