Since technology started making its way towards the cloud, a whole array of virtual products have graced the business software and solutions market. When it comes to choosing a virtual PBX for your business, and with so many vendors claiming to offer the perfect solution, it can be a daunting task just narrowing down a shortlist of possible contenders. After all, this is your business and any major change that requires initial investment needs to be worth it. Bearing in mind that traditional hardware based PBXs and PSTN lines are hastily approaching extinction, the move to internet telephony is a necessary change that one would be wise to make sooner rather than later. And, as a Windows-based solution, you might want to take a look at what else 3CX Phone System has to offer. 3CX Phone System is specifically built for Windows Server 2012. Being Windows-based means that administrators can leverage their existing knowledge and will therefore need no additional training to learn a new OS or software platform. This makes the phone system much easier to configure and manage as a hosted solution in comparison to Linux-based, multi-tenant phone systems. For all businesses, but particularly for the smaller to mid-sized companies, this is a huge bonus. The time and money spent on training can be costly but with a Windows-based system this can be avoided. Until now, virtual PBXs have been limited in their feature set, which has been a turnoff for many companies who wish to implement a well-rounded, sophisticated and advanced unified communications solution. With 3CX Phone System however, this is not the case. We offer for you to enjoy, a fully virtualized 3CX Phone System instance complete with the myriad of advanced features that the 3CX on-premise version is well-known for. The phone system runs each instance fully virtualized and completely separate from that of other tenants. Unlike with multi-account systems, this means that whatever happens on one customer’s account, i.e. any applications that the customer may run, will never affect the 3CX Phone System virtual instance run by other customers. Another great advantage of a 3CX Phone System, is that we are able to offer both an on-premise and hosted solution. Finally, and most importantly, there’s the cost factor. Traditionally, both on-premise and hosted software PBXs have been charged at a per user, per extension, per month rate. Understandably, with such a price model, the overall costs each month are going to add up rather quickly. 3CX Phone System, however, has foregone this expensive pricing strategy and instead offers simple, transparent and affordable pricing per month or year based on the number of simultaneous calls. Users and extensions are unlimited. It’s safe to say that 3CX Phone System as a Hosted PBX is a unique offering in the virtual PBX market, giving SMBs as well as enterprises a cost-effective and reliable communications solution. Of course, being open standards means that with a variety of compatible SIP trunks and IP phones available, the perfect tailor-made solution can be developed for any business. Contact Us now for a completely free no obligation consultation or product demonstration.

Cyberthreat vulnerabilities are everywhere. Cybersecurity firm Zimperium announced in July 2015 that it had discovered a major vulnerability in Google's Android mobile operating system. The flaw potentially allows hackers to access approximately 95% of all Android smartphones and tablets. That adds up to around 950 million mobile devices that are at risk. A Uniquely Dangerous Cyberthreat Usually, hackers need their victims to make cybersecurity mistakes, like opening a malware-infected attachment, visiting a malicious website, or using an easy-to-crack password. However, the threat uncovered by Zimperium is especially dangerous because it doesn't need a victim to make any mistakes like that. A hacker using this newly discovered vulnerability only needs to hide malware inside of a video and then send it to someone in a text message. When the recipient views the message, their phone will automatically process the infected video, and thereby allow the hacker into the phone's system. If the attacker chooses to send the video via Google Hangouts, the victim doesn't even need to view the message, since the malware will take effect as soon as the phone receives it. In either case, the infected user will be completely unaware of the attack. The only things that a hacker needs in order to successfully exploit this vulnerability are a malware-laden video and their target's phone number. Once they've gained access to the target's mobile device, the attacker would be able to do anything, said Zimperium vice president Joshua J. Drake. In addition to stealing data, the attacker could remove all traces of the attack itself and use the device's microphone and camera to spy on the target. The flaw is part of Android's Stagefright media playback engine, which is used for playing both audio and video media files. It is believed that, in order to reduce video-viewing lag time, Stagefright's developers chose to have the playback engine automatically process the video before a user decides to start watching it. This opens the door for malware hiding in videos. Zimperium's Fix and the Problem with Android Patches Drake has already created patches for the flaw, and sent them to Google. Unfortunately, the tech giant isn't the one who is ultimately responsible for fixing users' phones and tablets. That burden rests with device manufacturers that typically tweak Android's source codes after receiving them from Google. Although Google has already delivered the patches to manufacturers, these companies are notoriously slow about issuing updates for their devices. It frequently takes over a year for many manufacturers to provide fixes for Android, and in some cases the devices never receive any security updates. Drake predicted that only 20% of vulnerable devices would end up getting patched, but added that the figure could get as high as "the optimistic number of 50%." Even this best-case scenario still leaves up to 475 million devices susceptible to a Stagefright-exploiting attack. What Users Can Do to Protect Their Devices While the only way to get the patch may be to pressure your device's manufacturer, you can mitigate some of the risk by blocking text messages from unknown senders. This will only work for Android versions that are older than Lollipop, the latest iteration of the operating system. There is no way to block unknown senders in Lollipop, but you can turn off the automatic retrieval function for multimedia messages. While this won't protect you entirely, it will prevent the malware from automatically deploying after your mobile device receives an infected message. Enterprises hoping to improve their mobile devices' defences should look to outside specialists. Zimperium, for example, offers a mobile threat defense platform that can counter Stagefright attacks. A partnership with a team of experienced cybersecurity professionals can help you protect your staff's mobile devices. Get complete security Multi offers complete security throughout your organisation. View our cyberoam unified threat management offerings or contact multi now to discuss the right security solution for your business. Make cyberthreat security issues a thing of the past with our expert IT support team.

Planning for success is nice in theory, but it’s hard for any business, especially in South Africa. Everyone knows the term “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The reason everyone has heard that term before is because planning and budgeting is critical for business success. Here at Multi we believe an IT Budget can help save you money and make you money. Your IT budget may not even exist or you may think it’s very small so there’s no need to budget for your IT. That is until you are sitting in September the following year and wondering why you have spent so much on printer cartridges or how this laptop replacement just came out of the blue and the list of possible “bumps” along your trip to business success is endless. Here are a few tips you should consider for your IT budget for 2016 to have smooth sailing on your way to business success. <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GNlrvj2SGfA" width="420" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Tips for your 2016 IT Budget Growth – What kind of growth do you see happening? How will you grow? What factors determine your growth? Then departmentalise those goals in your organisation. Growth goals need to be SMART, SMART goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Security – End point security, Network security, Infrastructure security. Making sure you keep the business critical data away from the end user. Have a service provider that offers up complete accountability for your business IT security. Cloud Solutions – If you have read the article on our IT blog about the cloud solutions survey results you will see that cloud solutions are gaining traction and are definitely the direction companies are moving in. Now you need to decide if this is right for your business or get specialists like Multi in to advise you on the best course for your company to take after analysing a variety of factors. New Technologies – Are you looking to implement any new technologies in the coming year? If so you need to at least have a rough estimate of the cost of these implementations. Staffing changes – Are you looking to change or add staff. The growth you predict will also be a factor in your staffing requirements. Malware threat – Dridex Malware helped hackers steal over $40 Million in the US and UK and can definitely affect you and your business. Your print costs – Many companies have no idea how much they have spent on print and print peripherals until the end of the year. Knowing how much and being more efficient in printing can save your company a fortune. A fortune that can be better spent in growing the business. Using a service like Multi’s Managed Print Solution will help you reduce your print costs and save you money. For any information on preparing your IT budget or if you would like your IT budget prepared for you like our managed service customers receive please contact Multi on 08600 Multi (68584) or email info@multi.co.za. Thank you and may you have a blessed Christmas and a prosperous new year.