Why storm the head office when the CFO's kitchen table is open 24 / 7?
If you are an employee, working on the sofa makes you an easier mark:
π Default home-router passwords let crooks piggyback into the company network.
π± Family gadgets on the same Wi-Fi expand the possible way of attack.
βοΈ Slow corporate share? Staff drag files to the personal cloud or a USB and forget them there.
π§ No hallway double-check means fake payment emails sail through.
π₯ Webcams (and always-listening assistants) can spill whiteboards, ID cards, and entire meetings.
As an employer, your security headaches include:
π₯οΈ Laptops that miss patches become roaming vulnerabilities.
π VPN portals are single points of failure under constant brute-force.
βοΈ Unapproved cloud tools scatter data beyond monitoring.
π State-backed imposters slip into remote roles via hired laptop farms and AI-polished resumes.
π Data that lands in the wrong jurisdiction risks six-figure privacy fines.
IBM's 2024 breach report shows breaches involving a remote workforce cost organizations nearly $186K more than average![ref]
Keep the crooks off the couch
π¨ Employees: harden the router, give work devices their own Wi-Fi (or separate network), enable MFA everywhere, and call before approving any big request.
π¨ Employers: vet remote hires, push managed zero-trust endpoints, monitor data flows for residency breaches, and audit remote laptops like a teenager's fridge β before it spoils.