Ah, what a blessing working from home is. Most people will agree that if you can take anything as a sort of positive from the pandemic, it’s the birth of the working-from-home era. Some companies are now making employees return to the office for more days each week, but most have kept up a work-from-home vibe with hybrid working. If you’re a work-from-homer, do you know how to maximise ‘digital hygiene’, or what that even is? Read on to find out.
Secure Your Home Network
Digital hygiene is essentially a habit you can adopt to maintain a healthy and secure digital presence. And now, more than ever, it’s essential to think about what we’re doing online and how safe we are – there are over 560,000 cyber attack attempts each day now, and so many people have access to your data online without you realising.
So, the first thing you can do is secure your network. Your home network is an entrance to all your online activities, making it an easy target for cybercriminals. Begin by ensuring that your Wi-Fi network is secure. Have a strong password for your WI-FI – most internet providers will give you a router with a completely random password. Also, enable network encryption; WPA3 is the latest standard offering the best security.
To be safe from known vulnerabilities, regularly update your router’s firmware. You can check for updates on most modern routers through their web interfaces and install them.
Use Strong Passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication
Weak passwords give hackers an easy way into accounts. We’ve mentioned router passwords, but you should also think about every password you’ve ever set. Only 34% of people from one survey change their passwords every month, with the recommendation being to change it every three months. And we’re not saying you have to create totally obscure passwords that you’ll never remember – it’s tricky enough to remember the one you created with the hint ‘childhood best friend’.
But you should find a system that works for you to remember a new password every few months.
Multi-factor authentication requires more than just entering a password to access your account, adding another level of security. MFA will ask for verifications, like a code sent via text message or prompt from an authentication app.
Practice Safe Browsing and Email Habits
Digital hygiene includes safe browsing practices and good email habits. Don’t click on suspicious links or download attachments from unknown sources. Phishing scams that involve tricking a person into revealing personal information or infecting their computer with malware are pervasive and often quite sophisticated, especially now.
A safe browser could be installed, with privacy-enhancing tools like ad-blockers and HTTPS enforcement applications as extensions for an enhanced browsing experience. You can change these settings in Google by going to settings, believe it or not. When using the internet, ensure the sites visited are secure by looking for padlock and https:// in the URL.
Emails are a common route for cyberattacks. Be wary of unsolicited emails, especially those asking for personal information or containing urgent messages.
Regularly Back Up Your Data
Experts say you should back up your data at least weekly – do you?
Data loss can happen for various reasons, like malicious attacks, hardware breakdowns, and unforeseen deletions. By backing up data regularly, you can recover it at any point. Backup files on cloud-based services and external hard drives to have multiple backup plans available in case anything goes wrong. Although people are starting not to trust Cloud-based services – 80% of hacks are coming through the Cloud.
Do you think you can improve your digital hygiene? Through these digital hygiene practices, you can create a safe working space at home that safeguards your vulnerable information. And it definitely is essential; with the number of cyber-attacks rising each year, the likelihood of becoming a victim – because you’re not in control of your data online – is high.