Technology Advisor Blog



Work From Home - Stay Safe On-line with Strong and Unique Passwords

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/24/20 4:59 PM

Cybercrime instances appear to have jumped sharply since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the FBI. The bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported last week that it’s now receiving between 3,000 and 4,000 cybersecurity complaints each day, up from the average 1,000 complaints per day the center saw before the pandemic. 

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Tags: cybersecurity, remote work, work from home





Is Work From Home Causing You Back Pain?

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/22/20 10:13 AM

With the current pandemic, so many workplaces have been disrupted.  For those of us fortunate enough to have jobs that we can work from home, the hasty move to a home office has typically resulted in a less than ideal work environment.  For a week or two, we can all manage with working from the kitchen counter, but with longer shutdowns, it's time to pay more attention to a proper work set up.   

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Tags: small business technology, remote work, work from home





10 Tips to Keep Cybercriminals Out While Corononavirus Keeps You In

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/13/20 4:02 PM

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.

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Tags: small business, small business technology, cybersecurity, remote work





Videoconferencing from Home - What you need to know

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/8/20 10:58 AM

Many workers are taking business meetings from their living rooms or kitchens these days due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Non-essential businesses were ordered to close, and encouraged to continue operations remotely when possible.  Many small businesses have gotten very creative to find new ways to operate and survive the crisis.   
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Tags: small business, Managed Services, remote work





Supporting Local Small Businesses During COVID-19

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/6/20 11:37 AM

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.  

 

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Tags: Managed Services, remote work





How to Get the IT Management Services You Need During the COVID Outbreak

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/3/20 12:18 PM

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.

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Tags: Managed Services, computer support, remote work





3 Tips for Working Remotely to Help Your Team Stay Productive

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/2/20 11:27 AM

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.

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Tags: productivity, Time Management, remote work





Keep Your Company Running Smoothly with Ekaru’s Enterprise IT Services

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 4/1/20 12:11 PM

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. 

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Tags: data backup, cloud, data security, remote work





COVID-19 - Remote Work Tips

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 3/27/20 5:03 PM

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.

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Tags: cybersecurity, remote work





Technology Tips and Advice for Remote Workers

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 3/19/20 12:16 PM

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.

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Tags: cybersecurity, remote work





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