How to Protect Yourself from Cyber Attacks while Working from Home

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Work from home creates a win-win situation for both employers and employees. Today, employees have the flexibility to start their work a bit late compared to their previous office routines.

Telecommuting becomes an interesting option for the working mothers and wives because they can better celebrate a work-life balance and even give proper care to their family members, which was not possible before while working 9 to 6 or 10 to 7 from the office.

The mutual benefits to both organizations and workers are cost-savings, job satisfaction, and uninterrupted productivity.

But what about the security risks of working remotely? Have you checked the evil deeds of cybercriminals? To help you know about the current updates about cyber fraud risks, we develop the Statista research. We eagerly want to inform you that after the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, an August 2020 survey of fraud examiners worldwide reported an increase in different forms of cyber threats. A significant increase in the cyber fraud risk was registered by 45% of respondents in May 2020. Moreover, 60% of respondents projected more cyber industry risks in the next 12 months.

It is difficult to change the bad habits of cybercriminals. Yet, we can control cyberattacks while working from home. This blog offers six tips to help you stay secure against cybersecurity threats while working remotely.

6 Best Ways to Prevent Cyber Security Attacks

Select a Secure Password

If you’re working from home, you may have access to your organization’s Gmail accounts or any other email ids. If you are the person who uses passwords like 12345 or abcde or has a habit of creating weak passwords, it’s high time to change from a simple to secure one because cybercriminals have password-cracking tactics. Unfortunately, guessing such types of passwords is their by-handed game.

Check out the tips to make a password secure:

  • The length of your password must belong.
  • It should be complex, too, because the complex passwords can give hackers so much headache, and they may avoid guessing.
  • Please don’t create a password with your lover’s name because it can also put you in a bad situation.
  • Always use a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters.
  • Your password should be case-sensitive. The best way is to use a mixture of upper- and lower-case passwords.
  • Try to include underscore or symbols with alphabets.
  • Don’t write your password on any paper. Also, avoid sharing your password with closer ones.
  • At Least choose eight to ten characters with a combination of percent signs, @ symbol, commas, parentheses, numbers.
  • Try to avoid reusing your passwords if you’re using the same password for social accounts, emails, and websites, where you’re also wrong. In the case of hacking one account, you can experience a loss of the other accounts.
  • Try to change the password every month or after two to three months.

Keep an Eye on System’s/Software Updates

It is another tip that you need to consider to protect yourself against cybercrime. Yes, updating your system is very important because every system or software update comes with new changes to improve the applications’ stability, security, and performance that may run on your computer system.

Moreover, with software updates, you can easily fix the bugs/defects present in your computer system. Otherwise, it can become the reason for hacking.

In our computer system, the operating system’s responsibility is to take care of important functions like file management, processor management, memory management, file management, job accounting, security management, device management, and system performance management. It also helps in finding errors and fixing them.

Cybercriminals take advantage of your system’s weaknesses. For example, if you don’t update your system completely, the hacker will hand over this task to commit a cyber attack.

Know the Importance of Firewall

Due to the growing number of cyber-attacks and data theft, the importance of firewalls is increasing day by day. It prevents hackers from gaining unauthorized access to your systems, emails, data, and more.

If your company’s work is related to technologies and you work online through the internet, it is essential to stop malware and external threats with firewalls.

There are various benefits of installing firewalls. You can check below if you’re seriously concerned for your organization’s privacy and want to prevent yourself from cyber-attacks while working remotely.

  • Firewalls monitor network traffic.
  • Firewalls stop spyware attacks.
  • Firewalls provide strong privacy.
  • Firewalls are good for virus attack prevention.

5.    Data Backup & Recovery

Getting a data backup is extremely important if you’re not sure about the security of your system. If you lose one file, your company can fire you immediately and insult you in front of your seniors.

The backup aims to establish a copy of data that you can recover later in a primary data failure occurrence. Data corruption, data deletion, hardware or software failures are the best examples of primary data failures.

Discover the range of best backup software and use it in 2021 to protect yourself against cyber threats:

  • Backblaze
  • AOMEI
  • Synology
  • Acronis
  • Ashampoo
  • OneDrive
  • IDrive
  • Google Backup & Sync
  • Azure
  • Ivybackup
  • Backup Radar

6.    Use a VPN

Definition of a VPN is a Virtual private network that gives you data security and privacy and operates as an intermittent service between you and your host site. It is the ideal choice to surf the internet safely and keep your connections and devices secure against cyber attacks.

Most people feel so excited when they get to know that Wi-FI is public and free to use. Yet, there are various security risks associated with it, like malware attacks and data breaches.

Most professionals and businesses prefer VPN connections to connect to other private networks via the internet because it allows access to private data remotely. In addition, it helps to control and manage the files through remote access.

However, if you’re working from home with your Wi-Fi connection, it’s time to roll up the sleeves to protect your mobile devices and computers from viruses and other attacks.

By using a DNS (Domain Name Server) technique, attackers can breach the safety of your home Wi-FI and eventually give you big harm.

They can ask for credit card numbers or Facebook login credentials by playing a smart trick, and they can redirect your traffic to a website, which they manage for illegal use. Thus, it is vital to strengthen your home network and secure it with a strong encryption password.

Get a Training

Don’t feel shy if you have the least knowledge about security or networking. It would be best if you asked for training at your company to protect yourself from cyber threats.

There are tons of online videos, cybersecurity guides, and Youtube videos available on the internet that you can prefer to tackle the new age of cybercrime.

Conclusion

The situation of COVID-19 is not normal yet. According to the research, top companies like Amazon, Facebook, Infosys, Microsoft, Salesforce, BugRaptors have decided to do remote work for a longer period. So, whether you’re an employer or an employee, you need to focus on the security tips mentioned above to help you work from home with a sigh of relief. By implementing the given security factors on your regular remote work routine, you can protect yourself from cyber-attacks and save your company’s business and reputation.

How to Protect Yourself from Cyber Attacks while Working from Home

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