Optimising your home network & your working day

Working from home, remote working, working in isolation, what was alien to many, is now the new norm. Most of us have found the right spot to work from at home, the right chair, maybe even the right routine – a popular topic in recent weeks!

 What many may have overlooked is their home network, how to make it safe and how to keep performance high. This is certainly something many outside of the Cyber Security industry may not have thought of, especially those operating a PSC and working remotely for the first time. These people don’t have a large corporate security team advising them, so I caught up with Craig Saunderson, Director of Cyber Security Sales @ Cyberproof to get a few tips >

 Craig, what I can I do to make my home networker a little safer?

“Some really simple but effective steps to take are:

Make sure you’ve set an ‘Admin’ password on your home router. The default user name and password for all home routers is ‘admin’ & ‘admin’ so change it to something stronger, i.e. the use of a ‘pass-phrase’ is often good because you can make it personal to you and its easy to remember; as an example: ‘MyWifelovesRedShoes!’

 With other members of your household being at home and a variety of web services being consumed across different devices, it may be sensible to separate your work devices from the rest of the other connected devices (i.e. the kids iPad). Most home routers allow you to setup a guest network which is logically separated from the rest of your home network. You can easily set up a guest network with its own Wi-Fi name and password and then connect your work devices to it”

I am now using my home network more than ever & performance is going to be key, how do I get my networking running as fast possible?

“Most home routers can operate on two different wireless wavelengths simultaneously, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. 2.4Ghz provide connectivity over longer distances and 5Ghz over shorter distances. Again, you can setup each wavelength with separate user-names and passwords and if your router is close by, run your work devices on the 5Ghz network

 An alternative, and this option costs money, is to either invest in a meshed Wi-Fi system (just search ‘meshed Wi-Fi’ on Amazon (other online stores available) which provides consistent and speedy Wi-Fi signal around your home and a clever phone app which allows you to easily configure and secure it. Or buy some Powerlink adaptors which plug into your home plug points and create a wired network similar to what you have in the office.

 N.B. It’s worth noting that a wired connection will always be quicker than Wi-Fi as Wi-Fi itself is in essence a radio signal so degrades over longer distances and if there are things in the way (such as walls) so if you can connect via Ethernet you will see improvements”

 Craig, many in our network are perhaps working from home for the first time, perhaps working as a PSC / Self-employed, is there any software they could / should be investing in?

“Right now you probably don’t want to spend any money. So if you’re using a Windows laptop then the built-in Microsoft Firewall and Threat Prevention software is really good and similarly using the in-built BitLocker functionality for file encryption is a good thing to do. Microsoft has invested heavily over recent years in their security capability, so take advantage of it.

Equally if you’re running a Mac, then things like XProtect offer the same sort of Malware/Virus protection and you may want to run FileVault which encrypts your data and keeps it safe.”

 Finally, I know everyone has their own tips and tricks but as someone who is well-versed in working from home, what advice could you offer those who are perhaps still finding their feet in this new working environment?

 “First of all, don’t sit like a zombie in front of your laptop for 8 hours – do you do that in the office? No! Get up from your desk regularly, make a coffee, stand outside and get some fresh air for 5/10 minutes, go talk to your partner or the kids for 5/10 minutes.

 Take your lunch break – seriously, step away from the laptop for 30 mins at least. There is nothing that won’t wait for 30 minutes.

 Pick up the phone to a colleague, maybe to talk to them about a work thing but also to see how they’re doing, have a little chinwag.

 Set up a regular team video call – perhaps an end-of-week catch-up on Zoom or WebEx to find out how people’s weeks have been, what things have they done, can they share some interesting insights etc.

 When it gets to the end of the work-day – SWITCH THE LAPTOP OFF! LEAVE THE WORK PHONE NEXT TO IT! Go and do something else, trust me, no one is handing out medals or certificates for working until 7pm/8pm”

__________________________________________________________________________

A massive thanks to Craig for taking some time out to speak with myself and Mike Gawthorne, Serocor CEO for offering us and our network some simple tips to make things a little safe and to keep both our minds and networks optimised!

If you are after some more advice around how to protect your own teams working remotely & to discuss how Cyberproof might be able to help, please reach out to Craig and his team! ?