How to Stay Safe while Working from Home | McAfee Blog

Working from home has established itself as a norm. As of 2023, 35% of employed adults in the U.S. work from home all the time. Another 41% work from home at least part of the time.[i]

While working from home offers benefits to employees and employers alike, the uptick in personal devices connecting to an organization can pose security risks. That includes malware attacks, identity theft, and ransomware, not to mention out-and-out data theft.

With so many people knocking out their workdays at home, the question remains — how can everyone do it safely? Five quick tips and tools can help.

Tips to protect both personal and company data

Use a VPN.

Plenty of the things we work on are confidential. Or at least best kept within the company. A virtual private network (VPN) can help. It creates a secure tunnel of communication that shields the data traveling in it. This way, it makes it exceedingly difficult for a hacker to tap into it and see anything but encrypted data. It offers a primary way that businesses can keep their data and info private. Many organizations provide one to remote employees, yet you can also get a strong, unlimited VPN from us as part of our McAfee+ plans.

Protect yourself from phishing emails.

How do you spot phishing emails? Well, it’s getting a little tougher nowadays because scammers are getting more sophisticated. They make those phishing emails designed to steal info look increasingly legitimate. Even more so with AI tools. However, there are several ways you can spot phishing emails and phony websites. Moreover, our McAfee Scam Protection can do it for you.

Get strong, unique passwords in place.

Passwords provide an excellent line of defense. Specifically, strong, unique passwords across each of your accounts. That might sound like a tall task given the umpteen accounts we have nowadays, yet a password manager can do all that work for you. It creates and securely stores strong, unique passwords for you. A password manager comes included as part of our McAfee+ plans.

Use two-factor authentication.

Two-factor authentication is a more secure way to access work applications. In addition to a password/username combo, it asks for verification of who you are via a device that you own. Like a mobile phone, typically with a PIN sent by text or call. In this way, it uses two factors to confirm an identity. So, if your password gets compromised, it still won’t work for a hacker. They’ll still need the PIN that was sent to you. Of course, never share that PIN with anyone. Anyone who asks for it is a scammer who’s trying to crack your account.

Protect yourself all around.

Consider getting online protection software for all your devices. Today’s protection goes far, far beyond antivirus. It includes features that make your professional (and personal) life safer, with scam protection and web protection that steer you clear of sketchy sites and links. It further offers a full host of features that safeguard your identity, like credit monitoring, identity monitoring, and $2 million in identity theft coverage. Other features help keep you more private on social media and remove your personal info from data broker sites. We call it comprehensive online protection for good reason. It protects you, not just your devices.

[i] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/30/about-a-third-of-us-workers-who-can-work-from-home-do-so-all-the-time/