Remote Work Safety

The Blurry Line Between Home and Work

Before 2020, corporate data was safely locked inside heavily fortified office buildings. Today, billions of dollars worth of intellectual property, patient records, and financial data are accessed from kitchen tables over standard, consumer-grade home Wi-Fi routers.

If a hacker compromises your home network (e.g., by hacking a cheap smart TV), they can use your personal network to leapfrog into your work laptop, bypassing the corporate firewall entirely.

4 Rules for Remote Workers

1. Separate Church and State (Devices)

Never use your work laptop for personal browsing, and never use your personal laptop for work.

• If your child wants to play a quick browser game, let them use your personal iPad, not the corporate laptop.
• Do not check your personal email or log into your personal social media on your work machine.
• By keeping these two worlds completely physically separated, a virus downloaded from a personal email cannot infect your company’s network.

2. Always Connect to the VPN

Your company likely installed a Virtual Private Network (VPN) app on your laptop (like Cisco AnyConnect, GlobalProtect, or Zscaler).

• You must turn this on the exact second you open your laptop.
• The VPN creates an encrypted, armored tunnel from your living room straight into the corporate office. Even if a hacker is currently inside your home Wi-Fi network, they cannot see or alter the data passing through the VPN tunnel.

3. Secure Your Physical Workspace

Just because you are at home doesn’t mean physical security stops.

• The Lock Screen: Treat your living room like a coffee shop. If you get up to make lunch or answer the front door, lock your screen (Windows Key + L or Ctrl + Cmd + Q on Mac). You do not want a toddler accidentally deleting a database, or a visiting contractor seeing confidential payroll info on your screen.
• Smart Speakers: If you discuss highly confidential client data over Zoom, consider muting or unplugging smart speakers (like Amazon Echo or Google Home) in your office, as they are essentially internet-connected microphones.

4. Beware the “Urgent IT Request”

Scammers know you are sitting at home, isolated from your IT department. They frequently launch highly targeted phishing attacks against remote workers:

• You receive a text: “This is John from IT. We are updating the VPN server. Please log in here to verify your credentials before 5 PM or you will be locked out.”
• Because you can’t just pop your head over the cubicle to ask John if the text is real, you might panic and click it.
• The Defense: If you receive a text, Slack, or email from “IT” demanding a password or an immediate software installation, ignore it. Open a new message in your company’s official chat app and ask the IT helpdesk directly if the request is legitimate.