Remote working may add to data security woes

2009-11-20

Remote working is "certainly not going to decrease the risk" of data loss, as information is spread out to more computers, it has been suggested.

If a worker is operating from home and their computer gets compromised by something, "it is always possible that the data can be stored and transmitted through some other channel through a Trojan", commented Paul Mutton, internet services developer at Netcraft.

He said that it "certainly a good idea" to give employees guidelines on data security, adding that internal staff can represent a risk to how secure information is.

The comments come after T-Mobile admitted employees at the organisation had passed on millions of records from customers to third-party brokers.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said that the data had been sold without the company's knowledge.

Information commissioner Christopher Graham recently claimed that a deterrent custodial sentence is needed to stop the trade in unlawful personal information.

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