March 27, 2020
Many businesses still operating across Australia have prepared as best they can for the havoc the coronavirus is and will continue to cause; including Australia's domain name registry operator.
Afilias manages all current and open second level .au extensions including com.au, and restricted government (gov.au) and education (edu.au) extensions - a role it took over in July 2018. It is also tasked with keeping information on each domain name registrant and the systems that convert a name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address (DNS service).
However, a registry operator doesn't provide registration services to the public; with those functions carried out by a registrar or reseller. The registry operator supports registrars in providing those services.
Carrying out the role of registry operator for .au is a very important task. This isn't just important for business, but imagine if something were to go wrong with crucial government online information services at the registry level.
Last week, Afilias stated it was COVID-19 ready. The company says its systems mean working from home is a practical option for its teams and the company has redundant resources that help make its services "disaster resistant". These include having approximately 300 members focusing on registry support and a team dispersed around the world.
"Afilias Australia has a Business Continuity Plan in place and our systems are regularly tested to ensure our customers have the support they need," said Patrick Donaldson, Country Manager at Afilias Australia.
As well as providing continuity of service, Afilias says it also wants to keep employees safe - and every key staff member has secure remote access to the resources they need to continue on in their important work.
Already, offices including those in Toronto (Canada), Horsham (Philadelphia, USA), Dublin (Ireland) and Melbourne (Australia) have started “Work From Home” operations, while offices that are currently in lower risk areas will move to that status as required.
The company notes it was only last month when Afilias Australia was recertified with pre-existing standards, ISO22301 Business Continuity Management Standard and ISO27001 Information Security Standard.
ISO22301 specifies the requirements for a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of, and ensure a business recovers from disruptive incidents. The ISO27001 Information Security Standard is particularly important at the moment with team members working remotely.
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