Online Security Basics for Work at Home Employees in 2020

WFH Employees should know these Security Basics

The concept of working at home has gained popularity in the past decade, and thanks to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, the concept has become a reality for many businesses, big and small.

And despite many businesses having plans in place in case something like this ever happened, I worry for the security problems some may run into. After all, it can be hard to enforce good security when you’re not there to oversee your employees.

If you’re looking for ways to avoid the headaches involved with fixing security issues, allow me to give you a few tips that’ll keep you from hurting yourself and the business. Specifically, I will be going over 4 tips that could save you a lot of time and money.

Teach your Employees Basic Security

Not everyone knows the ins-and-outs of security, though isn’t typically a problem in a regular office environment; you’re typically able to oversee what a coworker or employee is doing. However, when everyone is working from home, the lack of security knowledge becomes an issue.

To avoid this, hold frequent seminars to teach your employees about basic cybersecurity. Sure, not everyone may like the idea of frequent seminars, but you do what you have to do.

It’s known that the biggest risk to someone’s security is themselves, so teaching your employees to take care when working reduces the risk of them messing up or accidentally giving a cybercriminal access to confidential information.

Encrypt your Wi-Fi

Many people make the mistake of never encrypting their Wi-Fi, and while this doesn’t matter too much for regular house life, it does matter when working from home, where you’re handling confidential information over the same, unprotected network.

Fortunately, easy solutions exist that allow you to turn your network into a secure, encrypted hub, the best solution being a VPN, short for virtual private network.

With a VPN, you’ll be able to encrypt any data coming from your device, meaning no one—not your ISP, not your government, not your neighbors—will be able to intercept your data.

If you’ll be handling confidential information frequently, be sure to buy a VPN. Just don’t use a free VPN, because they’re notorious for being infested with problems. If you’re on a budget, you can check those online VPN deals to save a few bucks.

Force Strong Passwords

If your employees use weak passwords on everything they use, it’s only a matter of time before a hacker finds their way onto their account. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening by forcing employees to create strong passwords.

Forcing strong passwords is as simple as having the IT team change a few security settings in your security infrastructure. If you wanted to go even further, you could require passwords to be a certain length, contain certain symbols, and be changed every so often.

While this may prove an annoyance to some, it’s one of the best things you could do for your business’ security.

Keep your Devices Physically Safe

Ironically, one part of online security is keeping your devices secure physically. You’d be surprised how many people leave their devices strewn about their house or office, showing zero care for them.

Anything could happen, however, and it only takes one incident (such as a break-in) for that device (and its information) to be stolen. From there, who knows what could happen, but it wouldn’t be good.

With this in mind, encourage your employees to keep their devices safe. If you’re able to, think about giving your employees business laptops; this way, they’ll be more inclined to protect them. Some businesses are taking this exact approach right now.

Conclusion

Working from home welcomes a nice change of pace versus the typical office environment, but there are a few hurdles, with the security being the number one hurdle facing many businesses. However, as long as you take certain precautions and take the advice given here, you’ll be on your way to a successful work-from-home policy.