How to protect your self when working remotely

There have been many reports of an increase in cyber-attacks on remote workers by up to 400%. We need to do all we can to protect ourselves, our company data and our personal data at the moment. There are some relatively simple things we should do to protect ourselves.

Passwords

Maintain good password hygiene. We should use complex passwords and multifactor authentication where possible. Don’t use the same password for everything. Don’t reuse business passwords for personal applications. Think about using a password manager to store and generate complex passwords.

Patch

Update systems and software with the most recent security patches. Patch on a regular basis and as soon as possible after patches are released.

Wifi

You may be surprised but many people never change the default password on their WIFI access point. A breach of your home network via WIFI may provide a foothold into other devices within the home.

VPN

Use a virtual private network (VPN) to create an encrypted tunnel between you and your company systems. If you use a remote desktop ensure it is properly configured. Allowing facilities such as mapping of local drives, local printing or copy and paste, can create significant scope for a breach.

Mixing Business and Personal

While it may seem convenient to use your business laptop for all of your personal needs, it isn’t a great idea. Personal email and web surfing is much more likely to introduce malicious software.

Scams

Also see our post on COVID-19 themed scams. We’ve seen phishing e-mails, malicious domains and fake apps out in the wild already

Contact us if you need help

If you are still concerned about the security of your organisation or your remote workers feel free to ask a question at our hotline – http://secmon1.com/cyberhotline

Feel free to download our free guides at our blog page – https://secmon1.com/blog/