8 Ways to Stay Cyber Safe While Teleworking
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By Todd Hood, Chief Privacy Officer
In a matter of days, where and how we work changed. Thousands of County employees are teleworking. Laptops, desktops, phones and apps and software have all paved the way for us to work from home – thank you County Technology Office!
While we have leveraged technology to work from home, wrong-doers leverage technology during crises to access computer systems and obtain valuable information. Now is a good time to remember how to stay “cyber safe” and avoid unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of confidential or personal information.
County employees are entrusted with a wide variety of information about others: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, protected health information, non-public personal financial information and the list goes on. Personal information and data become more important and valuable each year.
Teleworking and remote access to the network requires diligence by each of us to safeguard our data, our systems and our network. Please ensure that you continue to comply with practices stated in County of San Diego policies (see links at end).
Here are eight key precautions to stay cyber safe when teleworking:
Your password is good for one thing: logging on to your County account. Never share it. Never reveal it. No legitimate person, email, website or form will ever ask for or need it—the cyberworld, however, is full malicious and clever actors who will try and fool you into coughing it up. Do not be fooled.
Similarly, be cautious about even clicking on unknown links or attachments presented in unsolicited emails. When in doubt, report them using the new “Phishing” button in your toolbar. That will send it straight to our security team and deletes it from your mailbox.
Never reuse your County password for any other home or personal accounts. Mix it up.
Never send work-related emails to your personal email accounts.
Do not write/store passwords on or near your computer.
Always use Pulse Secure VPN, NetMotion VPN or the Akamai service when accessing the County network remotely to reach business applications.
Do not store confidential County of San Diego information on unencrypted devices, such as flash drives or home computers.
Secure paper documents that contain personal information and all County assets (such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and flash drives) with you at all times.
If you have concerns about safeguarding confidential or personal information while teleworking, please review the policies below; contact the County Technology Office for electronic concerns at 619-531-5570 or CTO.Feedback@sdcounty.ca.gov ; or contact the Office of Ethics and Compliance for non-technology concerns at 619-531-5714 or OEC@sdcounty.ca.gov.
HHSA users can refer to Safeguarding Protected Information - Procedure L-26 and contact the Agency Compliance Office at 619-338-2808 or PrivacyOfficer.HHSA@SDCounty.ca.gov with questions.
You can also report concerns anonymously to the Ethics Hotline at 866-549-0004.
County Admin Manual Policies