Cybersecurity tips for people working from home

People who were told by their employers to work from home usually don’t benefit from the same cybersecurity protocols followed in their workplace. IT managers often have cybersecurity products installed in individual work desktops, as well as have robust network infrastructure which can deal with cyber-attacks. Hardly is this the case for your personal devices unless your employer provided you cybersecurity products to use at home. If you have very little idea of the cybersecurity landscape, not knowing how cybercriminals conduct their attacks, here are some cybersecurity tips you can follow to work safely from home.

Secure your home router

Almost every router comes with a default set of passwords. This can be changed easy enough. However, if you haven’t, do so now. Cybercriminals have most likely compounded data on routers such as which ones come with default passwords, and what those passwords are. If you don’t act quickly, they could get into your devices and monitor your internet traffic.

Change passwords regularly

Tech-savvy people log in to a lot of websites and services including for work, social media, and personal emails. This can make it difficult to manage passwords if you use different passwords for each website. Likewise, it would be unwise to have just one password for all your accounts. This is why people should change passwords regularly and make sure they are deemed strong enough. As a general rule, strong passwords should contain capital letters, special characters, and alphanumeric characters.

Watch out for phishing emails

Cybercriminals often use emergencies and people’s paranoia in order to fool them into opening fake emails and downloading malicious files. They could use the coronavirus as a topic in order to ask for your phone number, email address, home address, as well as other relevant information they may use for further attacks. As a general rule, do not download files from emails from unknown sources.