Remote working security basics for 2026

Home isn't the office (network-wise)

Your office firewall and segmented Wi-Fi don't follow staff home. They're on ISP routers with default passwords, maybe sharing bandwidth with teenagers' gaming PCs.

That's not a reason to ban remote work — it's a reason to control how people connect.

Minimum viable secure remote

• Company devices or enrolled BYOD with encryption and screen lock
• MFA on all cloud apps — especially email and file storage
• No local admin for standard users
• VPN or zero-trust access only if you still rely on on-prem apps (many 365 shops don't need traditional VPN)
• Clear rules for printing client data at home and storing files locally

Policies people actually read

A twenty-page IT policy nobody signs is useless. One page covering passwords, device loss, phishing reporting and "don't let your partner use the work laptop" goes much further.

We help clients write sensible policies in plain English, not lawyer soup.

The cloud advantage

If mail and files live in Microsoft 365 with Conditional Access, you can require managed devices and MFA without routing all traffic through a slow VPN. That's how a lot of our West Yorkshire clients run hybrid now.

Reviewing remote setup after a staff change? Book a consultation and we'll sanity-check without selling you kit you don't need.