Home network security is important because many people bring the same computers and other mobile devices back and forth between work and home. Some companies will control the perimeter of the corporate network with the best available security controls, but they do no good if someone takes their laptop home and uses it on an insecure network. It’s also a concern if company employees load the corporate VPN client on their home computer to remote into the office. This is actually a more dangerous practice because the company has no control over the home computer, yet they are allowing it on the private network.

If you’re wondering how you can keep your home network secure, we have some tips for you.

Personal Computing Device Recommendations

Migrate to a Modern Operating System and Hardware Platform. The latest version of any operating system (OS) contains security features not found in previous versions. Many of these security features are enabled by default and help prevent common attack vectors. In addition, using a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit hardware platform substantially increases the effort for an adversary to obtain privileged access on your computer

Install A Comprehensive Security Suite. Install a comprehensive security suite that provides layered defense via anti-virus, anti-phishing, safe browsing and host based intrusion capabilities.

Implement Full Disk Encryption on Laptops. To prevent data disclosure in the event that a laptop is lost, implement FDE. Most modern operating systems offer a built-in FDE capability, for example Microsoft’s Bitlocker or Apple’s Filevault. If your OS does not offer FDE, use a third party product

Secure Mobile Devices. To protect against theft of the devices and the information on these devices, enable automatic screen locking after a period of inactivity and use a hard to guess password or PIN.