Welcome to our latest round-up of news from the technology and hosting world. Here’s what we’ve discovered this week.
Customers kept out of datacentres
To ensure datacentres remain effectively staffed during the Coronavirus pandemic, some service providers have begun stopping customers entering the premises. One such company, Equinix, has now closed its doors to customers, contractors and other visitors at sites in Europe’s most affected countries and has limited access to its datacentres elsewhere to those which are needed for urgent and critical reasons.
The reason for the move is to minimise the risk of the virus impacting its datacentres so that it can maintain its services to its customers. Like all businesses, service providers will see some employees having to self-isolate over the coming months and are having to take measures such as this to ensure business continuity. Expect more service providers to follow suit.
Corona fraud increases
COVID-19, it appears, has developed a new symptom corona fraud! According to UK police, reports of coronavirus-related fraud have increased by 400% since the beginning of February, a rise that eerily reflects the increase in infections. Most reports are for online shopping scams where anxious consumers have paid out for sanitiser, face masks, toilet rolls and even quack medicines pretending to protect people from infection, and not received them. Shoppers are advised to buy from reputable outlets only and to check customer reviews before spending their money.
Phishing emails have also been on the rise, especially those pretending to come from the UK government, offering financial support and business rates relief to companies and the self-employed. Meanwhile, some of the major criminal gangs have let it be known that they won’t be targeting hospitals with ransomware during the pandemic.
Tech scarcity hitting homeworkers
As millions of employees and school students are sent home to work, many of them are finding it hard to source the technology needed to get connected. According to retailer Computacenter, technology such as laptops, PCs, monitors, VPNs and even wireless network equipment is being bought in bulk by major companies to give to staff who will be working remotely. What’s left on the shelves is then being panic bought by individuals and this has led to a shortage as existing stocks dry up.
One of the biggest issues is that while there are products available globally, they are stuck in warehouses which can’t distribute them effectively because of virus restrictions imposed by international governments. As a result, delivery times for some products are months away. Even basic items like phone charging cables are difficult to get hold of. No doubt Work at Home Infrastructure as a Service (WHIaaS) will be the next big thing.
Security for remote workers
For those who have the technology to work from home, US threat detection outfit, Code42, is making their data more secure. It has now added new capabilities to its software that detect suspicious data activity among employees working remotely.
With increased numbers of employees logging in remotely and using apps to communicate, collaborate and share files, it means security teams are now having to focus on issues that are outside their company’s usual infrastructure. The updated services offered by Code42 now provide a company-wide overview of data risks, including those associated with remote employees.
Its features include identifying employees who pose the greatest risk, detecting unauthorised usage of cloud storage services, company-wide browser and email upload monitoring, risky file activity alerts and user activity profiling.
eukhost customers playing important role
As the world moves indoors for the foreseeable future, millions of isolated families will look to the internet to find the information, products, services, social interactions and entertainment they’ll need to keep going.
eukhost customers play an important role here, running tens of thousands of websites that help meet the needs of millions of people around the globe. What’s more, we know that despite the challenges you face yourselves, many of you are going out of your way to help others during this terrible pandemic. Thanks to your ongoing efforts, people in many countries are better able to cope with the unexpected changes and issues they face. For this, we give you our sincere thanks.
The staff at eukhost are also playing their part, making sure that whatever challenges we face over the coming months, your hosting services will continue unaffected so that you can go on doing great things for your customers.
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