Telecommuting

• Pareteum is closely supporting its employee base, including many located in Europe.At this time all Pareteum employees are working remotely.
• "Pareteum's platform enables our customers to reliably deliver connectivity services as they scale to meet the growing demand of a virtual global workforce."
• Pareteum also announced that the Pareteum Experience Cloud was a product of the year winner in the 21st Annual INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year Awards.
• Pareteum currently has offices in North America, South America, Spain, Bahrain, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, Russia, and the Netherlands.

• Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced West Carolina Tel (WCTEL) has extended free 60 day upgrades to Gigabit service for its growing number of telecommuters.
• We could not have anticipated the current global crisis, but thanks to WCTEL, our community is ensuring neither our professionals nor our students fall behind.
• The experience was eye opening, as we learned that telecommuting is more prevalent among our members than we previously thought.
• To learn more about West Carolina Tels programs and use of Calix EDGE Insights , click here to view a replay of our recent webinar.

Seven Coronavirus scams targeting your business

We’ve warned consumers about Coronavirus-related scams, but businesses are at risk, too. Keep your guard up against these seven B2B scams that try to exploit companies’ concerns about COVID-19. In addition to sharing this information with your employees and social networks, read on for how you can report Coronavirus scams to the FTC.

“Public health” scams

• Fraudsters are sending messages that claim to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), or other public health offices.
• They may ask for Social Security numbers, tax IDs, etc.
• Remind your staff not to respond to messages like this and definitely dont download anything or click on links in unsolicited email.

Government check scams

• But remember that criminals read those headlines, too, and use them to make their phony pitches sound more credible.
• If someone calls or emails you out of the blue claiming theres money available from a government agency if you just make an up-front payment or provide some personal information, its a phony.
• Our Checks from the government blog post offers tips on spotting those scams.

Business email scams

• Weve warned companies about frauds perpetrated via business email.
• In reality, a con artist has spoofed the boss email address or phone number.
• Thats why an emergency request that would have raised eyebrows in the past might not set off the same alarms now.
• Warn your staff about these scams and give them a central in-house contact where they can verify requests they may receive.

I.T. scams

• These scams pose a particular problem now due to what cybercrime experts call social engineering: the dark art of manipulating human behavior to facilitate fraud.
• Your employees already may be distracted by changes to their routine and your tech support team is swamped.
• Your best defense is a workforce warned against this form of fraud.
• Again, an in-house source for accurate information can help protect your company.

Supply scams

• With many businesses scrambling for supplies, its wise to heed warnings about websites that mimic the look of well-known online retailers.
• They claim to have the essentials you need, but in reality, theyre fakes that take your order, grab your credit card number, and run.
• And before taking a chance on an unfamiliar supplier, check them out with trusted industry colleagues.

Robocall scams

• Its no surprise that fraudsters who already flout the law would try to exploit peoples COVID concerns to make a buck.
• This recording targets small business who may be affected by the Coronavirus, warning them to ensure your Google listing is correctly displaying.
• Weve seen scams like this before and the call definitely isnt from Google.
• Remind your staff that the only right response to an illegal robocall trying to sell something is to hang up.

Data scams

• The rest of us may be adjusting to new ways of working, but its business as usual for hackers.
• With more people telecommuting, hackers are hoping companies will drop their online defenses, making it easier to infiltrate data-rich networks.
• Also, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has resources on making a safer transition to a remote workplace.
• Read their recent bulletin on Security for Enterprise Telework, Remote Access, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Solutions.

• To do our part during this tumultuous and unprecedented time, we're providing Butterfly software and robust support free of cost to companies grappling with these changes."
• To learn more about Butterfly as a proven tool for engaging a frontline or remote workforce, please visit https://www.butterfly.ai .
• While Butterfly was built for the frontline workforce, it can also help companies in their transition from in-office to fully remote workforces.
• With the Butterfly software, every employee has a way to voice feedback confidently and every manager has the tools they need to turn that feedback into action.