Working From Home -- Do You Protect Your Network/Setup?

[pgen98]

Since the pandemic started a great many people have started working from home, which is beneficial for both the employer and the employee, for the most part.  Many employers give their employees laptops to work from home that include security features and VPNs to connect to their network and pull the relevant information that they need to do their jobs; however, for those who do this, is that as far as you go with security, or do you take steps to protect your own network, as well?  For me, personally, I couldn't stand the thought of not having antiviral software, a strong firewall and a VPN in play when working on anything for someone else.  It's not so relevant now that I work as a full time caregiver, but when I used to work as a programmer I would always take whatever steps I could to protect the project, my interactions with whomever I was working with, and my home network just in case.  The last thing you want is to finish up a project, send it in for review/completion and have some script kiddie nab it from you in transit.  So I make sure every time I submit something or communicate with someone for something work-related I'm end-to-end encrypted as best as possible.  How about anyone else working from home, do you take steps to stay safe, or just rely on what the company provides?

[ash]

I received a laptop from my workplace that was already set up with everything in terms of security. We're required to use a VPN at all times and we only get permission to download our own programs once we've passed an initial probationary period.

[Sharon]

Same here. It's important to remain vigilant because systems can be susceptible to fraud in the form of emails in particular. I really am grateful for the flexibility to work from home. There was a time when this idea was not a consideration at all and now it's become the norm.

[demonskeith]

I missed out on the work from home, but I know our IT guy sent home laptops/desktops/surfaces with all the needed stuff, so nothing could get through. But I know any IT person would still be sweating, not everything is foolproof after all.

[ash]

Yeah, especially since it's a bit harder to keep tabs on what people are doing. I sometimes forget to turn my VPN on and only realise halfway through the day

[Joshua Farrell]

I still have the same setup I made for myself, a few years ago. Nothing too fancy. Virus and Network Hacking Prevention mainly. Though I haven't had many issues in the past few years. I do vaguely remember one event, where someone might have been trying to DDoS my home network. Unsurprisingly, my provider blocked it without having to notify them.