Re: Need opinions - Work from home/security issues.

[Mike Stockman <stockman -at- JAGUNET -dot- COM>]

On 08/24/1999 10:48 AM, sbuttice -at- TRANSPORT -dot- BOMBARDIER -dot- COM
(sbuttice -at- TRANSPORT -dot- BOMBARDIER -dot- COM) wrote:

>Our supervisors are sort of o.k. with this idea but HR is not. HR is
worried
>about security, we deal with billion dollar contracts and they are always
>afraid of information being leaked. I'm too polite to say what I think of
this
>excuse, we believe the real reason is a Big Brother issue. They want to see
us
>here, at the office, no matter what.

Well, I'm a big fan of telecommuting, but making this work will depend
heavily on management cooperation. (No, no, don't stop reading yet. It
could happen. Really.)

First, look into some file encryption products, preferably something like
PGPDisk that can encrypt a whole drive using something nice and hard to
crack (anything that will hold off cracking long enough for the
information to be useful).

There's a performance hit, but it's darn safe, and unlike some other
solutions, can't be bypassed by booting from a floppy or something
(because the data is all encrypted).

Next, make sure they're providing a good, safe method of connecting to
the office. If they're setting up a dial-in server, suggest that they add
something stronger than the security-out-of-the-box, like token-based
passwords.

If they're providing access over the internet, most of the virtual
private networking (VPN) solutions other than Microsoft's are pretty
secure. Telecommuters can have full access to the network without leaving
anything at risk. Again, suggest strong alternate authentication, such as
those token-based passwords.

Hope this helps, and enjoy... it's a good way to work, as long as people
consider it to be the same as being in the office. (Attitude is
everything...)

Good luck,
----->Mike

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