5 Ways to Work From Home Safely

COVID-19 has profoundly affected the lives of millions of people around the world. This unprecedented pandemic has forced tech offices to rapidly adapt to a work-from-home business model. This pandemic has forced us to adapt to different ways of working, learning, and connecting, especially via the Internet. Although this ongoing crisis poses enormous social challenges, the wave of accelerated technological development in response has given us several ways to work from home safely, not just from physical threats, but also cyber ones.

The Work From Home Environment

Internet security was less of an issue in office settings where many companies have dedicated IT departments who can spend their days defending you. However, with a decentralized workforce, it’s almost impossible to identify and respond to specific threats. Even if everybody has company computers, they are accessing the Internet from vastly different portals. Remote updating is difficult at best for security patches. And that’s all assuming that people aren’t using personal equipment.

But just because you need to take a more active hand in your Internet security doesn’t mean you have to be vulnerable.

Here are 5 ways to keep up with internet security and privacy so you can work from home safely.

Use Antivirus Software

The first step to working safely from home is getting reputable antivirus software on your computer. This is something that you want to get a paid version of if possible. Antivirus software guards your computer against viruses, adware, and malware that could compromise your work. It can also filter out any malicious items that you may inadvertently download.

Protect Your Passwords

Password development and protection remain one of the most discussed cybersecurity topics in professional circles. There are many practices that can help you develop and maintain strong passwords, balancing length, complexity, character use, etc. In fact, we have created a guide to help you create strong, long-lasting passwords. As well as making passwords that are hard to crack, a good way to work from home safely is to choose different hardware and account passwords for your personal and professional tools.

Beware of COVID-19 Related Scams

Scammers are always on the lookout for new opportunities to fool people, so a cottage industry of phishing and scam campaigns has sprung up surrounding COVID-19. You may receive emails with suspicious links or attachments related to the pandemic, texts claiming to be from the government, or offers for black market “cures.” You will never be emailed or texted about the virus unless you specifically request information. Never open links or files from unsolicited sources. In fact, since other scams haven’t stopped just because there’s a pandemic, that’s good general advice to work from home safely.

Stay Stingy with Your PI

Your personal information is incredibly valuable, so keep it safe. First of all, unsolicited questions about you are almost always illegitimate, so don’t respond to them. Keep in mind also that sharing images of your remote work location, equipment, or tools exposes you to cybersecurity risks. Be conscious of what you share, and who you share it with to avoid opening up new avenues for attack.

Protect Your Privacy with a VPN

Every time you connect to the Internet, whether from home or elsewhere, several parties immediately have access to your data, including your Internet provider. Using a VPN is the best way to encrypt your data and protect your privacy by creating a secure end-to-end tunnel so that only you and the intended recipient have access to your data.

At PrivadoVPN, we stay alert, and informed and provide you with the latest technology so you can work from home safely!