I’m still a little amazed that security is such a big issue for so many organizations. The technology is there, what’s the issue?
Many organizations still employ large organizations with many employees that don’t work at desktops… think car manufacturers like Ford, or airlines like Cathay Pacific, or the U.S. Army. All of those organizations extend intranet access to remote people – employees on the road, in the field or at home. If they can do it, so can you. And yet there are far too many organizations still worrying about those employees that don’t have intranet access… give them access from home!
Many companies try and set-up kiosks or joint work stations. Many of those same companies have also found that they’re not used too well. (One exception is Dutch Railway company NedTrain with an employee workforce of 4,000, the majority of which do not have dedicated computers. Despite the limited computer access, the company encourages employees to use centrally located touch-screen kiosks to access the intranet. The result: an astounding 2.5 million quarterly visits – or 200 intranet visits per employee per month).
When recently visiting a client’s field office with workers that work outside and don’t have a dedicated computer, I heard a familiar tune. “We don’t use the intranet much and don’t really care… but I would if I could access it from home.”
Virtual Private Network or VPN has been the solution for many companies, for many years. I remember I was granted my first VPN access to the corporate intranet 9 years ago. For those still not familiar with it, don’t be shy – it’s largely a techie thing. You’re not alone.
VPNs are designed to provide access to the intranet and come with built in security – good ones of course have very strong security such as intrusion prevention, stateful firewall, and granular authorization. Authorization of course requires a password or a PIN. But as many of us know all to well, the most common security breaches are not because of hardware and technology, it’s because of people loosing or being cavalier with their password.
A VPN secured with “two-factor authentication” aims to overcome this problem. Two-factor authentication has the user often use a PIN (a four or six digit number) in combination with a randomly generated number from a hand held token. You may have one or see these little badges that generate a new number every 30 seconds.
So really, security isn’t an excuse anymore. The security exists. If banks offer online banking and even the U.S. Army (with all its concerns about terrorism, etc.) can put it’s intranet on the public Internet (check it out at: www.army.mil), then you can too.
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