COVID-19 has shaken the world with the tragic loss of life and a threatening impact on the business world. The Indian government has issued shelter-in-place orders, closed businesses and cancelled schools until mid-April at the earliest to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. The increase in social distancing and self-quarantining across the industrial sectors have turned ‘Work from Home to be a reality for Indian IT companies.

1. COVID-19 Guide: How to Secure Your Data
while Working Away from Office
COVID-19 has shaken the world with the tragic loss of life and a threatening impact on the
business world. The Indian government has issued shelter-in-place orders, closed businesses
and cancelled schools until mid-April at the earliest to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.
The increase in social distancing and self-quarantining across the industrial sectors have turned
‘Work from Home to be a reality for Indian IT companies.
The outbreak of Coronavirus in India led companies to shut their doors as a precautionary
measure to prevent the spread of infection. As the situation escalates, to ensure a safe working
environment the Indian companies announced the employees to work remotely and also the
conferences to be conducted on calls rather than face to face meetings. Securing confidential
data becomes more crucial as we continue to work away from the office during COVID-19.
Let’s dive in deep to know how we can secure our confidential data while we work from home:
1. Backup the Information Regularly:
The outbreak of COVID-19 in India has taken the industries on a virtual journey working
remotely. The employees working away from the office may have stored their crucial project
information on their laptops. There is a possibility that a laptop might get crashed or the data
may get erased. In such cases, the data rarely gets recovered and the efforts taken for the
project go in vain as he has to start from scratch.

2. Taking backups regularly is a precautionary measure to avoid data loss in unfortunate
situations. In case, your laptop is crashed or the file gets corrupted you can recover the data
from the backup storage. Thus data backup ensures smooth functioning of your tasks without
any interruption.
The best solution for data backup is storing crucial data and applications on the cloud. Storing
data on the cloud prevents unauthorized access to your projects. The data is stored in an
encrypted form which can be retrieved from anywhere and at any time.
2. Turn Off the Unused Devices:
People tend to shut the laptop’s lid when it is not in use rather than turning the system OFF.
Shutting the laptop lid just initiates a low power sleep mode which brings the system back to
quickly, much faster than rebooting. Turning off the machine prevents the system from being
hacked while laptops in sleep mode are vulnerable to attacks. Since laptops in sleep mode are
active despite the hard disk being powered down, it becomes easier for hackers to sneak in
your system. Since the memory is active, confidential information can be accessed using an
external USB port.
Currently, technological innovations have enhanced the hacker’s skills allowing to access the
encrypted laptops which might contain encryption keys. These laptops are vulnerable to attacks
as the encryption keys can be used to decrypt the data in it. Thus, the laptops should be turned
off when not in use as a preventive measure securing the data.
3. Use Encryption:
To protect your confidential data encrypt it converting to a string of characters. This string
doesn’t derive any meaning and cannot be read without an encryption key. Even if the hacker
successfully gains access to the encrypted string, he won’t be able to derive meaning from it.
During COVID-19, if you are working from home your device needs to have an encryption
software as a precautionary measure to secure data, applications and other confidential files.
The software records unauthorized login attempts and also takes password backups. It
proactively sends a notification to the registered email-ID about the number of hacking
attempts.
Cloud storage ensures your data is in encrypted form denying the hackers to access it.
4. Network Protection:
If you are working away from the office, there is a high possibility of your data being vulnerable
to attacks once the hacker succeeds in getting access to your network. Connecting your laptop
to a mobile hotspot; laptops can be easily hacked due to weak security. Ensure your device has
an appropriately configured firewall to block the suspicious connections thus preventing
unauthorized access to your device over the network. Make sure the firewall configurations are
done by the company’s IT experts on your laptop.

3. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) ensure strong security to your device when working away from
the office premise. This prevents unauthorized access from hackers hunting for victims on
public networks by encrypting the data.
5. Cloud Storage:
Storing your confidential data or files on the cloud is a preventive measure against hackers
boosting the security of your data. Cloud solutions ensure a central location to store all your
files and folders which can be accessed from anywhere and at any time denying the need to
save a separate copy on your device. Also, if your device fails the data on the cloud remains
secure and can be easily retrieved.
Cloud solutions maintain the transparency of work between employees working on the same
project while they are away from the office premise. The employees can access the files if they
have an encryption key preventing unauthorized access.
Cloud solutions resolve the issue of too many versions of the same project which might cause
confusion and errors.
Wrap Up
With the government issuing social distancing notice, the companies have
announced work from home for their employees to prevent the spread of the
virus. While we work away from our office premises, data security becomes the
major concern as we work remotely. Loss of confidential data may incur a severe
loss to the company.
The article is a guide to secure your data as you work from home during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Stay Home, Stay Safe!
There are many cloud solution providers in the market like ESDS – The Digital
Transformation Catalyst ensuring data security while you work away from your
office.