Stringfellow Technology Group (“Stringfellow”), based in Nashville, TN, has acquired CTC Networks (“CTC”) based in Franklin, TN.  CTC was founded in 1993 and provides managed technology services to the healthcare, manufacturing, and life science industries.

Do you ever wonder how that email address you type in actually gets delivered? Understanding the basics of email delivery will enhance your understanding of how phishing and spam attacks work. This is a bit technical, but worth understanding as an end-user.

Email was not designed with security as a requirement. In fact, all "security" that involves email was bolted on after the fact. Here are four areas that were bolted on that should be part of your secure email basics.

Utilize MFA, for real

We have beat on this drum for over five years now, and people are still not using it.

Imagine driving without lines on the road, speed limits, or the need to have a license. Now you know what using email for business communication is like...complete and utter chaos. Sure, it's better than riding a horse to work or sending a telegram, but the value of using email as a communication tool is decreasing daily.

The remote work shift puts the management of devices, applications, and data front and center in the security discussion. The firewall, local Active Directory, and VPN solutions typically don't scale or take into account the vast number of variables when users want to work from any device at any time.

We covered the basic security options that are available to all M365 plans here. This is the equivalent of locking your doors at night, a good idea, but not enough if you have someone that really wants to get into your house. Unfortunately there is no equivalent of a "safe" neighborhood on the Internet, if you are utilizing email you will eventually be targeted for a break-in!

The biggest attack vector for breaking in is email.

The question is not whether or not you are using Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), but rather, are you using it securely? Microsoft has steadily improved the default security settings but it still requires some experience to get it 100% there. The amount of attacks on the M365 is astounding, specifically with phishing attempts to gain user passwords.

Collaboration is the act of working with someone to produce or create something. In today's workplace the words "in real time" need to be added to this. Sending emails back and forth is not collaboration, and it is certainly not productive! When working remotely it is critical to standardize on a collaboration application across your organization.

No matter how good the technology or smart the end-user, there will always be a need for IT support. Plug and Play was a big deal in the 90's and we all know how that turned out! Getting the most out of your remote workforce requires that you provide IT support that can handle a variety of hardware, software, and end-user expectations.

Sitting at the kitchen table hunched over a laptop screen is not ideal, but it is the situation many are in after the shift to remote work. Based on our experience the four hardware investments below will increase your productivity and comfort while working remotely.