Working remotely has become the new norm for many. Here are some tips to securely work from any location of your choice.
The pandemic permanently transformed many aspects of our everyday lives, including the workplace. Working remotely has become more commonplace than ever before, with nearly 58% of Americans having the option to work remotely, according to a McKinsey report.
Working remotely has its many perks including working from a location of your choice, being able to blend your work and home responsibilities, saving on transportation costs, avoiding distractions and more. This isn’t to say working from home doesn’t have its negatives as well.
When you are working from the comfort of your home, you forgo the protections an office offers you such as a secure connection, an IT person to help you with all your concerns, and being surrounded by usually trusted coworkers.
When working from a location of choice, your cybersecurity risk is higher as you are exposed to a series of threats ranging from a hacker in a coffee shop to a curious toddler accidentally sharing sensitive information.
To make your remote work environment as secure as possible, we talked to experts and put together a list of the best habits you can practice.
I know one of the biggest perks of working remotely is being able to work from a setting that fuels your productivity, which can often be a public place such as a coffee shop, library or park. However, by working in a public place you are exposing yourself to serious cybersecurity risks.
The first, and most direct one is over-the-shoulder attacks, also known as shoulder surfing. All this takes is for an observant, determined hacker to be sitting in the same space as you paying close attention to your every move.
Once you are hard at work and concentrated on getting your task done, they can be discreetly jotting down all your data which they can use for a future attack.
The second reason to avoid working in public spaces is the potential data breaches you open yourself up to utilizing public WI-FI, as explained in the next tip.
To practice safe remote working, if you have to work in a public place, you should avoid connecting to public Wi-Fi. Working in public spaces has its own set of risks, but public Wi-Fi networks will only amplify your risks of getting hacked and put corporate sensitive information at risk.
«As you use public Wi-Fi, you are exposing your laptop or your device to the same network somebody else can log on to so that means they can actually peruse through your network, depending on the security of the local network on your laptop,» says Gartner VP Analyst, Patrick Hevesi.
Doing work in a public space while also not using public Wi-FI may seem like a paradox, but there are simple and secure solutions. The first is using a VPN when accessing corporate information in public.
A VPN is a virtual private network that adds an extra layer of security through an encrypted connection between your device and the internet.
«If you have to use the public Wi-Fi, then to access corporate sensitive information, use the VPN,» says Tapan Shah, EY Americas Consulting Cybersecurity Leader.
Another more simple solution is turning on your phone hotspot to connect to the internet in a coffee shop.
