5 useful tips for a safer work from home experience

With the coronavirus crisis, new “opportunities” have emerged for cybercriminals online. Malware developers improve their scam techniques by shifting the focus to this virus and at the same time building links and sites with malicious content.
We will focus in this article on an important aspect that these online frauds rely on – the high number of employees is outside the protection provided by corporate networks, because they now work from their own homes. Thus, more responsibility is needed from employees and management to protect the company’s digital resources.
With just a few extra precautions, the employees of any company can significantly strengthen their security against a possible virtual attack during this period of remote work.
Tips from ESET security specialists:
1. Check your home router settings and change the default settings
All internet traffic now passes through the personal wireless router. To gain access to the network, cybercriminals can try to compromise your router and intercept your Wi-Fi traffic. For this reason, it would be a good idea to check the configuration options for your home router before the devices connected to it become compromised.
To ensure better password protection, you can use a password management solution such as ESET Password Manager (a password management module built into our ESET Smart Security Premium solution). Using such a tool is extremely practical, because you need to memorize a single password with which you have access to all the other passwords of your accounts, with just a few clicks.
2. Scan the wireless network for unknown, illegally connected devices
You can use various scanning tools to find unwanted devices connected to your home network. ESET Smart Security Premium, for example, has a mode called Connected Home Monitor, which comes with a scan feature that can identify devices that use Wi-Fi without your knowledge. Change the network password as needed and disconnect all unknown devices.
3. Keep the router firmware up to date and discard old models that no longer have software update support (legacy products)
As an additional protection measure, update the firmware to the latest version provided by the manufacturer. It would be advisable to replace the old router, which is no longer supported by the vendor, with a newer model.
4. Use a VPN (virtual private network) to encrypt your communication
Employees who need intranet access while working remotely will communicate through insecure public networks. For added security, you can use a VPN that establishes a secure communication tunnel.
With a VPN, the small data packets that make up communication can be protected from cybercriminals, because they allow their decryption only at the ends of this communication tunnel, ie employees’ devices and the corporate network.
5. Use a two-factor authentication method (2FA), if you can
Employees who use remote access technologies, such as Remote Desktop Protocol, web / cloud services (for example, are quite exposed to threats, especially if adequate security and risk mitigation measures have not been taken). Office 365), Outlook Web App.
To meet this need, companies can use ESET Secure Authentication, a 2-factor authentication solution (2FA), designed to enhance the security of remote access technologies, but also employee authentication data. How does such a solution work? It adds an extra step in the classic authentication process where only the username and password are needed and in addition requires a unique code, which is usually delivered through a mobile authentication application or SMS.
In order to support companies and employees who now work from home, ESET offers free business licenses for antivirus, anti-malware and 2FA authentication solutions, designed to secure business systems, which guarantee effective protection of work equipment, data and secure web browsing.