Ashburton Guardian, Monday, March 23, 2020

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Monday, Mar 23, 2020

Since Sept 27, 1879

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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY

Set to change lives

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Dynamic Computer Services owner Darryn Franklin warns having staff work from home can come with many thorny issues. PHOTO HEATHER MACKENZIE 200320-HM-0017

Working from home By Heather Mackenzie

photographers@theguardian.co.nz

Covid-19 is clearly having an effect on all of New Zealand. With self-isolation and social distancing becoming the norm, the stage where many businesses require staff to work from home is looming rapidly. Sounds easy enough – give them a laptop and cellphone and off they go. Simple, the business wheels can keep turning until it is safe to return the work and toilet paper is back on supermarket shelves. However Dynamic Computer Services (DCS) owner Darryn Franklin warns having

staff work from home can come with many thorny issues to be dealt with. He said it is vital that remote staff systems are set up and tested well before companies actually need them. “Business continuity is vital to remain solvent and computing systems and data protection are certainly part of that, but also operators need to think about how they are going to continue trading. How will your customers or clients contact your business if physical access is no longer possible?” Franklin said it is imperative for business

sending employees home to work, to know for sure their data is going to be protected from hackers and scammers currently taking advantage of the virus-induced workfrom-home movement. “If you are a business with 20 staff working from home, how will all that data be collated, monitored and kept safe?” If a company wishes to grant remote access to the work servers, at the very minimum staff should prove their home computers have all the latest updates and their virus protection is a recognisable brand with all the recent downloads installed.

Providing employees with work laptops or having them take their desk top computers home will circumvent any home virus protection issues, but this is not exactly a foolproof solution either. “Do staff members have enough room in their homes to fit another desktop and potentially two screens?”

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