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Remote Workforce Or Not – You Can Securely Protect And Back Up Your Corporate Information

Jason Cooley is Support Services Manager for Tech Experts.
One of the most common objections heard when talking with businesses about moving towards a remote work strategy is the supposed security risks posed by not having all data contained within the physical confines of the office building.

While this has widely been debunked, the myth still remains. But the tide may be moving in the other direction now that many businesses were forced to move to an entirely remote workforce during the COVID-19 shutdown.

CNBC has reported that 85% of businesses are now operating 50% of their workforce remotely, and with tech giants Twitter and Facebook both reporting plans to move towards a continued remote strategy, the reality is that remote work in a larger capacity is going to become the norm instead of the exception.

Now is the time to prepare for the “new normal” that will become our reality.

Sadly, along with the threat of COVID-19, cyberattacks have grown as attackers realize that home networks are not as secure as corporate networks. However, security and back up firm Acronis shares 5 things that you can do to protect your business data moving forward with a remote work strategy.

Five “must do’s” according to Acronis
Acronis is a leading cloud backup and security provider and one that we recommend widely to all of our customers. They list 5 “must do’s” as you set up your remote workforce, and as always, we are here to help you put these processes in place.

Must-Do #1: VPN – or Virtual Private Network
You have most likely heard of this technology as it has been around for a while. But if not, a VPN will encrypt all data while in transit to protect it from cyberattackers.

Must-Do #2: Keep an eye out for phishing
Hackers are known for taking advantage of highly stressful events and we have seen an increase of COVID-19 themed phishing attempts and we expect this number to continue to rise as businesses reopen.

The best and most reliable way to prevent a phishing attack from affecting your business is through effective employee training. As another protective measure, you can install URL filtering software on your employees laptop or home computer to further reduce the risks of falling victim.

Acronis says, however, that you should always ask yourself if you were really expecting that email before opening or clicking any links contained in the message.

Must-Do #3: Anti-Malware
Virus and malware protection has always been a standard recommendation, but with the wide net that is cast with remote work, it has become even more important that every endpoint that touches your corporate data has this protection installed on it.

Must-Do #4: Patch, patch, and patch
Regardless of your operating system, whether it be Microsoft or Apple, you need to ensure that you are operating under the most recent operating system. Many attacks occur by taking advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities.

Must-Do #5: Keep your password, and your workspace, to yourself
Just because the office location is at home does not automatically mean people can’t access sensitive information when you step away. Limit access to your computer even when you are at home and do not tell anyone your passwords.

Prepare for the future now
There is no question that the future we anticipated at the close of 2019 is different than the one that will ultimately surface.

By making the assumption that remote work will continue to be the norm instead of a return to the standard office environment will help your business be agile and meet challenges head-on.

Top Reasons To Record Your Business Calls

The 3cx Phone System, the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone system that Tech Experts sells and services, has a call recording feature that’s quite popular. The service has been available for quite a while now.

However, many small- and medium-sized businesses don’t take advantage of the technology that lets them prioritize customer interaction. When used properly, call recording can strengthen your company’s reputation and boost customer satisfaction.

Here are a few reasons to consider a 3cx Phone System with call recording:

Improve customer service
One of the most important reasons why businesses should always record their calls, no matter its significance, is to ensure high-quality customer service. By reviewing calls, managers can understand how their agents have been dealing with customers, find out whether or not they’ve followed company protocol, and pinpoint any aspects that can be improved on.

Without call recording, managers would have to listen to each call in real time, which is a time-consuming process. By recording each call, not only will your managers save time, but your employees will also be motivated to perform at their best every time they’re on the phone because they know their calls can always be reviewed.

Upgrade employee performance
According to Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning, people only remember 10% of what they’ve read, 50% of what they’ve seen and heard, and 90% of what they’ve done. By providing your agents with actual recordings of good and bad calling examples during training sessions, and have them simulate calls afterwards, they’ll be able to learn better and provide high-quality customer service faster.

Retrieve missed details and prevent litigation
With hundreds of phone calls daily, it’s understandable if your employees don’t catch every single detail. And for companies that require their agents to manually input information during calls, there’s always a possibility that they’ll forget or miss certain information. Needless to say, this could lead to disgruntled customers. If not properly handled, this can harm your reputation, reduce work opportunities, and if things escalate, proceed to litigation.

VoIP’s call recording feature lets you replay saved audio files to make sure you haven’t missed any details, ensuring that all customer demands are met. And if you ever get into a dispute with your clients regarding who said what, you can always retrieve the exact audio file and have both sides listen to it, saving you thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Understand customer preferences
Have you ever received an inquiry about a product or service that’s not included in your offerings? While your agents usually jot these requests down and pass them on to the relevant personnel, they may end up forgetting some if numerous calls are being made that day. Tiny issues like this can lead to potentially huge losses. With call recording, you can review all your calls at the end of the day. You’ll have a better picture of what certain customers are looking for so you can address them better.

VoIP allows businesses to make on-demand calls affordably, and its call recording feature helps companies improve their customer service and prevent litigation. If you think business VoIP is right for you, or if you have any questions, give us a call at (734) 457-5000.

The Latest Small Business Security SNAFU? Zoom

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.
With everyone now working from home and finding new ways to collaborate and get things done, Zoom has become one of the most popular video conferencing applications, reporting growth of 378% over just one year ago.

As its popularity has grown, so has the allure for hackers. The FBI in Boston reported that two online high school classes had been interrupted by individuals who began yelling obscenities and the address of the teacher to another which displayed swastika tattoos. So how does this happen?

To start, most recurring meetings use the same meeting IDs. Someone, in an effort to make sure other attendees were aware of the event, would share it in an unsecured way, such as on Facebook or other social media.

Hackers can pick up this information, and even after the event was over, they could use the same information to gain access to the next meeting. Fortune Magazine has reported that dark web dedicated forums have popped up on popular sites like Reddit, and all a hacker would need to do on Facebook is search for “zoom.us” to find any public post containing the targeted words.

So what is a business to do to secure their meetings and avoid the potential sharing of sensitive corporate information during this time of extensive virtual meetings? First, and foremost, set your meeting to private. This means that there is a password required for each participant to enter. Although Zoom has now changed this setting to be the default setting, some users are still opting to make the meeting public for the sake of convenience.

As inconvenient as it is to have invitees enter a password to get into their meeting, it’s even more inconvenient to have sensitive corporate information released. Also… and this might seem to be stating the obvious but do not share your meeting invite over social media.

No matter our security settings on social media profiles, it’s best to assume that nothing you say on there will stay private. Another way to ensure the security of your zoom meeting is to use the feature of the waiting room. This means that each invitee who logs in will first be placed into a room where the meeting host then has to approve their entry and allowing the host to assess each attendee before they enter the room.

Also, never use your personal ID. Each zoom user has a personal virtual meeting room assigned when they create an account. Defaulting to using your assigned virtual meeting room can make it easier for hackers to enter in from old meeting announcements.

You know the phrase, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Yeah. When it comes to Zoom (and any virtual meeting for that matter) assume what happens in Zoom does not stay in Zoom. If the information that is going to be shared is of such critical nature, you should find another medium where you have no chance of being overheard.

Covid-19’s Effects On The Tech We Use Every Day

Jason Cooley is Support Services Manager for Tech Experts.
As we all know, most of the world was basically shut down earlier this year. There was no planning or infrastructure in place to help ease the burden of entire populations staying home. Consequently, the domino effect hit hard.

People rushed out to stock up on essentials like toilet paper and sanitizer. Overbuying then created a new issue as supply chains struggled to keep up with demand. Shipping times overall started to slow.

Amazon, whose Prime subscription service is famous for its 1-2 day shipping time, prioritized essential items for their guaranteed delivery. From personal experience, I had an Amazon item that did not ship for two weeks after ordering. This was solely due to the de-prioritization of nonessential goods.

The United States Post Office has had severe delays as well, specifically in their larger Metropolitan areas, and have been buried under a Christmas season-like load with a much smaller workforce.

Manufacturing as a whole took an almost immediate hit. Most manufacturing facilities have a large number of employees in an enclosed area. This presented a huge risk for the spread of the disease, causing automobile manufacturers, food processing plants, and computer manufacturers to send their employees home and shut their doors.

Why does manufacturing being put on hold matter so much? Once again, it’s due to the struggle to meet demands.

While many industries did put a hold on their business, many others made a quick transition to remote work. Many companies, both big and small, scrambled to obtain laptops for their employees to allow them to work from home.

While companies worked out remote solutions for their employees, schools had also closed down all over the country.

Some schools had existing devices for their students, such as Chromebooks, but many schools did not. To continue the learning process during the pandemic, more computers were needed for students to do their work. All of these new needs for computers – primarily from online retailers – created a huge surge in PC sales, but also created a real issue. Inventory was running out all over the United States and a computer shortage began.

With no manufacturing, there was no inventory being created, including PC parts. This affected the entire sector and the shortage is on-going.

All faces of technology – from the big guys like Amazon to smaller companies – have felt the effects of the pandemic. They have also done their part to help.

Auto plants changed their lines over from making cars to making respirators. Amazon put a high priority on essential items and medical supplies. Many other industries and businesses have shifted their production to meet immediate needs such as masks.

There is some silver lining in all of this. Seeing companies band together for the good of people without thinking of profit has been reassuring. The phrase “unprecedented times” has been used more times than we can count, but now that we have that precedent, let’s hope we can learn from it.

Should I Go, Or Should I Wait? Re-opening Tips

Stay at home orders are being lifted, businesses are beginning to reopen. Our world is being turned on its head again, and normal will never be the same again.

As we begin to reopen our doors and essentially relaunch our businesses, here are some things to think about to get you started.

Be very careful about what and where you make cost cuts
Uncertainty naturally causes us to restrict, and this is by no means bad. You may have to make cuts in order to get things back on their feet. But Inc Magazine contributor, Graham Winfrey, cautions to you make those cuts wisely.

In his interview with Manny Cosme, the CEO and President of a CFO and Bookkeeping business, he was advised to make projections before you make cuts. Cosme said that businesses need to think about growing their way out of the crisis.

He said, “Every cut that you make is going to cut your ability to generate revenue or keep your business going, which is not something you want to be doing right now.” So think very carefully about what, and even if, you are going to make any cuts as you reopen.

Look closely at your business model
No matter how much we wish we could just go back to the way things were, we have all experienced significant changes over the last few weeks. Nothing feels better than returning to some sort of normalcy.

But one thing we have learned over this global health crisis is the ability of the entrepreneur and the business owner to pivot and meet their consumers’ needs where they are. Changing your business model in light of the pandemic just might be what saves your business.

Graham Winfrey suggests you ask yourself 3 questions:

● What should your business model be when you come out of this?
● Is your current business model viable? If so, how can you hang on until it’s viable again?
● Are there ways you can pivot all of your expertise into a better revenue stream?

Along with his panelist in the article on Inc, Cosme believes that it comes down to changing one or more of the following within your business model:

● What you sell
● Whom you sell it to
● How you deliver it

Evaluate local support options
Throughout this crisis, many federal and local supports have been extended to small business and their employees. Graham suggests that you look to your local chamber of commerce to see what local support programs may have been crafted to help you as you reopen your doors.

Create policies to ensure the safety of both your employees and customers
After you have completed the above steps, now you should create your communication plan for letting your customers know you will be open for business.

George Brandt in his article in Forbes suggests you approach it in three steps: Emotional, rational, and inspirational.

Be authentic
George suggests that you connect with your audience in an authentic, relatable and compassionate way.

Empathize with your consumer that you know this was difficult for them as well as for you. George quotes PrimeGenesis’ saying, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Lay out the facts
With calm composure, polite and authoritative, lay out the hard facts of the current situation. For them and for you.

George defines the facts as “things that any rational person would agree are true no matter what bias or perspective they bring to the situation – objective, scientific truths as opposed to subjective, personal, cultural or political truths, opinions or conclusions.”

Think ahead and paint an optimistic view
George recommends that you ground all your communication with Mayfield and Mayfield’s meaning-making and direction-giving language, meaning providing purpose and value: be – do – say.

The New Normal COVID-19 Office Security

With continued WFH policies and multiplied COVID-19 scams and threats, the importance of good cyber security stands out. Indeed, with a workforce that is highly dependent on digital services for the foreseeable future, the new normal COVID-19 office security is necessarily stronger, more vigilant, and more dispersed.

Yet, a lot of questions remain unanswered. For example, will behavioral surveillance be part of the new normal? As organizations plan to implement contact tracing, privacy advocates voice their concerns.

Given the uncertainty, we expect to see these non-intrusive measures with clearly defined benefits coming to the new normal.

Thermal cameras for passive temperature checking
The advantages of temperature detection for a business COVID-19 strategy include early discovery and reporting leading to early isolation and treatment.

Advanced temperature detection technology is not a substitute for medical grade FDA approved thermometers. The advantage of an advanced thermal camera system is that it can pick out personnel with abnormal body temperatures in heavy traffic areas to be assessed later by a professional with medically approved equipment.

These systems use an HD video camera and thermal camera side by side looking at the same field of view. The resulting video and metadata output, when combined with advanced artificial intelligence, gives sensible temperature data on multiple objects simultaneously.

Some systems employ facial detection technology paired with a face database and a high temperature detection alarm. They can identify up to 16 targets with a temperature accuracy of .54° F and come with an easy to use interface.

In-office security cameras
Also likely to become more common, in-office security cameras provide a video record of events. They function as a tool to answer concerns about what happened if a COVID-19 behavioral complaint surfaces. The societal resistance to surveillance will likely be counter-balanced by the desire to maintain a safe work environment.

Plexiglas barriers
Plexiglas® extruded acrylic sheets promote both worker and consumer safety to help control the spread of the virus.

Sneeze guards made from Plexiglas make sense. So, it is logical to see their use extended in the office to create barriers between closely seated workers. We’ll see them in other areas to promote social distancing.

Health questions
The CDC recently issued guidance recommending that employers actively encourage sick employees to stay home. Interpreting this guidance, the EEOC confirmed that the rules of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act continue to apply but do not prevent employers from following guidelines from the CDC and other public health authorities regarding COVID-19.

Per the EEOC’s guidance, employers may ask employees who report feeling ill at work, or who call in sick, questions about their symptoms to determine if they may have COVID-19. In addition, they may require employees to stay home if they have COVID-19 symptoms, screen applicants for symptoms of COVID-19, delay the start date or withdraw the offer of an applicant with symptoms.

Thus, employers may find it necessary to ask employees about their symptoms. They might require notification of high body temperatures, and request disclosure of recent proximity to individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. In doing so, they must be mindful to do it consistently and avoid discriminatory use of the results.

To simplify the process and avoid collecting unnecessary information, employers may simply ask employees to stay home if they show certain symptoms, rather than asking them about the specific symptoms they have.

Work from home security
The WFH new normal creates multiple security challenges that must be addressed. From simple provisioning issues like shredders for employees handling sensitive documents to updated incident response plans, new circumstances demand new security responses.

For example, the company’s business continuity plan should be updated to address new fail-over and backup procedures. Also, the difficulty of securing and verifying credentials in a remote environment will encourage the use of multifactor authentication.

In addition, with less physical oversight of employees, organizations may need to focus more on user activity. Access logs and user behavior analysis come to mind. Increased threats require increased employee education. And, employees also need to know how to report security risks or threats through all the currently used communication channels (in addition to email).

How To Set Up And Maintain A Secure, Remote Work Environment To Overcome The COVID19 Pandemic

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

“We are in this together.” We can’t say that enough. It’s not you, and I, but US.

Information technology and communications providers are considered essential services in this unprecedented time, and we take our role seriously. We are here to help, and we ask you (no, implore you) to reach out with any technology-related questions as you work to transition from a central office to a remote employee environment.

As you prepare (or maybe you already have transitioned) for remote work environments, many of which will need to be done by the individual who will be working there, we developed this list of 10 things to keep in mind to secure a remote work environment on the fly.

Invest in antivirus software for all employee devices
Yes, technically it is your employee’s devices and these are usually outside of the typical IT circle. But with these circumstances coming about quickly, there may not have been time to follow your normal procurement cycle to get the specific equipment your employees need to remain productive while working from home. That means they will be working from their own device, and they may or may not be as cognizant of your security measures.

So a good rule of thumb is to work to ensure that all employees utilize antivirus software. Many ISPs (Internet service providers) also offer free antivirus software with their service, and we would encourage you to take full advantage. There are several ways you can handle this and we invite you to give us a call to see what will work best for your organization. [Read more…] about How To Set Up And Maintain A Secure, Remote Work Environment To Overcome The COVID19 Pandemic

Did Your Windows 10 Search Function Break?

Jason Cooley is Support Services Manager for Tech Experts.

It seems like every time I turn around I have a new Windows 10 story to share. The combined abundance and variety of issues has been frustrating to say the least. The number of users affected normally varies as people will install updates at different times, but those updates are the most likely cause of a widespread issue.

Microsoft recently had one of the most widespread issues in its Windows 10 OS history, and that is quite a statement. It likely affected more users than any group on a given operating system version.

When trying to update something in its own programming for Windows 10, Microsoft broke the search feature.

First, some background information: Windows 10 search is built-in and Microsoft has integrated the search with Bing to allow for both local searching of your system and online results as well.

The option can be very useful for users as it allows a centralized location to look for whatever you might need to find. Personally, I still use the search feature for Windows functions and use Google to do any web searches. That said, I can see the value the search feature has for some.

For each person it works well for, there is a user that will search for something on their computer then accidentally open a Bing search result for something they never had any intention of opening.

It happened recently to someone I know. They were searching for their scanner and nearly downloaded a third party application from an untrusted source. It can happen easily and frequently.

Whether you find use in local and online results or you are more like me and use the search purely for Windows functions, you likely rely on it to some degree.

So what would you do if you had no ability to search at all? What if the entire functionality of searching was broken in Windows 10? That is what happened recently to just about every person who happened to login over a few day period recently. Microsoft was updating some of its backend search code (likely making changes to Bing itself) and didn’t account for an impact on the integrated search.

The impact on each user varied, but even as someone who is very comfortable using Windows 10, the broken search function really made things more difficult. Fortunately, the problem was very quickly resolved.

In terms of a Microsoft turnaround, a 1-day fix is quite incredible. Some users experienced it for a bit longer as the fix was not always applied automatically. The problems were sporadic, but some machines took a few restarts to apply the hotfix.

When you break Windows for almost all of your users (especially right after taking away the most loved operating system of all time), fixing it quick is in your best interest. That is exactly what Microsoft did. Let’s just hope we all achieve a little stability now that some of their resources have been freed up with the end of Windows 7.

Email Checklist: Is It A Phishing Attack?

More than half of phishing attack emails contain malicious links. Furthermore, approximately one-third of all phishing attack emails manage to bypass default security methods.

So how do you determine if an email you’ve received is a phishing attack?

Sure, sometimes it’s obvious. But as cybercriminals continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, their phishing attack emails are becoming more convincing than ever before.

Here’s a complete checklist to go through when you receive a suspicious email:

An Overly Generic Greeting
More often than not, phishing emails are sent out to a massive list rather than one individual.

This means they’ll often contain generic greetings, such as “dear customer” or “dear member” whereas a legitimate source, such as your bank or a government organization, would probably address you by name.

A Request to Update or Verify Information
If the email contains some sort of request to update or verify your information, it’s likely a phishing email. No legitimate source will ask you to update or verify sensitive information over the internet. Chances are, they will call you or wait until you’re in the store/at the bank to go over this request with you.

A Lack of a Domain Address
Aside from looking at the name and company information, don’t forget to double check their domain address.

Hover your mouse over the “from” address to see if there is a legitimate domain or not. For instance, they may have !IRA.com instead of IRA.com. However, this isn’t always foolproof and it’s important to check for other signs too.

Grammar and/or Spelling Errors
Large organizations tend to spell check their email content carefully – meaning it’s not very common to find grammar and/or spelling errors throughout emails from your bank, government entities and other legitimate sources. Pay close attention to the grammar and/or spelling in the email.

A Sense of Urgency
If something is urgent, a legitimate source will typically call you or send you a piece of direct mail.

Cybercriminals tend to create a sense of urgency, such as “if you don’t respond, your account will be canceled” or “if you don’t pay the attached invoice, you
will be charged interest and it will go to collections.”

An Unsolicited Attachment
As a general rule, if the email contains an unsolicited attachment from an unknown sender or an unsolicited attachment that seems out of place from a sender you do know, don’t open it.

Typically, legitimate sources don’t randomly send emails with attachments. Instead, they will direct you to download something directly from their website.

Suspicious Links
Before you click on a link, hover over it to see where the link is actually going to take you. Often, cybercriminals will make it appear as though the link is going to a legitimate place, but once you’ve hovered over it, you’ll find that it’s taking you to somewhere else entirely. Always hover over any links before clicking them.

Working From Home? Probably The “New Normal”

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

I hope that you and your family (and pets) are safe and sound and doing as well as can be expected. This is an extraordinary time for all of us, and the very embodiment of the ancient Chinese aphorism “may you live in interesting times.” We surely do.

Our team is mixed between working in the office and working from home, and everyone is doing a great job. We initially saw a huge increase in our ticket volume as our client’s teams prepared to work from home but that’s tapered off in the last week to a pretty normal level of activity.

If you had to wait for help, please accept my personal apology for the inconvenience – while we have plans to handle client disasters, I never anticipated something as far-reaching as the current pandemic.

The “new normal”

If the politicians and experts are to be believed, many of the changes we’ve had to make to slow the spread of this virus are going to be around for quite a while, at least until we have an effective vaccine for COVID-19. From an IT perspective, that means more of your team will probably be working remotely. And that presents a new kind and new level of security exposure for your company. [Read more…] about Working From Home? Probably The “New Normal”