Olympics Contingency – Part 3: Working from Home

In my last blog I discussed the contingency plans needed for social media in the Olympics, today I will move on to the issues surrounding working from home.  For many organisations telling staff to work at home may be the answer during the Games.  Be aware however of the fact that this is likely to have security implications.  It is unlikely that employees will have a home internet connection as secure as your corporate network.  If they are using their own laptops or transferring information to home computers using email or USB sticks, be aware of the data security risk and consider whether you need to offer employees additional support, for example virus protection or a security application like Computrace, in case their laptop is stolen. 

Data protection legislation makes an organisation responsible for the security of the personal data it holds – the Olympics’ weeks are not excepted.  You might want to make special provisions for employees who are dealing with more secure data, for example you might want to prohibit online corporate banking from home.  You may also need to check software licences, as some may prohibit use of devices which are not part of the corporate network.  If you are encouraging home working look at the capacity of your network.  For example if your employees are going to access the corporate network over Citrix, make sure that you have enough licences in place and if you do have limits on your infrastructure consider telling employees outside of London that you would like them to work in the office to free up Citrix capacity for London users.

Mobile bandwidth may also be an issue.  As phones gets smarter and new devices like iPads enable us to use more and more bandwidth to do more and more things whilst mobile, the London mobile infrastructure has struggled to keep up.  Providers are investing in adding capacity to the network but it is now a race against time, particularly as the demand for mobile access generally continues to increase.  Last year’s prolonged BlackBerry outage in London and the 7/7 terrorist bombings have taught us that coverage cannot be guaranteed.  Companies who may need emergency access to their employees should consider contingency plans which could include issuing them with SIM cards from an alternative provider and a reporting procedure using landlines or face to face reporting if coverage goes down.

To read more on contingency plans needed for the Olympics, see the complete version of this article here:

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