I Thought It Might Be Useful To Link Some Recent Articles On The Working From Home Given COVID-19.

I noticed these just a day or so ago.

Tuesday, 17 March 2020 00:36

A guide to working from home for employees

By David Heath

Some useful hints for surviving the virus scare as you abandon the office as a safe place to work.

Yesterday's article took a very 'business' view of the whole work from home scenario. Today, we will take a more personal view and offer a few strategies. For many people, the only "work from home" they ever did was to cover for an appointment (plumber, sick child etc.) and an actual working from home stint will be entirely foreign.

Further, the majority of people are extroverts - they need interaction with others, so there is a lot to compensate for when they're the only person to talk to. Some people are strongly self-driven, others prefer a team culture - typically we chose jobs and workplaces that match our preferences. If you need that contact, schedule regular 'shoot the breeze' sessions with similar co-workers over a mid-morning coffee or similar, or get out of the house to run errands or simply sit in the park for some sun and a random chat with a stranger.

So, with all that in mind, here's a plan.

Create a dedicated workspace. Unless you live in a tiny apartment, the end of the dining table won't do! You want to replicate your desk in the office as much as possible with all the equipment you would normally use. If possible, give yourself a tranquil view through a window and try to ensure you won't be disturbed by other family members (as much as possible with a spouse also stuck at home and children unable to attend school!). Hopefully, you won't be able to see the television, even if you can hear 'Days of our Lives' in perpetual binge-watch mode. Noise-cancelling headphones are a great idea, perhaps your employer might buy them for you.

Further, treat this area as your office. Don't use it for other, personal, tasks. When you walk into this area, you are an office worker at work. When you leave, you're back at home.

Don't feel tempted to work in your nightwear. Stick to the rituals you would normally follow if you were still working at the office. Get up at the same time, shower, get dressed, have breakfast etc. The only advantage is that you can skip the commute and save all that time for personal use. By doing this, not only are you mentally getting into work mode, but you'll look (and sound) professional when on the phone or in video conference calls. Also, everyone else in the house will recognise that you are in 'work mode.'

This also means that if you have to go to a face-to-face meeting (that might be rare!), you're ready to leave the house in minutes.

Lots more here:

https://itwire.com/enterprise-solutions/a-guide-to-working-from-home-for-employees.html

There was also this:

Apple Holic

By Jonny Evans, Computerworld | 14 March 2020 0:26 AEDT

12 security tips for the ‘work from home’ enterprise

If you or your employees are working from home, you'll need this advice to secure your enterprise.

If you or your employees are working from home while our governments lurch awkwardly through the current crisis, then there are several security considerations that must be explored.

Your enterprise outside the wall

Enterprises must consider the consequences of working from home in terms of systems access, access to internal IT infrastructure, bandwidth costs and data repatriation.

What this means, basically, is that when your worker accesses your data and/or databases remotely, then the risk to that data grows.

While at normal times the risk is only between the server, internal network and end user machine, external working adds public internet, local networks and consumer-grade security systems to the risk mix.

Here are some of the approaches to take to minimize these risks.

1. Provide employees with basic security knowledge

People working from home must be provided with basic security advice: to beware of phishing emails, to avoid use of public Wi-Fi, to ensure home Wi-Fi routers are sufficiently secured and to verify the security of the devices that they use to get work done.

It is likely that attempts to subvert security using phishing attacks will increase at this time.

Employees should be particularly reminded to avoid clicking links in emails from people they do not know, and installation of third-party apps should be confined to bona fide app stores, even on personal devices.

Your people need to be in possession of basic security advice, and it is also important that your company has an emergency response team in place. People need to know who to contact in the event they detect a security anomaly.

2. Provide your people with VPN access

One way to secure data as it moves between your core systems and externally based employees is to deploy a VPN. These services provide an additional layer of security, which (in simplified terms) provides the following:

• Hiding the user's IP address
• Encrypting data transfers in transit
• Masking the user's location

Most larger organizations already have a VPN service in place and should check they have sufficient seats to provide this protection across their employee base. Smaller enterprises may need to appoint a VPN provider.

There are lots of VPN service providers, but not all of them can be trusted. (Especially avoid the free services.) ExpressVPN and NordVPN appear to be good choices, but it is in your best interest to do your own due diligence before selecting a provider for your company.

10 more tips here:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3532352/12-security-tips-for-the-work-from-home-enterprise.html

All I can say I good luck and stay both safe and sane!

David.