Sophos Email Encryption

Message encryption from Sophos Email provides an easy-to-use push-based email encryption service. Converting a standard email into one with encrypted attachments - sent directly to the recipient’s inbox.

Sophos Email Tour

Sophos Email is a cloud-based secure email gateway. Built to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange, Office 365 and Google Apps and more email servers and services it’s engineered to keep businesses safe from all email threats, simply stopping spam, phishing, malware and data loss and keep people communicating and productive. Learn more at www.sophos.com/email

How to configure Sophos Email for Office 365

This section describes how to set up Sophos Email for Office 365.

You need to:

1. Add your domain and verify ownership.
2. Add mailboxes to Sophos Email.
3. Bypass Exchange Online Protection in Office 365.
4. Restrict delivery to Sophos IP addresses.
5. Configure a Secure connector between Office 365 and Sophos Email.
6. Modify MX records to point to Sophos Email.
7. Test and confirm mail flow.

Click here to go to the documentation!

The Planner app in Teams will be renamed with an updated experience powered by Planner and To Do

The Planner app in Teams will become the Tasks app. Users will now be able see their individual tasks and team tasks in a single app. We’re also introducing both a list view and a new mobile tasks experience within the Teams app for mobile devices. The Planner app will be renamed after the rollout is complete, as described below.

We will begin roll-out in May or June and expect to be complete by mid-July.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 57213

[How does this affect me?]

Users will see personal tasks powered by To Do (which also powers Outlook tasks) and team tasks powered by Planner. Existing Planner tabs will behave the same as they do today but will show an additional list view. Users will be able to add new Tasks tabs to the channels in teams they belong to. Users can also access the Tasks app in the same ways they previously accessed the Planner app.

Renaming the Planner app in Teams to Tasks and enabling a mobile experience in Teams 

We’re planning to rename the Planner app to Tasks. The new Tasks experience will contain individual tasks and team and channel tasks, similar to how Files encompasses a user's personal files in their own OneDrive for Business as well as their team and channel files.  We’ll make this adjustment in two steps. 

Once we’ve made the new tasks experience broadly available to all public cloud organizations, we’ll enable the Tasks in Teams mobile experience and complete a logo update and an interim rename of the Planner app. Its interim name will be Tasks by Planner and To Do. This will help ensure the app can be found when searching for Planner while adding a tab or searching for the app in the app catalog.

A few months after the interim name change, the app name on desktop will be shortened to Tasks. 

This name change applies only to the Planner app in Teams. All other Planner clients and To Do clients will keep their existing names, and users can continue to use those clients to manage tasks just as they do today. 

The upgrade will also include task publishing functionality.

Note - Government tenants will see the name change when it rolls out but will not see the additional user experience changes until a later date. We will communicate via Message center once these are available.

[What do I need to do to prepare for this change?] 

Your organization’s internal training or documentation may need to be updated to reflect the name change and updated experience. 

Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium

(formerly Microsoft 365 Business)

• Stay up to date with the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.
• Connect with customers and coworkers using Outlook, Exchange, and Teams.
• Manage your files from anywhere with 1 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive per user.
• Defend your business against advanced cyberthreats with sophisticated phishing and ransomware protection.
• Control access to sensitive information using encryption to help keep data from being accidentally shared.
• Secure devices that connect to your data and help keep iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices safe and up to date.

Compatible with Windows 10 Pro. Some management features are not supported in Windows Home. All languages included.

The reason I posted the article is to address one of the features of this license. You are given upgrade rights for previous versions of Windows with this subscription but it has to be a pro version. So if you have a PC with Windows 10 (Home) on it, it does not qualify for the upgrade with this license.

Customers who wish to run Microsoft 365 Business Premium in their organization must be running Windows 10 Pro* on their desktops in order for the service to manage their PCs.
*Windows 10 Pro upgrade rights are included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium if the machines are presently running Windows 7 Pro or 8.1 Pro.

Home Office (Part 4) – Teams alternate uses for communication

In the article I wrote named: Microsoft Teams – Overview on Communication I discussed some of the basic communication functions in the Teams Application. So if the communications is opened up for external connections then so much more becomes available to you than just communicating within your organization.

I also use Teams to communicate with some of my clients and key vendors. It allows me the same kinds of communication functions that I have with my company contacts and when you add the component of video to the conversation makes that session so much more personal.  

One of the features that really help out in a selling or training situation is to be able to share a desktop with the person you are chatting with in Teams. It is so easy to do so. The best part is that you are in complete control of what you are going to share, whether it is a window, a monitor screen or multiple screens you have all of these capabilities. I do this a lot with our techs in house to show them how to do something or where to go to look for something or just to get their opinion on something (in case I need their tech support). All of these things are possible with anyone that you are working with.

You can also use Teams to create an online webinar with people both inside and outside of your organization. There are no other purchases you need to make to make this happen. You can join a Teams meeting anytime, from any device, whether or not you have a Teams account.

If you don't have an account, follow these steps to join as a guest.

1. Go to the meeting invite and select Join Microsoft Teams Meeting.
2. A hyperlink with text reading "Join Microsoft Teams Meeting"
3. That'll open a web page, where you'll see two choices: Download the Windows app and Join on the web instead. If you join on the web, you can use either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome. Your browser may ask if it's okay for Teams to use your mic and camera. Be sure to allow it so you'll be seen and heard in your meeting.
4. Enter your name and choose your audio and video settings. If the meeting room (or another device that's connected to the meeting) is nearby, choose Audio off to avoid disrupting. Select Phone audio if you want to listen to the meeting on your mobile phone.
5. When you're ready, hit Join now.
6. This will bring you into the meeting lobby. We'll notify the meeting organizer that you're there, and someone in the meeting can then admit you.

One of the things I like about Teams Video Chatting is the sense of connection. We have had several people in the past month that have been operating solely from their home office and the only time we get to see them is if we do so with a video chat session. We have one company employee that has been operating from his home in St. Louis area since he move there and is still fully operational with us in the office as well as with the clients he supports. Internally we work with him in Teams almost completely because of the sense of being able to reach and see the other person. This is important in a long term remote condition like this.

This is the end of my little series here on Office. I will be going back to talking more about other things that you can do with Teams to help you share information and become more productive.

I’ll be back soon!

Home Office (Part 3) – Remote Access

In Part 3 I am going to discuss the different ways to connect back to your office and provide the pro’s and con’s of each option. The essential piece of each one is that you need to be able to connect with a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. This type of connection provides an encrypted connection between you and your network firewall and secures this connection from unwanted snooping or tampering. If you don’t have this capability it is not a total loss but we do suggest that you have one.

1. Log-Me-In – If you have our PAconnect Security Suite package then you have this tool. You will need a machine to be available for you to log in to at the office. Once the connections are setup and the service is turned on for you, you will be able to easily connect to a workstation in your office from your home machine. The steps are as follows:
   1. Login to your company portal for our Suite
   2. Enter your Two Factor Authentication (TFA) code
   3. Log into the machine on your network at the office through it’s authentication pro
   4. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) – Pre-requisites for this are as follows: a workstation in the office for you to log into or Remote Access Server that has been setup and a RDP License if you are logging into the server. You service provider needs to setup your VPN access, open access on the computer you will be remoting on to or setting ups a session that you will be accessing on the Remote Access Server. The process you will then go through to get connected is easy.
      1. Start up your VPN Connection
      2. Start up your preprogrammed RDP Application
      3. You are on!
      4. Direct Connection to your Server through VPN Access – This process works for simple connections to document access but if you are running any kind of database this is the worst method for accessing this kind of data. So if you need this for accessing your accounting program or any kind of client management system these are examples of when not to use this method. Once your VPN access is established all you need to do is connect your VPN and then log into your server and then you will have access to the drives and data on your server. This is a great process for anyone that needs simple document access but other than that do one of the other methods as described above.

If you have any questions about what the best method for you is please don’t hesitate contacting us at sales@paconnect.com or support@paconnect.com.  

Home Office (Part 2) – Hosted Phone Systems

What is a Hosted Phone System? A Hosted Phone System, or Virtual Phone System, enables you to have a fully functional telephone service without needing to purchase system hardware, other than handsets . ... The options in hosted phone systems include both traditional PBX and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which uses the Internet to transmit calls.

In the past, you would purchase and install a PBX unit or phone switch on your premise and run wiring from this unit to where your handsets would be located. You had the cost of the switch, maintaining and upgrading the software that ran on the switch and purchasing the telco lines or virtual phone lines to connect to the world. In a hosted system you are tying into a virtual switch (usually runs on a server located on the Internet,) that is maintained by a service organization. You are normally paying for this service but most of your headaches are now gone. The benefits of this type of system are many.

These systems are primarily software managed systems which makes it easy to roll in new functions as you need them or add increased though put as necessary. It normally only takes seconds to do so. If you need new lines, more channels, new branch offices it is easy to add them and tie them all together. Because the systems are IP based, if you have an internet connection, you have access to the service.

Since this article is part of my series on the Home Office, let us look at how easy it is to extend your office phone system to an employee’s home office. You have several options to do this depending on the capabilities of your hosted system. Since this is a focus on our systems, I will be discussing its capabilities which may or may not be something available on yours if you have one in place. The three primary methods of connecting to your hosted system are as follows:

1. An IP Phone Handset. The handset needs to be programmed to the switch but once it is, as long as you have Internet Service your handset will become part of your Office Phone System with all of the capabilities that you have inside your office. Your phone will be an extension of the Office Phone System. All the programming and capabilities are downloaded from the hosted system to the phone and when updates are needed they are easily applied.
2. Virtual or Softphone application on your computer. I like having everything in front of me when I am working including my phone screen. I use a DECT Wireless Headset that connects me to my desktop computer at home, so I have the ability to stand up, walk around and still be talking on the phone. The other benefit with this is that if you are running any other type of voice-based application on your computer, that same headset can be used for those as well. So on my system at home, I am connected to our Office Phone Network, Microsoft Teams, Zoom Communication Sessions, WebEx Training/Meetings, a Voice to Text Recognition Application (Dragon Naturally Speaking), my mobile phone and my notebook computer. The Headset I choose will connect to the computer through a USB connection to two Bluetooth devices and my phone handset all at the same time.
3. The third method is to make your cell phone a part of the Office System as an extension. Some of our techs do this so that they can easily connect back to our office or our remote workers through our phone system. This can be done with an application that you can load onto the phone for either an IOS or Android phone. The phone system can also be programmed to forward a call that is sent to an extension directly to your cell when it is transferred to your extension.

 Conference Calls

Conference calls are easy to set up and can include large groups of people without incurring any extra expense. It is all a part of the primary system. You provide the dial in number for your conference system with the conference code and designate the time you want everyone to convene and it is that easy. Whether you are calling from your office system, a home phone, or a cell phone it doesn’t matter, the central system is handling all of the connections for you at once. In fact, if all you want is the conference capability you can add that to your current phone system for a very reasonable price.

So, there are a lot of choices that can be made to make your home office a part of the Office Phone System. If you would like to see this system in action, give us a call and we would be happy to provide you with a demonstration.

1.     An IP Phone Handset. The handset needs to be programmed to the switch but once it is, as long as you have Internet Service your handset will become part of your Office Phone System with all of the capabilities that you have inside your office. Your phone will be an extension of the Office Phone System. All the programming and capabilities are downloaded from the hosted system to the phone and when updates are needed they are easily applied.

2.     Virtual or Softphone application on your computer. I like having everything in front of me when I am working including my phone screen. I use a DECT Wireless Headset that connects me to my desktop computer at home, so I have the ability to stand up, walk around and still be talking on the phone. The other benefit with this is that if you are running any other type of voice-based application on your computer, that same headset can be used for those as well. So on my system at home, I am connected to our Office Phone Network, Microsoft Teams, Zoom Communication Sessions, WebEx Training/Meetings, a Voice to Text Recognition Application (Dragon Naturally Speaking), my mobile phone and my notebook computer. The Headset I choose will connect to the computer through a USB connection to two Bluetooth devices and my phone handset all at the same time.

3.     The third method is to make your cell phone a part of the Office System as an extension. Some of our techs do this so that they can easily connect back to our office or our remote workers through our phone system. This can be done with an application that you can load onto the phone for either an IOS or Android phone. The phone system can also be programmed to forward a call that is sent to an extension directly to your cell when it is transferred to your extension.

Home Office (Part 1) – The art of remote access and communication

Last week I ended with an article about Teams Communication which I plan on expanding upon, but I thought that maybe I should step back a little and talk about what we have been experiencing since the beginning of the year and some of the things that have lead to my insights on how we can effectively work from any location given the proper preparation and infrastructure for that to happen.

In January, we began a major change in our internal structure. We decided that we decided that we wanted I more conducive environment for team communication. Part of the transition was to reconfigure our showroom into office space and create a central area for huddle groups with lots of video enhancements to help us with daily processes. We wanted better communication and coordination for projects and support for our client’s needs. During that time, we had some disruption which caused the need for some of us to work from home as the construction was completed in our new office setup.

This caused us to look hard at how we could retain the workflow and communication between our employees and our customers from remote locations. We did accomplish this easily because we had the right software tools in place as well as the infrastructure being well suited access from anywhere, easily, and securely. With our current hosted phone system, it does not matter where we are, we can appear as part of phone network. Whether we use a handset, softphone on our computers or our cell phones as extensions we can operate as one connected phone network.

We are also invested in using the Microsoft Teams application which provided instant messaging, voice and video communication as well as adding group meeting capabilities all from one application. We can share our desktops, share files and work on projects/documents all at the same time. We easily incorporated all of this into our practice of working from home during this pandemic.

When the edict came out for our clients to achieve the same thing for themselves, we were able to easily roll them into the tools and teach them how to use them. We were able to transition 100’s of employees for our customers into accessing their networks for their home work locations both easily and securely. Helping them maintain the most productivity possible given the State’s mandated changes to our working environments.

The ability for us to be able to transition into this kind of work environment is going to be part of the ongoing changes that we will need to learn to work within. As time goes on, we will need to continue to build on our capabilities to work both in our workplaces and from remote locations as the need arises.

As I continue this series of articles, I will be discussing many of the tools that we use to make this work for us and our clients. I will look at each one more closely and talk about the many different things that could be valuable to you as it is for us. I look forward to hearing from you and any questions that you might have.

Microsoft Teams – Overview on Communication

I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here because Microsoft has an excellent tutorial series on YouTube to give you the basics of what Microsoft Teams is, how it can be used and tips and tricks on making it a more productive application for you and your company.

What I want to do in the next couple of weeks is to put together a series of articles and videos describing potential ideas on how to make Teams an integral part of your communication. There are many functions that I use to help me manage my daily chores and to work with my Teammates. We have become a company that has both locally based employees and employees that are living out of state. It is important for us to be able to easily communicate with each other in meetings and in one-on-one conversations. We do this now with Teams and our Phone System which also has integration back into the Microsoft 365 products.

The simplest component of Teams to learn and work with is Chat. The three basic functions in Chat are:

• ·         Instant Messaging
• ·         Voice Calling
• ·         Video Calling

All this communication can be done one-to-one or one-to-many. By turning on external organization communication you can extend this communication with people outside of your organization that are also on O365 or Skype. Here is an article from Microsoft allowing you to create a team to work with suppliers or partners and add them directly to the team as guests. To learn how to set up a team, see Bring teams and resources together.

Here is Microsoft tutorial on adding guest accounts that includes a video showing how to set up your Organization’s Office 365 to allow for external access to your Team Groups.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/guest-access-checklist

Look at this to prep your system for allowing this function.

Back to usage. I use the Instant Message function to either begin a string of conversation with someone or to ask a quick question. Let us say I have a call waiting on the phone and I need to find out if someone can take the call. My someone in my case is several states away and I am not sure what he is currently doing. So, I send him a quick message with the call information, and they will get a notification with the message on their screen. If they can take the call, they respond and let me know and I can move on. If they respond asking me to take a message, I can do that as well.

Voice Calling: I can click on the call button as well to do the same thing. This gives me the ability to discuss further what may need to be done more quickly than what you can type in text message.

Video Calling:  I love seeing the other person face to face. This gives me the ability to see their true response when talking to them. You obviously need to have cameras on both ends to be able to do this but if you are serious about Teams having the right equipment in place makes using this application so much easier. 

Equipment

There are so many ways to skin this cat. In a simple desktop environment, having a webcam in place and a headset with a good noise cancelling microphone will give you what you need. If you have a laptop with a built-in webcam you are all set. That will have the microphone built-in and of course you probably have speakers built-in as well.

I like the Jabra Headsets because they are not only good quality but add more function to what I can do. I use a more expensive set that hooks into our desk phone, computer, and Bluetooth devices all at once. It makes using that headset for multiple purposes very easy. So, whether I am talking on the desk phone, through my phone app on the computer or on Teams or on my cell phone the one headset is doing it all for me.Microsoft Teams – Overview

I hope this has given you a good starting place and some ideas on how to use the communication aspects of Microsoft Teams.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate reaching out to me at bob@bobstechtalk.com .

Changes to Microsoft’s O365 Naming Licensing

Microsoft’s Licensing has always been a bit confusing but recent changes in their naming has just added more confusion into the mix!

Hopefully, I can shed some light on the new changes and make this a little easier to understand… The chart below should be a good start.

Old Product Name	New Product Name	Notes
Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials	Microsoft 365 Business Basic	Entry level Business Hosted Email that also includes access to Teams, Web versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote (plus Access and Publisher for PC only), 1TB Storage through OneDrive, SharePoint
Microsoft Office 365 Business	Microsoft 365 Apps for Business	No Hosted Email with this one but does include the whole Office suite for your desktop computer and mobile devices (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher and Access) and also includes access to Teams, Web versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote (plus Access and Publisher for PC only), 1TB Storage through OneDrive, SharePoint
Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium	Microsoft 365 Business Standard	Combine the previous two products and you have this one. Hosted Email, Desktop Suite, and the rest of the Online Apps
Microsoft 365 Business	Microsoft 365 Business Premium	Microsoft 365 Business Premium combines all the features included in Office 365 Business Premium with Windows 10, and Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security.

Hopefully this will help you understand the products a little better in the Microsoft Office 365 Business Product Line. If you have questions please don’t hesitate reaching out to me at: bob@bobstechtalk.com.

New Start

It has been awhile since my last posting with all the daily commitments that draw upon our resources. So… I am going to look at some of the things that we are doing for our customers to ease their ability to support their customers and still keep their companies running as well as some of the new ways that people are using to communicate with each other as we keep our distance during this trying time.

One of the wonderful things that a lot of our clients found out when this lockdown started was that if they subscribed to our PAconnect Security Suite products they already had the rudimentary products available to them to keep connected to their office remotely. Part of this package is LogMeInPro which we use to help us support you but alternately it also gives you direct access to your office desktop machines from the safety of your home office.

If you are subscribed and you want help to activate your connection, please contact us to help you do this. If not, and you think this is something that you would like to implement, we can set this up for you so that it is implemented securely.

Call us at 724-838-7526 or email us at support@paconnect.com.

Thank you.

MyAnalytics

Microsoft is continuing to expand upon its BI Power technology by using this technology to track and report on your productivity. Called MyAnalytics, this report provides information based upon how you are using Outlook. Obviously, the first requirement is that you are using Outlook to be able to collect information about how you are using it, ha ha.

If you are like me and you dump everything into Outlook to manage your busy lifestyle, then all sorts of things start popping up showing you how you are using your time. It also pulls information from Teams and reports on the audio and visual conversations that you have there as well.

You’ll find this report by looking under more apps in your Office 365 dashboard. If you are an active Outlook/teams user, the analytics that are provided can be very enlightening. Take a quick look at the video that is available on the home screen to give you a quick idea of what this application is supposed to help you with.

Senior Care Providers Scramble After $14M Ransomware Attack Hits Tech Firm VCPI

Heath firms are seeing themselves as the big-ticket target more and more these days. A week ago, we saw a report of another Health Care Provider being attacked with ransomware for the tune of $14M in BitCoin to unlock their encrypted data.

For more information Click Here to see the article. But if this scares you, and it should, call us to see if you are protected from this sort of attack, and if not how we can help you stave off this type of attack!

WWW – Wood Wide Web!

Yes, Wood! This play on words for the Fungal Network that lives and thrives in a forest floor that performs quite similarly to what we perceive of the human World Wide Web by sharing resources between the root systems of the trees in the forest. The fungal forest provides an integral part of the thriving environment of trees and provides a much needed symbiosis between all the organisms living in the forest. A healthy forests starts beneath our feet, beyond our visual world where we can see and learn from this marvel.

To learn more, Google Wood Wide Web or look up the Wikipedia article.

Interesting Phish Attempt happened today…

I had a call on my home phone today from “Amazon fraud department” stating that there was an attempt to purchase computer and some other items from El Salvador and had gotten on Mike account and wanted to block the order. While initially it sounded pretty good in that I’m glad the fraud department was on it to but, the moment they wanted to gain access to my computer using TeamViewer I knew this had to be a scam. They had no reason to actually access my machine directly even if they wanted to guide me through changing my password and/or login information. So, just be careful of individuals calling your home and asking for any type of direct access to your computer right off the cuff as soon as they begin talking to you.

Remember, this is social engineering, so they’re very good at what they do to make you feel as though they are doing you a favor and are trying to help you out. Don’t fall for it!

Eclipse Manager – Simple Microsoft Project Management

If you are not ready to swing into the Microsoft’s Project Management Program but still want to be able to track project tasks and time spent on them, you may want to take a quick look at their new Eclipse Manager Product. There are two versions, the free one really is just a slight step above Microsoft Planner but the Pro version adds several additional key components to make it really functional.

For just $1.99 per month you can upgrade the free version of Eclipse Manager and add the following functions:

• Track Costs - Cost tracking lets you assign values against tasks, great for projects where you will invoice.
• Offline Usage - Eclipse Core requires a constant internet connection to sync the files to the server. With Eclipse Pro you can take your computer offline and then sync the tasks when you reconnect.
• Export to Excel - Eclipse Pro lets you export your projects to Excel.
• Review - With the Review page you get to see the bigger picture view of your projects and tasks.
• Access to Reports - Eclipse Pro allows you to use the reports page to see insights into your past and current progress.

So if you are interested in finding out more about these products, you can access the Guide Page and look through the different functions by going to: http://www.eclipsemanager.com/guide

If you don't see it in your Windows 10 Start Screen, try going to the site and sign up for it and down load the app. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/top-free/apps/pc?category=Business&cid=eclipsewebsite

 

Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams

They come in many forms, but they are getting more and more sophisticated and taking companies and individuals for larger amounts of money. Naked Security wrote a report yesterday about the City of Ocala, Florida that wrote out a check after it received fraudulent new payment information that was processed into their system. The scammers used all of the right processes and until the Construction Company called the city about the payment.

Naked Security has a great posting on the many ways that this is happening and what to look for to protect yourself and your organization from this happening to you: Click Here

NFC being on is not always a good thing...

Google has patched a bug that let a hacker, and this is key, that is physically close to your phone to send malware to your phone using NFC (Near Field Communication) functions.

Take a look at this report from Sophos's Naked Security Blog that spells out the vulnerability: Click Here

What to do?

• You can turn off permissions for the NFC app to install unknown applications, which will prevent the NFC app from trying to install an APK.
• You can also turn off Android Beam in the NFC and Payment area of your Android device’s settings, while still leaving NFC on for contactless payments.
• Finally, you can install the fix that Google released last month, patching the flaw.

Adobe Crative Cloud customer database breached

Naked Security reported on this breach that exposed 7.5 million Adobe customers revealing the following information:

• Account creation date
• Adobe products used
• Subscription status
• Whether the user is an Adobe employee
• Member IDs
• Country
• Time since last login
• Payment status

See full details here: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/10/28/adobe-database-exposes-7-5-million-creative-cloud-users/