Aim

Safeguarding proper access to files if an EMGO+ employee has more than one work station.

Description

In the event that an EMGO+ employee works in different locations, it is essential that all authorised project team members have access to the same details, preferably the most recent version in all instances, from any location and at any time. If it is not possible to have the most recent version of files available in a central location at any time, then this fact should be made known to the project team members concerned.

An example of multiple work stations could be a project where the investigator works at TNO part of the week, and is active at the EMGO institute the rest of the week. However, this guideline also applies equally to those staff members who work part-time from home.
Observing this guideline will, for instance, prevent members of the project team not being able to access relevant files when the investigator is absent, or that the most recent file you want to get to work is left at home.

There are in principle 2 options to realise access from different work stations:

1. Access to a network drive from one of the two locations via a secure internet connection.
2. Synchronising data from different locations via a secure network connection and a synchronisation programme, or using an mobile storage device like an external hard drive.

Option 1

For option 1 the data (data files, articles, etc.) are added to a project folder on the network at one of the two locations. By preference this should be at the site where the majority of the project team is active. Access to VU University Medical Center’s network can be achieved through a so-called VPN connection, which requires a unique, personal VPN key. For more information about requesting a VPN key, see http://emgo.med.vu.nl/ds/ds/Netwerk/extern-toegang.htm. You can work on the files on the network without having to copy these to a local drive first. Another advantage of this method is that potentially confidential material always remains on the network, provided, of course, that this is not copied to a local hard drive.

Option 2

If option 1 is not feasible, then it is possible to synchronise data between multiple locations via a secure network connection between both locations. If this is not possible, then an external USB hard drive and a special synchronisation programme might be used. One should realise that the same data will not be available at every location at any particular time. All parties involved should be made aware of this. For this option it is necessary for the folder structure at the various locations to be the same.

When synchronising via an external hard drive or non-secure connection, confidential data need to be kept separate from the synchronisation process, as these should never be stored on an external hard drive!

The D&S intranet (http://emgo.med.vu.nl/ds/ds/Software/Synctoy.htm) provides an example of how synchronisation between different work stations can be brought about using a (free) synchronisation programme (Synctoy), as well as an external USB drive, if necessary.
The programme can also be downloaded via the D&S intranet.

Look at the EMGO+ Institute’s Intranet Data and System Management for information about requesting project folders and VPN keys and the installation and use of a synchronisation programme.

V1.1: 1 Jan 2010: English translation.
V1.0:  30 May 2008.

• Do all authorised project team members have access to the necessary files in the event there are different work stations/locations?
• Is access available to the most recent version of a file? If not, what is the reason for this and is this known to those concerned?
• Have privacy rules been taken into consideration?