In a progressive move to enable home working and combat the threat of data loss and security, Enfield Borough Council has installed sophisticated encryption technology on 3000 laptop computers.
The Sophos encryption technology added to the portable PCs is a part of a scheme that the council is putting into action in order to transform the thousands of computers it uses from vulnerable liabilities into secure, powerful platforms.
A total of 4500 new computers will be included in the scheme, with the laptops replacing many desktop PCs to allow council workers to work safely and securely whilst they are away from the office.
These measures have been taken in order to ensure that the council is in compliance with Governmental guidelines and regulations.
According to one of the Council’s IT department heads, the subsequent task facing the council is the virtualisation of its servers, which it hopes will allow for the decommissioning of all but two of its current systems. This will allow for the closure of multiple buildings currently used to house the servers and IT resources and should also facilitate home working on a far larger scale.
The latest changes to the data infrastructure of the council will also allow for considerable savings to be made as maintenance of the various systems and the environments that house them will no longer be required. Staff who are unable to come in to work for whatever reason should also be able to continue their day to day tasks remotely thanks to the vastly improved home working infrastructure powered by a new VPN system.
It is the Government Connect Secure Extranet’s Code of Connection that has made the changes instigated by Enfield Borough Council necessary and the potential improvements in data loss prevention and disaster recovery should be clear to any industry observer.
Part of the new system is designed to allow for secure yet simple methods of sharing data between central government and local councils. USB memory sticks, which have been the source of many data loss incidents, are also getting a security overhaul as part of the scheme, with unique IDs embedded in each council device to allow for secure portable data storage.
December 9, 2009 at 4:29 pm
‘the potential improvements in data loss prevention and disaster recovery should be clear to any industry observer.’
This maybe true for data but I see no consideration for any voice recovery or re-routing to provide a seamless service when employees are working from home. I assume therefore that they will be using their mobile phones? Not the best method of communication during any disaster as more often than not the network could become congested, as experienced during the July 7th bombings. As outlined by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, councils need to incorporate telecoms resilience in their business continuity plans. Benefits of doing this include seamless business operation as employees work flexibly on a day to day basis.