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Ensuring data security with remote workers

Around 44% of Brits work flexibly from home – either in fully remote roles or hybrid ones. But without the protection of on-premise security and data security measures, how can your organisation support remote employees in keeping data safe?

Reduce the risk of data breaches by training your workforce

There are many data security risks to consider when working remotely. Human error is one of the leading causes of workplace data breaches. A Data Security Incident Trends report published by the Information Commissioner’s Office shows that, in 2025 alone, there were 9,524 breaches reported resulting from human error in the form of:

  • Failure to use BCC
  • Failure to redact information
  • Data emailed to the incorrect recipient
  • Data posted or faxed to the incorrect recipient
  • Verbal disclosure of personal data
  • Incorrect disposal of paperwork
  • Incorrect disposal of hardware.

By instilling data protection knowledge in all employees, these incidents could have been entirely preventable. One of the best ways to do this is through proper training. Ensuring employees know how to use the internet safely, as well as their data security obligations, will help to reduce the risks of data breaches. For remote workers, this is particularly important as they won’t necessarily have someone immediately available for a second opinion or another pair of eyes on how they are handling confidential information.

Make sure employees understand GDPR principles and how to process and destroy data safely, and get a watertight, unambiguous routine in place for remote workers to follow. The ICO sets out 10 ways to help remote workers work from home securely, which is a great place to start for your own training guides or virtual learning. If you aren’t sure where to start, online platforms such as uSecure and iHasco are full of learning resources.

remote worker sitting on the floor with a dog and her laptop on the coffee table

Key elements of data protection your remote workers need to know:

  • What is meant by personal and sensitive data
  • How to stay safe online and how to spot things like phishing attempts or social engineering
  • The data protection measures your organisation has in place already
  • What procedures should be followed to avoid the risk of a data breach
  • What to do if they suspect a data breach has occurred, or how to report a vulnerability that could result in a data breach.

If an employee is aware of data breach risks and preventive measures, a breach is less likely to occur. If, on the other hand, an employee doesn’t know what personal data means and how it should be handled, your organisation could be setting itself up for failure, fines, and reputational damage. Clear communication and education on these matters is the responsibility of your organisation. So, make sure you’re setting your employees up for data security success.

Another thing to be especially wary of with remote workers is physical data security. There were 2,363 data breaches reported to the ICO in 2025 that were caused by the theft of unsecured devices or paperwork. If your remote workers will occasionally be working from a coffee shop, library, or another public place, make sure they know never to leave their documents or devices unattended.

man working from cafe on laptop

Implement a data retention and destruction schedule for remote workers

Failure to prepare a thorough data retention and destruction plan for remote workers could be a very costly mistake. Even from home, remote employees are likely to generate physical business documents or use notebooks. Once no longer needed, these materials need to be destroyed securely. Holding on to commercial documents for longer than necessary only increases the risk of a data breach or incorrect disposal. It is better to have a process in place to make sure confidential material is handled safely.

We suggest a “Shred Everything” policy for all confidential materials that your remote workers no longer need. This could be for paper materials, hard drives, USBs or any other form of physical data. This will avoid the risk of human error when deciding what documents or materials to shred. Remember, just one single piece of mishandled paper is all it takes for a data breach to occur.

Make sure no business documents or materials end up in domestic bins

A huge responsibility falls on businesses to ensure GDPR compliance while employing remote workers. This includes the secure disposal of confidential materials. At any time, you should be able to prove data security measures have been considered for every document or piece of data that passes through your organisation. This includes who has had access to each file and what happens to those files when no longer needed.  With remote workers, this process can be slightly more difficult to manage.

Under the Environment Protection Act, Section 34, it is against the law for businesses to dispose of commercial waste in domestic bins. This includes business documents generated by remote teams, the self-employed, or anyone else based at a domestic address as part of their employment. Remote employees should dispose of documents in the same way they would if they were in the office.  This is vital for all business waste, but especially materials that are commercially sensitive or that contain personal information. With this in mind, how will your organisation ensure remote workers are destroying business documents and other materials securely?

The best way to safeguard the business information your home workers process is through secure destruction. For small quantities of confidential paperwork, a pre-paid postal shredding service like Ship2Shred is an ideal solution for remote workers. It ensures secure disposal, while giving remote employees a simple and compliant solution for business waste. You simply buy the pre-paid envelopes, Ship2Shred will post them out to whichever addresses you choose, and your workers post them back. Once the destruction is complete, a Certificate of Destruction will be sent to an email address of your choice. This allows your head office to keep track of any postal shredding services used.  It also prevents your employees’ homes from becoming full of old business documents. For larger volumes of confidential business waste, industrial shredding services are also available for remote employees.

Shredding service operative wheeling bins of confidential information to a shredding truck

As well as relying on remote workers to keep business information safe, they should be able to rely on you to keep their data safe

Trust is a two-way street. If you’re relying on your remote employees to safeguard business information and protect important data, they should be able to rely on you – their employer – to do the same.

If you monitor your remote workers at home, make sure that any monitoring is proportionate and clearly communicated to them. For instance, performance and productivity monitoring may be expected. Unrestricted remote access to their laptop camera and microphone definitely isn’t. Even if your employee consented to this kind of monitoring, there may be other people living in their household who haven’t. Respect your remote workers’ privacy, and if you ever need to share their personal details with a third party (e.g. a shredding service provider), make sure they are aware.