Home Office Security Check
Home Security: A Guest Post by:
Joseph D'Agnese
Published: January 29, 2010
This quick home-office security check will help you
protect computer equipment, electronics, and personal data from theft,
fire, and other dangers.
A professional home security system can help reduce your
losses, but not taking a few extra steps is asking for trouble. This
home-office security check is designed to highlight the hot spots and
help you protect valuable home-office equipment and information.
Make sure you're insured
Take a look around your office. Are you properly insured for all of your equipment and possessions? Don't assume that your umbrella homeowner's policy
is sufficient. Most policies will cover replacement of computers only
up to a specific dollar amount, say $1,000 or $2,500. You'll bear the
rest of the cost, unless you add a rider to your existing policy.
(Riders tend to be inexpensive; you may pay an extra $50 a year to cover
all your camera equipment, for example.)
Equipment that you use
solely for business may not be covered at all by your homeowner's
policy, necessitating a separate commercial policy. The cost of these
policies varies widely, depending on the type of work you do and the
value of the items. Equipment on loan from your employer, such as an
office laptop, should be covered under your employer's policy.
Back it up--twice
Are you are currently backing up your data to an external hard drive?
If you are, good for you, but you can't rest there. If you lost both
computer and backup drive to theft or fire, you'd be out of luck. Better
is a service such as CrashPlan, which charges $100 a year to constantly back up all your critical data to a remote server.
Paper
documents are slightly trickier than the digital variety, because
they're usually one-of-a-kind. That's why important data--insurance
policies, Social Security cards, passports, auto titles, a list of your
family's credit card numbers, etc.--should be stored off-site in a safe
deposit box ($50 to $75 a year) or in a fireproof safe bolted to your
basement slab. You can scan and digitize these documents to keep them
handy, but be sure to back up the digital versions, too.
Bear in
mind that digital media, such as DVDs and CDs, can still melt in a
fireproof safe. Media safes constructed by companies such as FireKing
are built to block heat transfer, but you'll pay for the extra
protection. A 650-pound, 1.5-cubic-foot safe that can hold 140 CDs might
run you $3,000; smaller ones that hold 20 CDs cost about $400.
Avoid data and identity theft
Backups are fine, but they won't keep prying eyes off your data if
your computer is stolen. Most computers have built-in security
features--controlled via their system preferences panel--that you
probably aren't using. For example, you can drag your most sensitive
data into a single password-protected folder. Or you can "disable
automatic login" so the computer can't boot up without a password.
If
you want to go whole hog, activate your built-in encryption program or
install a third-party program such as the free download True Crypt
that will scramble every file on your computer. Without the password,
no one can access a single file. The downside: If you lose or forget the
password, adios data. If you're not comfortable with high-tech data
security measures, then the best advice is probably the simplest:
Install a solid office door with a good lock.
Protect against power surges
Electronic equipment that you use every day should be plugged into
surge protectors ($40 and up). These devices, which look like high-end
power strips, guard against occasional fluctuations in electricity
coming from your local power company, or from electrical appliances
cycling on and off inside the house.
Surge protectors can't make
up for improper wiring or insufficient power coming into the house. If
you're unsure of your home's power capacity, consider hiring an
electrician to do a wiring inspection. Ask him to check how many amps
your electrical panel carries (200 amps is typical of most modern
homes).
Even if a wiring upgrade isn't in order, ask him to clamp a whole-house surge protector
onto your electrical panel and to any other incoming transmission
lines, such as cable or data lines. These units, which cost between $200
and $300 installed, can stop a 40,000-amp surge in its tracks.
Not
even a top-of-the-line surge protector, however, can guard against a
direct lighting strike. As an added measure, unplug all sensitive
appliances during a lightning storm, or if you're leaving your home for a
lengthy period of time.
Joseph D'Agnese is a journalist and
book author who has written numerous articles on home improvement. He
lives in North Carolina.
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