Cybersecurity
The Essential Checklist for Securing Company Laptops at Home
At home, security incidents don't look like dramatic movie hacks. They look like stepping away from your laptop during a delivery, or leaving it unlocked while you grab something from another room. Those ordinary moments, repeated over time, are how work devices end up exposed.
At home, security incidents don't look like dramatic movie hacks. They look like stepping away from your laptop during a delivery, or leaving it unlocked while you grab something from another room.
Those ordinary moments, repeated over time, are how work devices end up exposed.
A remote work security checklist focuses on simple, practical controls that hold up in real life. Put it in place once, make it routine, and you'll prevent the kinds of issues that hurt most because they were entirely avoidable.
Why Home Is a Different Security Environment
A work laptop doesn't magically become "less secure" at home. But the environment around it does.
In the office, there are built-in boundaries: fewer shared users, fewer casual touchpoints, and more predictable networks. At home, that same laptop is suddenly operating in a space designed for convenience, not control.
Physical exposure goes up. At home, devices move from room to room, sit on tables and countertops, and are left unattended for short stretches throughout the day. CISA stresses the basics: keep devices secured, limit access, and lock them when you're not using them. Those simple habits matter more at home because there's no "office culture" quietly enforcing them for you.
Home is also where work and personal life collide, and that creates messy, very human risks. Don't let other people use your work device, and don't treat it like the family laptop.
The home network is different too. Home Wi-Fi often starts with default settings, old router firmware, or passwords that have been shared with everyone who's ever visited. And remote access raises the stakes for identity -- access should be strongly authenticated and checked for anomalies before it's granted.
The Remote Work Security Checklist
Lock the Screen Every Time You Step Away. Set a short auto-lock timer and get into the habit of locking manually, even at home.
Store the Laptop Like It's Valuable. Assume that "out of sight" is safer than "out of the way." When you're finished, store your device somewhere protected -- not on the couch, not on the kitchen counter, and never in the car.
Don't Share Work Laptops with Family. Even a quick "just checking something" can result in risky downloads, unfamiliar logins, or unwanted browser extensions.
Use a Strong Sign-In and MFA. Use a long passphrase, not a clever but short password, and never reuse it across accounts. Treat multifactor authentication (MFA) as a baseline requirement, not a nice extra.
Stop Using Devices That Can't Update. If a laptop can't receive security updates, it's not a work device. It's a risk.
Patch Fast. Updates are where most known issues get fixed. Enable automatic updates and restart when prompted.
Secure Home Wi-Fi Like It's Part of the Office. Use a strong Wi-Fi password and enable modern encryption. If your router still has the default admin login or hasn't been updated in a long time, fix it.
Use the Firewall and Keep Security Tools Switched On. Turn on your firewall, keep antivirus software active, and make sure both are properly configured. If security tools feel inconvenient, don't switch them off -- address the friction instead.
Remove Unnecessary Software. The more apps you install, the more updates you have to manage, and the more opportunities there are for something to go wrong. Remove software you don't need and stick to approved applications.
Keep Work Data in Work Storage. Storing work data in approved systems keeps access controlled, audit-ready, and much easier to recover if something goes wrong. Avoid saving work documents to personal cloud accounts.
Be Wary of Unexpected Links and Attachments. If a message pressures you to click, open, download, or "confirm now," treat it as suspicious. When in doubt, verify the request through a separate, trusted channel.
Only Allow Access From Healthy Devices. The safest remote setups gate access based on device health. Unmanaged devices can be a powerful entry point -- allowing access only from healthy, managed devices is essential.
Start by adopting this remote work security checklist as your baseline standard. When the defaults are strong, you reduce avoidable incidents without slowing anyone down. Contact us today if you'd like help turning these basics into a practical, enforceable remote work policy.