Do you work from a home office? If so, then keeping your office set up secure from intruders must be your biggest concern. You are the only person responsible for maintaining a high productivity rate when working from home, and securing your home office is your first step towards guaranteeing that you will never lose a workday.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who work from home fail to make their workstations secure, and end up losing precious work time due to the troubles that arise because of it. Here are seven deadly sins that you can unknowingly commit, thereby jeopardising the security of your home office.

Not securing the office physically: The office is in your home, so you may think, what can go wrong in my own residence? Well, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Your children, if they are too young, may try to ‘play’ with your equipment. Your pets could also damage the cables or other accessories. Set up your office in a separate room, preferably with weather-proof windows. Also, keep the door locked at all times, especially when you are not working.

Not installing at least some security measures: Even your home PC has some kind of security, like antivirus software and firewalls installed. So, why not do the same with your office PC? Install a good network firewall and good antivirus software. Update both on a regular basis to keep your home office network safe from unwelcome intrusions.

Not thinking about Wi-Fi security: Sure, you wouldn’t ever think of logging into your neighbour’s Wi-Fi network and checking out what he has been up to, but can you trust him for not doing the same? Most modern Wi-Fi routers have support for encryption algorithms like Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or WPA2. It is imperative that you enable these security measures. Besides, configuring these measures is pretty easy, once you go through the user manual for your router.

Not separating your personal life from business: There may be no apparent harm in allowing your teenage daughter to access the internet on your home office PC when it is not in use, but complications may arise from this. For instance, let us suppose your daughter accidentally opens up a virus-infected file that wreacks havoc on your PC. Who would you hold responsible in this case? It is always wise to separate the office network from your home network.

Not remembering that your office space can be held liable as a place of business: Never meet your clients in your home office. It is much better to choose a public place or their office. If one of your clients visits your office and accidentally damages some valuable equipment, it is ultimately your loss anyway.

Not backing up data regularly: This is a very dangerous habit. Even if viruses do not infect your PC, a power surge could bypass your UPS and put your hard drive on the blink. Invest in a good UPS and back up your data regularly for total security of your clients’ information.

Not having a back up option for emergencies: You should always have a backup system, like a laptop computer and a mobile internet connection at hand. That way, even if your home network is offline for some time due to technical difficulties, your work will not be affected too much.

These are the seven deadly sins that you can accidentally commit in your home business security. Avoid these to keep your home network, as well as your business safe from disasters.

This article has been compiled by Uniblue Systems, a Malta-based international software developer for the home and small office market. For more articles from Uniblue Systems with tips and information about computer use one may go to www.liutilities.com/articles/

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