Telecommuters and Data Loss
It seems like most businesses allow telecommuting these days. Your employees are home working in slippers, or are catching up in a hotel room after a day at a conference. Either way, their productivity is growing, they are enjoying their jobs, and you are reaping the benefits.
Sadly, it’s not all a day in pajamas for remote employment. Telecommuting has some serious security risks that you should be considering.
No matter what they are doing, your employees need to be connected to your network. They are sending emails and data and working with others in a complex environment. Your data is at constant risk. It’s not necessarily in more danger than it is being accessed in the office, but the situation has changed. Your company laptops may have extensive security features in place, but they won’t help a bit if your employees are using their home computers for company business. They need to be trained to only access the network from company machines, and to not allow any company data on their home computers.
Another huge risk is a missing laptop. It doesn’t matter if it’s lost or stolen, your data and access to your network are out there hanging. There are a few steps you can take to make this less of a risk, however, beyond chaining the computer to your employees’ wrists.
For example, you could install software that allows a computer to be permanently disabled from the network if it is lost, and you could ensure all applications and the desktop are web-based. If there’s no data on the machine and no way of getting to the network, all you’ve lost is a computer.
Telecommuting is a radical change in how businesses are run, but it’s worth the risk. For a few tweaks in security you get happier employees and greater productivity. Your data can be safe and network can be secure, and all you have to remember to is ask them to change out of their pajamas before the next video conference.
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