With the pandemic turning the business world upside down, offices look less like hives of activity and more like ghost towns. Employees have had to make do with working from home, a dangerous proposition from the perspective of any risk-averse IT administrator or security officer.
It’s a given that a modern corporation will provide security to protect its business, employees, and secrets. In addition to outfitting every computer with endpoint detection and response (EDR) software to thwart malware, there’s usually access to a virtual private network (VPN) to shield communications from prying eyes and automatic updates to its operating system and apps with the latest security patches.
Still, those who work from home (WFH) will have to forgo some of the defenses that are taken for granted in at the office, like the company’s robust firewall and in-person tech support. Even if they’re outside the office’s protective sphere, there are several extra defensive layers that, with a little effort, WFH employees can use to raise their (and the company’s) security profile. Together, they constitute a beefed-up defensive posture to help avoid the hackers, industrial spies and the malware purveyors out there waiting to steal the company’s secrets and burrow into its internal network.
These supplemental WFH security tips should be a part of any organization’s security awareness training for remote workers. Most can be done in less than a minute and don’t require any special knowledge. I’ve shown how to do it on one platform but the concept can be extended to the other popular operating systems.
