# Can an infected home laptop spread malware into the office over the VPN?

Yes. Once connected, a laptop on the VPN is inside the network, often with wide access. Malware picked up at home, from a family member's download or a compromised home router, can then scan the office network and reach file shares and servers like any other internal host. Limit what VPN users can reach to the systems they need, require multi-factor authentication, keep endpoint protection and updates current on remote laptops, and do not let personal devices connect to the company VPN. If the VPN traffic crosses a monitored segment, NetSenX sees the laptop's connections and flags scanning, lateral movement and beaconing from it, on every plan. A laptop that runs the agent is watched on its own, wherever it is. What happens inside the laptop stays the job of endpoint protection.

FAQ: [Remote work and exposed services](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/remote) · https://netsenx.com/en/faq/can-an-infected-home-laptop-spread-malware-over-the-vpn

## Read next

- https://netsenx.com/en/is-someone-inside-your-network
- https://netsenx.com/en/encrypted-traffic-analysis

## Related questions

- [Is it safe to expose SSH to the internet?](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/is-it-safe-to-expose-ssh-to-the-internet)
- [Which services should never be exposed to the internet?](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/which-services-should-never-be-exposed-to-the-internet)
- [How does remote working increase cyber-security risk?](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/how-does-remote-work-increase-cyber-risk)
- [How do I secure remote workers who access the company network?](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/how-to-secure-remote-workers-accessing-the-company-network)
- [Do we need a VPN for remote work?](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/do-we-need-a-vpn-for-remote-work)
