We are definitely living in interesting times. We have both a health crisis with COVID-19 and unprecedented persistent & increasingly sophisticated malicious cybercrime campaigns against our businesses. This ever-growing threat from cybercrime attacks is very real and is only becoming more intense and widespread. You need to take action now to prevent your company (or your family) from becoming the next victim.

On June 24^th, VOX ISM & Microsoft are hosting a 45-minute webinar to train one of your staff on cyber-security best practices (in a 10-minute online training session) to help prevent security breaches, reduce phishing attempts and improve general awareness of what’s out there and how to avoid it. We will provide them with the teaching materials they will need so that they can train the rest of your staff. Human error accounts for 95% of cyber breaches so your first best defence is to train your staff. The webinar will also include additional security steps that your company should implement such as end-point protection, Cloud-based security, etc.

I urge you to have someone from your staff register for the webinar below:

You should know that the most common type of cyber-crime that businesses experience is Ransomware attacks. Ransomware involves malware (malicious code) that encrypts files on a device or network and results in the system becoming inoperable. The most common way for ransomware to get into your system is for one of your staff to click a link or respond to an email designed to infiltrate their PC.  Criminals behind these types of cyberattacks typically demand a ransom in exchange for the release of data (hence “ransomware”).

This is so prevalent that there are actually organizations that are designed to act as “negotiators” for ransomware attacks. We at Vox ISM have had to assist an unfortunate number of our customers try to recover from ransomware attacks – it is a very real and increasing threat. So much so that President Biden is addressing this daily as the next big threat in the US after COVID.

3 practices that VOX ISM has implemented to improve cybersecurity:

1. Created an Enhanced Corporate Security Policy which outlines and enforces security measures that our staff must follow, focusing on the current cybersecurity trends (internal security training, multi-factor authentication, forced password changes, information-sharing rules, end-point protection, Cloud-based security and backups, etc.) and a Disaster Prevention and Recovery Plan” (a document that outlines what systems we have, where they are, how they are connected, who to contact if there are issues and what to do in the event of a breach).
2. Encouraging our customers to upgrade to Secure Cloud services, implement and enforce multi-factor authentication and train their staff.
3. Improve the security of the software sold to our customers and enhancing it with additional Cloud-based security and end-point protection software

We look forward to seeing you online on June 24^th – it is worth the 45 minutes!

Small and Medium Businesses now face new challenges that come with trying to accommodate recent workforce trends – the rise of mobile workforces and dynamic team structures. Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) cloud apps empower you to work from anywhere on any device, with a comprehensive solution including email, calendars, file storage, a hub for teamwork, and the familiar productivity apps companies use every day. This blog helps you learn the benefits of Microsoft cloud apps to address your changing collaboration, mobility, and productivity needs.

Simplify file storage and sharing capabilities 

It’s challenging to stay productive if you don’t have access to the information you need to carry out your work. With Microsoft 365 Cloud Apps, you can: 

• Access and share information from anywhere with Microsoft Teams. 
• Connect and work together with your team across multiple projects and get essential notifications in real-time.
• Coauthor files together with your team with popular productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Work anywhere on any device.

With COVID-19 restrictions, almost all the businesses have switched to a remote working model, making collaboration and communication challenging. With Microsoft 365 Cloud Apps, you can: 

• Open and manage business projects on any mobile device and rest assured that business data stays protected with built-in mobile device management.
• Stay connected to your colleagues regardless of location with an integrated view of email, shared calendars, and contacts synced across devices in real-time.
• Communicate better with remote team members thanks to group chats that enable you to send quick questions, share documents, and assign action items.

Enable real-time collaboration with your team members

Many businesses struggle with maintaining a dynamic team structure without the right collaboration tools. With Microsoft 365 Cloud Apps, you can:

• Work from anywhere by holding online meetings with anyone inside or outside the organization. 
• Make work easy using the meeting scheduling assistant, sharing screens, and collaborative note-taking as part of online meetings.
• Collaborate in real-time with 1:1 or group chats focused on different workstreams.

Learn more about Microsoft 365 cloud apps!

Join us for our exclusive online event on January 12. Registrations are open now! 

Recent Russian attacks in the U.S. have brought into clear light the necessity to implement Multi-factor Authentication (or “2fa”) and End-point Protection for Cloud-based systems. While these are currently security options, it is becoming increasingly apparent that they should be “must-haves” in this new age of heightened security. Given the continually escalating “hacking” attempts, we expect that Microsoft will soon make this option the default for all Office 365 users to secure your Office 365 systems.

While it is already mandatory for Microsoft Partners to implement, we would not be surprised if the option to disable it were removed entirely as a means of enforcing this necessary security step across the user base. With that in mind, it is best to implement it now while you have some control over it.

Turning on Multi-factor Authentication:

Multi-factor Authentication is already available in Office 365 as an option that can be turned on or off on a per-user basis. You must log in to Office 365 as an Admin and go to the “Users” section… then click on “Multi-factor authentication”…

… Select the user(s) and choose “Enable” to turn on Multi-factor authentication:

At this point, Mfa\2fa is enabled for that user and when they next try to logon to O365 they will be prompted with a wizard that steps them through the process of configuring their Mfa\2fa settings.

To proceed, they will require their phone as well as access to a browser. The process involves scanning a QR code with their phone and essentially “links” the Mfa\2fa to that phone – using either the Microsoft Authenticator App (which they must download) or via a Text message. Their settings for Mfa\2fa can be found at the “Additional Security Verification” link, from which they can specify alternate phone numbers to connect Mfa\2fa and\or add\remove devices to connect to the Microsoft Authenticator App: https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/Proofup.aspx

Once Mfa\2fa has been “enabled” for a user, you will see a new option in the Multi-factor Authentication screen for that user, which is to “enforce” it:

“Enforcing” Mfa\2fa is slightly different than “Enabling” it in that once Mfa\2fa “enforced” for that user, they will need to create an “app password” to use in Non-browser programs (e.g. on-premise programs that connect to your Office 365 system) such as Outlook.  App Passwords can be added\deleted from this link:  https://account.activedirectory.windowsazure.com/AppPasswords.aspx

Note that there are also third-party Multi-factor Authentication apps (such as “Duo” or “GoogleAuthenticator”) which you can use with your On-premise products if you do not wish to use the built-in Office 365 Mfa\2fa.

If you have challenges with enabling Multi-factor Authentication on your Office 365 systems, please reach out to us at treid@voxism.com and we can assist you with getting this setup.

About End-Point Protection

“End-point protection” refers to software security tools that will help protect your PC\laptops\devices from phishing and hacking attempts. BitDefender is one of the leading software packages for end-point protection.

End-point protection is important to implement as most breaches (especially ransomware attacks) occur because a user clicks on a link from their PC\laptop and that loads viruses\keystroke recorders or other related phishing code. End-point protection tools help to prevent these “codes” from running.

There are a wide variety of End-Point protection software packages available but the “top 5” recommended are:

• Bitdefender Gravityzone advanced business security
• Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus
• ESET Endpoint Protection Advanced Cloud
• Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services Advanced
• Panda Security Adaptive Defense 360

Secure your Office 365 systems with VOX ISM

VOX ISM provides an Office 365 “Enhanced Security and End-point Protection” package which includes BitDefender as part of its solution as well as including an intuitive interface for managing settings and configurations for On-line systems along with pre-configured “template” profile settings that allow for prevention and early warning of possible insecure settings within On-line systems

We also offer a “Secure Backup Protection” package with provides you with fully configurable Off-site backups of your on-premise (local) files as well as Office 365 mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint files. ().

Why would you need Off-site backup protection if your Dynamics 365 Business Central and Customer Engagement\CRM databases are already automatically backed up by Microsoft? … well, those backups do NOT include Office 365 email, SharePoint sites or OneDrive files. They only include the actual BC\CRM Databases.

Some key points about the “Vox Secure Backup Protection”:

• 35% of on-premise backups fail (you cannot restore from them). Either due to old media being used, or a bad sector on a drive or simply not maintained\tested.

• Ransom-ware attacks files through the network so, local backups often run the risk of being affected by ransomware as well … putting your data at great risk.

• The Secure Backup protection offers secure Off-site backups to ensure the safety of backups and recoverability.

• Applies to Databases and key files\folders for On-premise systems and backups of Office 365 Email, Sharepoint and OneDrive files for Online systems.

• Flexible pricing based on usage is available (based on 50GB\mnth packets)

Whether you go through VOX ISM or any other vendor, please ensure that you implement Multi-factor Authentication and End-point protection soon to secure your Office 365 systems. You should also ensure you have adequate redundant backup strategies and a Disaster Recovery Plan.

Please feel free to reach out to your VOX ISM associate if you want further information or assistance.

Blog post by Trevor Reid, Senior Technology Consultant, VOX ISM
Email: treid@voxism.com Phone: 416-571-1263

Blog post by Mike Fontaine – Microsoft Solutions Expert.

Pre-Covid my average week looked something like below:

Post-Covid, we stopped all travel to customers and focused more on working remotely, collaborating and sharing screens using Microsoft Teams.

As you can see in the above picture, my meetings went from 5 to 50, and the downtime in the car converted into value-added time, allowing me to do more within the week.

Yes, there still is a need to see people in person but remote support via Microsoft Teams facilitates:

• Better customer service (you are always available to pick up the phone)
• Converting Travel time to value add (selling, supporting, billing, etc.)
• More frequent collaboration/Staff meetings

At VOX ISM we did quarterly staff meetings.  Since March, we moved to weekly staff meetings which have improved our operations, communication and strategic direction.

So if you haven’t seen Microsoft Teams or know how to use it, please come and check out our free training on November 3.

VOX ISM uses Microsoft Teams every day as a collaboration tool. Every Friday, we have a virtual staff meeting with 25 team members to coordinate next week’s schedule and projects.

Teams is Microsoft’s fastest-growing business app ever. As of April 29, Teams had 75 million daily active users. That month, Microsoft saw more than 200 million meeting participants in a single day, generating more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes.

New 3×3 Teams Meeting Format

Above, you can see the nine staff that are talking on the Microsoft Teams Meeting, and in the bottom left, you can see the text of what they are saying being displayed as they talk, real-time. Microsoft Teams is the hottest technology in the time of COVID-19 and is very cool.

Until earlier this month, Microsoft Teams only allowed viewing up to 4 members that were the last active in a meeting session. After the latest update (May 18, 2020), we can now see up to 9 participants in a 3×3 format when conducting a video conference.

Since Teams meetings support up to 250 participants, the rest of the members will be shown as icons at the bottom of the screen.

“I really do think it’s an inflection point. We’re going to look back and realize this is where it all changed. We’re never going to go back to working the way that we did.”

– Microsoft 365 chief Jared Spataro

Teams Template

Microsoft will soon release Templates in Teams, which will allow users to pick from various customizable templates while creating a new team.
Teams Templates will roll out in the coming months. Templates will allow creating custom templates to suit team structures common to different industries, such as manufacturing, healthcare, banking or event management.

Learn more about Microsoft Teams at our exclusive webinar on June 3.

In February, Vox moved from an On-Premise Exchange-based email system to using Outlook 365 (part of the Online Office 365 suite of products), and we learned a few things during the process which might help others doing the same.

Decide whether you are “Migrating” or “Switching” to Outlook 365

When moving to Outlook 365 from an On-premise Exchange-based system, you can either migrate all your existing Exchange mailboxes to O365 Exchange Online OR you can simply “switch” to using O365 right away, essentially starting from scratch.

While migrating your mailboxes can be more thorough, it will also bring along possible older, unwanted information which you may not want to do (“garbage in\garbage out”). Vox chose to “start clean” on O365.

If you decide to “switch” or “start clean” on O365 you still have options for saving your “old email history” …

Accessing “old Exchange emails\mailbox” when starting on a clean O365 system

You can still use your on-premise Outlook program (i.e. part of the Office on-premise suite you were likely using before the move) and connect it to your O365 email to gain access to both your new O365 email and your old Exchange emails.

Mailboxes can be exported from your old On-premise Exchange Server to pst files (by your IT group), and those can then imported to your Outlook On-premise program:

Once the “old” pst file is attached to your Outlook program, you can see both your new O365 mailbox and your “old Exchange” mailbox items. If you then reply to an email from the “old Exchange Outlook Data file” it will still send the email under the new O365 account:

Synchronizing Outlook on-premise program with your O365 mail

Using the on-premise Outlook program along with your O365 account has some benefits as you can still access your cached emails and queue emails to be sent even when you are not “online”.

Outlook on-premise will create “cached” folders of you O365 mailbox so you can access it while off-line. However, the initial synchronization may take time at first, depending on how much is in your O365 mailbox:

Folders you create within your Outlook on-premise program will show when you access your O365 mailbox from a browser and vice-versa

Assuming you have your Outlook on-premise program configured to link to your O365 account, you can synchronize folders between Outlook and your O365 mailbox.  This means you can see the same folder structure whether you are in Outlook or logged onto O365 from a browser.  There can be a slight delay in the synchronization, however, if you log out of them and go back in you should see that the folders are synchronized:

You can drag-and-drop Emails from your “old Outlook Data” into O365 via Outlook on-premise

Assuming you have imported your old Exchange mailbox pst file into your Outlook on-premise program, you can then see emails from your “old” and “new” systems and you can drag-and-drop emails from the old to the new.

Why would you want to do this? Well, there may be times when you are accessing  your O365 from a browser or via your Phone and you want to look as some email or sent item from your “old” mailbox (from before the move).  You would not be able to see these if you did not copy emails from the old pst file into the new O365 – you would only be able to see them from your on-premise Outlook program.

These were just a few of the things we discovered during our switch to an O365 on-line email system.