HERE are seven key measures that should be implemented on your personal device, to help you work from home in a secure and safe manner, as well as reducing the risk of company sensitive information being compromised, by a malicious actor, due to inadequate personal device security.

1: Ensure that all devices are configured with a strong, complex password and unique username prior to gaining access to the device.

2: If there are others sharing the workspace or are in the vicinity, lock the screen prior to leaving your desk.

3: A personal firewall should be enabled on the device; Windows Defender is enabled by default on Windows machines – make sure this is still the case.

A firewall is essentially a barrier that blocks malicious files and connections from spreading across a network.

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4: Ensure that user accounts are worked from to conduct daily business tasks. Even if you are the only user of a computer this should still be adhered to. This is to reduce the damage that malware can cause on the machine.

5: USB ports can allow for easy exfiltration of data, be vigilant and ensure that only trusted, safe devices/media are connected via USB.

6: Anti-virus should be enabled on all the devices and made sure it is set to scan daily and automatically update.

Spend the time ensuring that these configuration settings are enabled to increase your PC's ability to detect and remove current threats.

7: If you are accessing company sensitive information (i.e. Content Management Systems), then a Virtual Private Network (VPN) should be used.

A VPN creates a private network across an untrusted network meaning it can be used to securely access information and drastically reduce the chance of a malicious actor compromising sensitive data.