How to make sure your home office stays secure all year round
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The old ways are well and truly done with — and working from home is now the norm for many of us.
After the pandemic forced us to transform our homes into workplaces, the focus is now on transforming the places into a productive and efficient workplace.
But safety is always a concern when working from home, where the less formal situation and the physical distance from the office often lead to a relaxed attitude. But don’t worry – our top tips will help you keep your home office safe.
Make sure all your devices are always safe
Now that many of us are used to working from home, you will most likely have your home office set up the way you want it, with all the hardware and devices you need.
It is more than likely that this setup involves more than just a PC, having additional devices such as printers, tablets and even your internet router itself can be weak spots when it comes to security as potentially lower security levels can give hackers an easy route to your network.
Using a security solution such as Bitdefender Total Security (opens in new tab) can help immensely in protecting and securing all your home office devices as the platform works with multiple software versions including Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It can be used on up to 15 devices per household, keeping your home office safe from threats
Activate a VPN
Most of us will have been familiar with using a Virtual Private Network or VPN before moving to a home office, but the technology has certainly come into its own in recent years.
By enabling employees to stay connected to a workplace intranet or collaboration network, VPNs have become an essential office tool, but they can also provide a useful security boost.
A VPN can hide your internet connection at will, making it appear as if it is coming from a different location or even a different country, meaning your online activities and location should be safe from snooping.
Bitdefender Total Security (opens in new tab) comes with its own secure VPN service that offers complete online privacy – and with a 200MB/day allowance, you can ensure your online fun remains a secret.
Boost your passwords
We’re all aware of the need for strong passwords, but working from a comfortable home location can make some of us a little too relaxed when it comes to security.
Keeping your passwords up to date and changing them every few months if possible is a critical step in ensuring that your vital online accounts, whether for work or personal, remain secure.
To help you keep track of all these passwords, Bitdefender Total Security (opens in new tab) comes with a built-in Password Manager service to take care of all your data, meaning you can create hard-to-crack logins for any account, as reusing passwords across multiple accounts means only one needs to be compromised for hackers to get knowledge of your logins for everything else.
Keep your guard up
Whether you are at the start of a start-up or part of a larger organization, your data will be an attractive target for criminals.
We’ve discussed how having a strong password is essential, as discovering or stealing login credentials or personal information like a date of birth or phone number can help hackers gain access to your accounts.
Staying vigilant for anything suspicious is always the best course of action, especially when it comes to working from home. Always ensure that any links you click in an email, or any attachments, are from a recognized and trusted source – a double check of the sender’s name or email header may suffice. Don’t open risky emails from someone you don’t know, especially on a work device, as the consequences can be quite costly.
Bitdefender Total Security (opens in new tab) features a range of tools to keep you protected against the latest threats, including an advanced filtering system that alerts you when you visit websites that may be trying to scam you. There’s also advanced anti-phishing protection that helps detect and block websites pretending to be trustworthy to steal financial information like passwords or credit card numbers.
For news on the latest threats, you can also get real-time updates on malware outbreaks and scams on the Bitdefender blog (opens in new tab).