Work from Home During the Pandemic, and The Risk of Data Leakage

By Matt Brennan

More employees are being asked to work from home during the pandemic, in order for productivity to continue. This new arrangement is predicted to be more widespread, even as we recover from the current health crisis. For many employees, it may be their first time working from home.

They may be asked to work with critical business data on personal devices, or they may be tasked with using business devices on less secure WiFi networks. It’s important for your employees to take the necessary steps to protect company data as they work from home during the pandemic, whether they’re working on your devices or their own.

Unfortunately, not even a deadly biological virus is slowing cyberattacks. Below are some steps that your employees can take to more securely manage data as they work from their own homes.

Tips to Work From Home During the Pandemic

Use Antivirus Software – Updated software and antivirus platforms can help to prevent phishing and cyberattacks. While many platforms update automatically, some require that you manually check for updates. Some may also deactivate their antivirus software in order to maintain faster processing speeds.

But as new malware, viruses, and phishing schemes are developed daily, this is a risk that’s not worth taking. The best thing that you can do is to make sure that your virus protection software is activated and updated, and that it is working to protect your sensitive data.

Keep Backing Up Data – Data backups are the most surefire way to protect your business against data loss. While there may be a minor inconvenience on time, if data goes missing for any reason, you’ll rest easy when you can regain access. This may be as simple as a USB drive, or a cloud backup. An external hard drive could also be beneficial. Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive are all viable options for off-site cloud backup.

When you can successfully back this data up, it can minimize downtime following data loss.

Uninterrupted Power – You can buy devices that provide emergency power in the event of an outage, protecting your data from a loss if the power shorts out. These devices are often used in large office settings, but they’re also available in smaller form for personal use. Even if you only gain a few minutes of continued use, it’s long enough to save your work.

Treat Your Technology Well – The lockdown has put a high demand on certain consumer goods, and laptops are no exception. That’s not surprising considering the spike in working from home. With this in mind, it’s important to treat your technology as well as you possibly can. It may be time to change simple bad habits such as eating or drinking in front of the computer.

You may also want to clean the computer from time or get a cooling pad to prevent your machine from overheating. When you do everything possible to make sure that your devices are taken care of, you reduce the risk of data loss.

For those new to the setup, it can be challenging to work from home during the pandemic. But if you follow some of these simple suggestions, you should be able to keep data safe.