IT security concerns slow telework adoption

Federal employees are working remotely in greater proportions than their private sector counterparts, but companies are adopting telework policies and moving to overcome information technology barriers more quickly, according to a report released on Monday by technology company CDW-G and management consulting firm O'Keeffe and Co.

Comment on this article in The Forum.Seventeen percent of the 550 federal employees O'Keeffe and Co. surveyed said they teleworked compared with 14 percent of the 273 contacted in the private sector.

Companies raced ahead of the federal government in technical support for their teleworking employees in 2008, with 76 percent providing such support, up 27 percent from 2007. Fifty-six percent of federal IT officials said their agencies provided technical support to teleworkers, down 2 percent from 2007.

"Private sector IT support for telework has jumped because private companies are putting the pedal to the metal," said Dawn Hall, director of business development at CDW-G. "I don't think that the federal government is not adopting its support for layered security, it's just that private industry is adopting it more quickly."

Technical support could be key not only to making telework feasible, but to providing assurances that information will be secure when employees access networks and information from remote locations.

Forty-two percent of federal IT officials said information security was their top concern about telework, compared with 27 percent in the private-sector. Forty-nine percent of companies required employees to use a user name and password to log in to their network, though only 45 percent of federal agencies do. And 44 percent of companies required workers to change their user name or password at least monthly, compared with 25 percent of agencies.

"More stringent IT security requirements are controlling remote network access, contributing at least temporarily to the decline in employees who can continue their work offsite during a business disruption," the survey's authors wrote.

But CDW-G's Hall said increased attention to information security was a good thing, even if it slowed telework adoption.

"I think the managers in the federal government are taking the workers that are eligible and they're vetting them more closely," she said. "They're better educated in conjunction with their IT professionals. ... The managers are really taking it seriously, and that's a positive."

The public and private sectors are moving in different directions on the role of telework in continuity of operations plans, the survey found. In 2008, 59 percent of federal employees said they could telework if an emergency closed their office, down 16 percent from 2007. Forty-six percent of private sector employees said they could do their jobs from home in case of a disaster, up 13 percent from 2007.