Remote Work — The Other Consideration — Security
In the rush and urgency to shift to remote work, a long list of digital tools is being used quickly to support the new world we are living in. Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, email, Trello and so on.
Zoom in particular has seen subscriptions skyrocket and it is certainly an effective tool for video conferences (in fact our Connective.Network site https://www.connective.network/home is set up so you can include a Zoom link in the meeting scheduler to launch a session directly). Connective also has a comparable video conferencing technology called Jitsi integrated more fully into Chats and Events.
As remote work grows, considerations have been discussed around online session protocols and governance (and even dress codes!) — but given the pressing need, not enough attention is being paid to maintaining security.
However, this issue is now starting to come to light and assuming remote work will continue for some time to come (a safe assumption we think!), security will quickly become a major concern that needs to be addressed.
There have recently been a few security related instances that have hit the press already, in particular a recent situation where a hacker took over the screen share of a Zoom session. Here’s an article that speaks to privacy aspects to be aware of while using Zoom: https://securityboulevard.com/2020/03/using-zoom-here-are-the-privacy-issues-you-need-to-be-aware-of/
And of course emails are not secure because they can be accidentally and easily forwarded to the wrong person, among other issues. And using Facebook and WhatsApp has limitations since they are public sites. And this list continues…
This is less of an issue for large companies with large IT teams and robust security procedures already in place. But it is definitely an issue for all other organizations, freelancers and consultants. And now that the habit for remote work is being engrained, we suspect at least some elements of it will continue even after the current crisis has subsided.
This discussion of security brings to light one of the key strengths of our Connective platform — security, privacy and control. Security has been a foundation of the platform all along — at the overall level with the authentication process, private communities, private posts, private chats, private projects, access only to authorized members. And control has been implemented throughout — with approval, curation and deletion capabilities for admins at multiple levels. Connective even has the ability for the post owner or admin to delete a post from everywhere — even after it has been shared to multiple communities and out to social media.
Security is clearly an issue that needs to be considered as long as our new reality of remote work continues — which it is very likely to do even once the current crisis dissipates.
