CIO.com just released a great article on “Telecommuting Support: Five Tips to Enhance Your Network” .

This is a great article for IT departments who are looking for ways to improve the network security of their telecommuters. In the article it lists these 5 steps:

1. Make sure your employees have strong home broadband connections.
2. Be sure to have a wireless backup option.
3. Understand that security goes beyond the VPN.
4. Know that strong software can be just as important as strong network design
5. Keep your wireless devices in line.

In addition to these steps I would challenge IT departments to truly understand what information is being accessed and by who. Many times employees may not have access to the information they need to complete their job, or may be given too much access to the company network. Either extreme may cause serious disruptions in the employee’s productivity or network vulnerability. It is important that the employee, manager, and IT department are on the same page for what needs to be accessed. This will help to ensure accessibility as well as security. You would be surprised how many company’s miss this mark, and pay for it in the long run.

For many employees they may not even need access to the company’s network. If their work output is producing reports, reviewing documents or information, or submitting electronic information via word or excel documents, then they may be able to get by with just email access. Talk to your employees and see what they feel they need to have access to in order to complete their job, many times employees may not need all that you have granted to them or need more, and are just afraid to ask because they don’t want to lose the privilege of working remotely.