As an ISO27001 accredited organisation at Commerce Media we are continually looking at our Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning. Moving into the autumn, as a country, we are again being reminded that the return of Swine Flu and the accompanying possible pandemic are a very real possibility.

Organisations need to plan for the possibility that during the coming month’s staff numbers may be depleted and that it may be necessary for staff who don’t normally work at home to do so. These temporary remote workers create an security issue if they are logging in remotely with only static passwords.

The ultimate solution would be to provide all members of the organisation with 2FA for remote login however this is not always possible or viable.

The answer lies in being able to provide temporary access as and when required. In order to achieve this organisations need a flexible solution which allows these temporary remote workers access when an emergency situation demands it.

When a major incident is declared the latest version of Celo provides administrators with the ability to deploy 2FA functionality to users who require it. Users have the ability to self enrol themselves for the duration of the emergency.

The ICE functionality within Celo ensures that whilst staff maybe quarantined they are still able to work remotely and securely for the duration.

Firms will have 28 days to discuss a request for flexible working with the employee concerned and another 14 days to give them a decision. Employees then have a further 14 days to appeal an unfavourable decision and employers then have a14 days in which to respond.

Companies need to be proactive and to put procedures in place that will ensure that all requests are dealt with in a fair and consistent way. Technology has a big part to play in this process. Data security is a major consideration when establishing flexible working practices. Companies need to consider how best to protect business critical data which is taken outwith the office, in fact they need to ask the question does the data ever need to be removed from the corporate network at all.

Data Security is one of the biggest challenges of remote working. In most cases remote workers can be given remote access to systems which allows them to login over the Internet without the need for them to down load subsets of data to local machines. Strong access controls and identity verification have a crucial part to play in allowing remote access. Tow factor authentication is an essential tool for companies who promote remote working. Celo, strong two factor authentication, allows remote access to systems anytime, anywhere by giving companies the ability to secure their systems whether they are available via VPN or the web. Users are provided with a simple intuitive system which utilises their mobile phone as the second factor device, and in doing so, cutting down on deployment and support costs compared with more traditional token based solutions.

Employers have the chance, with this change in legislation to adapt their working practices and embrace the advantages that providing flexible remote working can offer. Cost savings can be substantial with reduction in travel costs, reduced use of company cars etc. Earlier in the year when we suffered the heaviest snowfalls since the 1980’s those companies who had remote working solutions in place reaped the benefit of their investment.

Looking to the future when the current downturn ends and companies are once again looking to employ the best workers it will be those organisations that offer flexible working practices that will be in the best positioned to snap up the best candidates.

One way to allow employees to securely access data systems remotely is to deploy a two factor based system. Celo Remote - a sms 2 factor solution from Commerce Media is specifically designed to allow remote workers to login securely to systems which are held centrally by organisations.

Celo Remote relies on something you know, typically a users standard username and password and something you have,which is an employees own mobile phone. Once a user enters their username and password, a one time passcode is sent to the users mobile phone. The user then keys in this time limited code. Access is gained to the system if it verifies the user to be genuine.

The cost of deploying this type of system is remarkably cost effective compared to a token based system. Token based systems are typically double the price of soultions such as Celo Remote. Token based systems also require much more adminstrative resource compared to tokenless sms 2 factor solutions. Thus saving time as well as money.

With the cold weather set to continue isn’t it about time your organisation considered inplementing a tokenless sms 2factor solution to allow your employees to securely login to you data systems so you’ll be able to say theres snow disruption here too!!