Secure remote work for SMEs: the rules to apply

Remote work has become established in many SMEs in French-speaking Switzerland. It moves part of the office into an apartment, a train or a café, with risks the company network no longer covers: poorly configured home Wi-Fi, public networks, a visible screen, documents printed at home. Secure remote work takes each of these places into account.

It relies on a few simple rules, enforced through configuration whenever possible rather than left to everyone's goodwill. The employer remains responsible for personal data processed at home, just as at the office: the nFADP also applies to remote work.

A managed computer, not a personal one

The foundation is a computer supplied and managed by the company, for example with Intune: encrypted disk, updates applied automatically, active EDR protection, session locked after a few minutes of inactivity. If it is lost or stolen, it can be locked or wiped remotely.

If personal devices are allowed, for example a smartphone for e-mail, limit them to apps protected by company policies. These policies separate business data and make it possible to wipe it without touching the rest of the device.

VPN or Conditional Access: how to access data remotely?

To reach a server or a file share that stays at the office, a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between the computer and the company network. It must be protected by multi-factor authentication and kept up to date, because VPN gateways exposed to the internet are frequent targets.

When the data is in Microsoft 365, Conditional Access takes over: it checks the identity, the state of the device and the context of the sign-in, and can restrict data access to managed devices. The two approaches often coexist during a move to the cloud.

Home Wi-Fi and public networks

• Change the administrator password of the router supplied by your provider, if it is still the original one.
• Use WPA2 or WPA3 encryption, with a long Wi-Fi password.
• Let the router update itself, or ask your provider whether it takes care of it.
• Put connected devices (TV, camera, smart speaker) on a guest network if the router allows it.
• On the move, prefer your phone's hotspot to the Wi-Fi of a hotel, a train station or a café.
• Use a privacy filter on the screen on the train and lock the session as soon as you step away.

Paper documents and video calls when working from home

Paper escapes every technical tool. Print as little as possible at home, keep client files out of reach of family and visitors, and bring back to the office anything that needs to be destroyed, or use a paper shredder. The ordinary recycling bin is not an appropriate place for a contract or a payslip.

On video calls, check who can hear the conversation, use headphones for confidential topics and turn on background blur if documents are visible behind you. Share a specific window rather than the whole screen, so you do not display a notification or an e-mail by mistake.

A short policy for secure remote work

The rules fit on one page: what is allowed, what is not, and whom to notify about a loss or an incident. They are explained on arrival, repeated during awareness training and enforced as far as possible through device configuration, so that security does not depend on everyone's memory.