The federal government recently escalated the national significance of teleworking (telecommuting) with the announcement from President Barack Obama on July 20, 2010, that the federal government will reduce greenhouse gas pollution from indirect sources such as employee travel and commuting 13 percent by 2020. On August 10, the Telework Exchange brought experts from federal agencies and information technology (IT) organizations together to share their knowledge with more than 300 participants in a webinar entitled, “Serious About Security: Protecting Remote Workers.”

According to Cindy Auten, general manager for the Telework Exchange, the current situation has become almost a perfect storm for telework. Federal agency leadership is realizing that real estate needs (i.e., number of offices) and the carbon footprint can be reduced by offering employees the option of teleworking, she explained.

In addition, she pointed out that federal agencies compete with each other as well as the private sector in order to attract the most qualified employment candidates for job openings. Providing employees with the opportunity for teleworking can be a competitive advantage to attract individuals seeking less commuting time in order to better achieve work/life balance.

“We’ve found that the majority of employees would like to telework, maybe not full-time, but part of the time, finding that office environment dynamics are not necessary every day,” said Auten.

Auten explained that it’s not only the technology that is needed, but each agency or private employer should build a business case for teleworking and how it will work for the individual employer. HR and IT working in partnership to create a teleworking initiative can help to achieve buy-in from organizational leadership and middle management.

Technology Offers Security

As teleworking has continued to gain acceptance throughout the government and private sectors, the sophistication of the technology tools, security measures and lower costs have made teleworking more feasible for many employers.

As the webinar panelists pointed out, making sure security is in place helps to ease management’s mind since they’ll know that their data is always being protected, Auten commented. All the teleworker training in the world regarding protection of data won’t help if the data isn’t encrypted properly and made secure.

Joe Jackson, chief, Customer Services Branch, Information Technology Services Office, for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), noted that all teleworking staff is issued government furnished laptop computers [fully encrypted] with a productivity system that is robust and easy to use. Training Is Critical

Lew Newlin, associate director for IT Infrastructure Emergency Preparedness and Security, Information Technology Services Office for CDC explained that security awareness is incorporated in annual training for teleworkers regarding policies, procedures, and guidelines. This training includes telework safety requirements, including relevant cyber security threats, he noted. “After completing security modules, participants must sign and certify that their telework environment meets the requirements of the program.” Newlin also notes that CDC requires teleworkers to sign telework agreements annually.

“We offer teleworkers three different types of secure connections, based on the work they will be performing at any given time,” Newlin continues. “The teleworker has a virtual desktop configured for the office environment and the applications that they may need to use. If a teleworker is reading e-mail, he also has Microsoft Outlook access for a secure e-mail environment. If teleworkers need use of a thumb drive, they’re fully encrypted to CDC standards.”

Virtual Office Environment

David Smith, chief technology officer, Citrix Federal, explained that the best way to ensure data security is to use virtual office environments with applications and data accessible on secure network servers. “We try to separate the actual work environment from the device [computer] that a teleworker is interacting with. By running the application through the data center and delivering the application to the end user, we can control access.”

In addition, the federal government and private employers have often put into place biometric print readers for access. These are computers equipped with the ability to recognize a user’s fingerprint, for example, in combination with a password in order for the computer to function.

If a user’s computer is stolen or lost, taking the user name and password out of the directory of users could immediately cut off access to data and applications, Smith explained. The virtual desktop connection also allows the data/application center to keep users synchronized with the latest application and data versions without physically making changes on individual computers/end devices.

You can access the archived webinar onlnie at no cost. Just scroll down in the “Past Events” column on the right side of the browser window.

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