Security concerns for remote workers

But it’s not just viruses. Remote workers pose the greatest threat to security an organization faces. Any network is only as secure as its weakest point. If you have remote workers within your company, make sure you use all the tools at your disposal to protect your data, there are commercial and legal issues to take into account.

NCC Group, an independent IT assurance company, has found:

• a sales databases on a laptop, containing customer contacts, prices and business leads;
  
• a Premiership football club secretary’s laptop holding details of players’ addresses, salaries, fitness reports and club financial information;
  
• a directors laptop rendered unprotected by the password protection ticked as ‘remember password’.

Whilst your company may not be so rash, it is entirely possible that laptops may hold information that, if stolen, would lead to you falling foul of the Data Protection Act.

Back up of remote workers can also be an issue if this only happens when the worker is in the office. A stolen laptop would result in all work created since the last back up being lost. Losing four weeks work doesn’t bear thinking about.

The biggest problem though comes from new technology and new legislation.

• Always on broadband connections give hackers 24 hour license to attack remote users. And don’t think this is a risk worth taking – the average new connection is found and attacked within one hour of set up;
  
• 2003’s Flexible Working Regulations means that parents with children under six now have the legal right to ask for more flexible working, including the right to work at home – it is this style of remote worker together with broadband that is throwing up the most security challenges.

A survey of 3,000 IT systems administrators conducted by Sophos in early 2004 found that 70% of companies updated remote workers weekly. 45% relied on monthly updates. With viruses being released daily, this is not often enough. The worker is still representing the company – sending on viruses to clients will not look good.

It needn’t be like this.

Keeping the home worker secure

• don’t let home working grow in an ad hoc basis – plan for it
  
• create a security policy and educate users on it
  
• deploy virtual private networks (VPNs) with more than one level of password protection
  
• invest in administration tools to monitor the status of all computers
  
• check virus updates are implemented for remote workers
  
• supplement company firewalls with personal firewalls
  
• facilitate remote worker back ups
  

Wavex can take care of all the above for your company – our technology, experience and knowledge will render your remote workers as safe as possible and protect the network.

And it will only takes about an hour (depending on the complexity of your site) to setup everything! You could become a valued Wavex customer within the next couple of days. We support customers with anything from 5 to several hundred users.

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