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The NBN co warns scammers are trying to mislead people by informing them their service will be disconnected should they not provide a ‘technician’ online access to their computer.
Security concerns have become heightened as more Australians work-from-home amid the COVID19 pandemic, many on company laptops/PCs.
It joins a variety of other phishing emails and online attempts.
“With scammers increasing their efforts to use COVID-19 to steal people’s personal or financial details, we are starting to see the emergence [of] nbn related COVID-19 scams, so we are working with agencies like Scamwatch to continue to monitor the situation and alert the community,” states NBN Co Chief Security Officer, Darren Kane.
“We want to remind everyone to never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer or devices via the installation of programs such as Team Viewer or share any financial information or personal details with someone they don’t know.”
Mr Kane has urged Australian businesses and staff to not get complacence with the security of their work devices and documents despite the complacency which can emerge from working-from-home.
“It is important to not click on the links or attachments in suspicious emails and never respond to unsolicited messages.,” Kane adds.
“This is even more important for all of us that are working from home, as scammers are on the hunt for ways to get access and disrupt home and corporate networks.”
The NBN Co is advising Australians to not leave their work laptop or devices unattended or in ‘unsecured areas’, and prevent family members from using them for personal use. The agency warns it runs the risk of work devices being accidentally inflected.
Australians are also being advised to heighten their home network security, and change the default administrators password on their home router.
Further information on how Australians can protect against online scammers during coronavirus is available on the NBN Co’s website here.
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]]>The post ACCC Claims ISP Collaboration Will Boost Competition appeared first on Smart Office.
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Telstra has recently inked a peer relationship with Vocus – an arrangement the ACCC has welcomed.
Peering arrangements allow ISPs to physically connect to other networks, exchanging internet traffic often without payment.
ACCC Chair, Rod Sims, asserts ISP collaboration will birth downstream positive benefits, with transparency imperative:
“We welcome the recent agreement between Telstra and Vocus to enter into a peering arrangement”
“Gaining peering with other networks enables carriers to provide more competitive wholesale ‘transit’ services to other ISPs, which should have positive impacts in downstream markets including the corporate internet market”
“It is important that the big ISPs in particular publicise and apply their criteria in good faith, so that other providers have a transparent pathway to peering status, as they attain additional scale with the rollout of the NBN and other next generation fixed and mobile networks.”
Optus, Telstra and TPG have recently published their peer relationship criteria for other ISPs, outlining requirements to directly interconnect on a settlement free basis.
The ACCC has also issued an update about its assessment of competitiveness concerning internet interconnection services here.
Optus, Telstra, and TPG are known to have long-established peering relationships with each other (and Verizon).
To date, other ISPs had limited visibility to this criteria, to determine whether or not to enter a peering agreement.
Optus, Telstra and TPG also known to offer paid internet interconnection services (i.e. ‘transit)’ to other ISPs, allowing them to gain full connectivity to the wider internet.
Peering criterias can include geographic network reach, location of exchange points, minimum capacity requirements, and symmetry and volume of traffic exchanged.
Metrics are used to determine whether both parties will receive mutual benefit from a peering agreement.
Further information is available on the ACCC’s website here.
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]]>The post Amazon & BlackBerry To Launch Enterprise Alexa Device appeared first on Smart Office.
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As per ITWorldCanada, BlackBerry Chief Technology Officer, Charles Eagan, confirms the companies are building a “BlackBerry Alexa” enterprise device, for release in Q1 next year.
BlackBerry CEO, John Chen, asserts voice control will become a focal point in both the consumer and enterprise world:
“We believe the world is going to come together with enterprise and consumer. These devices that sit in your home could become the front point of a workflow engine.”
The forthcoming ‘BlackBerry Alexa’ device will reportedly integrate some of BlackBerry’s security expertise – e.g. alerting administrators when connections change, or an unknown connection is detected.
“Some of this grown-up behaviour is needed as you bring consumer devices into the enterprise,” asserts Mr Eagan.
Some sources state the rumoured device will also include “multi-factor authentication”, though it’s unclear what exactly this entails.
As previously reported, in November last year Amazon announced its ‘Alexa for Business’ managed service arsenal, enabling businesses to streamline certain processes via voice controls.
Amazon is reportedly also amidst discussions with Cisco Systems and Polycom for a range of conference-room solutions – furthering its ‘Alexa’ hardware push into commercial environments.
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]]>The post Plantronics Eyes Growth After $2B Polycom Buy appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Plantronics CEO, Joe Burton, affirms the acquisition will facilitate the development of one of the broadest portfolios of UCC endpoints.
Plantronics expects Polycom’s acquisition to be immediately accretive to Non-GAAP earnings per share, asserting it can achieve annual run-rate cost synergies of $75 million in 12 months.
The audio company is reportedly focused on building video and voice cloud solutions for office environments.
Tony Simonsen, Polycom VP ANZ, Japan & Korea, asserts the “new Plantronics” is better positioned to address “business productivity” and lift the “overall quality of communications and collaboration.”
“Together as one company, with teams in Australia and New Zealand and throughout the world, we will continue to put people’s needs at the center and boost the power of communications and collaboration,” he adds.
“I don’t know anyone else that can say that – that they have that whole portfolio.”
Plantronics today completed financing via $1.275 billion term loan priced at LIBOR plus 250 bps, maturing in July 2025.
Polycom was acquired for $2.0 billion, with total consideration consisting of around $1.63 billion cash and 6.35 million Plantronics shares.
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]]>The post Jabra Launches “World’s Most Powerful” Business Wireless Headset appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Claimed to be the “world’s most powerful professional wireless headsets”, Jabra’s Engage range will land in Australia on April 13th for A$638 – A$770 (pricing below).
The new Engage headsets are said to significantly improve the quality of customer calls, and thereby reduce organisational expenses.
Jabra claims the new headsets allow more employees to seat closer together (‘user density’), without compromising call quality – thereby a reduction in operating costs.
The new Engage headsets are designed for “the modern office”, fused with improved security features, long-range mobility (up to 150m) and reportedly three times user density compared to rival devices.
The company claims its Engage headsets provide the “highest level of security” found in any wireless headset on the market.
The product facilitates enhanced authentication and encryption, alongside ‘physical assisted pairing’ to create a ‘secret-link’ between a headset and its docking base unit.
Creating an “entirely new class” of DECT wireless professional headsets, the range is said to have involved over 115,000 hours of development, and the registration of four patents.
Jabra’s 65 and 75 Engage headsets feature an “all day battery” of between 9 – 13 hours, with a rapid charge option.
A variety of styles allows Jabra’s Engage range to cater to different workplaces.
Jabra Chief Executive Office, Rene Svendsen-Tune, affirms Jabra Engage features the “industry’s best headset family”:
Australian and New Zealand pricing is below:
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]]>The post Telstra Inks World-First Deal To Make Calls Inside Office 365 appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>The new ‘Telstra Calling for Office 365’ is set to launch in mid-2018, and will be bundled into several MS Office programs, with the addition of Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.
Just last week, Microsoft revealed 200,000 organisations are using ‘Teams’, up from 125,000 six months ago.
The product will enable Telstra to further expand into corporate and business segments, with many retiring PABX telephone systems.
The partnership is heralded the first of its kind between Microsoft and any global telco.
Telstra Executive Director of Global Products, Michelle Bendschneider, affirms the new service follows several years of relationship building between the telco and Microsoft.
The new calling service will be sold as a standalone offering, and Bendschneider claims it’s one of Telstra’s most significant product launches this year:
“Launching a product like this caters for, not just the large enterprises, but more importantly the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Australian organisations that will need to re-plumb and rewire their communications and collaborations environment ahead of a number of things changing in the market like the NBN”.
Microsoft Australia COO, Rachel Bondi, claims Telstra’s new product reflects the close relationship between both companies:
“This is a unique offering in the Australian marketplace. We have Microsoft Office calling and hybrid solutions in other markets, but this is co-created for Microsoft and Telstra only in Australia”.
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]]>The post Panasonic To Release World’s Most Powerful Facial ID Software This Year appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>In July 2018, the Japanese company’s Facial Recognition Server Software (WV-ASF950) and Face Registration Expansion Kit (WV-ASFE951W) will launch internationally.
Launch within Panasonic’s home country of Japan will occur in August 2018.
Using deep learning technology, the company claims its software identifies faces which are otherwise difficult to recognise with conventional methods.
This includes identifying individuals wearing sunglasses, faces which have changed appearance with ageing, or images captures with titled or angled faces.
Panasonic’s new facial recognition software also features a special “iA (intelligent Auto) mode”, which automatically adjusts camera settings for optimal image capture.
Used with the company’s i-PRO EXTREME series network cameras and its bundled “Best Shot License Key”, only the best images will be sent to servers for facial recognition.
As such, server and network loads are reduced, passing on an estimated 40% – 50% reduction in overall system costs.
Panasonic reveals it will debut a function to recognise faces covered with surgical masks by the end of 2018.
Full product specifications can be read here.
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]]>The post Android O for Pixel Phones Arriving Aug 21st appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Reputed commentator David Ruddock, Managing Director of Android Police, tweeted out that Google are “planning some degree of spectacle” around Android O’s arrival, and that it may receive its name on August 21st.
According to one source whose information I cannot verify, Android O will receive a name on the day of the solar eclipse (August 21st).
— David Ruddock (@RDR0b11) August 10, 2017
This was followed by another tweet, which informed that the Android O update for Pixel phone is also scheduled for this date.
The Android O update for Pixel is now scheduled for August 21st.
— David Ruddock (@RDR0b11) August 11, 2017
Serial tech leaker Evan Blass also confirmed this not long after.
Android O release scheduled for the week of 8/21, "most likely on the 21st itself."
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 12, 2017
It is speculated that the major software update will add a new picture-in-picture mode, new notification dots to the OS, and introduce improvements to Bluetooth audio playback.
There will also be internal improvements which will allow the smartphone to boot up faster, and increase the speed of loading apps.
Traditionally, Google has released full version name updates to Android by introducing a new device.
Android O’s predecessor, Nougat, launched last year alongside the Google Pixel.
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