As we have become accustomed particularly in Queensland is the frequency of storms and wild weather over Summer. Weather reports have advised this upcoming summer is to be a particularly stormy and wet across northern and Eastern Australia due to La Niña.
If you hear or see storms are coming your way, we strongly recommend turning off and unplugging your electrical appliances, including computer equipment and other office equipment where possible. Electricity from lightning can travel through your wiring connected to your equipment and can be damaging to your hardware. We encourage you protect yourself and your organisation by taking these proactive measures before the storm.
During a storm, disconnect any phone or internet lines from your modem, unplug networking equipment such as modem routers, switches and other nbn hardware, as well as turn off and unplug your hardware (including servers, computers, monitors from power line) where possible.
To remain online during surges, blackouts and brownouts, we recommend purchase of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for critical hardware such as servers, Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, as well as modems and other networking equipment. Ensure you keep your mobile phone charged as much as possible so you can still use this to access the internet during this time.
To protect against blackouts, surges and other power related issues, we recommend that suggest acquiring a good power surge protector. Even with the protection of uninterruptable power supplies, surge protection, circuit and power boards, if you are coming into contact with a lightning strike or it is possible for a storm damaging equipment connected, the appliances and information stored on these devices, so that doesn’t cause disruption to your organisation.
If your equipment remains connected during a storm, blackout, surge or other electrical anomaly there is the risk of equipment damage and data loss. As people generally aren’t at home or in the office all the time to unplug devices when a storm hits, we highly recommend having an independent backup such as a cloud or off-site backup system in place in case your home or office suffers damage.
You can sign up for an early warning alert notification through your local council:
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Other websites worth reviewing include the Australian Government’s Bureau of Meteorology (link opens in new window), the Queensland Government has a Weather warnings and emergency alerts (link opens in new window) page.
CyberGuru can assist with guidance on the purchase and configuration of required hardware to ensure your organisation remains protected. Please contact us for more information.