While your home office may look and feel considerably different from your usual work desk, it does not mean that you should treat it any differently. Just as you try to keep your productivity levels as high as they are in the office, you should continue to keep your data protected from potential security threats.

Your data security policy may only cover data being protected on company computers and networks. So, when workers have gone remote due to COVID-19, the data they handle off-site is no longer included under these policies. This should be concerning for all businesses, as a cyber-attack on any of these personal computers could cause you to lose company data and consumer trust. 

So what can you do to protect data on personal computers and networks at employees’ home offices? Keep reading to learn more about why you need to be concerned about data, and what you can do to protect it while workers stay home.

The Importance of Data

Never make the mistake of thinking your company’s data is not valuable. While we all know that certain types of data like credit card details and personal medical information are sensitive, other types of data your company possess also needs to be protected. Customer contact information, company financials, product information, business plans and trade secrets can all be damaging to a company if they are leaked or stolen during a cyber-attack.

If any customer information is leaked during a cyber-attack, you risk losing their trust and custom. An event of this gravity will bring bad publicity – no matter the size of the leak – to your business and can haunt it for years to come. Therefore, all data, whether or not you consider it sensitive, needs to be protected, and even more so when employees work from home.

WipeDrive’s Solutions

Global EMEA is proud to partner with WhiteCanyon Software Inc. who have produced the top-quality, market-leading data protection and sanitisation software solution WipeDrive. Our first solution for data protection for remote working is WipeDrive Enterprise which will securely erase all data from a device, leaving it unrecoverable. It wipes everything from data to programmes and even the operating system. 

We recommend using this version of WipeDrive whenever a device has reached its end-of-life or is reallocated. Even though the computer or laptop your employees use at home may be their own, this does not mean that you should forget all of the sensitive data on it. This is the best way to ensure information is not leaked – accidentally or maliciously – when your worker resells, discards or donates their old laptop or computer.

Our second solution is WipeDrive Prime, a particular installation of WipeDrive, which is usually installed in advance within the corporate Gold Master image when a device is first given to an employee. When the employee is done using the device or needs to scrap it, they can access WipeDrive, enter the activation code provided by their IT Department and erase the data. Once all the data is erased, including the operating system, a QR code is displayed on the monitor which links to a full certificate of destruction. This QR code will be displayed until a new operating system is installed on the device. We recommend using WipeDrive Prime whenever a company issues a laptop or computer that needs to be used outside of company property – such as working from home or travelling for business.

If you are a smaller business without a Gold Master Image, SystemSave may be the right solution for you. It allows you to securely reallocate computers between employees without having to reinstall or re-image each device. It can also be used on home computers when employees work from home. SystemSaver is designed to remove all user-created data, history and cached data saved to the device. However, it leaves the Windows operating system and applications intact. It is run by the employee with an activation code provided by the IT department.

For a more in-depth chat about how we can support your business’ data protection needs, then get in contact with us today. We can take care of IT redeployment and IT recycling, installing WipeDrive onto devices and ensure that all company data is safe from cyber-attacks and leaks.

By working with Global EMEA, you can tailor your IT management package to suit your needs as we understand that each business is different. Whether you require hardware, software or network support, need network and system monitoring, or expect backups and disaster recovery systems, our experts can help.

For more information, call us on +44 (0) 844 251 0471 in order to speak to one of our team about how best we can support you. Or visit our website to fill out an enquiry form today.