HOW TO WORK FROM HOME SECURELY

When you step into your office or cubicle and sit down to work at a company-owned computer, you shouldn’t have to worry much about security.

- NEIL J. RUBENKING

That’s what the IT department is for, right? But these days, things are not so simple. If you’re one of the many people who’ve suddenly found themselves working from home, you’re responsible for doing so securely.

Don’t worry, though: There are plenty of things you can do to upgrade your work-from-home security, and many are quite simple to implement. Follow the tips below to make sure you’re not the one who accidentally exposes HR records or leaks company secrets to a competitor.

SECURE YOUR COMPUTER

If you’re new to working from home, chances are good you simply promoted your existing personal computer to be a work computer. For work, though, you need to take security seriously. Maybe you thought, “I’ve got nothing a hacker would want,” and hence skipped antivirus protection? That won’t fly with your boss, so get protection right away. If you already have an antivirus, check that it’s fully enabled and up to date.

Speaking of keeping things up to date, now is a good time to double-check that you’ve got your computer set to receive all security updates automatically, especially Windows updates. Each time Microsoft comes out with a patch, the patched vulnerability becomes public knowledge. Malware coders jump in, hoping to exploit the security hole before the update disables it.