The U.S. work force is increasingly embracing teleworking and mobile computing, and for the most part, this shift is a good thing. In today’s economy, office hours are no longer 9 to 5. Providing employees with the required resources and access to work away from the office will increase productivity and allow them to better integrate career, family life and play.

President Obama is also a believer. In December 2010, he signed the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, which provides a framework for government agencies to better leverage technology and to maximize the use of flexible work arrangements, with the intended result of recruiting new federal workers, retaining valuable talent and allowing the federal government to maintain productivity in various situations — including those involving national security and other emergency situations.

Mobility will help the private sector and the government alike retain better workers as telework provides flexibility and quality of life that employees will require in the 21st Century.

As managers and business owners, we must balance our need to empower employees with functional, easy-to-use tools anywhere they work, while ensuring the integrity and security of data, sensitive information and enterprise networks through identity management, data entitlement and other solutions that enable secure remote access. Our challenge is to create a user-friendly computing environment that can be productive and secure without adding the headache, cost and complexity of device management.

For organizations of all shapes and sizes, in all markets, public and private, there are five core considerations for securely supporting teleworkers:

1. Ease of Use: People need technology to be easy to use and conducive to productivity. Users should not waste time on lengthy set-up processes and configurations, loading software, making changes to the remote computer — they shouldn’t even need a specific, designated computer to enable remote access. These hindrances will have a very negative effect on costs and productivity, as well as long-term security.

The climate in which we work today suffers neither fools nor naiveté; it demands that teleworkers use a true, multi-factor authentication-based remote access solution. This tried and true practice provides an easy-to-use security methodology to authorize users — “something you have,” such as a PIV, CAC or FRAC card and/or enabling device, coupled with a private password or PIN, which is verified against the smartcard as “something you know.”

2. Computing Experience: In the office or from the couch, users must receive the benefit of identical computing experiences. Unlike outdated, inadequate offerings, today’s remote sessions should be initiated from the inside out, which is both efficient and secure. Offsite individuals benefit from a user experience that is identical to the onsite experience, and no data will be stored externally or exit the organization’s firewall, thereby eliminating any risk of cache, unauthorized file transfer, middleware or footprint on a guest PC.

3. Remote Device vs. Remote User: Data entitlement and identity assurance are critical aspects to the telework conversation. Contrary to some, we at Route1 believe that identity management for remote access should be based on the user, not the device.

Ask yourself this: “Should your organization count on technology that allows users to extract sensitive or confidential data with relative ease?”

If you answered yes, then frankly, you are asking for trouble.

Carrying a specific device or computer be costly, cumbersome and limiting. Beside that, each user should only have access to the specific data files he or she is entitled to — and nothing else.

4. Service and Technical Support: If you have any technical challenges, is help immediately available? This can only be judged on a service provider by service provider basis. You want a service provider that provides a help desk that:

a. Mirrors the possible hours of your usage of its solution

b. Answers with a voice on the other end of the line that is an expert in the solution you are using.

5. My Bottom Line: As is usually the case, the deciding factor behind most business decisions and technology investments is cost. You ask yourself, “Is the cost reasonable, or is there a tangible return on investment (ROI) to support the secure teleworking argument?”

Each organization must answer this question for itself. However, the decision to move forward should comprehensively address the security considerations detailed above, or you could face the much higher costs of trying to recover from a data breach or attack on your fortress.

Tony Busseri is CEO of Route1, a global provider of security and identity management solutions. The functionality inherent to the company’s software, combined with its MobiKEY devices and integration expertise, empowers organizations such as ING, the US Navy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Canadian Government with the tools for secure remote user access, identity assurance and multifactor authentication. Contact Tony Bussseri at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .