4 Tips for Practising Work-From-Home Data Security

July 09, 2020

Security Tips

To say the COVID-19 quarantine hit businesses unexpectedly is an understatement. Who could have anticipated the sudden need to have all your staff work from home?

The transition to a work-from-home (WFH) business model is made somewhat easier with online communications, cloud computing and Zoom meetings. But there are many business practices that don’t translate as well, especially if your business had few or any WFH employees previously. And work from home data security may be one of the most crucial of those practices.

Data Security for a WFH Business Model

Corporate data security, for both digital and printed data, is far easier to practice in a workplace than with a remote workforce. Still, there are steps you can take to minimize data security risks.

1. Increase Awareness of Data Security – Working from home often means a less formal approach to work and employees may use their own devices to access corporate data. Remind your staff to be diligent about keeping corporate information secure.
   
   While they may not all apply to a WFH model, resend your corporate policies on internet usage, access control and social media messaging. Also, encourage managers to regularly follow-up on data security practices with their teams.
2. Update Passwords – Employees should be asked to update the passwords to any devices they use to work from home to corporate standards. This includes resetting their standard home wi-fi router passcodes.
3. Offer to Provide Up-to-Date Data Security Protection – Device security, including virus and threat protection, and firewall and network protection, should be up-to-date and functioning on all WFH devices.
4.  Create a Policy for Handling Corporate Documents – If employees need to print corporate documents at home, you should outline proper document handling procedures. Whenever possible, corporate documents should be kept under lock and key. At the very least, they should be kept together and not visible or easily accessible to anyone else at the employee’s home.
   
   When employees return to the office, they should bring with them all the corporate documents they created. This lets the company practice proper document storage and document shredding procedures.

If you found this article helpful, check out our recent post “Why Every Home Should Have a Document Shredder”.