Malwarebytes 4 is smarter, faster, and lighter than ever before. Our new Malwarebytes Katana detection engine finds more threats, in...

The FBI said it's working with smart device makers to address the issue.

Six books, all written before the coronavirus pandemic, explore how different aspects of technology may shape our lives in 2021 and beyond.

As readers of my blog know, I’m pretty good about getting a blog a week out on Tuesday mornings. But I’m taking 2 weeks off of blog writing this year and instead we’ll do a top 10 of sorts here. We’ve all been part of a very strange year, one that will spill over into 2021. But we also have hope of returning to normal in 2021, something that I’m sure we are all looking forward to. Have a great end of year and l’ll be back on January 5th, like normal.

1. Introducing Sangoma Meet
Unified Communications systems, as I’ve blogged about numerous times already, with their ability to offer softphones with your business number, conferencing, collaboration, presence, and mobile phones that also utilize your business phone number, are at the forefront for enabling this new work remote / work from home environment we’re all experiencing right now. Read More

2. Sangoma Welcomes .e4 to the Team
Sangoma today announced we have signed definitive agreements to purchase .e4, based in Traverse City, Michigan. .e4 is Sangoma’s leading valued added distributor focused on open source offerings and a vital part of both the FreePBX and Asterisk ecosytems. The completion of this deal is expected to occur within our quarter. Read More

3. Working from Home Now and Its Impact on the Future of Work
it’s almost mandatory to have a UC system to effectively work from home. That’s because you can have the same work phone number, you can access the same applications, you can be part of collaboration teams, your colleagues can dial you on a 3 or 4 digit extension, you can have instant messaging, etc. You’re basically at your desk at work, except the desk is now in your home. Read More

4. Support for Kari’s Law / Ray Baum’s Act
On Feb 16, 2020, the federal version of Kari’s law goes into effect. It’s a complex but important topic, and justifies a comprehensive treatment in this update, something Sangoma is uniquely qualified to offer. But it is indeed complicated, so after reading this, if you have any questions whatsoever, please do not hesitate to contact us! Read More

5. Why are there 5G Routers and Gateways?
First of all, the question is really why would anyone need a cellular router? They could be useful as a backup mechanism in case your landline internet goes down.

That’s why I first thought of this blog. Everyone on the street was WFH, kids were “going to school” on the internet, and, poof, the internet goes down. Sheer panic, right? What does everyone do? Read More

6. Wi-Fi 6 and Why It’s Important
There’s a lot going on now, and for this week at least, I didn’t want to write another remote work or WFH type of blog. So I figured I’d take a look at some new technology that we’d all be using someday soon in your house or your enterprise. So I zeroed in on Wi-Fi 6 as a good thing to write about. Read More

7. Working from Home, the Future of Work, and How UC Fits In
Many people today are thinking more about working from home, especially in the coming months. We’ll see how it all plays out, but it certainly is possible to work from home quite easily. Read More

8. Communications Trends for 2020
People ask sometimes what’s going to happen in our industry in 2020. And I typically say “I don’t know” because I really don’t know. The telecommunications industry will always surprise you. But, usually, there are hints of what’s going to happen because something is already brewing in the background, and it will just come to fore or become more of a force in the coming year. Read More

9. The Difference Between Retail and Wholesale SIP Trunking
SIP trunking is growing. According to the Eastern Management Group, the global SIP trunking market was approximately valued at $14.4 billion in 2018 and projected to grow 7.6% annually through 2020. The predominant reason for this is the growth of IP phone systems, which need to be connected to SIP Trunks.

But if you are a business, what types of SIP trunks should you buy – retail or wholesale? Read More

10. A Modern Approach to Wholesale SIP Trunking
SIP Trunking is important for any enterprise these days – this is the connection into your building that carries phone calls to an on-premise UC platform, or is the underpinning of any cloud communications service. It must be robust, be resilient, be able to offer a wide array of DIDs, and comply with local telephony laws such as location service. Read More

The post The Best of the Machi Minute: 2020 Edition appeared first on Sangoma.

Garmin's newest smart scale provides more than simply weight tracking capability. The color display on the scale can also show your BMI, body fat percentage bone mass, weather and more. It's a rather expensive WiFi scale, but it seamlessly connects with the Garmin ecosystem.

The three VPN services provided safe haven for cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks, web skimming operations, spearphishing, and account takeovers.

As security researchers dig through forensic evidence in the aftermath of the SolarWinds supply chain attack, victim names are slowly starting to surface.

Add a touch of the holiday season to your virtual social gatherings.

Some SolarWinds systems were found compromised with malware named Supernova and CosmicGale, unrelated to the recent supply chain attack.

While the Pixel 4a 5G is an affordable phone, it is still worth protecting from accidental drops. Incipio has its Grip case available in two colors for this black Pixel phone.

ZTE is known for innovation in the smartphone market with first dual rear cameras, first foldable phone, and one of the first to 5G. The front-facing camera, sensors, and handset speaker are all under the display so that users experience a front that is nearly all display.

There are Gear4 cases and InvisibleShield screen protectors available for the new Google Pixel 4a 5G smartphone. These products offer protection for one of Google's best values.

While Bose and Sony dominate the conversation for ANC cans providing outstanding music experiences, Jabra is focused on making the best headsets for business. The Evolve2 85 headset extensive Teams support, has outstanding battery life, and 10 mics for high-quality speech performance.

One of the great dangers in tech lies in believing you're a special kind of clever. A Microsoft executive's innocent comment led to some stark revelations about how some people in tech really think.

The case leaves a lot to be desired.

Let’s talk about 2019. In 2019, I worked in an office, the Huntsville office, just about every day. If I wasn’t visiting another Sangoma office to collaborate (in person?!?!) with co-workers, attending a conference, or on customer ride-alongs with sales (it’s like COPS, but fun, and not at all dangerous), I was in my office. And in my office, my trusty deskphone was always with me. From time to time, I’d visit other parts of the office. In other offices, I’d have other trusty deskphones. When walking from one wing of the building to another, I could stop along the way and use a public deskphone that we have strategically placed throughout the building. Communication was always in-reach.

All of that was about 9 cat-lives, and now, in the great calendar year of 2020, I spend a lot more time at home, where the work still happens. My home’s probably a lot like yours. There are kids with activities and school assignments filled with math word problems I’ve not attempted in a quarter-century. There are chores – my dishwasher and the clothes washing machine guffaw every time I empty them because it’s always followed by a refilling activity. And there are pets, which come with pet incidents and accidents. No conference call is safe, no one-on-one meeting is immune. I’ve discovered multitasking muscles that I never knew I had.

Here, at home, I’m extremely grateful for two things that are both, blessedly, products offered by Sangoma; and without which, my kids, pets, and significant other would have incomplete homework, carpet stains, and heartburn. What helps us retain sanity through the workweek are Sangoma’s wireless DECT devices.

First, I make extensive use of my Sangoma H20 wireless DECT headset. I use it to connect to my Macbook for my PC-calling and collaboration needs using the Switchvox Desktop Softphone, Zulu Desktop, and Sangoma Meet. I also connect it to a Sangoma Deskphone – yes, I still have a deskphone, too, even though I’m at home; there’s no substitute for a good, dedicated device with excellent speakerphone qualities. The H20 allows me to use both of my hands as I type, tutor, and perform laundering activities. Because it uses DECT, it’s got range throughout my home, my WiFi devices don’t interfere with it, and the battery goes all day.

Second, I also use Sangoma’s DC201 DECT base station and wireless handset combo. I have my calling rules on our UC system set to ring both devices. I don’t always want to wear a headset, and I can put the handset in my pocket. If I need to make a call, I’ve got access to a keypad, my corporate contacts, and I can turn on the loudspeaker mode and set it down while I practice amateur home repair.

Together, these wonderful applications of simple technology have a significant impact on my ability to remain productive throughout the new working day. If you’re not using solutions like these to help you work better from home, maybe you should. Unless, perhaps, you embrace the chaos?

The post The Abundant Usefulness of Wireless DECT Devices in a Work-from-home Reality appeared first on Sangoma.

Extensions could redirect users to ads, phishing sites, collect user data, or download malware on infected systems.

The new M1 Macs are a future-proof investment and deserve serious consideration by early adopters and Apple shops looking to modernize their computing.

When Fitbit launched the Sense health watch earlier this year it also offered the 1-on-1 Health Coaching service as an add-on to Fitbit Premium. I've been working with a coach for a few months and wanted to share my experiences.

Unified Communication was driven by many things – technological advances in networks for example that made this possible. But even beyond that, it was driven by people wanting to communicate in different ways – ways that were easier and more efficient for them. And it was also driven by companies wanting to reduce costs, because if customer communication could become more structured towards self-help and less towards people and real time communications, costs would be reduced and customer satisfaction could also potentially go up.

Because UC has taken center stage during WFH, business owners have started to understand that having a basic contact center would enable so much better customer service and are demanding basic multimodal contact center features in the UC system. Why have another specific expensive contact center unit (either on-prem or another monthly cloud expense) if the UC system can handle the basic contact center features that would help a small business? Because why not – the UC system already includes multimodal communication potential.

This trend of adding more and more contact center features start to become part of the UC phone system will continue because it saves customers money.

One of the benefits of remote working is that your “office comes with you” – you can access all your applications, including communications, remotely, and people won’t really even know that you’re not in the office. However, there is one big difference, even if it may not be noticeable to you. When you are in the office, you are behind any security protections your company has set up. When you access the internet for example, you are behind security protections. But when you work remotely, these are not necessarily in place. Yes, you may VPN in, which gives some protection, but your house Wi-Fi may still be at risk.

So what does this mean? If remote work is here to stay, then there will be some changes on the security front for sure.

For one thing, it means the employee is taking on more of a role on security whether they like it or not. One idea that will likely gain more traction in a company to make sure you are the person accessing the network is adding biometrics to the access points. Right now, you likely have a password and it is likely a strong password. In the future, we are also likely to see additional security such as voice recognition or fingerprint reading as examples.

Second, more remote working means more cloud-based services. And these cloud-based services are not behind any corporate protection. As such, the cloud providers need to ensure their systems are secure. It likely will involved added security on end devices so there is an end to end secure transmission between your end device and the cloud environment.

IoT will also bring added security risk. The more devices connected to your network, the more potential access points there are. To combat this, we will likely see AI enter the security realm as well. AI can look at trends and see any access anomalies and act on them.

Unified Communications has played a major role in the shift to remote working for knowledge workers. With remote work in some form poised to remain a part of the way most businesses work, UC will continue to be center stage. And that will mean an array of new requirements will be coming to the UC systems, which in turn will mean the UC systems will continue to innovate and evolve.

The post System Integration and Security will be Important for the Future of UC appeared first on Sangoma.