I’m a Christian and software engineer; I create random graphics projects and websites. Feel free to ask me for help with programming, or about my faith!
However, you can configure GRUB to use an encrypted boot partition, and even have detached encryption headers. It does take a bit more work, and you should make sure you know what you are doing. (e.g. losing a detached header basically means your data is all lost)
Just listing some things that I needed to do for working remotely on a personal device: have an antivirus installed, make sure Windows firewall is enabled, enable automatic updates, screensaver or lockscreen configured for 15 minutes of inactivity, and use a strong password (and a good password manager).