Technology Advisor Blog

Over the past several weeks, Ekaru has helped many businesses in the greater Boston area set up remote offices.  As businesses scrambled to set up a remote workforce, the initial focus was on business continuity - trying to continue operations after leaving the physical office.  Now as employees have settled in, security needs attention.  Major events like the Coronavirus pandemic create new opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit, but smart defense doesn't let them.  These tips can help keep systems and data safer in uncertain times.

Over the past two weeks, Ekaru engineers have closed over 1,000 tickets as we helped local businesses transition to work from home and remain as productive as possible. 

Information Technology is classified as an "essential service" and Ekaru remains fully available to support our community, while following social distancing protocols.  Please refer to the list of Covid 19 Essential Services that are exempted from the Massachusetts emergency order. 

Ekaru is fully configured to work through situations like this.  We have previously established a disaster recovery plan and leveraged technology to maintain full functionality to work remotely.  We are also fully committed to mitigating the risk of exposure to and transmission of the virus.  

Please call for urgent support issues, and email for non-urgent issues.  Most support calls that we would have gone on site for will now be handled remotely, and for urgent issues that require an onsite visit, we'll follow protocols from the CDC.

Here are some of the things our engineers have been working on:

• Helping our clients with transitioning to work at home, including access via LogMeIn, VPN, or access to VoIP phone systems, as well as online tools such as remote meeting / conferencing tools.
• Helping advise our clients on ways to reduce the risk of accessing corporate information from likely very insecure home systems not protected by approved security antivirus, without up to date security patches for operating systems, and possibly infected with malware.
• Educating our clients on, and protecting them from, the new Corona virus scams, fake websites, and phishing emails by malware creators to take advantage of the current situation. So, in addition to human virus issues, there are cyber-virus infections related the COVID-19.  One staffer opening a map of Coronavirus cases from a phishing email or a healthcare worker’s cracked password could give cybercriminals the ability to deploy ransomware to shut down critical systems right when we need them the most.  
• We are also mostly all working at home ourselves and trying to do as much as possible remotely to avoid having to do onsite visits, but still keeping systems up and running.

We're here to help.  If you have any questions, please let us know.   Every situation is unique and we're here to support you. 

Here are some links to additional resources:

Videos:

3/27/2020 - Video - How to Spot a Phishing eMail

3/27/2020 - Video - How to Launch a Video Call

Blogs:

4/3/2020:  VoIP Telephony - e911 and Staying Connected During the COVID-19 Crisis

4/3/2020:  How to Get the IT Management Services You Need During the COVID Outbreak 

4/2/2020:  Three Tips to for Working Remotely to Help Your Team Stay Productive

3/27/2020:  COVID-19 Remote Work Tips

Together we can all work through this crisis.  

VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony ensures effective communication and business continuity in times of crisis, as many of our clients have seen over the past few weeks.  Unlike traditional phone systems that are tied to an office location, VoIP phones can be used anywhere. 

With the large majority of still-open businesses now working remotely, you may be experiencing a sudden need for IT support that you no longer have easy access to. Getting the IT management services and support you need when working in an office is one thing, but getting it when your entire team is spread across any number of locations is a far more complicated matter.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way companies operate. And as a result, your workforce may have become a remote workforce almost overnight. While this is a necessary change to keep employees safe, if your team isn’t used to remote work, they’re likely to encounter some challenges as they adapt to this new way of doing things.

Companies across industries are experiencing unprecedented stress and pressure right now on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Offices are shutting down, employees are working remotely, and the sense of structure your team was accustomed to may be starting to feel like a distant memory. 

As everyone works together to "flatten the curve" via social distancing, many workers are scrambling to work from home on short notice.  We've been fielding a lot of questions and put together some of the answers here in one post.

Working remotely has become a necessity for many with the Coronavirus outbreak. The technology that enables many to work remotely is a great benefit to keeping many businesses operational, but it also poses many new risks for the security of your organization’s data. For example, if an employee-owned device (laptop, PC, etc.) is connected to the company’s network and contains a virus or malware, they could be spread to your company’s network. Additionally, it becomes more of a challenge to verify the legitimacy of emails (for example, you’re no longer right down the hall from your CEO who requested an unusual wire transfer), you may be unfamiliar with policies and procedures as they pertain to a work from home environment, and the list goes on.

Many people have been asking us about remote access options to work from home with the evolving coronavirus headlines in the news.