S 2.53 Deactivation of fax machines after office hours

Initiation responsibility: IT Security Management, Fire-Protection Officer

Implementation responsibility: Fax Officer

To reduce the perpetual danger of fax machines catching fire, devices not required outside working hours (personal or departmental fax machines) should be turned off after office hours. This also prevents incoming fax messages from remaining inside fax machines for unnecessarily long periods of time. These machines can be turned off easily by means of timers which disconnect the power supply outside normal working hours.

A different (and, if possible, constantly monitored) fax connection can be allocated, or a call-forwarding feature can be activated on modern telecommunications systems for fax messages arriving outside working hours.

Turning off fax machines also prevents them from being overloaded due to technical failure or intentional "flaming" outside working hours.

This type of deactivation should not be allowed for fax machines required for purposes which cannot be fulfilled by the alternative solutions.

Additional controls:

• Which fax machines need to remain active outside office hours?

• Are the remaining devices turned off?

• Is a call-forwarding feature available?