Work from Home and Distance Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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In a world ravaged by COVID-19, the reliance on the internet has been magnified. Majority of the workforce who can perform their mundane office tasks remotely are now allowed to work from home. Schools are virtually ghost towns as most of them opt to conduct classes online. Banking and other financial transactions are also mostly done from home.

Girl writing on a black keyboard

This unexpected "digital transformation" is well and good as it encouraged work from home and distance learning.  However, this also opens up home computers and home networks to more threats than ever.  One sad fact that needs to be addressed is that most home computer users (those who work or study from home) have not taken steps to secure their home computers, home network and their network-connected devices.  Securing all these will take a lot of time and a whole lot more time "researching".  As a public service, I will be writing a series of posts that should address this.

What are the particular threats that faces people who work and/or study at home?  There's actually a lot! Let's start from the outside and work inwards.

MODEM/ROUTERS/WIFI ACCESS PONTS.  This is how your home gets internet access (obviously). Most of the time, people will just allow the internet guy to install this at home.  The wifi password is given by the internet guy and the owner will happily go on and use it, entering the password to all the computers and gadgets that needs access and happily go on their merry way until problems comes in and its time to call the internet guy for support.

Fun factS: Did you know that you can change your wifi access password so that no one else except your family can access your wifi?  Did you know that there is a setting in your router that allows your ISP to change its settings even without your knowledge?  Did you know that there are MODEM/ROUTERS/ACCESS PONTS that can be configured to prevent bad network traffic from entering your home network?

CELL PHONES/TABLETS (collectively known as Mobile Devices). This is how you acces online facilities in a conventient manner.  Most cell phones and tablets, especially those that comes from reputable brands are somehow inherently secure.  I said somehow because let's face it, there is no such thing as a totally secure device.  Anyway, steps can be taken to enhance the security of cell phones and tables like making sure that it is not rooted/jailbroken. If you are not familiar with the terms "rooted" and "jailbreak, then there is probably nothing to worry about.  Strictly speaking, there is no need to install or buy antivirus for your mobile devices as long as it is not rooted/jailbroken and as long as you only install apps from authorized App Stores (Google Play Store and/or Apple Store). AVOID INSTALLING APPS FROM UNKNOWN OR SUSPICIOUS SOURCES.  Those are the primar sources of viruses on Mobile Devices.

DESKTOP/LAPTOP COMPUTERS.  These are the crown jewels of your home network.  This is where you work and where the kids study and it will be a big headache if any of these gets broken, infected with virus or simply malfunctioned.  In my opinion, those that run the recent updated version of Windows on their computers does not need to install anti-virus at all.  The built-in anti-malware app of Windows is more than capable to protect its users from the usual virus, trojans and ransomware -- AS LONG AS THE COMPUTER IS KEPT UPDATED with Microsoft's software update.  One thing that needs to be runnning on computers nowadays is a personal firewall.  Again, the most recent updated version of Windows has a built-in Firewall that is capable of protecting it from malicious (hacker) traffic.  One thing that computer users must do is to always back up their data.  Backups can be done "locally" using flashdrives or external hard drives.  It can also be done using the "cloud" using "Google Drive", "Microsoft OneDrive", "DropBox" or any other reliable cloud backup service.  Backup is essential to ensure that your data is safe should something bad happens to your computer.

IOT DEVICES. These are non-traditional internet-connected devices. As a general rule, IOTs are devices/gadgets that connect to the internet or even local network to allow users to control them (smarl lights, smart TV, etc) or for it to report its current state to the internet/local network.  Unless you are technically inclined, securing IOTs is a rather difficult undertaking.  But it can still be secured using your MODEM/ROUTERS/WIFI ACCESS POINTS.

If enough people asks for it, I can and will write subsequent entries that will discuss how to secure your home networks to make it even safer to use for Work from Home and Distance Learning.

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