How do you communicate when working remotely? Email, old-fashioned phone calls, internal discussion forums? All are useful tools. However, if you want to dramatically improve your business performance, softphones are the way to go. Flexibility Softphones are an application for internet-enabled devices such as a smartphone or laptop, that allows you to make and receive […]

Fifty-two times a day.  That's the average number of times people look at their phones.

This is according to a Deloitte 2018 survey of 2000 US respondents.  The survey also said smartphones are the preferred device for:

News, short videos, photos, video calls, social media, banking, emails, regular calls, calendars, maps and IM.

That's a lot of time on your phone.

CEO Article by Larry Johnson

When I outlined my blogs in January, I wasn’t thinking of the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the unique specter that it raises; I was thinking of the challenges we have with the daily ups and downs of business that can add stress in our lives.

The New Normal

Remote work is the new normal in our COVID-19 universe. As one of our team members explained:

“I’ll be a bit late to my office. Traffic is crazy. There was a massive pile-up of a bike, a helmet, frozen toys and a shoe blocking the entrance to the off-ramp to my home office this morning.

Infosec IQ, our partner for Security Awareness Training, has sent us a free information kit on working remotely.

A few simple precautions go a long way.  Please watch this brief video on staying secure while working remotely.

Watch here

They also included two infographics to help you stay secure when working from home.

The coronavirus is not only a global health and economic crisis; it has now mutated to become a global security crisis. Spammers, scammers, and hackers, or "cyberscum" as one writer dubbed them, are working overtime to profit from the increased usage of the internet and the epidemic of fear.

Our office is adopting guidelines from the World Health Organization to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Below are a few of their recommendations.

Surfaces and objects need to be wiped with disinfectant regularly.
Put sanitizing hand rub dispensers in prominent places around the workplace.

The adage "never let a good crisis go to waste" applies to hackers everywhere. And the Coronavirus is the perfect crisis to exploit.

Sophos, one of Adept's security vendors, reports on one Coronavirus scam. They explain, "The fake page consists of the official, current home page of the World Health Organisation (WHO), with an unassuming popup form on top of it.

Being prepared for the unknown allows you to have peace of mind for your business.  I am reminded of the story about a young man who was looking for a job as a farmhand. When asked about his qualifications from the older farmer, the man said that he could sleep when the wind was blowing.

Microsoft is mandating multi-factor authentication on all Office 365 accounts. This rule comes as a result of increased hacker attacks on Cloud Solutions Providers (CSPs).

PCM, the world's 6th largest CSP, had intruders break into their company and plunder their email systems.