November Remote News Round-up

This month’s news brings us Russian hackers and remote holiday parties:

Embracing tech to tome together for holiday season

Elite Business Magazine encouraged its readers to embrace the technological alternatives to coming together, and shared some hints and tips for a remote, virtual Christmas party.  We shared our top tips on organizing an effective holiday or christmas party here.

Inequalities exacerbated by remote work

The World Action Forum raised concerns about remote work exacerbating existing inequalities.  They analsyed 2000 activities across 800 occupations in nine countries and concluded that the potential for remote work is confined to highly skilled, highly educated workers in a handful of industries, geographies and occupations.  Within those groups who are able to work remotely, continuing to do so will drastically reshape urban economies, transportation and commerce – and will fundamentally alter the nature of our cities.

Wired reported that The NSA warned Russia is attacking remote work platforms

The NSA identified vulnerabilities in enterprise level remote work platforms developed by VMWare.  Whilst patches have already been developed and implemented by many companies, the NSA warned that organizations which have not yet applied the patch are vulnerable to attacks from hackers.

The Financial Times questioned the broader impact of the shift to remote work

The FT wrote an opinion piece on “the prickling sense of unease” that remote work has triggered – speculating that a “confluence of globalisation and casualisation could have big consequences, especially for younger and lower-skilled white-collar workers”.  After all, if a job can be done from anywhere why couldn’t it be done more cheaply from abroad – will remote working result in mass outsourcing to Indian call centres?