Bringing work home was never advisable because it could interfere with family life and rest hours. Now it has interfered with data security, as in the case of a consultant who brought home a computer, leading to sensitive data being exposed. The data involves those collected by the Provincial Public Health Laboratory (PPHL) in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

The Canadian government has put the matter under investigation to check if the data has already been compromised in any way. These include the names, health card numbers, age, sex, physician and test results of the patients under the care of the PPHL.

The data was stored on a desktop computer normally kept at the lab but which was being used at home by a consultant on contract with the lab. The said consultant connected the computer to an open Internet connection. The breach was discovered when someone claiming to be from a security company called the consultant and informed him that they could access the data.

The government has hired a computer security firm to lead its investigation and has asked its own chief information officer to determine the scope of the breach and how it could have happened.

Working at home has its own conveniences, but the setup poses a lot of risks as well. While an office has adequate security to protect its data, bringing a device out in the open–literally–exposes the said device to the danger of theft, either through physical or online means. If security cannot be ensured in domestic environs, then at any rate, it would be better to keep work confined within the office walls.