The number of people who work from home has slowly but steadily increased from year to year. In 2020, however, that number skyrocketed as companies across the country were forced to implement telecommuting policies. Making the transition from traditional office to home office has brought a few challenges, but arguably the most challenging aspect of the process has been maintaining cyber security.
Keep Yourself Safe with Network Security Assessments
Employees who work from home are more susceptible to cyber-threats than employees who work in the office. The reason is organizations can afford enterprise-level cyber security services. The average home not only doesn’t have access to this level of security, but it may also lack basic security measures.
As you work from home, it’s important to realize that you’re more vulnerable to potential cyber attacks when working on your home network. Fortunately, there are ways for you to make sure that you don’t fall victim to the likes of phishing scams, malware, and other threats. One step you can take to enhance your cyber security is a home security assessment. This can help you identify problems and provide home security recommendations.
Here are a few security factors that a home assessment tends to consider.
Physical Security
While it may seem obvious, it’s easy to forget about the physical safety of your work devices. Is your equipment out in the open where others can see? Can the other people who live with you login into your devices? These are important questions you need to answer. According to home security guidelines:
- If you leave your home office for any reason, make sure your work tools are shut down and locked away.
- If you live with family members or a roommate, lock your devices, even if you’re only stepping away briefly to get a glass of water.
- If you can’t create a separate space to work in, be sure to gather all of your gadgets at the end of the day and put them somewhere out of sight.
System Access
This is a security measure that’s in relation to physical security. In addition to keeping your work tools locked and out of sight, you should make sure it’s difficult for anyone else to log into your devices. This can help prevent unauthorized access attempts.
- Password protection: All of your devices should require a login. The password should also be a strong one that not only incorporates letters and numbers, but also special characters.
- Wi-Fi protection: The wireless network you work on should also be password protected.
- Visibility: When you connect your computer to a network, it gives you the option to make your device discoverable. If your computer is visible, you should go into the connection settings and turn visibility off.
Secure Connections
Security is something that should be approached from all angles. In addition to improving your physical security, you should also focus on neutralizing security threats in your network security. This doesn’t need to be much different from the cyber security best practices you would normally follow at the office.
- Be wary of phishing emails: When COVID-19 first arrived in the U.S., there was a large influx of phishing scams attempting to take advantage of the situation. These threats are specifically designed to trick people into giving up sensitive information.
- Install a VPN: A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your activity and allows you to access networks anonymously.
- Scan your devices: Don’t forget to have reliable antivirus software installed on your devices. Have the software scheduled to scan your gadgets regularly.
Other Precautions
There are a few security measures that happen to fall outside of these categories. However, they’re still just as important to keep in mind.
- Keep up with updates: While it may be annoying to continually update your software, it’s important. Updates are released frequently because they often provide patches that close exploitable security gaps.
- Data backup: Accidents can happen at any time and the last thing you want is to lose data. Use secure storage devices to make copies of your data, so you always have access to your information if anything happens.
Stay Secure with Stability Networks
The Stability Networks team specializes in keeping clients safe from cyber threats. If you’re concerned about your cyber security, we can perform a network security assessment for you. With the information we gather, we can provide recommendations and guidance to help enhance your security.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
