That wasn't what you had in mind when you decided to set up your home-based business, was it? Becoming a target for woud-be robbers. Yet it does raise some fundamental questions you need answers to.

• Is personal security really an additional risk for you now that you have set yourself up working from home?
• Have you put your home at risk?
• Is your office now a bigger target than your home was before as a sleepy, residential abode?
• Will it increase the risk to your family?
• And, most of all, how do you avoid being targeted for theft of attack?

~~The aim of this hub is to give you the essentials for understanding and setting up physical, mental and technological security for your home office. This includes the information, options, and links to checklists, systems and reports that provide all the things or jump-points you'll need to establish a baseline of low-risk.

And, subtle though it is, your progress through this hub and its offerings plays a part in the psychological upgrade required for genuine implementation and longevity - as discussed later in the hub. Enjoy the read. ~~

In a home-based business, physical security is nothing like your old, office building where there might be:

• swipe cards,
• security personnel,
• door locks controlled by security or reception staff,
• alarms,
• and just plain old plenty of folk around to provide deterrence, witnesses or even muscle, if things come to push and shove.

Having given up the pleasures of someone else looking after the little extras, what are you going to do to play it safe?

The main issues around home business security start with the basics:

• from reminders like "lock your doors and secure your windows,"
• to "do you want to know when someone is approaching the house?"

For a quick-check system that will step you through those issues, see Part 1 of this report: Home Security and Your Home Based Business. This will cover the physical issues and options you need to deal with.

But what is the real issue behind this security push?

It's twofold.

• First, there is the fact that most folks tend to focus on home business security as a single point of attack. They either recognize the computer as the source of a plethora of viruses and other means by which the bad guys are constantly trying to "break in" or, they recognize the physical security they left behind at their old workplace and they suspect they need to recreate some form of that at home.
  You need to be au fait with both aspects of security. For a simple run down on what to cover in your computer security plan, take a look at Part 2 of Home Security for Your Home Based Business. It includes a link to a free ebook written by a 25-year expert who will give you both a list of and access to everything you need to cover yourself.
  It also gives you some easy mind-set approaches to protecting your computer from your own actions. Remember, the biggest threat usually comes from what the user does with the equipment!

• Second, there is a big mental shift, subtle but vital, that the new home business operator needs to make. It's another version of that maxim: the biggest threat comes from the user.

  Without this shift or additional awareness, the user, you, may still be approaching the new environment from a "poor-fit" stand-point. It was okay for back at the boss's office, but...

  When you take your body out of one environment and put it in another, you have to do likewise with your head. It's the old change-management trick, and since you are already out of your comfort zone moving from employee to entrepreneur or freelancer based at home, it's a lot easier to take that extra step and turn your head just so, to take in a new perspective - security and risk management.

  Remember, keep it simple and it's more likely to stick. Same goes for wrapping your head around something new. It's time to become a little bit of an expert at security, just as you are now becoming a bit of an expert at all the other aspects of running your own business and being your own boss, problem-solver, janitor... It comes with the territory and it might seem daunting. But take it easy on yourself, use the links in this hub and you won't have to scour the universe to find what you need.

  If you would like a quick boost re-aligning your head space, now that you are setting up a home office, take a look at Part 3 of the Home Security Report.

Some of the basics in Part 3 come from What if? scenario building, and plain old common sense. Funny thing about common sense, as many suggest, it's not so common. The reason for that is, common sense only exists in an individual if they stop for a moment and pull together a bit of knowledge, experience, imagination, extrapolation, "What If-ing" and a dose of logic.

Most of us have this sort of stuff at our fingertips. But it's the act of taking stock of it in one place;

• of looking at how it fits together
• and how - having pulled it together - one part then interacts with another

that magically gives us common sense about a particular thing.

It's an active trait, not a hereditary built-in knowledge-set like "flying south for the winter." We have to think things through and deliberately put two and two together.

Not being a computer expert, a psychologist or much of a handyman I am limited in the additional recommendations I can make. Still, on top of the free ebook and the 3-part report mentioned above, I can also recommend the following:

• ZoneAlarm, the initial free version will help you trial this, then I recommend anything up to and including the 3-suite package
• Lavasoft AdAware, try the free personal use option to start you off
• SpywareStop, yes, it's the new-look SpywareBot
• Remember, these are the basics you need to cover: firewall, anti-virus/hacker, anti-spyware, anti-malware/adware.
  If you use an email system with little or inadequate anti-spam protection consider using anti-spam protection or changing the email system you use.
  Anti-spam programs perform two functions. They deal with overload from unwanted spam, and they detect or block or hive off potentially dangerous email that might be carrying viruses or trojans and the like.
  Even so, watch it when you download from your own email. You need all that anti-virus/hacker, spyware protection for these email downloads same as any downloading you do from websites on the internet.
  And finally, you don't need multiple versions of software that do the same thing. You just need to know what you are using is doing its job. I refer you back to the Home Security Reports above which contain a link to Greg Reynolds' free ebook that takes you through all your anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-hacker security options.
  And, another finally, you absolutely need to set up a routine for running each of those anti-whatever programs at least weekly - unless like ZoneAlarm it runs itself automatically. Having it on your computer is useless if you need to run it regularly and don't. Might as well have no protection at all.
• A cautionary word about some home-based business offers that might be spam: http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2007/12/home_based_business_offers.html
• More options for meeting clients outside your home: http://www.powerhomebiz.com/guide/cases/yvonneleigh.htm
• Reviews of online business options:
  http://www.myetoolz.com/ebizreviews
• Thoughts on home-based business and recessions: http://www.chiefhomeofficer.com/the-recession-proof-home-based-business/#more-372
• The Microsoft Small Business Center, articles and insights: http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/articles.mspx
• Easy to follow anti-hacker tips and traps: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/anti-hacking.htm
• Other home-based business security basics: http://notmadeofmoney.com/home_based_business_safety_and_security_issues.html
• And my own range of window alarms, door alarms and other home security and personal security options for your home business:

  http://www.SurveillanceEquipmentandPersonalSecurity.com/homesecurity

So, take a look at the information and ideas available and produce your dose of common sense to ensure your home business operates from a strong base of low risk.