Social Distancing is a MUST

Orange County sent this flyer out to businesses planning to reopen during COVID, and it has some excellent tips that companies here could follow.

One of the things that you need to know is that to protect yourself in your employees’ best interest is that you need to have a way to enforce social distancing and practice it at work. In recent months, many companies and factories are being charged with allegations of not providing the ability to social distance, such as a few major pork and chicken suppliers in Missouri. Therefore, it’s crucial to know how to protect your workers and protect yourself as a company if you’re planning to reopen during COVID any time soon.

Maintain or Develop Remote Possibilities

The Kentucky government sent out this flyer to businesses planning to reopen during COVID, and it actually makes some pretty good points and gives some useful tips.

Another thing to consider if you haven’t already is to use remote possibilities for specific positions at your business place. For example, if you are a printing company, you can instill methods to allow them to work from home rather than expose all of your graphic artists. This can benefit you even if they get sick, have to self-quarantine, or if you’re worried about the possibilities of COVID – you can allow your workers to work remotely and keep your business open!

Consider Your Customers

If you plan to reopen during COVID, you’ll want to make sure your customers are safe. Opening too early could cause more damage than staying closed a little longer.

One of the things to realize is that you should be fine if your business handles most remote customers. Add items in the area such as hand sanitizers, and if anyone is sick at all (even a cold), send them home for a paid workday or do the remote day, as we mentioned above. Most companies handle customers differently. If you have plenty of people walking in daily, you may want to enforce specific protocols to make sure everyone social distances properly, they don’t touch anything, and that extra cleaning and sanitation measures are in place.

What About Data?

If you’re one of the many people freaking out about 5G, I hate to break it to you, but 5G has been in modems and routers since the late 1990s.

If you’re ready to get back to work and reopen during COVID, you need to be updated on the latest technology trends. No, it doesn’t mean you need to join the ranks of the 5G conspiracy theories (contrary to popular new theorists, 5G has been existent in-network modems and routers since the year 1999). However, you need to join the ranks of using a managed service provider or a local IT service to secure your data.

In recent months, numerous cyber-attackers have been trying to get into devices to hack small businesses and large corporations. With all of the ways they can do it, one of the methods is using Microsoft Office, Office 365, and other Microsoft Windows, Mac, and even Linux exploits to perform brute force attacks. Having your data located in another secure cloud (on a local level rather than an online cloud service host like Google) can help keep your pertinent company information safe.

So, Am I Ready for Business Again?

Businesses shouldn’t rush to reopen during COVID. They need to take their time and make sure it’s safe and do everything they can to keep their customers safe.

This is a good question, and while it’s up to your organization’s discretion to reopen during COVID, one thing remains true: You are only as ready as you can be. If you feel like you’re not prepared to open your doors to the general public, then that’s perfectly fine, but to be successful and not go bankrupt, you’re going to have to make sure that you keep the income flow going. Rather than going for the PPP loans and other “financial help” methods, you can stay open, make things more comfortable for your employees and even your pocketbook. If you take care of your employees and customers, then they’ll take care of you, so never forget that!

An October COVID Update

Check out our COVID update below to see how technology can help you through the pandemic.

We’ve mentioned COVID a lot in recent months, and while it’s been said that “unemployment rates are down all over the nation,” “remote work is gaining popularity,” etc., this pandemic has proven that the virus is still here. Even our own President of the United States and government officials got it. What’s more important, though, is that it’s still taking a toll on businesses worldwide – canceling jobs, and hitting people harder than ever.

Just ask your neighborhood bar or restaurant owner how they’ve been impacted. You’ll see that they are still having a hard time getting customers to come through their doors if they are even allowed to have customers. So what can you do if you’re one of the companies with problems and losses due to COVID? The gloves are still off, so you should make sure you incorporate systems for health and technology that you need to keep your business running full-fledged.

Technology is Needed for Business Now More Than Ever

The time is now if you’re looking to boost your technology during COVID to prepare your company for the future.

In the past, technology has been a definite since the 1990s, but there are still a lot of businesses out there using old operating systems, old software, and even worse – some are still using things like manual phone lines, which can lead to all sorts of problems. Not only that, but there are large security holes when it comes to having things like landlines when it comes to making remote work available for your employees.

How to Solve It

We’ve come up with four ways that your business can solve its COVID tech problems.

There are many ways that you can solve the above problem. The first thing you can do is opt for a business VoIP system. This allows your employees to have their own extensions for your workplace, just as they normally have at their desks, but there is so much more that it brings to the table. Using VoIP phone system software, you can monitor your employees’ conversations to make sure that they’re just using their business phones for work.

You can have more flexibility in terms of security because your software solutions will protect your phone. But it would help if you didn’t stop there. You can use a lot of other things to help your business grow. Here are some other things that you can incorporate to make things better for your company:

1. Managed services can be brought into your company to provide an all-in-one technology solution over dedicated IT teams that are corporate-based. This is because they are professionals in literally everything IT. You can get a better defense infrastructure against all recent viruses and cyberattack threats by utilizing their services.
2. Update all of your companies systems. If you do this, you will make sure that your devices are all up to date with the latest antivirus security, firewalls, and more to keep yourself safer.
3. Use localized cloud services and data backup solutions rather than opting for the ones that are the more popular choice. Of course, things like Dropbox and other companies are still good, as we’ve written in the past. Still, they should not be where all of your company’s pertinent information and data records should be stored – especially because they’re more likely to get compromised with data breaches (and you wouldn’t even know it unless you received an email from the company itself).
4. Incorporate more remote work for employees. Many companies out there are promising that they offer remote work to people who are looking for jobs, but the truth is, most companies aren’t even hiring for remote work. Many internal employees get the “chance” to work remotely, and they get dibs on the remote work over the new hires. With all of the people who are jobless right now, hiring more people to work remotely for you with all of the security in place is more important, and this is how technology helps with business growth; it allows you to save more on things like payroll, benefits, and even working hours of labor – let alone utility costs.

I’ve Incorporated COVID Techniques for Businesses – Now What?

One of the biggest things you can do is be patient. Many people are still affected by this pandemic, which has brought fear into everyday citizens’ and employees’ hearts and larger offices and management. With all of the paranoia out there, the virus makes things worse, but it doesn’t have to. With the right business tech solutions in place, you can literally be on top of the world, get an edge above your competitors, and so much more. Embrace the new digital change, and you’ll be fine – ask major corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, and other tech big-wigs out there since almost all of their employees are now working remotely.

Why Have They Paused Updates?

Many people aren’t worried about the optional Windows 10 updates as much as they are the important ones. Therefore, users who have Windows 10 installed on their system won’t receive this issue. It’s also a well-known fact that optional updates are often the “root of all evil,” causing blue screens, boot failures, and forcing people to reset or refresh their PC (or, in some cases, do a system restore to fix the problem). During this time, they’ve seen a decline in sales for their customers. Gates’ team is going to continue working on bug security fixes and making Windows better. There are also rumors of a potential upgrade and overhaul to the OS altogether.

If you get the dreaded blue screen of death when performing optional Windows 10 updates, it is not the end of the world.

Will Regular Updates and Patches Still Happen, or are They Optional Windows 10 updates, too?

Microsoft has informed the public that they’re still going to be doing their regular Tuesday updates. These updates and patches help keep businesses and government computer systems up to date. These do not include any optional Windows 10 updates and are only patches. Some worry that users aren’t going to be as protected with the pause, but only time will honestly tell.

Rumors of a New Version

In recent months, there has been an idea floating around that you could have a Windows OS that is more lightweight – but they’ve done pretty well at remaining consistent with Windows 10 – and at one point have even stated that Windows 10 is the last OS they’re going to have.

However, rumors and constant hit drops have stated they’ve been working on a unified Windows operating system for a very long time. These will be more secure than Windows 10 and have updates that you won’t even notice (similar to hot patches). What’s even cooler is that the new Windows are to be “universal” – meaning you’re going to get the same version of Windows on your W-phones as you would on your PCs and tablets.

Did you know that you can pair your phone with Windows 10? No optional Windows 10 updates in sight!

Updates for Edge

Using the same Chromium engine that Google has made famous over the years, Microsoft has realized its potential. It can provide a little bit of information here and there to state that the days of Internet Explorer will be gone. There are still companies and even websites that rely on IE for their usage and security features. The lack of security – Internet Explorer is still one of the only browsers that allow ActiveX controls that will enable website users to open a program just by clicking a link.

Microsoft Credge looks super slick, and it is simple to download and install.

Don’t believe me? Open up Internet Explorer and click here to find out how you can open up a program (we promise, there are no virus threats – it’s against our policies, and we value your protection) by simply clicking a website’s button – keep in mind it won’t work on any other browser. These security risks are about to become obsolete, according to Microsoft. If Microsoft pulls this off, it would be a massive win for PC users worldwide!

Our Take on All of This

Today, there are numerous bug reports that people are continuing to have problems with in terms of the newest version release of Windows, so you may want to install 1909 and keep it there. If you are deadset on installing any of the optional Windows 10 updates, you can do so but at your own risk. We suggest you play it safe and keep what’s working until something proven arrives. Because sometimes being first isn’t best.

If you ever have any problems with your operating system updates, you can send your managed service team of IT professionals a message, and they’ll fix them for you.

So how do you know if you’re safe from these? Well, education is the first step – and that’s what we’re going to do. Some cyber-attacks are pretty common and rampant right now (even more so during the pandemic).

Hitting the Health Officials

China, the country that the entire pandemic seemingly started in, is tackling its problem with cyber attackers. Numerous hackers from Vietnam and other countries have been attacking health officials with phishing emails with a tracking link. It let the hackers know that someone opened the vicious link and can deliberately open up back doors, viruses, and other malware so that attackers could steal information – from everyone in the Ministry of Emergency Management, the government officials themselves, and even more so – numerous people that the government has information on.

 Phishing Attacks Are Spreading

Since the early days of the pandemic, numerous people are starting to act as a bank or even a member of the office to attack businesses and create a hi-jack situation. Malicious emails went through the roof after the pandemic spread worldwide.

Hackers are trying to get everyone’s data, steal pertinent information from companies, and, even more importantly – steal money from the companies. This can create a chain reaction that puts malicious cyber-attacks into even more disastrous loops. Check out this elaborate phishing scam where the hackers pretend to be from Cigna.

A group of hackers is sending phishing emails pretending to be from Cigna to steal your data using cyber-attacks.

COVID-19 Exposure Warnings

Not only by email, but also by text message – and even phone calls in some cases – people are facing more and more issues with robocalls, auto texters, and cyber attacking criminal emails that use fear tactics to the extreme; stating that someone’s got COVID-19 that they’ve been around, and alerting fear. It often tells people to click a link that will also hack the user and create the above fraudulent activities and opens the hacker up to the person’s device. This has grown phenomenally out of control, and some of these people have even succeeded.

A COVID-19 phishing text has been making the rounds leaving unsuspecting victims vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Whatever you do, if you are exposed to someone with COVID-19, you’ll get a trusted phone call from whichever hospital tested you. You’ll receive accurate tracking, and you’ll never get a text message from an authorized official or medical facility with a link telling you who you were exposed to. Just don’t click it.

Landing Pages a Plenty

People have been getting government announcements related to the pandemic in their emails as well. This is one of the worst scenarios because it’s sometimes hard to know if they’re a phishing email or one that’s legit (at least to some people). When users click the link, the attackers are even creating websites that are VERY closely mimicking the different federal organizations that are extremely popular.

One thing to watch out for is the “request for information.” Unless you try to sign up for something yourself from a government website, you won’t be asked to provide ANY information like this…

Here is an example of a phishing email from the CDC that you should not click on. Hackers are now spoofing emails like these to gain access and perform cyber-attacks.

The Business Loan Phishing Scams

Businesses are mainly being targeted with these phishing scams that are closely copying the likes of the SBA – the company in charge of many business loans available due to the pandemic and the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program). Hackers watch their news, and they know what’s going on. They’re even trying to send people messages to get their bank account information by saying that users have to enter it to complete their loan applications or get their stimulus checks direct deposited into their account.

Hackers pretending to be from American Express are offering relief for some businesses. Just Kidding, they are trying to trick you with one of their cyber-attacks.

The Final Conclusion?

Hackers are everywhere! You would think that during a pandemic where it stops the world, they may stop as well? Or maybe they may even stop themselves because they could be sick? Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and cyber-attacks flooding your inbox probably won’t stop anytime soon. So, what can you do? In any disaster, you must educate yourself and be aware of as many fraudulent things as you can.

You need to look at any emails you receive and any websites you visit extra carefully. It would be best to trust in a rock-solid IT Management company to help keep you safe. Failure to do any of these things could leave you vulnerable to being breached.