Earlier, we wrote about how telecommuting can raise employee productivity and lessen staff absenteeism. True, today’s wired and un-wired lifestyles provide for a better environment for flexible work arrangements, as company formation experts suggest. However, there are also risks involved, and companies should take stock of these prior to plunging into the mobility bandwagon. We will describe a few here, and move on to explaining how the risks can be mitigated or resolved with simple solutions.

First issue is security risk. You might be happy that your employees purchase and use their own laptops for work. Yes, this translates to cost-savings, but pose a threat to the security of a company’s IT systems. Even if your office intranet is secure from the outside world, there is the possibility that a laptop brought in from outside and plugged into your intranet can wreak havoc by transmitting malicious software acquired from the Internet.

Business solutions experts and IT security consultants suggest implementing measures that increase the security within office intranets by strengthening the level of security in how employee-owned devices connect. Either have the IT department or staff connect the “alien” laptops using a cordoned-off area of the intranet, or instruct the employees to only connect to the office intranet within a virtual machine inside the laptop where he/she has limited access, to minimize the risk of inadvertently installing malware.

Related Articles




Leave a reply