Security

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, more people are working remotely than ever before. On the one hand, productivity hasn't really suffered as there are a large number of cloud-based tools that make it possible to be just as productive outside of the office as you are in it. But on the other hand, there are also certain types of collaboration habits that make security breaches no longer a matter of "if" but "when." Understanding what these are is the best way to avoid them at all costs.

These are anxious times for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 70% are concerned about financial hardship due to pandemic-related disruptions, and more than half are worried about having to close permanently. At the same time, SMBs are tasked with personnel management in an increasingly distributed and frequently fraught environment where employees are stressed and burned out. Collectively, it’s a sizable challenge for SMB leadership.

Wire has introduced a new App-lock feature for Wire Pro customers. Team owners can now enable a mandatory App-lock for the entire team. Once enabled, members of the team will be required to authenticate themselves using a passcode or biometrics (depending on the user's choice when configuring) every time they open their Wire app. Owners can also customize the duration after which an unlocked app will be locked again.

With WhatsApps’s latest move to monetize data, personal users and businesses alike have become much more aware of the privacy element of the applications they use. Other major tech players and industry figures have even jumped on the news coverage to further highlight the issue. Apple has arguably taken on the role of privacy watchdog and has made bold statements about how damaging data harvesting is to the world.

Throughout the pandemic, the collaboration tools market experienced a major boom with the rise of remote work. However, the recent acquisition of Slack by Salesforce has reinforced the growing separation between workplace tool suites and specialized collaboration tools. Suites have become “one-stop-shop” solutions that can fill multiple functions for companies and employees, which brings into question, what value is there for niche solutions?

These two companies have very different approaches when it comes to their products. Teramind is designed with a comprehensive set of features: granular activity monitoring, time tracking, productivity analysis, insider threat detection, user behavior analytics, data loss prevention – you name it, they have it. Whereas, Workpuls went for a more minimalist approach. Its product basically does two things: employee productivity and time tracking, but it does them well.

Teramind and InterGuard, both are highly regarded as powerful employee monitoring platforms for the modern workforce. Both of them have strong activity monitoring, productivity analysis and reporting features. Especially, after the recent refresh of its UI, InterGuard has been able to up its game in user friendliness – a big factor for this kind of software. On the other hand, Teramind is already known for its intuitive, award-winning interface. Pricing is another competitive edge in this market.

More than 80% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) view IT security as a top business concern, and 75% of corporate executives rank cybersecurity enhancements as a pressing issue in the year ahead. For many, this means adapting to a long-term remote workforce by empowering employees to be productive and secure from any location. In response to last year’s pandemic, 85% of CISOs reported sacrificing cybersecurity to enable remote work. Now, it’s time to revive those capabilities.

As companies went fully remote, keeping teams connected has become their top priority. The need for digital communication apps led companies to choose popular tools, like Whatsapp, Slack, MS Teams, and Cloud-based apps. While extremely popular, such tools also offer serious security risks. So how can companies deal with sensitive information in a secure manner?