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The 2021 Guide to Keeping Your Work Machine Safe Online

Today, more and more people are starting to work with laptop devices due to their added flexibility and convenience for working remotely. Before the pandemic, people would go to different places like coffee shops and coworking spaces with their laptops to get to work. Today, despite the health crisis, employees would still use laptops to work at any corner of their homes.

Companies and businesses that now allow their employees to work at home have issued laptops as well. If they don’t, they make sure that the employees are safely working online. They do this by training and educating their staff on how to not fall prey to cybercriminals.

5 Cyber Security Strategies that Work Best for Remote Employees

You can never really be too careful when surfing the internet especially if work is involved. Not only your personal details are at risk but also your company’s data can potentially be breached if you aren’t careful. Here are the best strategies that could work to protect yourself online.

Consider Doing a Factory Reset

For employees who will have to use their own Macbook for work, there is a possibility that your device is already breached without you knowing it. If this is the case, once you use your laptop for work, confidential information can also be accessed by cybercriminals.

To avoid this, you may want to consider doing a factory reset on your device. You shouldn’t have to worry about your files as you can just move them online. Doing this means having a clean slate or fresh device to use for work. This should help you feel at ease about the potential breach.

Encrypt Your Communication

When surfing the internet with your Macbook on unprotected networks like public WiFi, cybercriminals can view your online activities. They do this via sophisticated hacking techniques such as packet sniffing and man-in-the-middle attacks, which enables them to spy on your exposed data.

In order to prevent this from happening, you can use a VPN to hide your IP address and encrypt your online traffic. This will block malicious actors or unknown third parties from tracing any of your digital footprints online. Therefore, you can definitely buy a VPN to securely encrypt your communications, even on a public WiFi network.

Install Antivirus and Firewall to Your Laptop

Surprisingly, many laptops are being used without any antivirus and firewall software like McAfee or Kaspersky. Usually, access to such software is only for free for a specific period after purchasing a new device and many just don’t want to spend more on such services. Without antivirus software, your device is extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Whether you have a mobile device or laptop for personal or work use, purchasing such software should be considered essential. Cybercriminals can get really creative in how they could attack their victims and having security software can protect you from malware and viruses.

Keep Your Email and Other Online Account Access Safe

People do so many things online that they have accounts on social media, online banking, and their work access. Managing online profiles including your email can be tough and this is why you can easily reset your passwords when you forget them. This can be dangerous because anyone could try to reset your passwords once they figure out your email or username.

To avoid this, you can use a password manager to keep track of all your online access. This way, you wouldn’t have a hard time remembering all your usernames and passwords. Some solve this by using a universal username and password but avoid doing this. Once someone figures out your access, it simply means that all your online accounts will be gone.

Always Download the Latest Device and Software Updates

When you’re busy at work or using your laptop for entertainment, an update prompt can be quite annoying. Most of the time, people tend to delay updating their laptops and software but this really shouldn’t be the case. Cybercriminals are continuously trying to find more creative ways to attack their prey and this is why software developers are constantly improving their security programs.

Keeping your Macbook or laptop up to date is essential as updates usually include patches and fixes that could keep your device secure. Sure, you can just delay the update if you can’t pause the work that you’re doing. The best you can do is to schedule the update at night or when you’re done with your shift or work.

Conclusion

It is extremely important that you protect your Macbook with the right strategies and these are some of them that could definitely do you good. Whether you’re only browsing the internet for leisure or if you need to do so for work, always keep in mind that you’re leaving digital footprints that can be accessed by anyone if you’re not too careful. Awareness is always important to ensure your online safety.