Securing Devices at Home & Work
2020 has been a challenge for all us. As many businesses moved from on-site work to working from home, we’ve all made adjustments. Most notably working from home a company loses some insights into the security and privacy of its work force and its data. Here’s a quick list of best practices you can do to boost your home office security during the pandemic and after.
Home Office Security Best Practices
Install updates and patches: Home office security starts with staying properly protected. Make sure all of your home office gear is updated regularly. This includes routers, modems, Internet of Things (IoT) devices (smart thermostats, assistants, etc.), mobile devices and your computers.
Lock down virtual assistants: Your virtual assistants (Echo (Alexa), Google Home, Siri, etc.) may be listening to you and your work conference calls. Make sure you understand how they work, when they listen and how to disable them from listening.
Monitor social media: This home office security tip is useful regardless of where you work. Understand the data you are sharing and how to lock down what is being shared. Hackers love to gather information about you from social media. Make it hard for them to get sensitive information about you on those platforms.
Protect your passwords: Strong passwords are still incredibly important to protecting your data at home at work, anywhere. Sharing passwords is still a bad thing to do, limit password sharing to an absolute minimum. Leverage a password manager to help manage your passwords and take the stress out of remembering the right password.
Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart
Take the time to read through our previous blogs to get the facts about cybersecurity. Staying safe online requires knowing what the risks are and how to best defend yourself and your organization from these risks. Understanding how the hackers think and act, is a starting point for defending yourself from them and ensuring your home office security and the privacy of your data and your company’s data.
Stay tuned each week in October as we’ll post a new blog for Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Written by: Chris Zambuto | Chief Information Security Officer @CMITBostonCambridge
