Using own laptop for work - privacy issues?

DIYhelp76

Hi, 

I am considering using a personal laptop for work purposes whilst working from home.  It would involve logging on to what I think is a cloud server on a secure site (I think I would log on and be given a code to put in for secure access).  Sometimes the work Tech team may need to "remote" on to look at/fix things etc.

Is there a way I can keep totally separate/secure/private the personal side of my laptop?  In other words, to have two different areas of my laptop: work and private.  So I can be sure that when Tech are remoting on, or when I'm on the work server, none of my personal files/folders are visible/accessible?  I have banking and personal files/photos etc I would want to secure.  The work systems are very advanced and secure I believe so if they are running checks or back-ups whilst I'm online, I'd like to be secure that my personal files can't be scanned/viewed in any way.

At present I have separate work supplied equipment but using my own laptop may give me more flexibility to work from different locations without having to lug a lot of kit with me.

My laptop is fairly old but still a good working machine: HP G72.

Many thx in advance.

unforeseen

Would your company be happy about you using a personal computer for work? That is the question that first needs to be answered.
Having a separate computer account for work use will go some way to protecting your personal data but it's not perfect.

What happens if the tech team need to do work that requires administrator privileges? That would open up your whole machine to them. 

cx6

You can install a second operating system and have a boot menu so at bootup you load either your Home system or your Work system. This way they can be kept completely separate.

Google 'windows dual boot'

[Deleted User]

We were allowed very limited access via citrix for certain functions. Browsing work schedules really, not a lot of work could be done that way.
They insisted on a company issue/maintained laptop and only software they controlled and that included all the security and access to company systems, they took it really seriously. I expect different firms have different policies and I wouldn't want to do any company work on my kit.

mksysb

Best way is probably to set up a virtual machine, and use that just for work.

googler

If all you're doing is working on the company's system via your web browser, and the work you do outwith the browser is not directly accessed from the browser, you should be OK.

Have had past experience of this type of scenario, and I had no concerns about it. If things went wrong, they were at the company's end, and for them to fix. All I was doing was using Firefox/Opera/Chrome to access it, there wasn't any software loaded on to the machine at my end. It was designed that way to reduce that overhead. Essentially all I was doing was browsing and using online access to input data. If your setup is the same ....

I would request clarification from the IT helpdesk first.   

TELLIT01

When I worked on IT support, there is no way we would allow anything other than company supplied laptops to access any of the systems.  The risk from viruses is too great when you don't have total control of what that computer accesses.

jamesd

A virtual machine like Virtualbox and a copy of inexpensively licenced Windows running inside it would achieve what you want. It's how I accessed work systems for many years, sometimes using Windows, sometimes a company-supplied Linux image. Using this approach you can simultaneously run your personal copy of say Windows and in a window run the work OS. You can also have widows split out of the VM box so that they appear to be running natively on your own computer even though they are still safely in the VM.

RAM is a possible issue. 4GM is just barely enough with both operating systems in active use, 8GB is better and the more the merrier after that.

The computer support side of the house generally let the computer pros like me get on with what we were doing, since we both knew what we were doing and would be personally responsible if we screwed up.

Alfrescodave

If you're working from home, why isn't the company supplying you with a laptop ? This would then enable you to have 2 completely separate systems, work versus personal.
If you didn't have your own laptop, your company would have to supply one or would they insist you work at their location?

unforeseen

Alfrescodave said:

If you're working from home, why isn't the company supplying you with a laptop ? This would then enable you to have 2 completely separate systems, work versus personal.
If you didn't have your own laptop, your company would have to supply one or would they insist you work at their location?

Because OP said the following

At present I have separate work supplied equipment but using my own laptop may give me more flexibility to work from different locations without having to lug a lot of kit with me.

oh_really

Inforn your employer you require a laptop to conduct their work.