Re: security issues/telecommuting

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

As computer professionals, I have no doubt that we all take security
seriously.

As a matter of fact, private and confidential information goes home with
Bombardier employees every single day, whether or not those employees work
from home.

If Bombardier and the technical writers are both serious about
work-from-home, both can work to resolve the security issues. The
circumstances under which work-from-home employees store, use, and
distribute confidential information can be controlled, but it takes a
genuine effort from both parties. Indeed, on Bombardier's part, it takes
trust, legal paperwork, and maybe a little bit of money. However, costs can
be weighed against the savings generated by not having to build more office
space.

Is it worth a chance on a billion-dollar contract just to keep your
*employees* happy? I submit that disgruntled employees are the biggest
threat to security any company could have. I agree, though (and this is
*not* aimed at Bombardier, and I have no knowledge of Bombardier as a
workplace), that all companies must decide at what point they sacrifice the
employees for their customers. The two extremes are slavery and six-figure
salaries for absolutely everyone. Somewhere between these extremes lies a
companies consideration for its employees.

I would like to believe that a large company, like Bombardier, could work in
good faith with its employees to set up and permit work from home as a
viable alternative to stuffing 50 people in a cubical (is there some kind of
Tardis cubical technology that I've missed?). We'll see.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anonymous Poster [SMTP:anonfwd -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 7:41 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      FWD: security issues/telecommuting
>
> Forwarded anonymously on request:
>
>
> I find it shocking that everyone's response seems to completely discount
> the security issue, as if it were only a matter of encryption.
>
> The fact of the matter is that Bombardier pays millions to suppliers for
> the use of confidential and proprietary design information, for which
> the end client pays billions. As a corporation, they *should* concerned
> about such information not leaving the building except under controlled
> circumstances.
>
> Many agreements include provisions that confidential information be
> strictly controlled. Bombardier's clients and suppliers would be
> justifiably alarmed if they discovered that their information were going
> home with technical writers. Alarmed enough to sue for breach of
> contract? Who knows, but is that a chance you would want to take on a
> billion-dollar contract just to keep your tech writers happy?
>
>

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