The global circumstances surrounding Coronavirus continues to evolve each day as new cases are being reported around the world and across the United States.

While we do not wish to raise alarm or cause unnecessary panic over the situation, we do believe that businesses should remain vigilant throughout this epidemic and prepare ahead of time to minimize risk.

Our team here at DenBe Computer Consulting, is closely monitoring the situation and has already put in place contingency plans to mitigate the risks so that we are able to continue servicing our clients.

There are things you can do, from a technology perspective, that can minimize the impact and risks posed in the event that there is a more widespread Coronavirus outbreak.

POTENTIAL RISKS SCENARIOS THAT BUSINESSES SHOULD CONSIDER

-Protecting staff members from infection through transmission in the office

-Need for employees to work from home to prevent the spread in the event they are ill

-Quarantine restrictions imposed by authorities

-Quarantine for employees traveling from regions of risk

-Quarantine for employees who have household members who may be ill

-School closures that force employees to stay home for childcare

-Employees unwilling to take the risk of coming in to the office

ELEVATED RISK FROM PHISHING ATTACKS AND OTHER SCAMS

-As with any world news, there are already Coronavirus phishing messages and scams that are making the rounds

-Remind your staff to be extra careful about clicking on links or opening attachments in emails about Coronavirus (even if they appear to be from your company).

SHARED DEVICES AND WORKSPACES

-reduce the use of shares computers and workspaces: Keyboards, mice, and touchscreens are great surfaces for viruses especially if you have devices the public may use (kiosks, business centers, electronic menus).

-Use dedicated laptops/desktops for staff members so that devices are not shared.

Keypads for doors and other shared office equipment (printers, fax machines, scanners, photocopiers, etc.) provide hiding places for the virus.

Ensure shared workspaces are cleaned regularly with anti-bacterial products.

Ensure hand sanitizer is available by all shared equipment.

Talk to the janitorial staff about more frequent cleaning, especially surface that are heavily used.

Keyboards and mice can be cleaned with NON BLEACH Clorox or Lysol wipes. We recommend leaving wipes and hand sanitizer in your boardrooms and close to shared equipment

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Please review your business continuity plan and make any updates that are needed.

We recommend having a discussion with your staff now to make sure that your plans are complete.

The scenario you should be planning for is a 2+ week closure of the office (hopefully this is the worst possible scenario).

Make sure that your contact list of phone numbers is up to date in case you’re unable to reach people via email and need to urgently communicate with staff.

WORKING FROM HOME

Now is a good time to review the list of people who have the ability to work remotely.

There are a number of scenarios where the ability to work remotely will become a necessity during the different phases of this outbreak. Make sure that everyone who is able to work from home has the ability to do so.

Ensure that critical business functions can be performed remotely in the event that key employees are unable to access the office.

If you have employees that occasionally work from home, have them test their remote connectivity immediately to ensure everything is still working correctly.

Be careful not to compromise security by letting employees use personal computers that bypass all your cybersecurity measures.

PHONE SYSTEM ACCESS FROM HOME

Ensure that if your Business Continuity Plan calls for forwarding phones to cellular phones that this has been tested and your employees know how to set it up.

If you have a VoIP system, you should be able to allow access to phones on your employee’s laptop computers, make sure to set this up ahead of time.

Provide or ensure that your employees have access to headsets to access the VoIP phone systems on their laptop computers.

COLLABORATION AND REMOTE MEETINGS

Make sure that any web conferencing tools that you use have a subscription large enough to handle your whole team if needed.

SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS WITH ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

With supply lines with China disrupted, we are already starting to see shortages on technology items including laptops, monitors and desktop computers. If you’re planning any critical technology purchases in 2020, consider expediting them.

If there is anything we can do to help at DenBe Computer Consulting please don’t hesitate to ask.