Some Common-Sense Practices to Keep Handy While Working Remotely
Never worked from home? Not a regular “road warrior”? Forgot how to log on remotely? Take a moment today to make sure you are ready, in the event you need to work from home -- or are already doing so.
Concerns stemming from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have motivated numerous organizations to direct that their employees temporarily remain home and/or work from somewhere other than their usual places of employment. That’s probably a prudent decision. But due to rapidly developing circumstances, the directive to do so might come quickly and unexpectedly, with little time to prepare. For some employees, this may be the first time they’ve been required to – or even allowed to --work from home for any given period of time. Exceptional circumstances may even necessitate doing so by relying upon personal devices and systems, which is typically not permitted. Remote access may be essential to maintaining productivity, but it may originate from networks that are already compromised or at a significantly lower security posture than the corporate network. Particularly in this extraordinary situation, it is therefore important to follow some ordinary common-sense considerations about working remotely.
Review your organization’s policies and procedures regarding remote computer access.
Although you may not have had the need to do so earlier, be sure to consult and follow your organization’s rules and requirements governing remote access to its systems and devices. Especially if you are only temporarily being given remote access privileges, it is important to ensure that a remote access connection is given the same consideration as an on-site connection.
Get squared away with your IT department before leaving the office.
Since an announcement that “the office is closed until further notice” can come at any time, it would be ideal to coordinate with your organization’s IT resources beforehand to ensure that your systems and devices are properly set-up and up-to-date with the software and access needed to securely and efficiently work from home.
Stay with what you know.
Use a company-issued computer when working remotely, if possible. Conversely, avoid using your work computers for personal use and don’t save sensitive work data to your personal computer! Avoid using public Wi-Fi and check your phone and other device settings to ensure they do not auto-connect to public Wi-Fi.
Keep your home equipment in fighting shape.
The IT staff at the office ordinarily work hard to keep your work devices and systems secure and properly updated with the latest software patches and security updates. But at home, it is easy to skip software updates. This is a mistake that may open the door for hackers. Are your home computer and personal devices also properly updated, patched, and sufficiently secure? Again, check your organization’s policies and practices, but it is generally important to maintain the most up-to-date anti-virus and other security software on personal computers if used to access the corporate network.
Use tech smartly.
Utilize multi-factor authentication (MFA) and encrypt your laptop/desktop using full disk encryption.
Remain vigilant.
Cybercriminals never waste a good crisis. Knowing that people will be working in more relaxed and unusual circumstances, hackers and malicious actors may step up efforts to target home-based employees through phishing and other business email compromise schemes. Likewise, knowing that everyone is fixated on the latest news about the pandemic, cybercrooks may promote fake websites, messages, and posts designed to trick visitors into clicking on things that they otherwise wouldn’t in order to infect computers with malware. Indeed, a trend of threat actors targeting a broad set of victims with COVID-19-themed attacks has already been identified. So, please stay vigilant, question anything unusual, verify the source and intent of electronic communications, and confirm legitimacy before clicking on anything!
