With the rise in remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the presence of online malicious actors and cybercrime has become even more of a relevant threat. Where once employees would mainly rely on company IT teams to establish and encourage cybersecurity best practices, working from home necessitates employees to prioritize good cybersecurity practice to protect their own data and the data of the companies they represent.

Here are some cybersecurity best practices to ensure you work from home as safely as possible.

Separate Work and Personal Devices

When you do work tasks on your home laptop, you might be jeopardizing sensitive business data, if your personal laptop lacks sufficient security protection controls. You can also reduce the amount of sensitive data exposed in a breach, if your devices have been separated. Carve out security boundaries between your work life and home life by keeping work devices and home devices clearly separate in their usage.

Keep family members away from work devices

While you may understand and employ with care your company IT security policies, it’s worth remembering that working from home means work devices are more likely to be exposed to young children and other members of the household.

Keep devices and stored sensitive information safe by not allowing other household members to access these work-related devices.

Use an Antivirus

One of the most effective security tips for working from home is to ensure you have installed an anti-virus or endpoint protection software on your device and enabled automatic update of your anti-virus software.

The anti-virus will allow you to scan all email attachments and downloaded software, to prevent running malicious content on your device. This is particularly important when working from home, where remote email and exchange of files is heavily relied upon, making the presence and use of an antivirus even more important.

Consider using a VPN

A VPN (Virtual Private Network), while useful for online privacy, can also protect your traffic from being intercepted by hackers. A VPN will encrypt all of your internet traffic to ensure that any data shared with your company’s network and technologies are safe from malicious actors. Where available, consult your institution for information on which VPN is recommended to be used.

Install updates regularly

Updates can often be seen as an annoyance for many, causing downtimes and delays for remote workers. But they are crucial, as they fix newly discovered bugs and security holes vulnerabilities that leave your devices vulnerable and exploitable targets to malicious actors.

Operating systems aren't the only thing that can be exploited. Any software can be, which is it is important to keep all operating systems, software and application up-to-date while working remotely.