Do you feel like you’ve got more work to do now that you’re working from home? Do you find it challenging to balance your professional life and personal life because of the current remote work set-up?
Well, you’re not alone!
A recent study by global cybersecurity company Kaspersky among 760 interviewees from Southeast Asia (SEA) in May found that 46% of respondents from the region find it harder to “switch off” after work, than when they had to travel to their physical offices.
The study also found that 62% of respondents feel uneasy working online, raising concerns about their online security.
This was triggered by two factors:
- The nature of the confidential work they are conducting from home.
- Their home technology is not as secure as the technology at their office.
These respondents pointed out that using their own computers may risk the safety of their work data.
“Majority of our survey respondents from the region are working from home during this period where lockdown measures are still in place because of the pandemic. It is understandable and a welcome progress that a lot of them are more concerned about their online security given that our previous research showed 52% of businesses agreed that employees are security’s weakest link,” said Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
These numbers showed something promising, though, as 62% of the surveyed individuals from SEA professed that working from home has made them more aware of their digital security.
You too, shouldn’t take cybersecurity for granted, so here are some tips on how to boost the security of your home office:
- Install a reliable security solution on all devices that handle corporate data
- Regularly update everything installed on any device that you use for work purposes
- Configure your network connection correctly. First, make sure that the connection is encrypted to keep information safe from prying eyes. You can use the router settings to select or change the type of encryption — and remember that your Wi-Fi password should be strong.
- Change your router login and password. The default passwords for many models are not only too weak, but also known across the Internet and easily searchable.
- Use a virtual private network. When you’re connected through a VPN, all of your data will be encrypted regardless of the network settings, and outsiders will not be able to read it.
- Stick to corporate resources when exchanging documents and other information. Those cloud drives, but configured for business, are generally far more reliable than the free user versions.
- Be particularly suspicious of e-mails with links. If a link to a supposed document does not point to a corporate resource, better to ignore it.
Stay safe online, guys!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
