To stop or slow the spread of a highly contagious disease like COVID-19, public health professionals may adopt certain measures known as “social distancing.” Many businesses are engaging in social distancing by encouraging or mandating workers to work from home out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with state and federal government directives. Although sensible, this course of action creates cybersecurity challenges as employees shift from a reliable and secure office network to a distant site, where, in most cases, only Internet connectivity and electricity are necessities. This action expands a corporate network in ways that make it harder to secure, creating a chance for cybercriminals to profit from the circumstance. In reality, cybercriminals are already using “Coronavirus” and “COVID-19” as topic lines for phishing scams in an effort to trick an unwary employee into clicking on a link, opening an attachment, or unknowingly providing usernames and passwords in exchange for the installation of malware.

Here are the top 10 ways of that can help you and your coworkers stay safe while working from home:

  1. Don’t use the same device for business and play at the same time. Personal activities like Facebook, Instagram, and other online social media should only be done on personal devices. Combining different activities ups the risk.
  2. Make sure anti-virus is installed on your devices and that the virus definitions are kept up to date. As long as this situation persists, new infections and malicious websites will proliferate quickly, so be sure to frequently update definitions.
  3. Ensure that the operating system and application updates on your devices are current. These nearly usually include security upgrades.
  4. When laptops aren’t linked to the office network, use multi-layer security solutions. A challenge for internal IT teams who are now limited to supporting many work-from-home (WFH) users will also be alleviated by using a SIEM that is supported by a 24/7 SOC so it is always monitored for threats.
  5. Make sure your home Wi-Fi is protected by robust Wi-Fi encryption, such as WP2, and a strong, unique password for access. You should also change the router’s default admin password.
  6. Get rid of fake browser add-ons, which are frequently used for online shopping since they can download malware or steal data.
  7. Create a backup plan and stick to it. Users make errors, and even the finest security plans can have flaws. Your files might vanish in an instant if a ransomware attack manages to get through. Ensure that all servers and workstations are included in your backup plans.
  8. Make sure the VPN client software is updated if your office has set up a virtual private network (VPN) to connect back to corporate servers.
  9. Have a list of IT contacts that each employee is familiar with, along with their office hours, so they may call in case of an emergency. It is preferable to learn of a potential breach right away rather than the following morning.
  10. In general, clicking links on reputable websites is ok, but it’s not a good idea to click links in arbitrary emails and instant messages. When you click the link in a phishing email that claims to be from a legitimate organization, it may look just like the real website, but that is not the case. To be cautious, hover over links and read the URL they are actually heading to before clicking on them. Make sure the link is leading you to the sender’s website or another trustworthy website; typically, it is not a good idea to follow a link whose URL you are unfamiliar with.

Following these tips and being with a trusted MSP will greatly help you being an effective yet safe Work-from-Home employee.