thevicenarian.com

How To : safely use your work laptop at home

Posted by Tad Johnson - Mar 19th, 2008 at 18:03

My employer gives me (and the rest of the IT department) a laptop for work. This decision was made in the hopes that it would make travel easier (we can bring all our work with us) and allow us to work from home. I have my reservations on both claims, but it is what it is.

One of the sticky questions that develops when you give your employees mobile computers is how to differentiate work from personal use. The official policy, as you might guess, is that our work laptops are to be used exclusively for work related tasks. As you might imagine, this is rarely the case.

I occasionally use my work laptop for personal use at home, and I know more than a few people who use it exclusively as their only computer. This may seem like a great way to save money and reduce the electronic clutter in your life, but there are some very troubling implications.

For example, what if your company is involved in a lawsuit and they need to scan your hard drive as evidence? Do you want them finding photos of Fluffy mixed in with your TPS reports? What if you’re using your laptop (at home) for activities that run afoul of your company policies? Can they distinguish between the times you’re online at work versus the times you’re at home?

Fortunately, a few new technologies may save the day :

Use web apps. Keep your personal data in “the cloud” as much as possible. Use Gmail, Google Docs, Hulu, and any other web apps you like to ensure that your personal data stays off your hard drive.
Use an alternate browser. Keep your work links, history, and cache separate from your personal stuff by using a totally separate browser. (Such as Firefox).
Boot Linux. Most of the popular Linux distributions offer Live CDs that allow you to boot into Linux and use all the standard apps without touching your hard drive. These work surprisingly well, though you will experience a slight performance hit compared to a regular OS installed on your hard drive.
Boot Linux from a USB key. As a more advanced offshoot of above, some Linux distributions (including my favorite, Ubuntu) allow you to install and boot from a USB key. This is an ideal solution, since it offers good performance and it saves all your data. [Believe it or not, I’m using such a scheme right now!]

As a vicenarian, you hopefully haven’t been forced to deal with a company lawsuit. Just because you haven’t been bit doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious. If you’re using your employer’s laptop for personal use, please be safe and make smart choices.