Never Do These 5 Things on a Work Computer

Whether you work remotely or in an office, the line between personal and work tasks can become blurred when running your work computer.

Being much connected to your desktop PC is normal, because you’re in front of a computer most of your time during work.

Over time, this can lead to doing personal things on a work computer. At first, it might just be checking personal email while on a lunch break. As time goes by, some employees use their work computers just as much for personal reasons as work tasks.

According to the survey with 900 respondents of employees, The result obtain that only 30% said they never used their work PC for personal activities. The other 70% admitted to using their work computer for various personal reasons.

Some of the non-work-related things that people do on a work computer include:

• Reading and sending personal email
• Scanning news headlines
• Shopping online
• Online banking
• Checking social media
• Streaming music
• Streaming videos/movies

It’s a bad idea to mix work and personal. No matter how much more convenient it is to use your work PC for a personal task during the day. Continuing to do this, may cause a data breach in your company or possibly lose your job.

Here are several things you should never do on your work PC.

1. Don’t Save Your Personal Passwords in the Browser using a Work Computer

Many people manage their passwords by allowing their browser to save and then auto-fill them. This can be convenient, but it’s not very secure should you lose access to that PC.

When the computer you use isn’t yours, it can be taken away at any time. It can be taken away for a number of reasons, such as an upgrade, repair, or during an unexpected termination.

If someone else accesses that device and you never signed out of the browser, that means they can leverage your passwords to access your cloud accounts.

Not all older PCs are stored in a storeroom somewhere or destroyed. Some companies will donate them to worthy causes. As a matter a fact, it could leave your passwords in the hands of a stranger. If the PC hasn’t been wiped properly, your password may store on the PC.

2. Don’t Store Personal Data

It’s easy to get in the habit of storing personal data on your work computer, especially if your home PC doesn’t have a lot of storage space. But this is a bad habit and leaves you wide open to a couple of major problems:

• Loss of your files: If you lose access to the PC for any reason, your files can be lost forever.

• Your personal files being company-accessible: Many companies have backups of employee devices to protect against data loss. So, those beach photos stored on your work PC that you’d rather not have anyone else see could be accessible company-wide because they’re captured in a backup process.

3. Avoid Visiting Sketchy Websites on a Work Computer

You should assume that any activity you are doing on a work device is being monitored and is accessible by your boss. Companies often have cybersecurity measures in place like DNS filtering that is designed to protect against phishing websites.

This same type of software can also send an alert should an employee be frequenting a sketchy website deemed dangerous to security (which many sketchy websites are).

You should never visit any website on your work computer that you wouldn’t be comfortable visiting with your boss looking over your shoulder.

4. Prohibit Friends or Family to Use a Work Computer

When you work remotely and your work computer is a permanent fixture in your home, it can be tempting to allow a friend or family member to use it if asked. Often, work PCs are more powerful than a typical home computer and may even have company-supplied software that someone wouldn’t purchase on their own.

But allowing anyone else to use your work computer could constitute a compliance breach of data protection regulations that your company needs to adhere to.

Also, the personal data of customers and other employees will be accessible by someone not authorize for the info, So can mean a stiff penalty.

Additionally, a child or friend not well-versed in cybersecurity could end up visiting a phishing site and infecting your work device, which in turn infects your company cloud storage, leaving you responsible for a breach.

At least 20% of companies have experienced a data breach during the pandemic due to a remote worker.

5. Don’t Turn off Company-Installed Apps like Backups and Antivirus

If you’re trying to get work done and a backup kicks in and slows your PC down to a crawl, it can be tempting to turn off the backup process. But this can leave the data on your computer unprotected and unrecoverable in the case of a hard drive crash or ransomware infection.

Company-installed apps are there for a reason and it’s usually for cybersecurity and business continuity. Installed apps must turned off at all times if not permitted by supervisor or Company’s IT Team.

How Secure Is Your Work Computer You Use to Work from Home?

Whether you’re working remotely and worried about causing a data breach or are a business owner with multiple remote team members to secure, device protection is important. Schedule a device security checkup today.

Should your company needs an IT Health Check to safeguard your employees assets, CloudConsole is a One-stop shop for expert IT services for your business, from hardware, networking, systems administration to resource and project management for anything IT related.

Schedule an appointment with us! Send us an email at  info@cloudconsole.ph

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This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.