New Telework Guidance Released

GSA has released new guidance on teleworking arrangements, in particular regarding security issues involved with data security issues arising from employees working from home or other off-site locations. The notice states, for example, that an agency may provide employees with computer equipment and associated peripherals and telecommunications and associated technical support and “may provide the level and configuration of these resources that it deems necessary for mission accomplishment.” Agencies also may pay for Internet access, additional phone lines and related costs arising from an employee working at home as long as “adequate safeguards against private misuse exist, and the service is necessary for direct support of the agency’s mission.”