Category: News and Events

Beyond Office: Maximizing and Securing your investments with Office 365

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Beyond Office: Maximizing and Securing your investments with Office 365

Are you Maximizing your Office 365 Investment? How about Securing Your Corporate Data?

So your business has invested (or is looking to invest) in Office 365, you’ve made sure that every user has a subscription and everyone is fairly happy using all the familiar office apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  This however is only scratching the surface of your investment in Office 365, there is much more to office 365 then the office suite. 

Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that provides users with access to a suite of Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as other productivity tools and services such as OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

One of the main benefits of Office 365 for businesses is that it enables remote collaboration and productivity. With the cloud-based platform, employees can work on documents simultaneously from different locations and devices, which improves productivity and teamwork. Additionally, the service allows for easy sharing of files and documents, as well as real-time editing and commenting, which can save time and reduce errors.


Another advantage of Office 365 is that it provides businesses with a flexible and scalable solution. Companies can choose the subscription plan that best fits their needs, and easily add or remove users as their workforce changes. This means that businesses can avoid investing in expensive software licenses and hardware upgrades, and can instead rely on a cost-effective, pay-as-you-go model.


Office 365 also offers enhanced security and compliance features, including data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR. This can provide peace of mind for businesses that handle sensitive data or operate in heavily-regulated industries.
Finally, Office 365 is designed to integrate with other Microsoft tools and services, such as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, which can further enhance productivity and business processes.

Learn first-hand from our experts from Microsoft on how you can maximize your investment into office 365 as we take a look at some lesser used applications from the suite.  We’ll also be briefly be discussing one of the new security aspects in Office 365, Azure Information Protection (AIP), which will help you complete your DLP requirements in this age of digital transformation.

Get in touch with us at 893-9515 to learn how you and your company can register for this upcoming workshop!

How Citrix SD-WAN helped AgriFish provide better Connectivity at Sea

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How Citrix SD-WAN helped AgriFish provide better Connectivity at Sea

The Danish AgriFish Agency, which oversees the Danish agricultural and fishing industries, is responsible for promoting the growth and responsible management of Danish natural resources. The agency works closely with farmers, fisheries, researchers, organizations and other governmental agencies to support its mandate. As part of its oversight responsibilities, the Danish AgriFish agency relies on a fleet of agency ships to inspect fishing activities in Danish territorial waters.

The problem that AgriFish encountered was the weak mobile coverage at sea, which the crew needed to access applications such as Microsoft Office as to communicate with those on land.  This forced them to have to go closer to shore to get enough reception, which was counter productive as they left the area of inspection most of the time.  This does not event factor in them manually managing their mobile connections as they had no visibility on what connections were functioning properly.

So how did they solve these issues?

They were soon introduced to Citrix NetScaler SD-WAN.  This solution helped them aggregate all their links so that instead of manually checking each link for the best connection, it would check each link and see which connection was best to use at the time, making sure each links were active rather than passive.  Combined with another Citrix solution, XenDesktop and XenApp, end users were able to remotely access their applications without and noticeable performance problems.

“Only one month after we went into production, the benefits were very obvious,” says Bjarne Lund, team manager for infrastructure development at AgriFish. “NetScaler SD-WAN consolidates multiple connections, so now the control vessel can make use of 3G/4G/LTE from all four cellular suppliers and satellite at the same time. The mobile coverage is increased dramatically.”

To learn more on how we can help you provide better connectivity to your remote sites or read more on SD-WAN Technology, you may contact us at 893-9515 and we would be happy to answer your inquiries!

Ransomware Hits Florida Town, Costs them $500,000 in Ransom

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Ransomware Hits Florida Town, Costs them $500,000 in Ransom

No matter how big or small your organization is, security is always something that should be considered when it comes to securing your business data.  This is especially so if you are mostly handling confidential data such as data from customers.  Unfortunately, a town in Florida learned this lesson the hard way as they were recently hit by a ransomware attack.  As their operations was put to a standstill, they had no choice but to pay the asking price of cyber criminals, 42 bitcoins (equivalent to $500,000).

This wasn’t the only attack that happened in Florida as well, another municipality ended up paying cyber criminals $600,000 when the attack severed their connection to important data.  The mayor of the town even stated that he could not believe that in such a small town they would encounter such attacks.  They aren’t alone however, during the past years many other organizations such as major hospitals were hit by ransomware and were forced to pay to gain access to business-critical data.

“Ransomware is the canary in the coal mine,” said cyber-security expert Kevin Beaumont, who argued that the spate of attacks showed organizations needed to get better at basic IT security.

What can you do to prevent this?

As stated above, one preventive measure is to make sure that your employees are briefed on basic IT security as to make sure they don’t fall to attacks such as phising to prevent criminals from getting into the network.

Another would be to have data protection measures up, you may even start with a simple back up set up.  This is to ensure that during time of attacks or system failures, you will have a starting point to recover instead of trying to get whatever you can from your infected systems.

You may also consider advanced security protection from vendors such as Trend Micro which can help detect and quarantine suspicious files and activities from the Server level or even on your multiple endpoints.

To learn more about these solutions and how we can help you, you may contact us at 893-9515 and we would be happy to find the best solution for you company!

Building an Autonomous Data Center for your Business

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Building an Autonomous Data Center for your Business

Using Artificial Intelligence to Simplify operations – Unlock your Data’s Potential

Your business can’t afford any disruptions or delays. And you want nothing more than to spend less time on infrastructure. However, the complexity inevitably leads to unexpected problems and your days, nights, and weekends consumed taking care of infrastructure.  This is where HPE InfoSight can help your business.

HPE InfoSight is an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) platform that provides businesses with predictive analytics and proactive support for their IT infrastructure. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and interpret data from different sources, such as sensors, telemetry, and event logs, to identify potential issues and provide recommendations to prevent or resolve them.

One of the main benefits of HPE InfoSight is that it helps businesses optimize their IT operations and improve their overall efficiency. By analyzing data from different systems and applications, it can identify potential bottlenecks or performance issues and provide recommendations to improve the performance of critical business processes.

Another key benefit of HPE InfoSight is that it helps businesses reduce the risk of downtime and data loss. By monitoring critical infrastructure components, such as servers, storage devices, and networks, it can detect potential failures before they occur and provide recommendations to prevent or minimize their impact.

HPE InfoSight also provides businesses with a comprehensive view of their IT infrastructure, including detailed analytics and insights into key performance metrics, such as capacity utilization, performance trends, and resource usage. This information can help businesses make more informed decisions about their IT investments and improve their overall IT strategy.

Join us for our upcoming event, Building Autonomous Data Center, this coming July 11 at Holiday Inn Glorietta where you can learn first hand from our HPE Experts on how HPE InfoSight can help optimize and automate your business infrastructure!

If you would like to join the upcoming event, contact us at 893-9515 to learn how you and your company can register for this event!

Endpoint Security Redefined: OfficeScan to Apex One

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Endpoint Security Redefined: OfficeScan to Apex One

Why Migrate to Trend Micro Apex One?

The threat landscape used to be black and white – you kept the bad stuff out and the good stuff in. Now its harder to tell the good from the bad, and traditional signature-based antivirus approaches alone are a weak defense against ransomware and unknown threats, which often slip through. Next-generation technologies help with some threats but is in no way foolproof, and adding multiple anti-malware tools on a single endpoint results in too many products that don’t work together.

Trend Micro Apex One uses a blend of advanced threat protection techniques to eliminate security gaps across any user activity and any endpoint.  It constantly learns, adapts and automatically shares threat intelligence across your environment.

We invite all our existing OfficeScan customers to join us this coming June 26, 2019 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM at Perfect Pint Greenbelt 2 to learn more about the benefits of migrating to Apex One.  To learn more on how to register for this event, you may contact your existing Account Manager or contact us directly at 893-9515!

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro is a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions designed to protect individuals and businesses against various online threats. Trend Micro Security offers advanced security features such as anti-malware, anti-phishing, and anti-ransomware to safeguard against malicious attacks. With easy-to-use interfaces and automatic updates, Trend Micro Security provides comprehensive protection against viruses and other threats while optimizing system performance. With over 30 years of experience, Trend Micro has become a trusted name in cybersecurity, serving millions of users worldwide.

 

Security Advisory: Microsoft Alerts Customers to Patch BlueKeep Vulnerability ASAP

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Security Advisory: Microsoft Alerts Customers to Patch BlueKeep Vulnerability ASAP

In case you didn’t hear, another big vulnerability was reported by Microsoft on May 14, 2019 known as “BlueKeep” which takes advantage vulnerabilities of Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Remote Code Execution (RCE), and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).  However, BlueKeep only affects older version of Windows, so users of Windows 10 and 8 can rest easy.  The severity of the vulnerability though has forced the hand of Microsoft and they have actually made and released a security patch for its unsupported versions.  They have classified this vulnerability as a critical level threat.

This is why as of June 4, 2019, Microsoft once again urged its customers to apply the patch as soon as possible as more than 1 million devices are still vulnerable to the attack.  This is to avoid another widescale malware attacks like those of the WannaCry ransomware attack back in 2017.  Many companies were affected by the attack and caused many business operations to stop, more notably hospital operations.

What can you do to avoid being affected?

Microsoft has already provided the solution to BlueKeep, make sure you download the latest security patch for your corresponding OS (you can find the patches here).  You may need to reboot your servers to ensure the patch is running properly.

For those who are Trend Micro users, specifically those who use Deep Security, if you are unable to apply the patch due to other reasons, such as being unable to reboot your servers, please make sure that you apply the correct policy for the virtual patching of Deep Security to ensure the security of your servers.  Below is the Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) rule:

  • 1009749 – Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

You can view the official Trend Micro article on it here.

For those who are looking into a longer-term solution, you can consider solutions such as Citrix Gateway and Virtual Apps to secure your remote connections to Windows servers.

To learn more about these solutions, you can contact us at 893-9515 and we will help introduce you to different options that you have to help prevent these kinds of vulnerabilities!

Cloud Backup vs. BCDR: The Difference Between the Two

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Cloud Backup vs. BCDR: The Difference Between the Two

When discussing whether business’ have a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) in place, many would say that they have some in place but really only have Cloud Backup in place.  So, what is the difference between the two?  Cloud backup, simply put, is backing up your data to a remote cloud-based server which is accessible to many different and connected resources.

While BCDR is focused more on ensuring that your business will be able to continue after a disaster, whether it be natural or due to human error.  Business continuity focuses more on the continued activity or how fast your business can go back into operation after a disaster, while disaster recovery refers to the set of policies which are put in place to protect your business’ technology infrastructure.

You can separate backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity by the time it takes to restore and/or recover your data and get back to work.  BCDR plans can help you speed up recovery time from days and weeks to simply just minutes or hours.   Below are three main reasons why businesses should have a proper BCDR plan in place:

To prevent downtime and loss of revenue

Businesses usually can’t afford downtime as it can significantly affect profits, with a BCDR plan, you can minimize the downtime and loss of revenue you would incur.

To prevent data loss

A BCDR plan in place can help you prevent the loss of data to ensure that your business can still operate, a study once found the 87% of businesses that lost access to their data for more than a week would eventually close down a year later.

To protect the business reputation

With how consumers expect most business to accommodate them 24/7, it can damage the business reputation once long periods of downtime is experienced by consumers.  With a BCDR plan in place, you can help prevent these types of reputation losses from happening.

To learn more about BCDR solutions, you can refer to our product page here, or you can contact us directly at 893-9515 and we will be happy to help you!

A Closer look at Processor Vulnerabilities

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A Closer look at Processor Vulnerabilities

The past few years has been rough on processor security, this especially for Intel as one of the biggest processor vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre was for nearly all their modern CPUs.  Although patches came out almost immediately to solve these issues, this was just the start to the security vulnerabilities as other attacks such as MDS (Microarchitectural Data Sampling) have been popping up.  So why are these vulnerabilities and security flaws only now coming to light?  These issues actually are quite complex and would need a further understanding of the advances of CPU technology such as the following below:

  • L1/L2/L3 caches
  • Speculative execution
  • Pipelines and buffers
  • Hyper-Threading

If you are unfamiliar with the above technologies, they basically function as ways to help improve the speed of the CPU.  In theory, without these components, we could have a much more secure processor at the cost of performance.  Vendors are caught in a predicament of wanting to increase performance but also have to consider the security implications of newer technology.  This shows in the patches for recent vulnerability fixes which brought performance down of the CPU by 5-30%.  The latter number can be alarming but does not usually affect home users as the 30% is more frequent for servers.

Although vendors are still working on improving their security to prevent future vulnerabilities from happening, there are still ways to make sure that your data is protected like adding an additional layer of security.  With the help of 3rd party security vendors such as Trend Micro can help with products such as Deep Security through virtual patching.

To get a more in depth understanding of the processor vulnerabilities, you can refer to this article here.  To learn more about Trend Miro Deep Security, you can visit our page here or contact us directly at 893-9515 and we will be more than happy to answer your inquiries!

Keep your Data Safe Anywhere with Microsoft Azure Information Protection

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Keep your Data Safe Anywhere with Microsoft Azure Information Protection

With the convenience of the internet and the evolving application market, company data is moving through different channels at a faster rate than possible before.  This makes it easier for businesses to better serve the clients while also improving their operations.  However, this also means that your data may be out there unprotected and used by people who should not have that data in the first place.

In 2016, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) recorded that about 1,093 US agencies and companies suffered from data breach instances, this is a 40% increase over 2015.  As information is a company’s critical asset, we should take the necessary steps in making sure that it is well protected from breaches.

With how freely we access and share data, the chances of incurring a leak of sensitive data such as intellectual property or customer data is not that farfetched.  So how do we prevent this from happening?  One way is to create a classification of protection levels that are easily identifiable through labels such as Personal, Public, General, Confidential, and Highly Confidential.

This is where Microsoft Azure Information Protection (AIP) can help you.  AIP is a cloud-based solution which provides a continuous classification and protection of your corporate data wherever it may be.  It provides this with its end-to-end protection and control for sensitive data which include data classification and labeling, data protection, data usage monitoring, and responding to malicious data usage activities.

Protect sensitive information anytime, anywhere

With AIP, you will be able to classify and label your corporate data for protection for its whole lifecycle.  Also, since it is a cloud-based solution, it provides you the flexibility to integrate and protect with your Microsoft cloud services and applications such as Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and OneDrive for Business.  Below are a few of the features that you can expect to see with AIP:

  • Simplified and intuitive controls that help you make the right decisions and stay productive. Data classification and protection controls are integrated into Microsoft Office and common applications. One-click options make it easy to classify data.
  • Persistent protection that follows sensitive data to ensure it’s always protected—regardless of where it’s stored or with whom it’s shared.
  • More visibility and control over shared data through tracking of shared data usage with powerful logging and reporting that allows you to monitor and analyze this data. Access to data can be revoked if required.
  • Safer sharing with customers and partners through definitions of who can access data and what they can do with it based on a use rights policy. For example, some users might be able to view and edit certain files but not print or forward them.
  • Deployment and management flexibility to protect data whether it’s stored in the cloud or on-premises. You can choose how encryption keys are managed, including Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) options.

To learn more, you may contact us at 893-9515 and we will be more than happy to help you with your inquiries!

Citrix Connect: A Closer look into Citrix SD-WAN for your Business Critical Application

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Citrix Connect: A Closer look into Citrix SD-WAN for your Business Critical Application

Looking to improve and secure connectivity and app performance for every location?

In today’s digital age, businesses rely heavily on network connectivity and applications to keep their operations running smoothly. A delay or a failure in network connectivity or an application can cost a business time, money, and even customers. Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to have a reliable and efficient network infrastructure in place that can handle their business-critical applications.

Citrix Connect: A Closer Look into Citrix SD-WAN for Your Business Critical Application is an article that will guide you through the benefits of Citrix SD-WAN and how it can help your business optimize its network and application performance.

What is Citrix SD-WAN?

Citrix SD-WAN is a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) solution that provides secure and reliable network connectivity. It is a virtual overlay network that sits on top of your existing WAN infrastructure, such as MPLS, broadband, or LTE. Citrix SD-WAN optimizes your network and application performance by intelligently routing traffic based on business policies and network conditions. It also provides end-to-end encryption and secure access to cloud and SaaS applications.

How Does Citrix SD-WAN Work?

Citrix SD-WAN uses a hybrid architecture that combines the best of both worlds: private MPLS and public broadband. It enables you to leverage multiple network links, such as MPLS, broadband, and LTE, to create a virtual overlay network that provides secure and reliable connectivity. Citrix SD-WAN uses a centralized management platform that provides visibility and control over your network and application performance. It also uses advanced algorithms to dynamically route traffic based on business policies and network conditions, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss.

Join us in our upcoming event, Citrix Connect, as we learn first hand from our Citrix experts from Singapore on how you can improve your app performance while bringing down your overall expenses! 

The event will be on May 22, 2019 from 10AM to 2PM at the Discovery Primea Makati, Shakespeare function room.

Get a chance as well to win raffle prizes at the event! 

You may contact us at 893-9515 loc 102 to lean more on how you and your company can register for this workshop!