School Closures & Remote Access for Home Workers

[Wave9_Lee]

With the developing situation on Corvid-19, school closures are becoming more of a possibility.

 

This from Besa:

 

 

"Government adopts “reactive” approach to school closures, as new evidence shows children just as susceptible to Covid-19

School closures are one of the most beneficial non-pharmaceutical interventions that governments can take to take to combat pandemics.According to three separate studies published by the University of Michigan, John Hopkins and the University of Hiroshima, whether it be the outbreak of the H1N1 virus in Japan in 2009 or the Spanish Influenza in 1918, school closures can reduce contagion rates of a pandemic by up to 40%, as well as delay the peak of a virus by up to three weeks.

Statistically, this renders school closures the most effective non-pharmaceutical intervention available to a government: more effective than banning public gatherings, shutting roads or railways, limiting public transport, border closures and international travel bans, as well as an isolated intervention based on quarantining the ill.

In this light, while it may seem a drastic measure to many, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) report this week that thirteen countries have shut schools nationwide, and a further nine have enforced local closures, should not be seen as surprising."

I appreciate many of our customers on edugeek are already aware, but if you're not, Remote access for homeworkers on Sophos UTM and XG is easy to set up and free. If you have any issues getting this configured, drop us a mail at [email protected] and we will help you out.

 

Keep safe.

[SchoolsBroadband]

nowt like a bit of relevant advertising and useful advice@Wave9_Lee

 

that said all of our customers have SSL VPN access FOC as part of their packages with Schools Broadband. If anyone needs it setting up please let the support team know.

 

Dave

Edited March 6, 2020 by SchoolsBroadband

[Edu-IT]

LogMeIn are also offering free tools.

[Opendium_Steve]

Its great to see suppliers stepping up and helping with the situation.

 

Any Opendium Web Gateway customers that need VPNs for home workers should contact our support team and we'll set these up for free. (VPNs are a feature of the fully fledged UTM devices, and not normally part of Web Gateway, so we're adding this functionality as a freebee for anyone who needs it for the duration of the outbreak).

[ifarmery]

Has anyone manage to get access to the free LogMeIn emergency remote work kits? Struggling to get a response from them (although they may be busy!)

[LeMarchand]

Has anyone manage to get access to the free LogMeIn emergency remote work kits? Struggling to get a response from them (although they may be busy!)

 

Any luck yet? Thinking they may have underestimated the response.

[3s-gtech]

I've just put Teamviewer back on my PC, anticipating that our web RDS solution will be absolutely swamped (it has limited slots) so that I can continue to support. It activated very quickly considering they had stated that demand was high.

[LeMarchand]

I've just put Teamviewer back on my PC, anticipating that our web RDS solution will be absolutely swamped (it has limited slots) so that I can continue to support. It activated very quickly considering they had stated that demand was high.

 

Is that free during Covid now?

[3s-gtech]

I...don't know. It shows me under the 'Free' license. I registered as a business user, and it's working - that's better than nothing!

[SchoolsBroadband]

nowt like a bit of relevant advertising and useful advice@Wave9_Lee

 

that said all of our customers have SSL VPN access FOC as part of their packages with Schools Broadband. If anyone needs it setting up please let the support team know.

 

Dave

 

 

Just to carry on with this. We've seen a big demand for 2 Factor Authentication using FortiToken (see https://www.fortinet.com/products/identity-access-management/fortitoken-mobile.html) on top of the standard SSL VPN solution we deliver via our Fortigates.

 

If you'd like to use 2 Factor Authentication to further secure your network then please do get in touch with me or the team on the normal numbers / emails.

 

I think we've setup nearly 400 schools for SSL VPN in the past week!

 

Thanks

 

Dave