There are a lot of factors that have led the way to having a very diverse workforce. Gone are the days of having to show up at the office in the morning, and spend the entire day sitting at your desk. When you look at companies allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for work and being able to access all of the company’s information through the cloud, you find the office is where you are and not the other way around.
Recently, a good friend of mine’s office went under renovations. This has led to all of the employees working mostly from home. He told me, “It’s amazing, the IT department set up my laptop with all of the necessary files that I need and now I can access everything through the cloud. It’s like being in the office I can do everything from home and have access to everything that I need.”
While there is the convenience on the side of the employee to have the freedom of modifying documents while at a client’s location, or the simple ability to work from home, there is and always will be the apprehension from the corporate side as to whether or not all of their information is secure.
I have said this many times before and no matter how much technology improves, there is always the threat and concern over security issues. All devices, whether they are mobile, such as smartphones and tablets, or more conventional like PCs, they are susceptible to malware and hacking that could lead to data being lost or worse, stolen.
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Due to the fact that a majority of a company’s staff is no longer sitting near each other, one problem this can cause is the lack of sufficient communication between employees. To resolve this issue, we are beginning to see a lot of offerings for conference call services.
AT Conference, Inc. is one of the conferencing services industry's fastest growing conference call providers. The company offers the tools that are needed to successfully make the transition to telecommuting, affording the ability to spend a majority of time outside of the office and remain productive.
Its reservationless conference call service allows a call to be set up in seconds. Its web conferencing offers a high level of collaboration options and for those not familiar with conference calls there is the option of an operator assisted call. Conference call services let telecommuters take part in conference calls around the clock through any landline or mobile device, which ensures that just because you are not in the office does not mean that you cannot have the same levels of productivity and collaboration.
Because AT Conference allows you to upload documents and other sensitive information, even a conference call needs to be secure. AT Conference accomplishes this through secure access.
Each AT Conference account has unique host and participant codes assigned to it. These codes may be changed when necessary for added security. In addition, the system will record the caller ID of each participant so that you have a record of the phone numbers used to dial in to your conference.
There are a lot of security concerns to be taken into account when a company is dealing with employees outside the office; one of the more prevalent ones is the cost of 24 hour protection. As described by Jon Ramsey, chief technology officer at Dell (News - Alert) SecureWorks, the security-services unit of Dell Inc., "Unfortunately, in practice, it's a very hard thing and a very costly thing to enforce. Ultimately, we want the machine to be able to go anywhere and still be protected."
It becomes vital to ensure all devices connecting to your network have the latest and most efficient software to defend against data stealing or corrupting malware. When dealing with cloud services, the company providing the service usually has the burden of providing data security. While they deal with many companies and do provide solid protection, this is only a good and the strength of your own passwords. One suggestion is that if the application offers an authentication option that is stronger than a simple password you should definitely use it.
Keep in mind that you also have to maintain security at the corporate site. While cloud services, conference call services and customer contact services all afford you protection from their end, there is still the need for traditional systems such as virtual private network (VPN) software running on the corporate servers.
There are several ways the employee working outside the office can safeguard against potential problems, but that sticks out is possibly the simplest. The easiest way to lose data is to lose your device, whether it is a smartphone or laptop, consideration should be given to locking the device so that no one else can use it.
Public Wi-Fi hotspots are popping up everywhere. While they offer an enormous convenience, you have to keep in mind that they are not that secure. Potentially, a hacker could trick you into connecting to his computer by making it look like a legitimate Wi-Fi hotspot.
With employees using BYOD, along with working from just about any place except the office, it seems there is an even more prevailing need for security when working remotely. An easy way to maintain high levels of security and collaboration when not in the office is through the use of a trusted conference call services provider.
Edited by Maurice Nagle