Security Issues at the Time of the Pandemic and Distance Work

Security issues have always been central to workplaces. Increased work performed at home environments caused by COVID-19 pandemic has changed the security landscape of work radically. Security arrangements are no more at the domain of the employer, yet the risks remain, and responsibilities. In this chapter we discuss this new boom of distance work from the viewpoints of data privacy and security, physical safety and mental well-being. The issues are intertwined, and changes, risks and solutions in one of these cause implications for the other areas too. In data privacy and security, the home office environment causes several risks, and the mixed use of devices and facilities both in work and leisure use causes difficulties. Physical safety is compromised in several ways at home environment, which is partly confounding, as the very core of work at home and social distancing is the search for physical security from COVID viruses. Mental well-being problems are a key product of this social distancing, and they do not typically emerge immediately, but first after a long period. With the COVID-19 pandemic over two years, we first start to see the magnitude of the mental well-being problems it has caused. The COVID-19 pandemic is a very short period in history. For individuals living now, it can deeply affect life, especially in critical periods of life. On the positive side, the very special pressure COVID-19 has caused on working life has surely improved and speeded up academic and practical work in distance work development.