It’s no longer business as usual for corporate America. Companies large and small are trying to deal with the spreading coronavirus by allowing or advising their employees to work from home, if possible.

While prudent from a public health perspective, this creates a security nightmare for corporate information technology departments.

“When employees step outside the office, they often forget they're still doing work, and they may not follow the security policies they once would have followed without any question,” Charles Henderson, chief of IBM’s X-Force Red security hacking team, said.

NBC News BETTER asked some of the country’s top digital security experts what precautions they suggest first-time telecommuters should follow:

1. Use company-issued equipment when possible

If you have a laptop or a mobile device provided by your company, use it. Security protocols on company technology is typically stronger than what’s on your personal devices. It’s also easier for the IT folks to manage and monitor them.

“If you’re given a secure device, it’s a good idea to use it,” Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, said. “Personally, I would feel better having a network administrator or system administrator setting it up for me.”

2. Be responsible with your home equipment

For those who don’t have a company laptop to use, make sure the devices you use — your home computer, personal laptop and personal mobile phone — are secure.

“You absolutely need to have commercial-grade security software installed and up to date, and make sure that all of the patches from Microsoft or Apple are in place,” said Chester Wisniewski, a principal research scientist at Sophos. “It’s probably not a good idea to use the same computer that the kids use to go online because a lot of times, that’s how malware and spyware tools end up getting onto your computer.”

Consumer Reports tested 30 antivirus software programs for Windows and Mac computers. Some of the top-rated programs are free.

It’s also important to check your router to make sure it’s secure and difficult to hack.

“People are not great at securing the home router,” Baumgartner said. “Sometimes firmware falls out of date, sometimes default passwords are left on these things by somebody else who set it up. And that exposes the company you work for and their assets to another level of risk that you're responsible for.”

Here’s a step-by-step guide from Lifewire on how to upgrade your router’s firmware. If you have an old router that is no longer supported with firmware updates, it’s time to get a new one.

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3. Always use the company portal to access the corporate servers

Every company has procedures in place for how employees should access the network when out of the office. If you’re not sure what that is, check with your IT department.

“Don’t try to set up your own remote access, using software you may already have on your home device,” Henderson said. “If you try to use that software on the corporate network, you could bypass your company’s security protocols.”

You may be required to use two-factor authentication (2FA) to gain access through the company portal. This is easy to set up and greatly reduces the chances of a hacker getting into the network.