Home working is a key revolution in business and technology industry and is becoming even-more popular for the enterprises. Home working or remote working allows employees to expand their day and increase productivity.

The IT background of the issue

The advancement in technology and the extensive use of the internet has encouraged people to demand better networking and quicker communications, to increase efficiency and quality of their work. ‘Surveys suggested telephone calls at (86%), followed by e-mail at 85% as the most important tools. Other electronic tools, including internet research (73%), instant messaging (39%) and text messaging (35%), are also now increasingly important to communications and make working from home a reality.’

Internet allows businesses to communicate with customers, employees and other businesses in any part of the world. It has also introduced us to telecommuting technology like IM, e-mails and video conferencing. Email allows businesses and employees to send documents, pictures and other data from one part of the world to another within a second. Video conferencing is very recent. It involves user in different places communication using both video pictures and voice. It requires hardware like loudspeaker, television, projector, monitor, microphones, webcam, and video camera.

Another technology that is growing is VPN (virtual private network). Businesses use it as a means of extending their own networks, by connecting sites or user together. First came intranets; now many companies are creating their own VNP to accommodate the needs of remote employees and distant offices.’ 

Employees working from home would usually set up a configured office with a dedicated PC and telephone.  They could use is ISDN dial-up for remote IT system access and call forwarding.  IP solutions are becoming more attractive with the launch of unmetered services and higher bandwidth and these are likely to offer better performance and lower costs.

Impact of the issue

Home working is proven very cost-effective and efficient, such as saving the fixed costs of the business and cutting down on the utility costs. Nevertheless, it has its negative impact on the society and on businesses.

Growth in home working and security breaches: millions and % of UK workforce:

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Statistics shows that there’ll be an increase in security violations if employees at home are left free. Home workers are more prone to surf the internet and download programs and file, which may carry viruses. These viruses might destroy important files or steal company information and transmit them to a hacker. If this happens, then company secrets with financial value may be stolen and company servers would be down, resulting in low productivity.

Any remote devices that connect to organization’s infrastructure carry a greater risk of infecting the network or becoming compromised. IM is the most susceptible to security issues. Security measures include restricted access to machines and network; hence, instant messaging becomes the easiest route for hackers to steal confidential information from their contacts.

Tele-working poses more threat to company due to the lack of control when employees take sensitive company data off-site and potentially access documents online without satisfactory security and encryption. Problems related to data security mostly arise when the employee working from home use their work computer for personal purposes.

Solutions to problems arising from the issue

To avoid Security breaches, that leads to financial loss, it’s best to provide staff with a computer and install anti-virus and firewall software on the employee’s computer. Company can also use password and user name to access control to their computers and to the business’s network.

Monitoring home based employees is a big challenge. Now that British Telecom, is moving 200 workers back to office, strict surveillance measures should be adapted:

• Computer Monitoring
• Telephone Monitoring
• Video Monitoring

BT can use ‘chip-and-pin’ technology to authenticate users and encrypt USB devices, so when they are lost, they cannot be accessed by any unauthorized person.

Another solution is to have a remote desktop that doesn't require VPN connectivity. This protects the user, while also allowing updates to be downloaded when connected to the internet. VPN should have network access control, allowing BT to isolated devices which are not up-to-date. It will allow access to systems such as e-mail, but withhold access to important files and servers.

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Bibliography

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“BT pulls plug on home workers- or does it?”

 New article- BBC NEWS    published: 2005/04/15

“Home workers ‘pose security risk’”

 

Technologies for working anywhere

Business link – ‘employees working from home’

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 “The instant messaging menace: security problems in the Enterprise and some solutions”

, PDF (21/5/2003)

The business times article, PDF (21/5/2003)

MacKay Associates – “Social effects of information technology”

Risks of remote working

 

How stuff works –“Introduction to how VPN (virtual private network) works”

Adrian Burholt, CEO, Published

Remote working-‘The key revolution’,

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