Should You Be Concerned About Data Privacy While Working from Home?

Many people have found themselves suddenly working from home. And that can also mean that you’re ill-equipped to handle some elements. Most employees today are concerned about security, both for themselves and their employers. Working from home can open up some significant new challenges, which can also lead to privacy concerns.

Tools such as VPNs (what is a VPN?) can help, but first, you need to understand the threats. Here’s everything you need to know about data privacy.

First: Yes, You Should Be Concerned About Data Privacy
Businesses are the foremost target for malicious attackers. Once you start working from home, your office is part of your company. You become just as vulnerable as your company. In a business, there are routers, firewalls, and other physical and digital safeguards in place. In your home, you might not have even properly secured your router. Suddenly, you’re dealing with information that is far more desirable, and you’re using the very same technology that you use for your recreational activities.
Those who are working from home absolutely need to be concerned about data privacy, on many levels.

Your Data vs. Your Company’s Data
It isn’t just your company’s data you should be concerned with, but your own.
Consider the following. If your personal phone becomes a target because of company data stored on it, your personal data will also be released. If your laptop is known to be compromised, your IT team will delete all the files on it, which can include your own personal files. Essentially, the more your own data and devices are co-mingled with your company’s, the worse it gets.

It’s best if a company will requisition you the devices that you need. Your company should give you a work phone and a work computer and you should never complete any recreational or personal activities on either. This protects your data and also theirs.

Because the company’s data is at risk as well. If you download an app on your phone, whether it’s a meal delivery service or a fitness app, it could compromise their data. Third-party compromise is the most common type of compromise and it can happen to anyone.

Little Known Factors for Data Privacy
Data privacy isn’t just about the data that’s being transmitted between you and your business, such as files and documents. It can also be things like video conference calls.
Early in 2020, it was discovered that some video conferencing services had exploits. People could jump into video conferences at will, finding out critical information about companies and their operations. Data privacy becomes a concern when you’re working from home because it’s also possible that others could see you and your activity when you’re at home. There are few barriers to privacy as significant as that.
In addition to video conferencing services, many companies now invoke tools that let them know what you’re doing online every moment of the day. That may be fine when you’re working, but if you take a break to do some personal financial chores, they may be able to see this, too. Employees may not just be concerned about malicious actors, but also may be concerned about what their employer can or can’t see.

The Cloud and On-Premise Solutions

If you’re working from home, it’s likely that you’ve been moved to the cloud. The cloud has excellent security, as a whole, these days, but it can still be vulnerable. If your connection isn’t secure (and you don’t have a VPN), for instance, the data that you’re transmitting might be captured.

Similarly, on-premise solutions usually have you tunnel into a corporate network. While this can be more secure than the cloud (simply because it’s less accessible), it has a similar level of vulnerability: Without a VPN, it’s possible that someone else can still listen in on your connection, especially if you connect to something through public WiFi.
Either way, it’s important that you be able to protect your connections, which usually means using a router and WiFi.

The Consequences of Poor Data Privacy
What actually happens if you have a data privacy failure? If it’s on your side, your financial accounts could be compromised. Credit accounts could be opened in your name. You might generally see your financial and credit situation take a nose dive until you can correct everything. And that could extend to close family members, too.

If you have a data privacy failure on the business side, it can be far more dramatic. The organization may need to shore up its security and notify customers, vendors, and employees of a data breach. The company may need to rethink and redo its technology and processes and it will definitely need to conduct a full audit and improvement of its security systems.

Malicious attackers want data for a variety of reasons. They want to steal identities. They want to steal bank accounts. They may even want the intellectual property. Because so many companies have weak technological links, attackers know exactly where to strike. The landscape for businesses is broadening because of the number of endpoints and end-users now working from home. Attackers may be able to leverage this specifically by identifying users who may be working from home offices.

The Signs of a Data Breach Attack
How can you know when your data privacy has been compromised? If you’re wondering about your personal information, you can sign up for a watchdog site. There are sites out there that will repeatedly scan the internet for your confidential or personal information and will alert you if it appears. If the data breach went smoothly enough, this may be the only way you know that your data has been breached.
There are other signs, however, and they’re the type of sign that next-generation, AI-driven systems are supposed to identify and prevent. As an example, a malicious attacker may start accessing a large number of files that haven’t been accessed recently; suspicious. A malicious attacker may also start transferring large volumes of files, though the account they are using has never done that before.
AI systems are able to identify this type of behaviour. And VPN solutions collect a large amount of information about network activity, making it possible to identify when there could be a data breach attack.

The Dangers of Working from Home
Working from home is not inherently a security risk. But there are issues.
First, employees may not have the technology they need to secure their own networks. If that’s true, there’s little they can do to secure their systems.
Employees may connect through unsecured connections, such as WiFi at a coffee shop. If the data isn’t properly encrypted, it could be viewed by anyone.
Employees can become complacent. When working from home, employees may be less vigilant about security and may not follow best practices.
IT personnel may not be able to track all the endpoints. Employees working from home introduce a vast array of new points of contact.
In short, many employees aren’t appropriately set up to enforce their own security when working from home. But that can change.

Responding to Compromised Data Privacy
If your data privacy has been compromised, your first step should always be going to your employer. Your employer needs to know that you’ve been compromised so they can shore up their own systems, and they may be able to give you advice on how you can ensure that none of your own personal information has been stolen. Once a compromise occurs, you should also sign up for an alert website, so you know whether your data has been openly released.

for businesses, the next step will be damage control. Once a company’s data privacy has been compromised, they need to audit it and determine who has been affected. From there, they need to be able to tell everyone who was affected by what occurred and what they are doing to make sure it never happens again. Further, the organization will need to take a deep look at their processes and their technology to assess how they can avoid these types of problems in the future.

Most organizations and individuals are going to experience a data privacy breach at some point in their lives; they are ubiquitous. But the faster they are responded to, the less likely they are to have lasting impact and lasting damage.

How a VPN Can Help
VPNs help by keeping you safeguarded and providing the first line of defence. Rather than connecting directly to the internet, you instead connect to the VPN first. The VPN can identify potentially malicious traffic and protect you from sending out potentially compromising information. VPNs are an excellent way to passively improve security, as there’s nothing you need to do to actively utilize your VPN.
More and more, people are becoming aware of how important data is to an organization. When working from home, more businesses and individuals may start to see exactly how vulnerable their data is. But it’s not too late to start protecting yourself with superior technology. With VPNs and privacy best practices, you should be able to mitigate a significant amount of the risk.