5 Things You Should Never Do on a Work Computer

When a browsers pops up and requests to save the password, it is easy to click yes. It is not safe or secure to allow the browser to save and then auto-fill them, should you lose access to the computer.

If the computer is taken away due to upgrade, repair or termination then someone else can access the device and therefore your passwords.

That means they can leverage your passwords to access your cloud accounts.

Not all older PCs are disposed of correctly. Some companies will donate them to worthy causes, which could leave your passwords in the hands of a stranger if the PC hasn’t been wiped properly. At Orbitel we fully wipe computers before disposal to ensure your data is safe.

Do you have a folder on your desktop labelled “personal”? Especially if your home PC doesn’t have a lot of storage space. This could leave you wide open to a couple of major problems:

• Loss of your files: If you lose access to the PC for any reason, you lose your files.
• Your personal files being company-accessible: With company back-ups in place, your holiday pics could be accessible company wide!

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).

Only visit websites that you would be happy your boss seeing!

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. So, it is tempting to let a friend jump on to use it quickly.

This could be breaching your company policies and procedures and data protection policy!

Just the fact that the personal data of your customers or other employees could be accessed by someone not authorised to do 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.

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. These should not be turned off unless given express permission by your supervisor or company’s IT team