The biggest tech disasters for homeworkers

If you work from home you probably know that sudden sinking feeling you get when a link in your tech chain breaks.

Unless you’ve got your own IT team living in the basement, technical issues can lead to feelings of frustration and unproductive hours – or sometimes even days.

Today’s sponsored post from Exponential-e looks at three of the biggest tech disasters for homeworkers:

Connectivity problems

A secure and reliable connection is essential for most homeworkers. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) there are more people working from home than ever before. Almost two thirds (63%) consider themselves as self-employed but that doesn’t mean they work in isolation.

A leased line can be just one way to improve your home connectivity. This is a high-speed communications link that is dedicated to a single business customer, meaning you don’t have to share bandwidth. If this isn’t affordable or suitable for your homeworking circumstances, make sure you research available providers. Don’t just go for the cheapest bundle – take into account factors such as speeds and outage statistics.

Accidental data loss

Losing that presentation you’ve been working on for the past two weeks can be a major headache. Save often and make sure you back up all important data on a daily basis. A hard drive crash can be difficult to predict and particularly disastrous, so make sure you back up your files to external devices or cloud based data storage services in preparation for any disasters.

Malware

Another, potentially more worrying cause for data loss is through deliberate cyber-attacks and malware. According to this infographic 35% of external data loss is caused by malware, 21% through email attacks and 17% through phishing scams.

Everyone should take steps to protect themselves but it can be even more important if you’re using your home system for business purposes. Use regularly updated live virus and malware protection software and scan your system often – also remember to use secure connections and strong passwords that you change regularly to maximise your safety.

Whilst there are a range of technical problems the average worker from home may experience, there are many methods currently available to safeguard both you and your hard work from any problems that may occur.