Challenges and Threats of Mass Telecommuting: A Qualitative Study of Workers

This paper reports the security and privacy challenges and threats that people experience while working from home. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 participants working from home in the three weeks preceding the study. We asked questions related to participants' challenges with telecommuting. Our results suggest that participants experienced challenges, threats, and potential outcomes of threats associated with the technological, human, organizational, and environmental dimensions. We also discovered two threat models: one in which the employer's asset is at stake and another in which the employee's privacy is compromised. We believe these insights can lead to better support for employees and possibly reduce cyber-attacks associated with telecommuting during the pandemic and beyond.