The recent thefts of government laptop computers could slow the trend of allowing federal employees to telecommute from home or alternative worksites, officials say.
And with several thousand federal employees expected to telecommute for as long as a month because of severely flooded office buildings, ensuring sensitive information stays out of the wrong hands is a top priority, officials said.
The Internal Revenue Service, which suffered a major security breach earlier this month, will have an estimated 2,400 employees out until late July as electrical and infrastructure repairs are completed at its Northwest headquarters.
James Lewis, director of technology and public policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he expects the thefts to slow telework initiatives.
“People are yet to be completely comfortable with how agencies protect information, and I think there will be a tendency to really limit remote access in the short term,” Lewis said.
D.C. police officials said 1,009 laptops were reported stolen in the city last year, but said that number is likely to be significantly lower than actual thefts.
And with 149,000 federal employees working in the city, many of whom have work laptops, the “impression” of vulnerability is there, Lewis said.
Lewis said that if a new set of standards for securing sensitive information released by the Office of Management and Budget earlier this week are followed, including encryption of sensitive files, the chance of those numbers getting out “is next to impossible.”
Michael Orenstein, a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, said telecommuting remains an essential part of federal operations and its “continuity of operations plan” during emergencies.
“If procedures are followed, incidents like this shouldn’t happen,” he said.
