Cyber Safety Best Practices for Working Remotely

With many working from home for the foreseeable future – several for the first time – it’s more important than ever for everyone to practice cyber safety, especially those who are not used to working remotely. By being vigilant, employees can take steps that will not only help protect their devices and home network but their company’s and colleagues’ devices and networks as well.
 
We all must be especially wary about questionable emails, links and text messages related to COVID-19. There has been a rise in the number of cyber scams exploiting the coronavirus, many specifically targeting those working from home. Always verify by phone any requests or links – even if the sender is familiar.
 
CompTIA has put together several cyber safety tips to help people stay safe while they work remotely. They include:

• Reset frequently used passwords, such as for your email account and router, every 3 months. Strong passwords are long, avoid common phrases and include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.
  
  

• Double check URLs to ensure they make sense and match the domain of the company’s main site and look at the far left of the address bar for a padlock icon to indicate a secure connection.
  
  
• Common signs of a phishing email are a sense of urgency (phrases like “click here to sign in now”), requests for wire transfers or personal data, requests for gift card purchases, payroll direct deposit redirections and uncharacteristic language or typos. Never trust links in emails, even if the rest of the email looks legitimate.
  
  
• Use a secure connection to ensure end-to-end encryption of data in transit. This can be a VPN to the offi­ce or from home to a security filtering company that will verify web connection links for safety.
• Keep your devices secure by always locking or logging off of your computer when you walk away from it, not using free or found USB drives and checking with your IT department before using any new devices on company laptops, phones, and tablets.

 
The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has also created a dedicated forum, covid19.comptia.org, with more information on working remotely during the Coronavirus pandemic.
 
With the right information and a few extra simple steps, everyone can practice cyber safety.

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