Over the last while I have been asking questions about how courier companies are dealing with the current COVID-19 issue but until recently DPD have issued on how they are dealing with the problem going forward and my concern was with handheld terminals and not only this the handling of freight via sorting hubs and staff internally. In most cases a handheld terminal is passed to the customer to sign but it is good see that some have stamped this out for the foreseeable future. An Post have also posted some information on their site despite the lack of listening to drivers and staffs requests in recent times they have information now posted HERE
DPD have this statement up on their site on how they are moving forward. Fastway have included this on their homepage. And DHL have guidelines listed
UPS however have just issued this statement.
I want to share an update on what UPS is doing to keep our customers and our people safe while continuing to deliver around the world.
UPS is following the guidance of global health experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We are reminding our employees about frequent hand washing, and we are regularly cleaning and disinfecting our facilities and equipment. Importantly, we are asking that our drivers, pilots, and other employees stay home from work if they feel sick.
Many people are asking the same question: is it safe to receive and handle a shipment? The WHO and CDC have stated that the likelihood of catching the COVID-19 virus by touching cardboard or other another shipping container is low.
From the outset, UPS has maintained delivery services except where limited by government restrictions. We have also worked in partnership with governments around the world to obtain exceptions that allow our shipments to continue in restricted areas.
UPS has long been a trusted partner in communities around the world. As with other global humanitarian crisis events, we are helping with relief related to COVID-19 and will continue to seek opportunities to assist our communities in need.
As this situation is evolving rapidly, we have created a web page with information on how UPS is responding to COVID-19 and tools you can use during this time.
UPS’s network planning and operations teams are experienced with adapting to changing conditions, and are developing contingency plans to address potential sources of disruption in our air and ground networks.
Our teams are working to continue to serve the supply chain needs of businesses during this time, while keeping our employees and customers safe.Thank you for trusting us with your business.
David Abney
Chairman and CEO
UPS
Severe weather, natural disasters, and other conditions beyond our control can occasionally disrupt our services. If there is an active service disruption, it will appear below. A gold alert ribbon will also appear at the top of all ups.com pages. If there is no service alert information below, the UPS transportation network is operating normally. See UPS Ireland for updates HERE
Avaya Holdings Corp. a global leader in solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration, today announced that it will provide its Avaya Spaces collaboration software for free to education institutions, including colleges and universities, along with qualified non-profit organisations worldwide. Avaya Spaces is recognised for its ease of implementation and the significant impact it can have on organisational resilience and continuity. Since January, Avaya has seen a 200 percent increase in video collaboration traffic on this platform.
“Coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting the lives of people around the globe and every day we hear new sobering stories about the very real health and safety implications of the spread of this virus,” said Jim Chirico, CEO of Avaya. “There is an especially immediate need in the education sector as school and university administrators consider the safety of their students while ensuring continuity of their classes, engagement with their students and delivering on their educational objectives. Avaya has four million UC and contact centre seats in the state, local government and education market worldwide – so we understand the demands of that sector and targeted our Avaya Spaces offer accordingly.”
Avaya Spaces provides a cloud meeting and team collaboration solution that enables people and organisations to connect and collaborate remotely – and goes beyond integrating chat, voice, video, online meetings and content sharing. It gives users an extensive set of meeting and team collaboration features, including voice and video conferencing for up to 200 participants. As a mobile-enabled solution, it gives users a simple, secure and effective way to track communications and manage tasks when travel and connectivity are limited.
As early as January, Avaya teams and partners were on the frontline in Wuhan, China to help in the initial stages of this epidemic. The company donated audio and video equipment and dispatched resources for speedy installation and deployment for hospitals in the region to help medical personnel perform remote consultation and video diagnostics as well as to enable patients to visit virtually with loved ones. Avaya continues to explore opportunities to help during this global challenge.
To learn how to sign-up for the free Avaya Spaces offer, eligible organisations are asked to visit this web page.
Many, if not most, organisations have already crossed the “working from home”, or at least the “working while on the road” bridge.
If you’re on the IT team, you’re probably used to preparing laptops for staff to use remotely, and setting up mobile phones with access to company data.
But global concerns over the current coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, and the need to keep at-risk staff away from the office, means that lots of companies may soon and suddenly end up with lots more staff working from home…
…and it’s vital not to let the precautions intended to protect the physical health of your staff turn into a threat to their cybersecurity health at the same time.
Importantly, if you have a colleague who needs to work from home specifically to stay away from the office then you can no longer use the tried-and-tested approach of getting them to come in once to collect their new laptop and phone, and to receive the on-site training that you hope will make them a safer teleworker.
You may end up needing to set remote users up from scratch, entirely remotely, and that might be something you’ve not done a lot of in the past.
So here are our five tips for working from home safely.
Make sure it’s easy for your users to get started
Look for security products that offer what’s called an SSP, short for Self-Service Portal.
What you are looking for is a service to which a remote user can connect, perhaps with a brand-new laptop they ordered themselves, and set it up safely and easily without needing to hand it over to the IT department first.
Many SSPs also allow the user to choose between different levels of access, so they can safely connect up either a personal device (albeit with less access to fewer company systems than they’d get with a dedicated device), or a device that will be used only for company work.
The three key things you want to be able to set up easily and correctly are: encryption, protection and patching.
Encryption means making sure that full-device encryption is turned on and activated, which protects any data on the device if it gets stolen; protection means that you start off with known security software, such as anti-virus, configured in the way you want; and patching means making sure that the user gets as many security updates as possible automatically, so they don’t get forgotten.
Remember that if you do suffer a data breach, such as a lost laptop, you may well need to disclose the fact to the data protection regulator.
If you want to be able to claim that you took the right precautions, and thus that the breach can be disregarded, you’ll need to produce evidence – the regulator won’t just take your word for it!
Make sure your users can do what they need
If users genuinely can’t do their job without access to server X or to system Y, then there’s no point in sending them off to work from home without access to X and Y.
Make sure you have got your chosen remote access solution working reliably first – force it on yourself! – before expecting your users to adopt it.
If there are any differences between what they might be used to and what they are going to get, explain the difference clearly – for example, if the emails they receive on their phone will be stripped of attachments, don’t leave them to find that out on their own.
They’ll not only be annoyed but will probably also try to make up their own tricks for bypassing the problem, such as asking colleagues to upload the files to private accounts instead.
If you’re the user, try to be understanding if there are things you used to be able do in the office that you have to manage without at home.
Make sure you can see what your users are doing
Don’t just leave your users to their own devices (literally or figuratively).
If you’ve set up automatic updating for them, make sure you also have a way to check that it’s working, and be prepared to spend time online helping them fix things if they go wrong.
If their security software produces warnings that you know they will have seen, make sure you review those warnings too, and let your users know what they mean and what you expect them to do about any issues that may arise.
Don’t patronise your users, because no one likes that; but don’t leave them to fend for themselves, either – show them a bit of cybersecurity love and you are very likely to find that they repay it.
Make sure they have somewhere to report security issues
If you haven’t already, set up an easily remembered email address, such as security911 @ yourcompany DOT example, where users can report security issues quickly and easily.
Remember that a lot of cyberattacks succeed because the crooks try over and over again until one user makes an innocent mistake – so if the first person to see a new threat has somewhere to report it where they know they won’t be judged or criticised (or, worse still, ignored), they’ll end up helping everyone else.
Teach your users – in fact, this goes for office-based staff as well as teleworkers – only to reach out to you for cybersecurity assistance by using the email address or phone number you gave them. (Consider snail-mailing them a card or a sticker with the details printed on it.)
If they never make contact using links or phone numbers supplied by email, they they are very much less likely to get scammed or phished.
Make sure you know about “shadow IT” solutions
Shadow IT is where non-IT staff find their own ways of solving technical problems, for convenience or speed.
If you have a bunch of colleagues who are used to working together in the office, but who end up flung apart and unable to meet up, it’s quite likely that they might come up with their own ways of collaborating online – using tools they’ve never tried before.
Sometimes, you might even be happy for them to do this, if it’s a cheap and happy way of boosting team dynamics.
For example, they might open an account with an online whiteboarding service – perhaps even one you trust perfectly well – on their own credit card and plan to claim it back later.
The first risk everyone thinks about in cases like this is, “What if they make a security blunder or leak data they shouldn’t?”
But there’s another problem that lots of companies forget about, namely: what if, instead of being a security disaster, it’s a conspicuous success?
A temporary solution put in place to deal with a public health issue might turn into a vibrant and important part of the company’s online presence.
So, make sure you know whose credit card it’s charged to, and make sure you can get access to the account if the person who originally created it forgets the password, or cancels their card.
So-called “shadow IT” isn’t just a risk if it goes wrong – it can turn into a complicated liability if it goes right!
Most of all…
Most of all, if you and your users suddenly need to get into teleworking, be prepared to meet each other halfway.
For example, if you’re the user, and your IT team suddenly insists that you start using a password manager and 2FA (those second-factor login codes you have to type in every time)…
…then just say “Sure,” even if you hate 2FA and have avoided it in your personal life because you find it inconvenient.
And if you’re the sysadmin, don’t ignore your users, even if they ask questions you think they should know the answer to by now, or if they ask for something you’ve already said “No” to…
…because it might very well be that they’re asking because you didn’t explain clearly the first time, or because the feature they need really is important to doing their job properly.
We’re living in tricky times, so try not to let matters of public health cause the sort of friction that gets in the way of doing cybersecurity properly!
