InternetNews: Teleworkers Feel Safe, Threaten Network Security

Teleworkers Feel Safe, Threaten Network Security - InternetNews

This pains me because I really enjoy my telework days (thanks boss!). Do you think companies will use this as an excuse to cut down or eliminate telecommuting?

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The study found that remote workers regularly engage in risky behavior -- opening e-mails from unknown sources, using corporate PCs for personal activities and "hijacking" their neighbors' Wi-Fi connections.

Forty-four percent of global respondents in 2007 said they felt it was acceptable to use their employer's PC for personal activities, down slightly from 45 percent in 2006.

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Discuss...

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Do you think companies will use this as an excuse to cut down or eliminate telecommuting?

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No, I don't think so, when you look at the economics of it.

I guess that to provide a workspace (cubicle?) in a major city in the UK costs about £15,000 p.a. which would convert to around $28,000 (USD). Kitting out a home office would be around £1,500 with costs of maybe £500 p.a.

It is possible to lock down a PC such that it is little better than a dumb terminal, so the real problem would be with the management's implementation of the scheme. I have never felt that "trusting" your employees was mandatory :D

Of those 44% I would suspect that the majority work for employers with no clearly defined policies, implementation and management plans. I suspect that you would get the same sort of response from people working in offices with a similar lack of control.

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Originally Posted by nihil

No, I don't think so, when you look at the economics of it.

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From your lips to [insert deity/non-deity of choice here]'s ear...

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Originally Posted by nihil

It is possible to lock down a PC such that it is little better than a dumb terminal, so the real problem would be with the management's implementation of the scheme. I have never felt that "trusting" your employees was mandatory :D

Of those 44% I would suspect that the majority work for employers with no clearly defined policies, implementation and management plans. I suspect that you would get the same sort of response from people working in offices with a similar lack of control.

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I suspect the same. Still, even the vanguard of telework, AT&T, seems to be reversing course...

AT&T calls teleworkers back to cubicle life - Network World

OK, I was talking about the UK scene of course. Here, companies are trying to downsize their physical office presence due to the costs.

Another consideration is the cost of transport and parking over here. For example you are looking at gasoline prices of $7.60 per US gallon (3star 95octane) and $40 per week for parking. Public transport prices are also high.

This has a dramatic effect on the economic commuting range of junior and lower paid staff, and drives up the acceptable minimum wage. That means that companies have to pay a lot more than they need, or their choice of staff is very restricted.

I question the AT&T example as it is a merger of several companies. I have the same thing over here in similar circumstances, the senior partner imposes their system on the others.

Over here, I have no doubts that the beancounters will win :D

Sounds like I should move to the U.K. for work, if it weren't for horrible food... maybe I could start a beer diet.

Nihil, as far as lowering costs. Over here you have too many egomaniacs that JUST HAVE to have that big office to compensate for there inability to please their women. They'd rather not buy tools, or software, or some such other worthless thing that downsize their office. It's a sickness, I tell ya, a sickness.

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Originally Posted by KorpDeath

Sounds like I should move to the U.K. for work, if it weren't for horrible food... maybe I could start a beer diet.

Nihil, as far as lowering costs. Over here you have too many egomaniacs that JUST HAVE to have that big office to compensate for there inability to please their women. They'd rather not buy tools, or software, or some such other worthless thing that downsize their office. It's a sickness, I tell ya, a sickness.

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The beer there sucks too KD, you'd starve or move to Germany and telecommute to England trying to survive the first batch of "Already stale ale" ;)

Telecommuting is great and good for people to be able to do, I mean right now we have a winter storm warning, ice, rain, snow, sleet, all at once, and I don't want people driving in that.

Any company could just stop this dead in it's tracks though, just start installing software to see who's doing what with work machines from home and fire the ones being an ass.

Yes,

I suspect that the AT&T thing is a mixture of internal politics and the "not invented here" syndrome.

What I was saying before is basically that I can see nothing theoretically wrong with home working, only in how it is implemented.

Hey, if it were a real problem you would not allow laptops would you? :D

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Originally Posted by nihil

Over here, I have no doubts that the beancounters will win :D

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Send those beancounters over here right quick!

I suspect a culture that promotes the grueling commute, mammoth offices like Korp said (I will never look at a corner office the same way again, thanks for that), and a general distrust of employees. However, not all employees are the brightest either.

Just had a briefing today and one of the participants recently found a thumbdrive with some nice corporate/private info un-encrypted. You can imagine the state of the owner's PC...

In my company we have several hundred of us that telecommute always. We all work out of our homes. My company has clamped down on the use of the PC. They periodically scan them for gawd only knows what. No extra apps can be installed. No internet connection can be made outside their VPN. The only mail that is allowed goes through their mail server. The only web surfing is through their proxy server and they have very annoying filters. This site is unreachable. They push all of the MS updates (after a week or so for testing), antivirus updates, etc. Any time a box comes out of the field it is sent to our forensic labs for testing. They are very serious about consequences if violations are discovered. We have passwords to get on the computer, password for the VPN (using RSA tokens), passwords to use most applications that we use. All passwords have to be changed about monthly. They are strength tested. We will never be able to get away from telecommuting but they are pretty serious about security to prevent most of the things cited.