With the massive surge in home working due to the pandemic, several vulnerabilities have become more apparent. Working from home meant that people were using their own private devices more and more for work which opens a security can of worms for company IT admins. How do you ensure that someone is not working on a compromised device while accessing and working on client information?

Of course, the most obvious thing to do is provide all staff members with work machines that are managed and protected by your own systems.

Another option is to use remote virtual desktop systems. This allows your team to work from any computer without the risk of data contamination or leakage. For example, a home worker can login from their own machine, access and work on all relevant company systems and when they are done, no data is left behind and there is no risk of any nasty surprises crossing over to the virtual system. This can also save a lot of money as no more expensive computers would need to be purchased for workers.

On top of and aside from all this, there are the best practiced that everyone should work to. Most security issues are often caused by needless mistakes or lapses in basic security within a team. Some important points are listed below

1. Never click on or open any links/attachments you receive by email, chat or web from anyone you would not expect to have received them from.
2. Never open or run any apps downloaded from the web unless you are sure of their origin and source.
3. Never use your work login credentials to login to any sites unless they are official portal web sites for known work apps and services.
4. Never connect a memory stick or external hard drive to your machine unless you are sure of its origin and contents.
5. Ensure that your machine is up to date with the latest operating system and application updates and be sure to have an up to date anti-virus/malware system running on your machine. Of course, if you are using a work machine, this should already be the case.
6. Make sure you have active and up to date backups of your work and data. Again, this should be taken care of by your IT service.
7. If in any doubt at all, check with IT, that’s what they are there for. Its always better to be safe than sorry.

For more information or any questions, reach out to us at Tech Gloves so we can Help you keep safe online.