Taking care of your Home Security, while working from Home

Do you work from home?

In recent years, working from home has become increasingly more popular. Since the pandemic, a lot of jobs in Ireland now offer Hybrid working to their employees. This means some days in the office and some days from home. Of course, we all prefer coming to the office over working from home. Just look at this company, who showcased how much we all prefer the office over home.

@goproposal When the team leader asks…. #WFH or #office ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show

When working from home employers often remind us about cyber security, reminding us to be wary of phishing email, to back up information and protect customer information. However, do you think enough about your home security, now that your home more often?

It might be worth thinking about it more as 60% of burglaries occur when someone is still in the home (irishtimes, 2022) and usually last under 10 minutes. So, if you are in a 30-minute call in your home office, these things can easily happen without you noticing.

Here are a few top tips to protect your home when you are at home.  

• Invest in a Home Security System. Securing your home with a monitored system is one of the best ways to protect your home when hybrid working. Owning a monitored alarm can give you that peace of mind that if a shock sensor or a motion detector was to go off, your alarm will not only sound to let you know an intruder has entered the home, but the monitored station will send the Guards to your home. So, before you even finish that 30-minute call the intruder could have entered but the Guards would have been dispatched and potentially already arrived to your home, giving you that extra peace of mind.

A home with a monitored alarm system is 4.5 times less likely to be broken into, most likely because most alarm companies offer a bellbox which can deter intruders.

• Lock doors and windows, even when at home. Some people might find this unusual, especially when at home and you live in an area you consider safe. However, the 2022 Irish Central Statistics study has shown that 33% of Burglars get into the home through the front door. Even more worrisome, Gardaí have reported that 21% of these Burglars walked in through an unlocked door.

• Locking all doors and windows in the home won’t allow for anyone to just walk into the home and even better if you invest in a doorbell camera or an external camera, not only will you be alerted when there is movement around your home, you can check who is there before making your way to the door.

• If you’re working later in the evening, keep a light on. Most burglaries aren’t random, at the very least even the most inexperienced burglar will watch a home to assess if there is movement inside. If a burglar can see that a light has been left on, and there is movement in the house between certain hours, there is more chance of them targeting somewhere with less activity.

• Set routines. Back to the point of burglaries aren’t random, if a burglar knows you’re at home Monday to Wednesday and go for your lunchtime walk at the same time every day, they will strike at that time. If you have a monitored alarm, you are likely to have an app connected to the system. To avoid that awkward conversation with your boss explaining your expensive work equipment is gone, use your app to double check you armed your system.

A majority of burglaries take place during the day. Pre-pandemic most homeowners would be away from 9am – 5pm, but now as you’re home more often, you don’t want to be putting yourself at risk. Last year, goods with the value of more than 4,000 were taken from each burgled home (irishtimes, 2022). You’ve worked too hard to have any part of your life stolen away by a thief, especially when you are in the home. It is important to keep on top of things, a small investment in home security can help you to prevent a potential break in. If you are interested in a monitored security system package, that includes add ons like cameras and panic buttons call HomeSecure today on 1800 844 024.