10 Cybersecurity Tips to Follow When Working From a Home Office

Cybersecurity is paramount when working from a home office. You’ll typically be responsible for protecting your data – as well as your business’s data – from breaches. With telecommuting on the rise, though, rates of cyberattacks targeting home-office workers are rapidly growing. Fortunately, you can reduce your risk of cyber threats by following these 10 tips.

#1) Lock Down Your Wi-Fi

Many cyber threats in home offices involve unsecured Wi-Fi. If you work in a corporate office, you typically won’t have to worry about securing the Wi-Fi. Rather, your employer will handle all information technology (IT)-related tasks, including Wi-Fi security. Working from a home office, on the other hand, means you’ll have to lock down your Wi-Fi to keep bad actors out of your network.

Most Wi-Fi routers offer several security standards. When configuring your router, use WPA3-Personal if your router and devices support it. If WPA3 is unavailable, use WPA2 with AES encryption. Avoid older WEP and WPA settings. Choose a strong, unique Wi-Fi password, change the router’s default administrator password, and keep its firmware up to date. These steps help reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your home office’s network.

#2) Create Strong Passwords

Strong passwords are your first line of defense against cyber threats. According to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), the cited findings attributed four in five breaches to weak or compromised passwords. Weak passwords are easier to crack than strong passwords, so they pose an inherent cybersecurity risk.

For better protection against cyber threats, create a long, unique password for each account. Aim for at least 16 characters when the service allows it. A password manager can generate random passwords or help you store long passphrases. CNET also offers advice on creating strong passwords.

Change a password promptly if you suspect it has been exposed, reused on a breached service, or compromised. Follow your employer’s account-security requirements. Current NIST guidance does not recommend changing passwords simply because a set period of time has passed.

Depending on how many accounts you have, you may want to use a password manager. A password manager is a tool that centralizes all of your account passwords. You can store all of your passwords in a password manager. And instead of manually logging in to your accounts, you can use the password manager’s autofill feature. Just remember to create an ultra-strong master password for your password manager. If your master password is compromised, it will expose all of your stored passwords.

#3) Perform Software Updates

Regularly updating software will lower your risk of sustaining a cyberattack. Outdated software, such as your computer’s operating system, is often vulnerable to cyber threats. Developers typically release new versions of their respective software. Many of these new versions contain security patches that remove or fix vulnerabilities. If your computer has outdated software on it, it will remain vulnerable to cyber threats.

In addition to your computer’s operating system, you should update other types of software on it. Web browsers require updating just like operating systems. Whether you use Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera or any other web browser, you should update it as soon as a new version is released. Performing software updates is essential to securing your computer and protecting against cyber threats.

#4) Use a Firewall

Another way to protect against cyber threats when working in a home office is to use a firewall. A firewall is a security solution – either software- or hardware-based – that’s designed to filter network traffic. It doesn’t consist of a physical wall. Rather, a firewall serves as a digital wall between your home office’s network and the internet.

All traffic coming into your home office’s network must pass through the firewall. A firewall will essentially check incoming traffic to determine whether it should be allowed to enter your home office’s network. You can configure it to block potentially malicious traffic. It will allow legitimate traffic to enter your home office’s network, and it will block potentially malicious traffic. A properly configured firewall can block unauthorized connection attempts, but it cannot prevent every type of attack.

There are several types of firewalls, the most common of which is packet filtering. A packet-filtering firewall lives up to its namesake by filtering network traffic based on packets. Network traffic consists of packets. With a packet-filtering firewall, malicious traffic will be rejected based on its packets. There are Layer 7 firewalls as well. Also known as application firewalls, they filter network traffic based on application. They are considered more secure than packet-filtering firewalls because they support a deeper level of filtration.

Unless you’re familiar with the IT sector, firewalls may sound confusing. In reality, however, they are quite simple and easy to use. Most routers have a built-in firewall. You can enable and configure a firewall by logging in to your router. Alternatively, you can download a standalone firewall to use.

#5) Avoid Phishing Emails

Phishing is a concern when working from a home office. Statistics in the cited report attributed 32% of data breaches to phishing. A form of social engineering, phishing is a cyber threat that revolves around deception. It’s usually performed via email. In these phishing emails, a bad actor will attempt to trick you into revealing an account password or other sensitive information.

You can still use email for work-related purposes, but you should avoid falling for phishing emails. If you find a phishing email sitting in your inbox, don’t respond to it. Instead, mark it as spam. When marked as spam, the phishing email will be removed from your inbox. Marking a message as spam can also help your email provider filter similar messages in the future. Avoid clicking links, opening attachments, or replying to suspicious messages, and report them through your employer’s approved process.

Common signs of a phishing email include the following:

• Suspicious sender name and address
• Sense of urgency
• Misspelled words or bad grammar
• Broken images
• Non-personalized salutation, such as “To whom it may concern”
• Explicit request for sensitive information
• The presence of a fake invoice

#6) Choose HTTPS Websites

If you regularly use the internet during a typical workday, pay attention to the protocol of the websites that you visit. All websites use one of two protocols: HTTP or HTTPS. Of those two protocols, the latter offers the highest level of cybersecurity.

HTTP and HTTPS are networking protocols. The internet is a public network, and like all networks, it’s powered by protocols. Some websites use HTTP, whereas others use HTTPS. For a website to be accessible on the internet, it must use one of these two protocols. HTTPS websites, however, offer encryption to protect against certain types of cyber threats. When visiting an HTTPS website, all data that you send to the site – as well as all data that you receive from the site – will be encrypted. HTTPS helps protect data in transit from interception, but it does not guarantee that a website is trustworthy.

HTTP websites don’t offer encryption. In turn, using them can increase your risk of man-in-the-middle (MITM) cyber threats. If you submit sensitive information to an HTTP website, a bad actor may be able to see it. Encryption with HTTPS helps prevent attackers from reading data as it travels between your browser and the website.

#7) Install Antivirus Software

Of course, antivirus software can protect you from cyber threats. Viruses and other forms of malware are a common cyber threat facing home-office workers. They can steal or delete your data, slow down your computer or even demand a ransom (ransomware). With over 350,000 new malware samples per day reported by DataProt, you can’t ignore this common cyber threat. It only takes a single malware infection to cause severe harm.

Antivirus software is designed to protect against viruses and other forms of malware. Consisting of a program or set of programs, it will scan your computer for known malware. After installing antivirus software on your computer, you should configure it to scan your computer periodically for cyber threats.

If the antivirus software finds malware on your computer, it will do one of two things: delete the malware or move the malware to a safe location. If it can’t remove the malware, it will move it to a different location where it won’t affect your computer – a process known as quarantining. Quarantining can isolate a detected threat while you follow the antivirus provider’s instructions for safely removing it. The quarantined malware will be stored in a new location where it doesn’t have access to your computer’s files or data.

#8) Clean Up Your Data

Don’t forget to clean up your data. Failure to clean up your data will increase your risk of cyber threats. Regardless of what your job entails, you’ll probably use data to perform it. Most office jobs involve data. Cleaning involves going through data and deleting any data that you no longer need.

Data is particularly susceptible to cyber threats when stored online. If you use a cloud storage service, for instance, your data may be compromised if your account is breached. Cloud storage services are popular among businesses. A survey published by Statista found that 50% of corporate data was stored in the cloud. When stored online via a cloud service, data is prone to breaches. Whether it’s stored locally or online, though, you should clean up your data in accordance with your employer’s retention policies to achieve a higher level of cybersecurity.

Along with cleaning up your cloud-stored data, you may want to use multi-factor authentication (MFA). Most cloud storage services offer MFA as an optional cybersecurity solution. With MFA enabled, you’ll have to do more than just enter your username and password to access your stored data. For example, MFA may require a code from an authenticator app or a security key in addition to your password. Regardless, MFA will make your cloud-stored data more secure.

#9) Beware of Removable Storage Devices

You should use caution when using removable storage devices in your home office. Removable storage devices, such as external hard drives and Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives, can place you at a greater risk for cyber threats. This is due to the fact that they essentially bypass your home office’s network.

Removable storage devices can contain malware. If you plug an infected storage device into your computer, your computer may become infected as well. Network-level protection alone may not prevent infections introduced through removable storage devices. Even if your home office’s network has a firewall, malware can still enter it through an infected removable storage device.

To err on the side of caution, buy new removable storage devices to use exclusively in your home office. Don’t take these removable storage devices out of your home office. If you plug a removable storage device into another computer outside of your home office, using it in your home office may lead to a malware infection. Antivirus software can lower your risk of malware infections, but you should still use caution with removable storage devices.

#10) Implement Physical Cybersecurity Measures

Not all cybersecurity measures are digital. There are physical cybersecurity measures that you can deploy to protect against cyber threats. Locking the door to your home office, for instance, is a physical measure. If someone breaks into your home while you are away, a locked door may prevent him or her from entering your office and stealing your data.

If you use a laptop, as opposed to a desktop computer, consider storing it in a locked drawer at the end of your workday. Many office desks feature lockable drawers. You can close your laptop at the end of the workday and place it inside a locked desk drawer. This isn’t an option for desktop computers, but you can typically store laptops in a locked drawer to protect them from theft.

Working from a home office comes with the responsibility of securing your data. You’ll probably create and store a lot of data during a typical workday. Following these 10 cybersecurity tips will promote a more secure environment.

Mike Harley

President at Office Chairs Unlimited – I have been in the furniture industry for over 20 years, and I’m an expert (just ask me) on all things furniture. I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.