Home, coffee shop, and hotel Wi-Fi: How to work securely anywhere

The old security perimeter is gone

Security used to be built around the office network: everything inside the firewall was safe. Today, people work from home, on trains, and in hotels, and the data lives in the cloud. So every sign-in and every device has to be verified, wherever it is.

What matters most

Strong sign-in matters most. Next come managed devices that are kept up to date, with disk encryption and endpoint protection. With Conditional Access, you can allow only approved devices to access sensitive data.

Public networks

Open networks in coffee shops and hotels are less risky than they used to be, because almost all traffic is now encrypted. The biggest risk is not the network but fake sign-in pages and unlocked computers. Teach employees to lock their screens – and to be skeptical of unexpected sign-in requests.