Tools for Keeping Your WFH Office Safe and Secure

SAFETY. It's a whole new world out there and, if you are reading this, chances are you've been working from home, or as it's come to be known—WFH. There are definitely pluses and minuses of WFH, but something many of us have had to grapple with is keeping our gear—and equally important, our data—safe in an environment that was most likely never intended to be a full or even part-time work center. And then there's the kids and pets factor. According to Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and most likely at the worse time. According to "Al's Law," Murphy was an optimist who obviously never had kids or pets.

In that spirit, the following products are designed to bring you peace of mind when it comes to the security and safety of your WFH gear and data.

WD My Cloud Home, My Passport Wireless SSD Drives, and Other WD Storage Options

Knowing your data is backed up safely and is readily available regardless of how inquisitive your five-year-old may be is a priceless commodity. The WD My Cloud Home NAS servers are easy to use and enable you to back up all of your digital content centrally from your computer, smartphone, tablet, USBs, external drives, and other digital storage devices on a single platform you and others can readily access and share from anywhere you can pick up a signal.  

The My Cloud Home system allows you to set up public and private workspaces for you and authorized others, and is compatible with Windows Backup, Time Machine, and your smartphone's camera roll. My Cloud NAS servers are available in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB capacities and in 1-Bay, 2-Bay, and 4-Bay configurations.

For transporting data safely and securely, you can't go wrong with the WD My Passport Wireless SSD drives, which feature solid-state memory, a protective wraparound rubber cover, an SD slot for backing up and clearing up memory cards on the fly, USB 2.0 and 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and storage capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. (I used a WD My Passport Wireless SSD backup drive on a three-week trip to China last year, and it worked like a champ!)

Finally, WD offers a wide range of additional storage solutions for work, home, and mobile applications.

Seagate Internal Drives

Seagate offers close to two dozen choices of internal and external drives including four solid state drives: three internal, one external. Some of the best-selling drives and servers from Seagate include the 4TB Backup Plus USB.3.0, the 2TB BarraCuda 7200 rpm SATA III 3.5" Internal HDD, 8TB Expansion Desktop and 10TB Expansion Desktop.

Seagate also offers a number of portable external drives and SSD drives, including its impact-resistant BarraCuda-series Fast External SSD drives.

LaCie d2-series Desktop Drives

According to LaCie, LaCie d2-series Desktop Drives are the results of the evolution of 20 years of storage technologies. Designed by Neil Poulton to handle high-bandwidth tasks and projects, d2 desktop drives are available in two flavors. For heavy lifting, we have the d2 Thunderbolt™ 3, available in capacities ranging from 6TB to 10TB. LaCie d2 features include Thunderbolt™ 3 and USB 3.1 interfaces, the ability to daisy-chain two 4K displays, a single 5K display, or up to six LaCie d2 drives, maximum data transfer rates of up to 240 MB/s and, best of all, 5 years' worth of data-recovery services.

Also available from LaCie is its d2 Professional series, which only has a single USB 3.1 interface (no Thunderbolt™)  but is Thunderbolt™ 3, USB-C, and USB 3.0.comparable and covered by LaCie's 5-year data-protection service.

Adding flash drives, portable SSD drives, and memory cards to your backup, image transfer, and memory arsenal, which are perhaps the most mobile among our non-Wi-Fi storage and transfer devices, should also be considered. For one of the widest selections of memory cards and thumb drives, check out the offerings from SanDisk, Delkin, Lexar, and dozens of other manufacturers and distributors.

Pelican Hard Storage Cases

When it comes to near-bulletproof protection, Pelican can take a broadside. For the longest time, the company's lifetime warranty for hard cases guaranteed them against anything and everything with the exception of shark attacks, bear attacks, and children less than five years old.

Pelican Vault-series hard storage cases are an affordable hard storage case system perfect for home use. Some of the new features found on these cases include stainless-steel hasps, push-button latches, heavy-duty handles, and crushproof, weather-resistant polymer construction. Available in a variety of sizes and form factors and in a choice of colors, depending on the model, Pelican Vault cases are available with five-layer foam or divider interior compartments.

In addition to large equipment cases, Pelican also produces a huge assortment of smaller hard cases, including Pelican Personal Utility Go Cases, cases for laptops and for getting around town with your virtual office, a well-rounded line of Pelican soft and hard shell backpacks. 

Manfrotto might be best known for tripods, monopods, light stands, and grip accessories, but this company also offers an extensive line of hard and soft-shelled backpacks, many of which are designed with the mobile office in mind.

There's no way we could discuss backpacks for photo and mobile office needs without mentioning Lowepro, the company that manufactures the user-praised Lowepro Fastpack-series camera/laptop backpacks, which are available in several configurations, depending on your personal needs and aesthetics.

Other items sold at B&H Photo designed to make your home office devices and accessories safer and more secure against damage and possible data loss include keyboard protectors, keyboard cases, and screen protectors. You can find everything else you may need on the dedicated Work From Home page.

What about your own home office? Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for securing and protecting home office environments? Let us know about them in the Comments field, below.