How to prepare for Internet Outages

Having a plan for an internet outage is crucial.

If your internet goes down, Ultra IT will go through a thorough checklist first to figure out where the problem lies:

  • Is it a hardware issue?
  • Is your computer playing up and not connected to the network?
  • Is it a firewall or modem that is causing the issue?
  • Is it the line or the internet coming in to the building ?

In most cases, it could be at least three different vendors that you will have to deal with, if you are sorting the problem yourself.

Ultra IT will deal with all of your vendors, so that you don’t have to coordinate them, and figure out where the problem lies.

Recently we have partnered with Vodafone, and recommend them to our customers, in order to streamline processes if something does go wrong.

Think about the country of Canada. Earlier this year, business ground to a halt in an instant. A botched maintenance update by a large internet service provider (ISP) created chaos for more than 10 million customers.

Here are some suggestions that can help you ensure you are protected against an Internet outage:

Building a backup plan for lost internet

About one-quarter of Canada’s internet capacity was offline. The downtime lasted only 12 hours for some, days for others. The list of outage impacts is long. The problem halted some point-of-sale payments, some nonprofits lost the ability to serve vulnerable populations, and cellular-dependent traffic signals in Toronto were out of whack.

What can we learn from this? Businesses should prepare a backup.

Backing up your internet

Setting up a secondary internet connection can help your business remain online. You’ll be ready if there are system issues, intrusions, or power a failure. For this to work, you’ll need to partner with a different provider than you do for your primary internet. This cuts the odds that both your main and backup internet will go down at once.

If your primary internet connection is wired, consider a cellular backup. For example, a router with 4G backup would switch you to that network if the main connection failed.

The very nature of redundancy is that it repeats what you already have. That can make some businesses balk: Why pay twice? Yet internet redundancy can help you avoid lost business, productivity, and brand reputation, not to mention the stress of having to try to do business in this digital age without being able to get online.

Maybe you can’t reinforce your IT infrastructure with a second provider. At least reach out to your current ISP to learn their backup plans. Ensure they have failovers established to back up their systems.

The Canadian outage saw many businesses floundering. With the ubiquity of technology today, it’s not unlikely that more ISP outages will happen. Be ready for the worst with plans for redundancy and contingency plans.

In Summary

Ultra IT can take care of all of these issues for you. If you would like to talk to the local Vodafone representative, please contact Deena Pawson, Northland Customer Business Manager at Vodafone.

Hopefully, we never experience an issue like Canada did, however it is is best to be prepared. Contact the team at Ultra IT if you would like further information.

How IT is going green

The impact of technology on the environment is well known, and yet we are seeing some small but significant changes, which signal a shift in the right direction.

Why does Technology have such a big impact on the environment?

The effect on the environment is not only because hardware is replaced every few years, but also because everything is backed up online, and sits in a data centre. These data centres use a huge amount of electricity and resources in the process. Plus there is the packaging…and there is a lot of packaging.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, here are a few great innovations that are making incremental changes to the environmental impact.

Cardboard packaging:

Just a few years ago, we would end up with piles of polystyrene packaging, that the computers, monitors, phones and every other IT devices were packaged in.

This packaging was NOT recyclable and we could only pay for it to be dumped.

Now, very little packaging comes with IT equipment. Nearly everything now uses pre-pressed cardboard. This contains far less material as it is shaped and not solid, and can go directly into recycling. What a great difference this simple change has made.

Better electronics:

The latest devices tend to use far less power than the ones a few years ago. The processors are more powerful, and less power hungry.

Because they consume less power, they need less cooling and less cooling means they can be designed to use less materials. Manufacturers are thinking hard about how to reduce power consumption.

Smaller devices:

Devices are generally getting smaller and therefore use less materials in manufacture.

The classic example of this is the move several years ago now from the huge CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors to the much thinner and lighter digital screens.

The other clear example is moving from the older desktop computers to predominantly NUCS or mini-PCs, which have a fraction of the raw materials. Again, our recycling racks would be full of old desktop computers, whereas now there is just a small pile of dead NUCs.

Better recycling:

The recycling services have also improved. Whilst e-waste continues to be a huge global issue, New Zealand technology companies are seeing small gains happening.

Use of recycled materials:

Some laptop brands have started using recycled materials in the construction of equipment such as laptop cases, and laptop bags, even letting you know how many plastic bottles it took to make them!

Carbon offset schemes:

Some manufacturers are also offering carbon offset schemes, where you can offset the emissions used in producing and manufacturing the equipment. Ask us for more details if you are interested.

Manufacturers are aware that consumers are increasingly aware of the impact on the environment, and want to make a point of difference.

It’s definitely not all roses as we still despair at the number of plastic bags that are used, and how every little thing comes in its own bag.

In summary, we wanted to let you know that there are many notable changes going on in the IT industry to make it ‘greener’ and less damaging to our planet.

Inflation and Technology

There is a lot of talk at the moment about Inflation here in New Zealand. This article discusses the effect it may have on your business and particularly on your technology.

As you know, inflation is when things are more expensive to buy. Diminished purchasing power means your business may sell less and see lower profits, all while paying higher costs for things your business needs. Of course, if your business is the low-cost option, inflation may not be so bad, but many do suffer when the cost of living and just about everything else increases.

So, how does that impact your business technology? Well, it’s one of the many costs you may see go up.

Inflation and business technology

Inflation often starts when it’s hard to get goods and services. Heard the phrase “supply-chain challenges” in the last few years? We’re guessing, yes. So, you know firsthand the difficulties of getting some items. We’ve definitely seen this here in New Zealand with getting IT hardware.

You may have already noticed price jumps in several business tech areas. IDC research found that server and storage prices are up by 10–15 percent, and that costs for laptops and personal computers have risen even more, by between 18 and 20 percent. Even what you’re paying for software or cloud services may have increased. IDC found price jumps of 5–7 percent.

What to do about it

The best thing you can do is to look for business efficiencies and ways to reduce costs. As a managed service provider (MSP) we can help on this front. Among the many services we offer, we are always focusing on:

  • learning about your business technology and look for cost savings;
  • identify any duplication of services or software licenses (you could be one of the third of businesses, on average, with wasted software spend);
  • installing cybersecurity to help you avoid costly downtime and damage to your business reputation;
  • securing better rates by consolidating your resources with fewer vendors for volume discounts.

Having an MSP can also help you hold on to your existing employees. You can make more efficient use of any IT staff you have on-site. Plus, the MSP can find out how your people do their work and suggest streamlined processes. Retention is easier when people feel productive and supported by your tech offerings. For smaller businesses here in New Zealand the cost of having an IT department may not be realistic, hence why using a Managed Service Provider like Ultra IT makes it very cost efficient.

Most MSPs will recommend you migrate to cloud computing if you haven’t already done so. Yes, some cloud service prices have increased, but not at the level of the hardware you need for your own IT infrastructure. Plus, with cloud infrastructure you can benefit from:

  • enhanced flexibility;
  • scalability and speed;
  • pay-as-you-go pricing.

Partner with us

As your MSP, we’ll look for efficiencies and ways to reduce your costs. It’s what we do, regardless of which way the economy is going. Outsourcing your IT management is also a very cost-effective solution. Contact us here to discuss your specific requirements.

Measure your Security against Secure Score

Microsoft has a Secure Score measurement in its 365 Defender dashboard. But what is Secure Score, and how does it help your business? This article explains the basics.

Secure Score is a measurement of how well you are doing against the security standards.  This is a good guide, but don’t worry if you are not achieving all of these, as basically nobody is. Most Northland businesses sit at a score of between 300-600 against 1000 which gives you a point of reference.

In saying that, Secure Score, is a excellent measurment of your security posture. It reviews your activity and security settings against Microsoft’s best practices. The idea is to identify areas to enhance protection and provide suggestions.

In the dashboard, administrators can view the current state of their security score. It considers all Microsoft identities, apps, and devices. There is also a target score. The higher your target score, the more recommended actions you’ll get, although Microsoft cautions that you should balance increased security against user experience.

Secure Score Recommendations

Secure Score shows you possible improvements considering security best practices. Secure Store currently offers recommendations for:

  • Microsoft 365 (including Exchange Online);
  • Azure Active Directory;
  • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Identity, and Cloud Apps;
  • Microsoft Teams.

The score does not measure the likelihood of a system or data breach. Instead, it looks at system configurations, user behavior, and other security-related measurements. Then, it scores what you’ve done to offset security risk in real-time.

Microsoft not only lists security recommendations but also tracks your action plan. The implementation section shares prerequisites and provides step-by-step advice to complete improvement actions. You can report on status (e.g. planned, risk accepted, resolved through third party, and complete). Rankings also help you gauge implementation difficulty, user impact, and complexity.

Scoring Security with Microsoft

The more improvement action you take, the higher your score. For example, you’re given points for:

  • configuring recommended security features;
  • doing security-related tasks;
  • addressing suggested improvements with a third-party application or software, or alternate mitigation.

Microsoft Secure Score also compares your metrics with scores for similar organizations. The data is anonymous, but in the Metrics & Trends tab, you can view how your score compares to others over time.

Raising Your Secure Score

How can you have an immediate impact on your Secure Score? These three steps can boost your organization’s security:

  1. Enable multi-factor authentication on administrator accounts in case account credentials are compromised.
  2. Enforce password expiration policies to prevent the usage of leaked credentials.
  3. Set up Azure Active Directory to track, log, alert, and remediate and better protect sensitive data and information.

Our team at Ultra IT are here to help you understand Secure Score. We can help enact action plans to apply the recommendations. Contact us hhttps://ultrait.nz/contact/ere.

2023 Key trends for technology   

2023 is predicted to be another year of fast movement with technology.

The past few years with the pandemic have seen rapid changes in how we work, and the technology that we use.

IT trends in business will continue to reshape the future of commerce and industries. Not all Northland businesses will be impacted by these changes in 2023, but even at the SME level, they are worth being aware of at the least.

Automation and digitization will make a lot of changes in customer experience plus Artificial Intelligence is continually improving and changing.

Here we share some of the key trends:

  1. The Internet of Things (IOT)

The Internet of Things continues to grow at a phenomenal rate.

IoT is essentially an ecosystem of devices and technologies connected via the internet that constantly collect and transmit data to be analysed and implemented.

Day-to-day examples of devices that make up part of IoT are smart meters, security cameras, fridges, and AI virtual assistants.

Currently each person has an average of four connected devices. By 2030 it is predicted that we will each have an average of 15 devices.

One of the key focuses for IoT is security as a lot of them are not equipped with the security required right out of the box.

2023 will see an increased focus in developments of the IoT plus a focus on security. Read more about the IoT here

  1. The Metaverse

2023 will see the Metaverse becoming even more significant. What is the Metaverse you may well ask?

“The Metaverse is like an immersive internet where we’ll be able to work, play, and socialize.”

What does the metaverse mean for businesses? In 2023, it is predicted that the metaverse will create an even more immersive environment for meetings where we can collaborate on projects, meet, work and share even more. We will see the further development of more human looking Avatars, that even have our unique quirks!

  1. An increase in Artificial Intelligence

In 2023, artificial intelligence will become more real in organizations.

  • No-code AI, with its easy drag-and-drop interfaces, will enable people to create more intelligent products and services without necessarily needing to have skilled developers.
  • AI-enabled algorithms can do things like recommend products to its customers.
  • Contactless, autonomous shopping and delivery will also be a huge trend for 2023.
  • AI will make it easier for consumers to pay for and receive goods and services.
  • You may have already noticed Outlook and Teams starting to provide virtual assistant services to help you manage your Inbox and work. These services will likely get better and more useful.
  1. Cyber Security

Less of a trend and more of a continued focus for all of us, Cyber Security will continue to be top of mind as cyber threats become more complex and common.

Smaller businesses with less than 1,000 employees are most likely to be targeted with a prediction that 61% of data breaches will be targeted towards smaller businesses. (source Verizon).

Please be clear – the bigger businesses and organisations are now well protected, and so the criminals have been turning their attention to small businesses who are still lagging when it comes to security measures. The Verizon quote above refers to smaller businesses of less than 1,000 employees, but we do advise our clients to not be complacent, because criminals are actively targeting businesses just like yours.

  1. Robots are coming:

In 2023, robots will be made to look even more like humans. Elon Musk has already revealed the robots of the future, saying these will be ready to roll out in the next 3-5 years. These robots will begin to be used in the real world with basic roles, whilst also performing more complex tasks in warehouses and factories.

In Summary:

2023 will see a continued increase in advancement in the world of technology.

Ultra IT is keeping an eye on these developments, and especially on those that can add value (at the right cost) to businesses in New Zealand. Our purpose is to help you to leverage technology to support your specific business goals.

2022 Tech Review

Many of us look forward to January 1 as a fresh start. But before we get to hit that refresh button, it’s a good idea to look back too. No, we’re not saying you need to go sit by a waterfall and meditate on your IT infrastructure, but there are benefits to doing a year-end tech review.

What is a tech review?

In a tech review, you can accomplish several key things. First, you can gain a clear picture of what the IT infrastructure looks like. After all, technology is always evolving. You can determine what assets you have and how employees are using them. You’ll also revisit your tech spending and whether it’s achieving business outcomes.

A tech review also gives IT staff a chance to clarify roles and responsibilities, as well as mission.

Doing this at year’s end is common because many businesses slow down around the holidays. This means your team can focus more on the tasks of a thorough and effective tech review.

You may have a budget you’re looking to use by the end of the fourth quarter. With a tech review in hand, you can make sure you spend money on technology that will make a real impact.

A tech review, done at any time of year, also offers you the ability to:

  • improve productivity;
  • mitigate risk;
  • streamline workflow;
  • update and upgrade;
  • enhance employee engagement.

Steps for your tech review

There are many steps to take in an effective annual review of your technology. Read the main ones here.

Perform an IT inventory

Make sure you know all your tech assets and where they are in their lifecycle. This is a good time to identify current hardware and software in need of upgrade or replacement. Then, you can plan ahead and avoid security risks or unplanned downtime.

Review your IT outcomes

You should be spending on IT to achieve certain business goals. Now’s the time to consider whether your technology is doing what you wanted it to do. A Harvard Business Review study found that 77% of respondents see an IT strategy–implementation gap. So, at least you’re not alone in needing to ensure your tech initiative aligns with business outcomes.

Update tech guidelines

You probably have policies in place governing how your IT is used. Revisit these annually to ensure you are keeping up with the way your tech is evolving. For example, if your people are remote more often, make sure your guidelines match those tech deployments.

Survey employees

Ask the people who are using your technology not only about what they are using but also how they are using it. This can help you identify areas to improve, upgrade, or automate. Or you might find out people are using software that IT didn’t vet first!

Good questions to ask include:

  • What applications do you use most often?
  • What applications do you resist using?
  • Which technology tools can’t you do without?
  • Which technology do you wish our company had, and why?
  • Do you do any manual, repetitive processes?

Explore cybersecurity

You can ask employees whether they have experienced a cybersecurity threat this year. But you’ll also want to review your data to see if there are any indications of cyberattacks. Also, examine and revise your firewall settings to make sure they are as current as can be.

It’s also useful to have a third-party IT professional perform a vulnerability scan. A penetration test is a more involved way to identify weaknesses you might consider.

Review your findings and prioritize new technology

Drawing on the input you’ve received and the data you’ve gathered, decide what actions to take. You might want to replace redundant software or some with poor user experience. Or you may need to invest in hardware such as computers or servers. You could also find opportunities to automate manual tasks to boost your productivity.

Even if you have the budget for it, avoid making all your changes at once; it can be too overwhelming. Don’t expect your team to automate a process while also transitioning to new hardware. Bring your decision-makers together to decide on priorities and plan purchases and rollouts.

We review for you

Don’t have the resources or know-how to do a year-end technology evaluation? Contact us here for help.

Budgeting for IT in 2023

As the year comes to a close, you have to write the IT budget and spending benchmarks. You must understand the current IT infrastructure and forecast technology needs. This article shares three key areas to improve forecasting and maybe save budget too.

#1 Unexpected IT expenses

First, it helps to identify where you are blowing your IT budget. Often IT budget inaccuracies can be traced back to unexpected tech expenses. Repairs, replacements, and unanticipated upgrades can all throw your budget out of whack. Unfortunately, emergency repairs and last-minute technology improvements are the most costly.

But without a crystal ball, you can’t predict what’s going to happen, right? Still, you can make a plan that allows you to avoid wasting money on the break-fix model. Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP), you will typically pay a set monthly fee. Then, if something does go wrong, you have IT experts at the ready to address the issue.

Plus, a good MSP will work to determine the expected life cycles of your tech assets. That way, you can anticipate hardware or software upgrades and budget accordingly. Further, your MSP should work proactively to prevent unexpected downtime. They can help protect you from cyberattacks and keep software and hardware updated and patched.

#2 Bloated IT infrastructure

Overlapping and wasted resources are another big IT budget drain. You could be paying for many devices that do the same thing, or you may be continuing to license software that your team no longer uses. Or it may be software that everyone uses, and you could be getting a much better deal. You might also be paying for tech you haven’t upgraded, so you aren’t getting the full return on your investment.

An MSP can help identify these kinds of issues. Bringing in an IT expert provides an objective view of your infrastructure. They can suggest performance improvements and streamline processes. They may also suggest subscriptions or other packages that can help you save funds.

#3 IT and business misalignment

The plan is always to build a budget for an IT strategy that helps achieve business goals. Yep, doing so depends on your tech know-how and good communication.

Further, tech-business alignment has grown more difficult as infrastructure has changed, plus, the workforce is now more distributed. The business could have on-premises technology as well as cloud-based software. Employees could be bringing in their own devices and/or working remotely. As a result, business tech needs to be doing more. Plus, it needs to keep up with rapid evolutions and cybersecurity threats.

Yet investing in IT-business alignment improves budgets, and benefits workers and customers. Potential advantages include:

  • reduced digital friction;
  • improved user experience;
  • greater customer engagement;
  • cutting costs;
  • improving productivity;
  • gaining visibility of business processes;
  • faster delivery times and speed to market;
  • growing your competitive advantage;
  • driving innovation.

Work with an MSP to bridge business acumen and IT expertise. Then, you can better calculate the financial impacts (costs and ROIs) of your IT plan.

Need help understanding IT budget pitfalls and spending benchmarks? We can help plan for tech spending supporting your business objectives going forward. Contact us here.

Top Trends for IT in 2022

2022 was another big year for IT in New Zealand.

The IT Alliance members have put together their thoughts on the biggest trends that they have seen across their many varied clients, throughout New Zealand in 2022.

The IT Alliance members deal with real New Zealand companies who may be facing similar IT issues as yourself. The businesses are generally small to medium sized businesses, often time poor, resource limited and with some cash flow restrictions. These are not multi-million dollar US companies.

Here we share the key trends that we are seeing with I.T in New Zealand companies as we round up 2022.

#1. Teams

The culmination of the past few years has seen a huge shift towards remote and hybrid ways of working. Teams has become much more popular across clients who wish to collaborate on projects from remote locations. In a case study about Northland Kindergarten Association, they share how Teams has helped them through the past few years, and how it can also help your business.

We are seeing companies begin to explore the many options within Teams, and begin to utilise these within their businesses. Sharepoint and power apps are being picked up more for helping companies streamline internal processes and communication.

#2. Security

No longer are Cyber threats something that happen to big overseas companies. New Zealand companies both large and small have been hit by Cyber attacks and have paid the price in time, money and reputation.

The realization that we are not “so far away that this could never happen to us”’ has vanished, and been replaced for a healthy respect for Security.

Nothing can take 100% of the threats away, but having an IT provider making sure that your whole system is as secure as possible, should make any Kiwi business owner sleep more soundly.

 2FA and MFA: 2FA or Two Factor Authentication or MFA Multifactor Authentication are now
being widely used.

 Password Management System: Password management systems are being taken on by most
clients.

Monitoring and Maintenance: Companies now realise the value in having this taken care of on a
24/7 basis by an MSP (managed service provider).

#3. Supply Chain Issues:

2022 has still seen some post-Covid delays with computer shortages. Whilst that supply chain is now largely back to a good time frame, it has made companies aware of the value of creating a plan for the future. You can read about how to create a plan for computer hardware here.

#4. The move to a Managed Service Provider:

As I.T becomes even more integral in your companies success, companies are realising the benefits of having a Managed Service provider as opposed to “someone you ring when something stops working.”

A Managed Service provider is like your outsourced I.T department, who runs all of the checks and balances remotely, and someone that you build an ongoing business relationship with, so that your IT supports your business key objectives.

If you would like help or advice with any of the above key trends that we are seeing, please do not hesitate to reach out. No question is too silly, and we make it as easy and simple for you because this is what we do! Contact us here.

Microsoft Lists

If you have Microsoft 365 but aren’t using Microsoft Lists, you could be missing out. This useful feature, which is included with your 365 subscription, helps businesses work more efficiently.

Lists is a productivity feature on Microsoft 365 (MS365), formerly Microsoft Office. This app is a more recent addition to the MS365 app store, so you may have missed it. This article shares some advantages of this tracking and work management app.

An upgrade of SharePoint lists, which has been with MS365 all along, Lists integrates with Microsoft Teams. This means Lists help you collaborate and cooperate better. In fact, all users in a Teams channel with a List can access and edit that List without leaving Teams.

With Lists, you can create, distribute, and track data in a configurable way. Yes, it is good for helping you make a simple list of, say, things to do, but you can do much more with Lists.

Added functionality of Lists

Lists comes with templates to get you started quickly. You can also configure the lists to suit your specific business needs. Plus, you can set the lists to display in the way that works best for you. Maybe you want to look at Lists as a calendar, a grid, a gallery, or in a custom view. You can do that but in real-time, with everyone using that list getting the same updated data when they’re logged in.

In Lists, you set up tables of information to track extensive amounts of data. For example, you might track a project in Microsoft Lists by adding all the tasks to a List. You could add columns for the person responsible, task status, project priority, and more. You can also use colors within the List to help sort information more easily.

Additionally, since Lists is part of MS365, you can use Lists wherever and on whichever device you access the software. You can also integrate Lists with other powerful tools on the MS365 platform. You might extend forms with Power Apps or customize workflows with Power Automate. With automation, you get even more from your Lists.

Taking advantage of Lists

There are many business applications with Lists. Besides project management, you might organize an event itinerary and speaker info in a List, or track assets, or manage a new employee onboarding checklist. If you have an idea of something you want to create, configure, watch, and share, you can probably do it within Lists.

Lists is a default feature in MS365 Teams, but you can switch it on or off in the Teams admin center at any time. You can even permit or ban certain users from Lists.

If you’re not yet using MS365, our IT gurus can help you get started. If you’re on the platform already, let our experts help you get the most you can from your license. Contact us here.

Beware fake meeting requests:

Watch out for the fake meeting request:

Hi,

Important that we meet discuss speerfishing attacks over business comunicatons. We need to make plan about this IMMEDIATELY. Please click on the link [uurl.callender.com] to make an appointment with IT for quick tutorial.

Regards,

IT

Before you or your team click the link hopefully you take a moment to STOP and think about whether this is a legitimate email.

Red flags to look out for:

  • Incorrect spelling
  • Poor grammar
  • A sense of urgency
  • Too good to be true (a dinner with George Clooney is probably not going to happen).
  • Click on this link….ahhh stop stop stop!

Fake meeting requests or calendar-invite scams are on the rise and your team needs to be educated on this.


Examples of Scams that have occurred:

  • Facebook and Google suffered a $121 million BEC scam.
  • Ubiquiti lost $46.7 million to an attack.
  • Toyota transferred $37 million to crooks in a BEC snafu.
In 2020, BEC attacks were the most lucrative scam. The US estimated cybercriminals made over $1.8 billion with this approach. Beyond money, falling victim to a BEC attack also costs your business time and reputation. Here’s what to look for and how to protect against BEC scammers.

How these Scams Work

With many more people working from home and meeting virtually, there’s been an increase in BEC spearfishing attacks.

On Gmail, the bad actor needs only your email address to send an invite that adds to your calendar by default. Then, you might click on what appears to be a meeting link, which actually takes you to a malware site.

Zoom has also become an attack vector. You get an invite to a meeting that asks you to login into Microsoft Outlook. You’ve done it so many times before, except this is a fake login page, and it’s set up to steal your access credentials.

How to Protect Against BEC Scams

Educate your users. As with any other type of email scam, users need to learn to be careful about the links they click. Some indicators to look for, which you can see in our opening example, include:
  • spelling mistakes;
  • urgent appeals;
  • poor phrasing;
  • suspicious links.

Email addresses, links, and domain name inconsistencies are more bad signs. Plus, be wary if something seems too good to be true (a free laptop?) or is an unusual request (transfer $1 million from the CEO’s account).

What can you do?

Google Calendar users can go into General settings, then Event settings, and switch off “Automatically add invitations.” Instead, select “No, only show invitations to which I have responded.” Also, under Events from Gmail, you can stop calendar events auto-generating based on your inbox. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll also be blocking legitimate events.

In these days of the hybrid workforce, we’re used to clicking on links from Zoom, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office as part of our daily workflow. The cyber bad guys know this and are taking advantage of it. Unsubscribing from email lists, keeping your email private, and reporting spam to IT can all help.

Your business might also benefit from working with a managed service provider to use a third-party spam filter. Our team can also review your cybersecurity and help to educate your staff on how to avoid these scams. Contact us here.