Cloud

More Warnings Over Scams Aimed at Zoom, Teams and Meet Users

Posted on by Andy Miller

Reports indicate that hackers are still using domains related to popular remote, collaborative working platforms to target users working from home with phishing scams during the lockdown.

Domains

Almost as soon as the lockdown started, there were reports at the beginning of April by Cybersecurity company ‘Check Point’  that there had been a major increase in new domains registered that included the word ‘Zoom’ and other suspicious characteristics. It was also reported at the time that the official classroom.google.com website had been impersonated by googloclassroom.com and googieclassroom.com.

Zoom, Teams, and Meet

The most recent Check Point Research shows that scammers have widened their attack strategy by registered domains not just to pose as Zoom, but also as Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet-related URLs.

Check Point Research reports that, in just the last 3 weeks, 2,449 Zoom-related domains have been registered, 32 of which are malicious and 320 categorised as “suspicious”

WHO Impersonated

Check Point Research also shows that scammers have been sending phishing emails posing as the World Health Organisation with malware attachments and asking for donations to the WHO where any payments made go into known, compromised bitcoin wallets.

The WHO now has a page warning about the risk of being targeted with fraudulent email and WhatsApp messages by scammers taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and claiming to be from the WHO. The page gives advice about how to verify authenticity before responding and how to spot and prevent phishing.  See https://www.who.int/about/communications/cyber-security

Nation-State Cyber Espionage To Steal COVID-19 Research

In a more sinister turn, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported that UK universities and scientific institutes involved in COVID-19 research are being targeted with cyber espionage by nation state-sponsored actors e.g. Russia, Iran, and China, allegedly looking for information about studies conducted by UK organisations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protection

Ways that users can protect their computers/devices, networks and businesses from these types of threats, as suggested by Check Point, include being extra cautious with emails and files from unfamiliar senders, not opening attachments or clicking on links in emails (phishing scams), and by paying close attention to the spelling of domains, email addresses and spelling errors in emails/on websites.  Check Point also suggests Googling the company you are looking for to find their official website rather than just clicking on a link in an email, which could redirect to a fake (phishing) site.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Cybercriminals are quick to capitalise on situations where people have been adversely affected by unusual events and where they know people are in unfamiliar territory.  At the moment, people are also divided geographically and are trying to cope with many situations at the same time, may be a little distracted, and may be less vigilant than normal.  As long as the pandemic continues, these types of scams also look set to continue and evolve.  It is also shocking (but perhaps not surprising) to see how nation states appear to be sponsoring attacks on each other’s research institutions to get an advantage in defeating COVID-19.

The message to businesses, however, is that extra vigilance is still needed and that all employees need to be very careful, particularly in how they deal with emails from unknown sources, or from apparently known sources offering convincing reasons and incentives to click on links or download files.

Tech Tip – Tech Tip – On-Demand OneDrive

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you use OneDrive and you’d like to access all your files without having to download them and use storage space on your Windows device, and you’d like certain files and folders to be always available locally on your device, you can set OneDrive files to ‘On-Demand’. Here’s how:

– Sign in to OneDrive on your device.

– Select the white or blue OneDrive cloud icon in the Windows taskbar notification area.

– Select More > Settings.

– Select the ‘Save space and download files as you use them’ box. Files On-Demand settings are unique to each device, so make sure they’re turned on for each device where you want to use.

To mark a file or folder for offline use or as online-only:

– Right-click a file or folder.

– Select Always keep on this device or Free up space

Google Meet ‘Free For Everyone’

Posted on by Andy Miller

Google has entered the video conferencing market fight with the likes of Zoom and Facebook Messenger as it announces that its ‘Google Meet’ premium video conferencing service will soon be free for everyone.

Google Meet

Google Meet is a video conferencing service that, until now, has only been paid for as part of G Suite, Google’s collaboration and productivity solution for businesses, organisations, and schools.

Google says that Meet will be now available free to anyone on the web at meet.google.com and via mobile apps for iOS or Android (Meet apps can be found in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store). It is also possible to join Meet for free via Google Calendar.

100 Million+ Daily Meeting Participants

Google reports that, since January, Meet’s peak daily usage has grown by 30x and, as of April, Meet has been hosting 3 billion minutes of video meetings and adding approximately 3 million new users every day. Google also says that, as of last week, Meet’s daily meeting participants surpassed 100 million. A reported 6 million companies and organisations now use G Suite.

Limit

Even though Google will soon be offering Meet for free, meetings will be limited to 60 minutes for the free product after 30 September.

What’s Free

The services that businesses and organisations can expect to get for free with Meet include free access to Meet’s advanced features (for G Suite customers) including the ability to live stream for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, free additional Meet licenses for existing G Suite customers and free G Suite Essentials for enterprise customers.

Not Immediately

Businesses and organisations may have to wait a week or two to get free access to Meet as it will be rolled out gradually from next week.

Compared To Zoom

Although using Meet may be a little more demanding than simply clicking on a link (as with Zoom), Google is keen to point out that Meet users have the benefits of advanced security.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The current global need for people to work remotely and yet collaborate effectively has led to fierce competition among tech companies looking to gain large numbers of new users e.g. Zoom, Facebook Messenger (now offering a desktop app), and Microsoft wanting to release a consumer edition of Teams.  Google is the next to throw its hat into the ring and is in a good position to do so with a free version of an already popular premium service. Tech companies realise that if they can lead the remote, collaborative working race now they can gain large numbers of new users, many of whom may become loyal and committed to their platforms and could be monetised later. For businesses and other users, there is now a great deal of choice between the options available for free remote and collaborative working platforms and services, and those which are easiest, add the most value, are most effective and secure and are most compatible with existing resources and practices are likely to be favoured going forward.

Tech Tip – Setting A Background in Microsoft Teams

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you are using Microsoft’s Teams during the lockdown and would like to set up a more professional-looking or even a fun or custom background during your video calls, here’s how:

You can choose to use one of the backgrounds that are built-in to teams or, you can set up your own custom background (putting your image in the uploads folder) in the following way:

– Open File Explorer.

– Select Click This PC >> Windows (C:).

– Open the Users folder, select your user profile and click the View tab (top of File Explorer).

– Check the Hidden items checkbox and open the AppData folder (which should have appeared when you checked the hidden items box).

– Open the Roaming folder, open the Microsoft folder, and open the Teams folder within the Microsoft folder.

– Then, open the Backgrounds folder, open the Uploads folder, and place your chosen image in the uploads folder.

– Finally, right-click on the Uploads folder and select Pin to Quick access. You can also pin the Uploads folder to Quick Access to speed things up if you want to add more images.

To set your chosen (from the built-in images) or custom image as a background:

– Within a video call, select the More actions button (the three dots).

– Select Show background effects, scroll down and select your uploaded image.

– Select Preview and then select Apply (or Apply and turn on video).

Research Indicates Zoom Is Being Targeted By Cybercriminals

Posted on by Andy Miller

With many people working from home due to coronavirus, research by Check Point indicates that cyber-criminals may be targeting the video conferencing app ‘Zoom’.

Domains

Cybersecurity company ‘Check Point’ reports witnessing a major increase in new domain registrations in the last few weeks where the domain name includes the word ‘Zoom’.  According to a recent report on Check Point’s blog, more than 1700 new domains have been registered since the beginning of the year with 25 per cent of them being registered over the past week. Check Point’s research indicates that 4 per cent of these recently registered domains have “suspicious characteristics”, such as the word ‘Zoom’.

Concern In The U.S.

The huge rise in Zoom’s user numbers, particularly in the U.S. has also led New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James, to ask Zoom whether it has reviewed its security measures recently, and to suggest to Zoom that it may have been relatively slow at addressing issues in the past.

Not Just Zoom

Check Point has warned that Zoom is not the only app that’s being targeted at the moment as new phishing websites have been launched to pass themselves off as every leading communications application.  For example, the official classroom.google.com website has been impersonated by googloclassroom.com and googieclassroom.com.

Malicious Files Too

Check Point also reports detecting malicious files with names related to the popular apps and platforms being used by remote workers during the coronavirus lockdown.  For example, malicious file names observed include zoom-us-zoom_##########.exe” and “microsoft-teams_V#mu#D_##########.exe” (# is used here to represent digits). Once these files are run, InstallCore PUA is loaded onto the victim’s computer.  InstallCore PUA is a program that can be used by cyber-criminals to install other malicious programs on a victim’s computer.

Suggestions

Some ways that users can protect their computers/devices, networks and businesses from these types of threats, as suggested by Check Point, include being extra cautious with emails and files from unfamiliar senders, not opening attachments or clicking on links in emails (phishing scams), and by paying close attention to the spelling of domains, email addresses and spelling errors in emails/on websites.  Check Point also suggests Googling the company you’re looking for to find their official website rather than just clicking on a link in an email, which could redirect to a fake (phishing) site.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This research highlights how cyber-criminals are always quick to capitalise on situations where people have been adversely affected by unusual events and where they know people are in unfamiliar territory.  In this case, people are also divided geographically and are trying to cope with many situations at the same time, may be a little distracted, and may be less vigilant than normal.

The message to businesses is that the evidence from security companies that are tracking the behaviour of cyber-criminals is that extra vigilance is now needed and that all employees need to be very careful, particularly in how they deal with emails from unknown sources, or from apparently known sources offering convincing reasons and incentives to click on links or download files.

Featured Article – Microsoft Teams User Numbers Up By 12 Million In A Week

Posted on by Andy Miller

Microsoft’s collaborative working platform ‘Teams’ is reported to have seen a massive 12 million user boost in one week as a result of remote-working through the coronavirus outbreak, and through Microsoft making the platform generally available through Office 365 from March 14.

What Is Teams?

Teams, announced in November 2016 and launched by Microsoft in 2017, is a platform designed to help collaborative working and combines features such as workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments. Described by Microsoft as a “complete chat and online meetings solution”, it normally integrates with the company’s Office 365 subscription office productivity suite. In July 2018, Microsoft introduced a free, basic features version of Teams which did not require an Office 365 account, in order to increase user numbers and tempt users away from competitor ‘Slack’.

Microsoft Teams is also the replacement for Skype for Business Online, the support for which will end on 31 July 2021, and all-new Microsoft 365 customers have been getting Microsoft Teams by default from 1 September 2019.

March 14

Microsoft Corp. announced on March 14 that Microsoft Teams would be generally available in Office 365 for business customers in 181 markets and 19 languages.

Increased To 44 Million Users

The move to make Teams generally available to businesses with Office 365, coupled with a mass move to remote working as a result of COVID-19 has resulted in 12 million new users joining the platform in a week, bringing users up from 32 million on 11 March to 44 million users a week later.  The number is likely to have increased significantly again since 18 March.

What Does Teams Offer?

Microsoft Teams offers threaded chat capabilities which Microsoft describes as “a modern conversations experience”, and built-in Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint and Power BI.  Also, Teams offers users ad-hoc (and scheduled) voice and video meetings and has security and compliance capabilities built-in as it supports global standards, including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, ISO27001 and HIPAA. Users are also able to benefit from the fact that workspaces can be customised for each team using tabs, connectors and bots from third-party partners and Microsoft tools e.g. Microsoft Planner and Visual Studio Team Services. Microsoft says that more than 150 integrations are available or coming soon to Teams.

New Features

Microsoft reports that it has added more than 100 new features to Teams since November 2019.  These include an enhanced meeting experience (with scheduling), mobile audio calling, video calling on Android (coming soon to iOS), and email integration.  Teams has also benefited from improvements to accessibility with support for screen readers, high contrast and keyboard-only navigation.

Walkie-Talkie Phone

In January, Microsoft announced that it was adding a “push-to-talk experience” to Teams that turns employee or company-owned smartphones and tablets into walkie-talkies.  The Walkie Talkie feature, which can be accessed in private preview in the first half of this year and will be available in the Teams mobile app, offers clear, instant and secure voice communication over the cloud.

Competition

There are, of course, other services in competition with Microsoft Teams. Slack, for example, is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools and services.  Slack enables users (communities, groups, or teams) to join through a URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner.  Although Slack was intended to be an organisational communication tool, it has morphed into a community platform i.e. it is a business technology that has crossed over into personal use.

That said, Slack reported in October last year that it had 12 million daily active users, which was a 2 million increase since January 2019.

Slack has stickiness and strong user engagement which help to attract businesses that want to get into using workstream collaboration software but, it faces challenges such as convincing big businesses that it is not just a chat app and that it is a worthy, paid-for alternative to its more well-known competitors like Microsoft’s Teams.

Like Teams, Slack has just introduced new features and has experienced a surge of growth in just over a month.

Another competitor to Microsoft’s Teams is Zoom, which is a platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars that is often used alongside Google’s G Suite and Slack.  It has been reported that Zoom is now top of the free downloaded apps in Apple’s app store, and Learnbonds.com reports that downloads for Zoom increased by 1,270 per cent between February 22 and March 22.

Real-Life Example – Teams

A real-life example from Microsoft of how Teams is being put to good use is by bicycle and cycling gear company Trek Bicycle.  Microsoft reports how Teams has become the project hub for the company where all staff know where to find the latest documents, notes, tasks relating to team conversations thereby making Teams a central part of the company’s “get-things-done-fast culture.”

Looking Forward

Many businesses are already using and gaining advantages from the speed and scope of communication, project context, and convenience of a cloud-based, accessible hub offered by collaborative working platforms like Teams.  The decision to make Teams generally available with Office 365 for business can only make the platform more popular and the need for companies to quickly set-up effective remote working has stimulated the market for these services and given users a crash-course in and a strong reminder of their strengths and benefits.

The hope by Microsoft and other collaborative working platform providers is that companies will go on using the platforms long after they technically need to in order to deal with COVID19 lockdown and that they will decide to use them going forward to keep improving the flexibility and productivity of their businesses, compete with other companies that are getting the best from them, and guard against excessive damage to the business from any future lockdown situations.

Facebook Video Quality Reduced To Cope With Demand

Posted on by Andy Miller

Facebook and Instagram have reduced the quality of videos shared on their platforms in Europe as demand for streaming has increased due to self-isolation.

Lower Bitrate, Looks Similar

The announcement by Facebook that a lowering of the bit-rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in Europe highlights the need to reduce network congestion, free-up more bandwidth, and make sure that users stay connected at a time where demand is reaching very high levels because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The move could have a significant positive impact when you consider that Facebook has around 300 million daily users in Europe alone, and streaming video can account for as much as 60% of traffic on fixed and mobile networks.

Although a reduction in bit-rates for videos will, technically, reduce the quality, the likelihood is that the change will be virtually imperceptible to most users.

Many Other Platforms

Facebook is certainly not the only platform taking this step as Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+ and Netflix have also made similar announcements.  For example, Netflix is reducing its back video bit rates while still claiming to allow customers to get HD and Ultra HD content (with lower image quality),  and Amazon Prime Video has started to reduce its streaming bitrates as has Apple’s streaming service.

Google’s YouTube is also switching all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default.

BT Say UK Networks Have The Capacity

BT’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, Howard Watson, has announced that the UK’s advanced digital economy means that it has overbuilt its networks to compensate for HD streaming content and that the UK’s fixed broadband network core has been built with the extra ‘headroom’ to support evening peaks of network traffic that high-bandwidth applications create. Mr Watson has also pointed out that since people started to work from home more this month, there has been a weekday daytime traffic increase of 35-60 per cent compared with similar days on the fixed network, peaking at 7.5Tb/s, which is still only half the average evening peak, and far short of the 17.5 Tb/s that the network is known to be able to handle.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Amazon, Apple TV, Netflix, Facebook and others platforms, they are clearly facing a challenge to their service delivery in Europe but have been quick to take a step that will at least mean that there’s enough bandwidth for their services to be delivered with the trade-off being a fall in the level of viewing quality for customers.  Many customers, however, are likely not to be too critical about the move, given the many other big changes that have been made to their lives as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the attempts to reduce its impact.  Netflix has even pointed out the extra benefit that its European viewers are likely to use 25 per cent less data when watching films as a result of the bit rate changes. However, with online streaming services being one of the main pleasures that many people feel they have left to enjoy safely, the change in bit rate should be OK as long as the picture quality isn’t drastically reduced to the point of annoyance and distraction.

Surge In Demand For Teleconference Apps and Platforms That Enable Home Working

Posted on by Andy Miller

The need for people to work from home during the Covid-19 outbreak is reported to have led to a huge increase in the downloads of business teleconferencing apps and in the use of popular cloud-based services like G Suite.

Surge In Downloads

Downloads of remote and collaborative working and communication apps such as Tencent Conference (https://intl.cloud.tencent.com/), WeChat Work (from China), Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack are reported to have risen by a massive fivefold since the beginning of the year, driven by the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.

For example, services such as Rumii (a VR platform, normally $14.99 per month) and Spatial, which enable users to digital meetings in virtual rooms with 3D versions of their co-workers have seen a boost in the number of users, as has video communications app zoom.

Freemium Versions

Even though many of these apps have seen a surge in user numbers which could see users continuing to use them and recommending them in future if their experiences of the apps are good, the ‘freemium’ versions (the basic program for free and advanced features must be paid for) appear to account for most downloads.

Some companies, such as Rumii, have now started to offer services for free after noticing a rise in the number of downloads as Covid-19 spread in the United States.

G Suite

Google’s cloud-based G Suite service (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Hangouts, Sheets, Slides, Keep, Forms, Sites) is reported to have gone past the two billion monthly active users mark at the end of last year. It appears to have gained many active users due to people preparing to work from home following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Google has also offered parts of its enterprise service e.g. Hangouts Meet (video conferencing) for free to help businesses during the period when many employees will need to work from home.

Microsoft

Microsoft is also reported to be offering a free six-month trial for its collaborative working platform ‘Teams’, which surpassed the 20 million active user mark back in November.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Teams suffered a reported two-hour outage across Europe on Monday, just as many employees tried to log in as part of their first experience of working at home in what some commentators are now calling the new “post-office” era.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Cloud-based, collaborative and remote working and communications platforms are now providing a vital mitigating lifeline to many businesses and workers at the start of what is likely to be a difficult, disruptive, dangerous and stressful time.  Companies that can get the best out of these cloud-based tools, especially if they can be used effectively on a smartphone, may have a better chance of helping their businesses survive a global threat. Also, the fact that many companies and employees are forced to seek out and use cloud-based apps and platforms like these could see them continuing to make good use of them when the initial crisis is over and we could be witnessing the trigger of a longer-term change in working towards a post-office era where businesses make sure they can last out the effects of future similar threats.

Featured Article – Google: What Do they Know About You?

Posted on by Andy Miller

To have access to Google’s many features and services, as with other platforms, we need to give some personal information and then sign-in, but have you ever wondered just how much information Google keeps about you and your activities?

Google

This article looks as some of the many different types of personal information that Google stores, and how you can manage the situation, and reduce any potential risks that you may perceive as coming from your personal data being stored by Google.

Your Personal Data

Many of us accept that certain personal information needs to be stored privately with Google, but you may wish to know which information Google categorises as ‘public’.  To check this, login to your Google account, go to ‘Manage Your Google Account’, click on ‘Personal Info’, scroll down to ‘Choose What Others See’ and click on ‘Go to About me’.  Here you’ll be able to see which information is ‘hidden’ e.g. with a padlock icon, or ‘visible’ with an earth icon.  From here you can also click on ‘Privacy Check-up’ link so that you can manage other aspects of what information is stored about you and your Google-based activities.

‘Data and Personalisation’ Section

When you log into your Google account, go to your account page and click on the ‘Data and Personalisation’ link.  At this point, you will be able to see if your ‘Web & App Activity’, ‘Location History’ and ‘YouTube History’ are switched on or off.  If they in the ‘On’ position on tick-box control, then you can assume that Google is tracking and storing plenty of your data relating to these factors.

Web & App Activity

As the name suggests, this relates to your activity on Google sites and apps, and this also includes your location. The stated reason for collecting this information (with your consent, via the toggle control) is to give you “personalised experiences”.  Within the ‘Activity Controls’ section here you should also be able to see tick-box controls for the tracking and storing of your Chrome history and activity from sites, apps and devices that use Google services, and for including any voice and audio recordings.

You can stop Google from tracking this further by turning off the blue toggle switch in the ‘Activity Controls’ section relating to your Web & App Activity which then gives you the option to ‘pause’ this type of tracking.

If you’d like Google to automatically delete this data either every 3 or every 18 months, you can select the gear icon and choose the ‘Automatically Delete’ option and then choose which timeframe. Once this has been done Google will immediately delete current data that’s older than the timeframe specified by you.  Also, you choose to Delete activity by either Last hour, Last day, All time or a custom range.

Location History

By allowing Google to track your location history, Google can record and display information about where you’ve been with your devices, even if you haven’t been using a specific Google service at the time.

The positive aspects of Google storing this information is that you can get personalised maps and recommendations from Google based on places that you’ve visited, and if you click on the ‘Manage Activity’ link in your location history section in Google, it can be interesting to see where you’ve been on holiday and checked in with your location.  Google lists all of what it calls the ‘confirmed’ places you’ve visited (which Google gives you the option to confirm yourself) and the so-called ‘unconfirmed’ places.

The disadvantage of Google storing (and of you reviewing) this kind of information is that if it fell into the hands of criminals or those you would specifically not want to know where you are the data could be a threat damaging e.g. showing a burglar that you’re away from your home on holiday.  You may also feel personally that the information stored about your habits is a little bit too much like ‘big brother’ or borders on an infringement of your privacy.

You can stop Google from tracking this further by turning off the blue toggle switch in the ‘Activity Controls’ section relating to your Location History which then gives you the option to ‘pause’ this type of tracking.

If you’d prefer Google to automatically delete this data either every 3 or every 18 months, you can select the gear icon and choose Automatically delete Location History, then choose which timeframe. Once this has been done Google will immediately delete current data that’s older than the timeframe specified by you. You can go back over these steps and check that the visual location timeline is empty is you really want to be sure that Google has complied with your request.

Your YouTube History

Google tracks your YouTube search and watch history i.e. what videos you’ve searched for, watched and when, and this is used by Google to show videos at the top of the page when you next visit YouTube that you may be interested in based on your History.  There could, however, be several downsides to this e.g. on a shared computer, not wanting others to see which videos you have been watching, or the suggestions may not be things you are actually interested in at that point in time.

As with the other aspects of what Google stores and tracks, it’s a case of following the arrow next to ‘YouTube History’ link in your ‘Data & personalisation’ section of Google and setting your preferences from there.

Your Purchase History

CNBC research in May 2019 highlighted how Googlemail creates a (difficult to delete) page of your purchase history which it was believed was created by tracking your purchase receipt emails, and perhaps details stored in locations other than the inbox.

Google states in its accounts help section that “Your Google Account includes purchases and reservations made using Search, Maps, and your Assistant” (note that there’s now no mention of Googlemail) and according to Google, the feature is included as a way of organising things “to help you get things done”.  Getting things done, for example, means asking your Google Assistant about the shipping status of a purchase, or asking your Google Assistant to show you your flight reservations, or using Google’s search to ask questions like, “Is my flight on time?”

Deleting From Your Purchases Page

In Google’s help section here https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7673989 and in the subsection ‘delete your purchases and reservations’, Google provides instructions on how to delete them i.e. sign in to your Google account, go to the Purchases page (for which a link is provided),  view your purchase details and select ‘Remove Purchase’, and follow the on-screen deletion instructions.

Downloading Your Data

If you’d like to download the data from the Google ‘products’ you’ve used, Google lets you do this here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en&ref_topic=7188671

Beware

Even though Google does appear to allow you to manage most aspects of what data is collected about you and your activities when signed in, there have been suggestions, reports and stories published online that may indicate that you could still be tracked by Google when signed-out.  For example, back in August 2018, An Associated Press report accused Google of recording the locations of its users via their mobile devices, even when they had requested not to be tracked by turning their “Location History” off. Also, some have suggested that cookies have been used to help track YouTube activity when you’re signed out, that Google can use information from Wi-Fi and other wireless signals near your phone to keep tracking you, and that there appear to be some contradictions between Google’s statements on certain privacy issues.

Looking Forward

For many of us, we’d like to have control of our personal data (if we had the time to check it all) and are pleased that there are now laws (e.g. GDPR) to help us to do this, but we’re also aware of the value of personal data to legitimate businesses e.g. for personalisation of services, and in marketing communications which have always been valuable in gaining, retaining, and maximising the value of customers.

Clearly, data security and privacy laws perform an important role of protection, and technology giants, as well as other companies and organisations, need to continue abiding by these laws and it is helpful to allow customers easy access to see and to personally manage what information is held about them both privately and publicly.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Remote Working For Staff

Posted on by Andy Miller

With the whole of Italy’s 60 million population in lockdown and other countries taking drastic measures to control the coronavirus outbreak, the tech-giant companies are now asking their employees to work remotely.

Google

Due to fears of COVID-19 spreading through large numbers of staff, Google had already announced last week that it was temporarily closing its office in Dublin and asking the 8,000 employees to work from home.  Google has more than 70 offices in 50 countries and back at the end of January, Google also temporarily closed its offices in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan when the outbreak was still mainly based in China.

Amazon

Amazon, which restricted all nonessential travel in the U.S for employees as of last month has, after an employee tested positive for coronavirus, asked workers from its Seattle and Bellevue, Washington, offices to work from home until the end of the month.

Facebook

In addition to cancelling its annual developer conference which was due to be held on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California (which attracted 5,000 people last year), Facebook has closed its Seattle office and asked all 5,000 of the office’s employees to work from home until the end of the month. Facebook has also closed its three London offices after an employee was diagnosed with COVID-19 and all 3,000 employees from those offices have been asked to work from home.

Slack

After an employee of Slack returned from travel and was suspected to have contracted COVID-19 (which turned out not to be the case), Slack closed its offices in San Francisco at the end of last week and a deep clean of the premises took place at the weekend.  Meanwhile, employees were encouraged to work from home.

Others

Microsoft has advised its Seattle and San Francisco employees that they can work from home until March 25th, Twitter has encouraged its employees to work from home, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has encouraged employees at several global offices to “work remotely from March 9th to 13th”.

One piece of positive news for Apple, however, is that all but four of Apple’s stores in mainland China, which is a vital market for Apple, have now reopened after being closed there during the main coronavirus outbreak.

Musk Sceptical

Some scepticism about closures and reactions to the coronavirus outbreak has been expressed by Elon Musk who tweeted that the “coronavirus panic is dumb”, a tweet that was liked by around 2 million people.

Pay

In the UK last week, prime minister Boris Johnson announced in parliament that new rules will mean that statutory sick pay (SSP) will come into force on the first day of absence in order to make those who feel they may have the virus and want to self-isolate, by staying at home rather than coming into the office and potentially infecting others.

Tech Industry, Work From Home

On the plus side, the nature of many tech industry jobs means that working from home is perhaps more possible than for many other industries, and for the UK as a whole, a 2019 CIPD Job Quality Index survey reported that 54% of the UK’s workforce works flexibly.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For those businesses that can’t easily allow employees to work home e.g. manufacturing, bricks and mortar retail, construction, events and entertainment, transport and logistics etc, the threat of a shutdown of work for what could be an unspecified period creates a real threat to the life of the business. The situation also presents a threat to many small businesses, sole traders, and self-employed people who may not have resources to last-out ‘lockdowns’, self-isolating, disruptions and complications caused by the spread of the coronavirus.

For companies that are forced to close offices, they now need to make sure that relevant staff can access company systems and intranets remotely, and that they have VPNs installed.

This situation is also a reminder of how business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans should have disease epidemic and pandemic scenarios built-in to them for the future, and this situation is likely to expose what work needs to be done by many companies in this areas of planning.