(MSPAlliance) – Friday, April 21, 2006 – An estimated 8.9 million people worked from home in 2005 at least three times a week during normal business hours, and another 1 million will be working from home by 2009, according to a new report from IDC. There is concern over IT security for these telecommuters: ensuring each PC, typically granted remote access to corporate LANs, is protected.
Most telecommuters are required to use secure VPN access to do work from their home offices. Health care is the most common industry for telecommuters, but other industries have embraced telecommuting as well. The Defense Information Systems Agency, which provides technical support to the military, is considering letting its 5,000 Virginia-based employees telecommute at least a few days per week.
The financial services industry is moving slower toward telecommuting, mostly due to IT security concerns about home-based PCs. Companies considering telecommuting should equip telecommuters with dedicated company PCs and have signed agreements about use.
If companies cannot afford to provide their telecommuters with dedicated PCs, a separate hard drive should be installed on the home PC that only the telecommuter has access to. It is usually standard to add antivirus software to a dedicated PC, but companies should not overlook adding a firewall as well to take the best IT security measures to guard against the dangers of telecommuting.