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The 28 Best Backup and Disaster Recovery Companies for 2020 – Solutions Review

Backup and disaster recovery solutions are vital for organizations that want to maximize uptime and protect themselves from threats like cybercrime and natural disasters. Backup and disaster recovery companies are steadily advancing, and it is expected that nearly half of organizations will replace the backup applications they deployed as recently as 2018 in the coming months. This shows how critical it is for companies to remain up-to-date with backup and disaster recovery planning. When business-critical enterprise data is on the line, data management leaders should consider forward-looking technologies first.

Though backup and recovery practices have existed for years, there have been major changes and challenges in the space. New developments in deployment options like the proliferation of cloud technologies, as well as recovery techniques, pricing models and venture-backed startups all promise to disrupt the market. Vendors also continue to struggle when protecting server-virtualized environments, emerging next-generation databases, very large databases, and big data applications. The need exists for more simplistic functionality, though just how that aligns with the complex needs of enterprise organizations remains to be seen.

Selecting the best backup and disaster recovery company to work with can be a daunting task, and were here to help. Thats why our editors have compiled this list of the 28 best backup and disaster recovery companies to consider if youre looking for a new solution.

Check out our online backup and disaster recovery best practices section for even more guides, advice, and how-to content.

Acronis offers backup, disaster recovery, and secure file sync and share solutions. The company also provides data protection in any environment, including virtual, physical, cloud, and mobile. Acronis True Image 2020 is personal backup software that enables users to make a duplicate of their system, effectively capturing all of their data for system recovery or disk migration. Acronis Cyber Backup is aimed towards businesses of all sizes and offers proactive ransomware protection.

Actifio enables Virtual Data Pipeline (VDP) technology, as well as a data time machine, for the enterprise, eliminating backup and restore windows and creating virtual, point-in-time copies of data on-demand, for use by any businessapplication. Instant data recovery means no delays in restoring data for any use, and its enabled through a simple consumer-grade interface that is SLA-driven and application-centric in applying data protection. Actifios differentiated features in backup and recovery deliver functionality that can speed up backup modernization, improve recovery point and recovery time service levels, and apply granular protection at the application level and at the VM level.

Altaro provides users with Virtual Machine Backup and recovery solutions. The providers flagship product, Altaro VM Backup, has a straightforward UI that facilitates its use, while being full-featured as to create a strong backup strategy. The solution comes equipped with an outstanding support team determined to help clients succeed in protecting their environment. Everything can be managed and monitored from a single dashboard or by using the vendors online management console.

Arcserve offers organizations several different backup products, including Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), Arcserve Replication and High Availability, Arcserve UDP Cloud Direct, UDP Cloud Hybrid, and a legacy offering. UDP provides comprehensive Assured Recovery for virtual and physical environments with a unified architecture and an easy-to-use console. The product enables organizations to scale their IT environments easily while delivering against recovery point and recovery time objectives, on-prem or in the cloud.

Asigra is built for cloud computing environments and designed to offer backup efficiencies by allowing enterprises to capture, ingest and store less data. Designed for compatibility with public, private and hybrid cloud architectures, the Asigra Cloud Backup solution is equipped with agentless software architecture, global deduplication and data compression technology along with NIST FIPS 140-2 certified security. In addition, the vendor reduces recovery time objectives and eliminates silos of backup data.

Axcient offers a single solution that incorporates data protection, disaster recovery, archiving, and test/dev. The vendor provides two self-service platform options that can be managed by a single user: Axcient Business Recovery Cloud, which is the legacy solution, and Axcient Fusion, which was unveiled in 2016. Axcient Fusion is built to run on public cloud, and both platforms offer one-hour and eight-hour RTO options. Axcient enables users to mirror their entire business in the cloud, thereby simplifying data access and restore, failovers, and virtualization.

Barracuda Backup offers a complete cloud-integrated solution for protecting physical and virtual environments that includes software, appliance, and offsite replication. The solution is simple to deploy, easy to manage, and offers users unlimited cloud storage. With an extensive range of supported environments and integration with copy file sync and share services, organizations can replace multi-vendor piecemeal backup solutions with an all-in-one appliance. The platform supports replication to another Barracuda appliance for private-cloud data protection or secure transfer to the Barracuda Cloud.

Carbonite offers enterprise cloud-based backup, recovery, and storage solutions. The Carbonite Data Protection Platform allows organizations to deploy the right form of protection for each type of data in their systemsfrom long-term backup to rapid recovery, data migration, and endpoint protection. The vendors Cloud Disaster Recovery centralizes the backup and recovery of data on all computers distributed throughout an organizations locations. Agents automatically back up the data over the internet to a highly secure data center. Carbonite has three recovery centers in the United States.

Code42 offers backup, disaster recovery, and data loss protection solutions. The providers data loss protection solution, (Next-Gen DLP), detects insider threats, satisfies regulatory compliance requirements, automatically monitors file activity across computers and cloud, and facilitates incident response. Additionally, Code42s security, IT, and compliance professionals have the ability to protect endpoint and cloud data from loss, leak, and theft while maintaining a collaborative culture for employees.

Cohesity is a data management company that manages, protects, and extracts value from enterprise data. The providers flagship tool, Cohesity DataProtect, safeguards a wide range of data sources on a single web scale platform. The solution can be deployed on-premises on qualified platforms in the data center, in the public cloud, and on the edge. Additionally, the platform utilizes a scale-out architecture that starts with a minimum of three nodes and scales without disruption by adding nodes to the cluster.

Commvaultprovides data protection and information management software to assist organizations with protecting, accessing, and using all of their data economically. The vendor has a long list of supported public cloud providers, hypervisors, big data support, and database protection as well.Commvault is available as a software-only solution, an appliance offering and just recently,as an enterprise-grade SaaS offering for backup and recovery through Metallic.Recently, Commvault acquireddata storage solution provider, Hedvig.

Datto offers business continuity and disaster recovery, networking, business management, and file backup and sync solutions, and has created an ecosystem of partners that provide Datto solutions to businesses across the globe. Since its founding in 2007, Datto continues to win awards each year for its rapid growth, product excellence, superior technical support, and for fostering an outstanding workplace. With global headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, Datto has international offices in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Canada, Australia, China, and Singapore.

Dell EMCs backup and recovery solution is a prepackaged backup suite made up of several different components that are available for individual sale. These include Avamar, Networker and Data Protection Adviser, with options for cloud backup and archiving. Dell EMCs solutions give a full range of data protection, from archive to continuous availability for physical, virtual and cloud environments. The provider enables digital transformation through hybrid cloud and big-data solutions built on a modern data infrastructure, which brings together converged infrastructures, storage, and servers.

Druva delivers data protection and management for the cloud era. Druva Cloud Platform is built on AWS and offered as-a-Service. Druva Phoenix simplifies data protection, improves visibility, and significantly reduces the risk, cost, and effort of managing complex data. The solution operates seamlessly and can be managed from one location, giving IT administrators full visibility and control over server backups and data composition. Druva is used worldwide by over 4,000 companies at the forefront of embracing cloud.

FalconStor provides data protection and recovery. The tool automates complex recovery processes to ensure data can be recovered before business operations are impacted. Users can proactively detect and alert performance bottlenecks and health risks using a real-time analytics module with historical and real-time trends and reports and streaming analytics. FalconStor also enables wide area network (WAN)-optimized replication options for disaster recovery and remote office protection.

Hitachi Vantara is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., and offers an expansive portfolio of products for integrating, managing and analyzing data. Hitachis portfolio of data management solutions are best suited for modern environments, and can help organizations to quickly improve their key performance metrics, including business continuity, backup windows, operational recovery, and disaster recovery. The tool also provides data protection and recovery for complex enterprise architectures.

IBM offers a wide range of technology and consulting services, including predictive analytics and software development. The vendors backup and disaster recovery solution, Spectrum Protect, is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery. It enables backups and recovery for virtual, physical, and cloud environments. The tool also offers VM protection with searchable catalog and role-based administration.

Infrascale offers an enterprise-grade disaster recovery solution that provides failover to a second site with the flexibility to boot from the appliance or cloud. The product is delivered as a physical or virtual appliance and includes disaster recovery software. Infrascales dashboard simplifies the management of data protection by providing a single view through which the entire suite of services is deployed. An administrative dashboard, accessible from any browser or device, makes it easy to recover mission-critical applications and systems with pushbutton simplicity.

Micro Focus offers scalable solutions with built-in hybrid IT management analytics, security, and data management. The vendor merged with HPE in the fall of 2017 and now offers Data Protector, a comprehensive, centrally managed backup and recovery software for physical and virtual environments. Data Protector offers high-performing backup and recovery across various data repositories, applications and remote sites in physical and virtual environments. It standardizes and consolidates backup and recovery processes so that businesses can improve reliability, gain business resiliency and reduce costs.

MSP360 (formerly CloudBerry Lab) offers cloud-based backup, disaster recovery, and file management solutions that are integrated with major public cloud services. The vendors offerings include easy-to-use backup management capabilities and military-grade encryption using customer-controlled keys. Customers can choose to store their backup data with more than 20 online storage providers, including Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, HP Cloud, Rackspace, IBM Softlayer, and others.

NAKIVO offers a data protection solution for VMware, Hyper-V, cloud, and AWS EC2 environments. The vendor boasts five-star online community reviews, impressive scores for customer support, and more than 10,000 global deployments. Over 150 hosting, managed, and cloud services providers are using NAKIVOs software in order to deliver virtual machine Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to their customers.

NovaStors NovaBACKUP is a centralized backup product for heterogeneous IT environments including Windows and Linux, VMware and Hyper-V. The provider also enables MSPs to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for offsite cloud backup, archive, and long-term data retention. NovaStor is stable and reliable, and includes support for the newest technologies. With multi-tenancy functions, users have the option to set up and maintain multiple locations, departments, and users within the companys backup infrastructure.

Rubrik primarily provides data protection and data management in hybrid IT environments with its flagship product, Rubrik Cloud Data Management (RCDM). The platform is a scale-out-architecture-based data protection tool with cloud integration, live mount for Oracle Databases, support for Office 365 backup, and support for SAP HANA backup. Additionally, in 2018 Rubrik acquired Datos IO, a company specializing in data protection of NoSQL databases. The vendor also offers Polaris Radar, a solution that provides ransomware detection and remediation.

SolarWinds MSP is an IT infrastructure management software provider. The vendors data backup tool is called SolarWinds Backup and provides cloud-focused data protection services to both physical and virtual servers, workstations, business documents, and Microsoft Office 365. The solution is compatible with on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. SolarWinds also offers storage in its global private cloud. The providers other related capabilities include threat monitoring, mail protection and archiving, remote support, and remote monitoring.

StorageCraft offers backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions for servers, desktops, and laptops. Their solutions reduce downtime, improve security and stability for systems and data, and lower the total cost of ownership. The vendor boasts four offices globally, 11,000 partners and has backed up over one million devices. StorageCrafts business is focused on data protection and restoration tools that are offered via value-added and channel partners. However, it also offers scale-out storage, replication, recovery, integrated data protection, and more.

Unitrends Enterprise Backup provides a package of on-prem backup, backup to the cloud, cloud-to-cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) backup, and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) via integrated appliances and software only offerings. The provider leverages high-availability hardware and software engineering with support services to provide all-in-one backup and continuity. Unitrends also offers hypervisor host-level security for VMWare, Hyper-V, and XenServer, as well as more traditional security for physical servers and databases. The company was recently acquired by the IT management solution provider, Kaseya.

Veeam Backup & Replication is a data protection and disaster recovery solution for virtual environments of any size. It provides fast, flexible and reliable recovery of virtualized applications and data. The provider unifies backup and replication in a single solution, increases the value of backup and reinvents data protection for VMware VSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments. Veeam offers free promotions for physical server backup and O365 Exchange Online. The solution also features data center functions, including tape support and snapshot storage integration, along with key deduplication backup integration.

Veritas Technologies provides backup and recovery, business continuity, information governance, and storage management tools. Its NetBackup product is a single and scalable solution that can protect physical, virtual and cloud workloads. Multitenant support is optional, and the solution is available on a converged platform that requires minimal administration, even in large environments. It eliminates point products and improves productivity within a business using centralized, policy-based management. Veritas also incorporates innovative technologies for data reduction and bandwidth efficiency, while providing extensive indexing and search capabilities.

Editor at Solutions Review

Tess Hanna is an editor and writer at Solutions Review covering Backup and Disaster Recovery, Business Process Management, and Talent Management. She aims to simplify the research process for IT professionals. You can contact her at thanna@solutionsreview.com

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Signiant Sees Another Record Year in 2019 – Broadcasting & Cable

Signiant Inc today announced another record year in 2019 with impressive double-digit growth for both its SaaS offerings and its licensed software product, Manager+Agents. Signiants massive footprint now includes more than 25,000 businesses across every part of the media supply chain. With a customer list that includes many of the worlds best-known entertainment brands, as well as thousands of small and mid-sized media businesses, the award-winning company is uniquely positioned to connect the global media industry via its innovative SDCX (Software Defined Content Exchange) SaaS platform. Another banner year in 2019 reinforces Signiant's position as one of the fastest growing companies in media technology.

Signiants growth was accelerated in 2019 with the introduction of its newest SaaS product, Signiant Jet, the final building block in the companys foundational suite of intelligent file movement solutions. Jet offers powerfully simple system-to-system file transfer capabilities to businesses of any size. Even the smallest companies can now take advantage of Signiants advanced technology to automate file-based workflows between locations, and they can easily exchange content with the large media companies in their ecosystem. Large enterprises can securely peer with one another and with their entire supply chains.

The Signiant SDCX SaaS platform now addresses any use case within or between companies, across any hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environment: Jet handles system-to-system file movement, Media Shuttle is for person-initiated transfers, and Signiant Flight moves data to and from the cloud. With a huge installed base and the complete platform foundation now in place, the company's strategic roadmap calls for increasing investment in adjacent functionality.

Its exciting to celebrate another record year and equally exciting to continue our product evolution, said Margaret Craig, CEO, Signiant. With the platform now connected to thousands of on-premises and cloud storage endpoints, customers are asking for additional capabilities that add value beyond file transfer. Thanks to our increased scale and strong financial position, were rapidly growing our Ottawa-based engineering team as well as exploring targeted acquisitions to expand our platforms capabilities.

As media companies extend their reach and embrace new consumer delivery channels, distributed content storage has become the norm putting Signiant in the increasingly pivotal role of providing unified access to valuable media assets anywhere in the world, whether they are in the cloud or in an on-premises data center. The evolution of the industry, combined with our early leadership in the use of cloud technology in media, has paved the way for Signiant to be thought of more strategically by the market. Many of the worlds largest media companies are bringing Signiant to the table as a strategic partner as they look to make cloud and SaaS solutions work for their businesses, added Craig.

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Major new collaborative tools feature in Premiere Pro update – RedShark News

As Sundance Film Festival begins, Adobe announces a preview of a forthcoming collaborative addition to Premiere Pro entitled Productions.

Productions is a panel which provides a toolset to manage projects, share assets, and organize these assets in either a collaborative or solo production environment.

Productions will appear as a panel in Premiere and allows for starters the division of projects into smaller components. The examples that Adobe cites might include organization by reels, scenes, seasons, episodes, audio or visual elements. The project owner can grant permissions to specific users to reference or even retrieve items and of course restrict others.

Since Productions panel merely references assets already on shared local storage or cloud storage, users can retrieve or reuse specific elements without creating new files, saving on storage and preventing project bloat. And of course sharing is OS agnostic allowing Windows and MacOS users to play nicely with each other.

Productions does not require project owners or users to license Creative Cloud for Teams. Any individual or even a single application subscriber can share projects as long as the user has a valid Premiere Pro license.

Productions is designed for flexibility in security as well as storage. Shared local networks or high performance cloud storage are both supported.

All projects in a Production have identical settings, even the scratch disks. All editors who have project permissions can then access preview files, for example, generated by another user. And users can track who is working on a component of the project to track its progress.

Adobe has not yet announced a release date but as a feature upgrade rather than a standalone new Creative Cloud application, expect it to appear in a forthcoming update to Premiere Pro.

This video from Adobe demonstrates Productions workflow.

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France 7s vs New Zealand 7s Live Stream Free Rugby Online – Up News Info

Heading over to the final round of Rugby Sevens 2020. We have a complete list ofstreaming channels to watch Rugby Sevens onlinefrom anywhere. The live coverage starts at8 PM ET. The Rugby Sevens week is finally here. This means teams are putting the final touches on their draft preparations ahead of the three-day draft in Nashville that begins on Thursday night. This will be the 84th annual meeting of Rugby 7s. And the franchises will be selecting new eligible players.

There are a lot of channels towatch the Rugby Sevens 2020. Fans can choose either to watch in the stadium or to watch on live streaming. Most of the coverage of the on-field workouts will be on the official channels. A lot of other options are also available where you can watch the Rugby Sevens 2020.

Along with the Rugby 7s network, ABC is also the official channel to watch the Rugby Sevens 2020. It has excellent video quality. ABC will have coverage on all three days of the Rugby Sevens 2020. ABC telecast includes two nights of primetime as well.

Rugby Sevens 2020 can also be watched live on the ABC app on your smartphone. ABC app can be downloaded either from the App Store for iOS devices and Google Play for Android devices.

FUbo TV is one of the best streaming channels. It has Rugby 7s Network as one of the 95 channels that are included in the main FuboTV package. It is primarily targeted for sports fans. Start with a free seven-day trial right here, and then you can watch a live stream of the Draft on the Rugby 7s Network on your computer via the FuboTV website. Also, watch Fubo TV on your Android phone, iPhone, tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, or any other supported device by downloading the FuboTV app.

In case you are not able to watch live TV, FuboTV has 30 hours of Cloud DVR (which can be upgraded to up to 500 hours). There is a lookback feature with which you can watch the daily coverage within three days after it has been aired even you did not download it.

Another option to watch the Rugby Sevens 2020 is the PlayStation Vue. There is no need of the original PlayStation console to sign up or watch programs. Vue offers four different live-TV channel packages: All four include ABC (live in most markets), while the top three bundles include Rugby 7s Network.

You can start with a free 5-day trial of any channel package, and then watch a live stream of the Draft on your computer via the PS Vue website. Also watch Vue on your Android phone, iPhone, tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, or any other supported device by downloading the PlayStation Vue app. If you are unable to watch live, PlayStation Vue comes with a cloud DVR included.

Hulu is also an option to watch the live streaming of the Rugby Sevens 2020. Hulu also offers a package of over 50 live TV channels. It also includes ABC. Rugby 7s Network, however, is not available on Hulu. Subscribe for Hulu with Live TV, and you can then watch the live stream of the Draft on your computer.

You can also watch on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Echo Show, or any other compatible device by downloading the Hulu app. If you are not able to watch live, Hulu with Live TV also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage. The cloud storage can be upgraded to Enhanced Cloud DVR, which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials.

Viewers can find a lot of subreddits which comes with free links to watch Rugby Sevens 2020 live stream through Reddit. Just choose the links with no ads and stable coverage with no interruption.

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Bitdefender wants to protect your device for just over 7 dollars, but there’s a catch – TechRadar

If you're looking for a great deal on security - Bitdefender has extended its Black Friday sale and its Total Security 2020 platform has never been so cheap.

The company is offering a huge 60% discount, which means you pay only $35.99 (excluding taxes) for a year's protection instead of the usual $89.99.

Thats about $7.20 per device, or just pennies per day, for one of the best security suites on the market.

Bitdefender Total Security 2020 - $35.99 (60% off)

Not only is this one of the cheapest antivirus deals around, it comes from one of the world's biggest security companies. Bitdefender Total Security 2020 is your Swiss Army knife - a security toolkit that also boasts multi-layer ransomware protection on up to five devices. It constantly tracks malware, recording cyberthreat patterns to keep you secure online.

While there is a VPN tool includes, it's not the best in town for a number of reasons - and we believe you'd be much better off using a standalone service such as ExpressVPN.

In a nutshell, you get complete protection across up to five of your devices (Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android). The new version includes webcam and anti-ransomware protection and zero system slowdowns, plus dozens of other features.

Just bear in mind that this deal is only valid for the first year and you will likely pay far more going forward. One way to get around the issue is to use a different email on renewal to pass as a new customer.

We'd recommend leaving the company's Antivirus Plus 2020 and Internet Security 2020 offerings; both of them are fantastic products but will run you $12 and $4 respectively. With Total Security 2020, you get a much better all-rounder with extra device coverage to boot.

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How scammers take advantage of stressed-out taxpayers – The Guardian

As the self-assessment tax return deadline looms this week, the pressure is on for millions of self-employed workers and business owners. Getting the paperwork in on time is an annual headache and that pressure may make them more susceptible to scams.

In the last year, HMRC has received 900,000 reports of suspicious phone calls, texts and emails most promising tax rebates. And they are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly convincing.

With a galling similarity to official communications using the same logo and seemingly official reference numbers emails from fraudsters ask recipients to click on a PDF attachment, which then requires them to fill in their bank details.

Calls from numbers which look identical to HMRC are also increasing. They can even include Government Gateway account numbers which makes them very easy to fall for, and infuriating for those who succumb.

We are human, so we can make mistakes. Even cautious people click on malicious attachments or links, says Jake Moore, a specialist at internet security company ESET. As the scams spread to social media, where many people may not be expecting to be contacted about tax details, and via direct messaging through Facebook and WhatsApp, there is one simple rule to remember - HMRC stresses it never uses any social media to offer a tax rebate, or ask for personal or financial information.

The scams do not always come in the enticing form of a promised rebate. Calls can be far more threatening, telling their target they owe money and will be arrested for tax fraud or have their bank account frozen within hours if they dont pay.

Be on the alert for automated calls. Ray Walsh from ProPrivacy.com particularly warns about accepting so-called robocalls, which aim to trick people into pressing a key on their keypad to connect to a caseworker to make a payment. Some have succeeded in adding charges to a victims phone bill simply by making them press a key.

Matthew Singleton, a Manchester-based finance professional, was targeted by scammers shortly before Christmas. He received a call from an 020 number and was taken through security. The scammer knew his name and address and told him he had underpaid his income tax.

They know what the trigger points are, and that if a call or email is out of the blue you can start to get flustered

When Singleton said it was a scam, he was told to Google HMRC and go to the contacts section of the site. The scammer said he would ring back from an 0300 number listed there. My phone then came up with this 0300 number the exact same number as on the HMRC website, says Singleton. He was told he could pay the amount owed more than 4,800 over the phone. There was no way I was doing that. I had not had any documentation. But I was told an arrest warrant would be issued within two hours of the call ending.

Singleton reported the scam to Action Fraud but believes HMRC could do more to increase awareness. When you Google HMRC, why cant it put a warning under its link to explain that this could happen? The safest thing is to warn people that even calls from recognised HMRC phone numbers may not be legitimate.

Joel Lewis, consumer policy manager at Age UK, agrees. I think HMRC should do a bit more to promote the fact these scams exist. We hear a lot about self-assessment deadlines, but not that you need to watch out because there are people pretending to be HMRC, he says.

The chief executive of cyber-security firm DynaRisk, Andrew Martin, says scammers can spoof any number new or old. In the case of text messages, scammers can alter the caller ID field to say HMRC. For phone calls, they alter it to show a number thats the same as another HMRC number.

The problem has led HMRC to work with the telecommunications industry and regulator Ofcom to prevent the cloning of genuine contacts. HMRC says it has seen a 94% reduction of phone scams spoofing genuine numbers since controls were introduced in April 2019. We have put in place pioneering new controls such as DNO [Do Not Originate] to prevent spoofing of the most used inbound helpline numbers, it says. During the past year, the teams work also instigated the removal of 1,921 unique numbers being used by scammers.

It says it is also working to raise awareness of scams via the media: We have a reporting channel which responded to nearly 200,000 calls from customers in the last year, and we maintain dedicated information on HMRC scams on the gov.uk educational pages.

Consumers are advised that if they receive a phone call from someone purporting to be from HMRC, they should end the call and phone back on a verified number. Check the HMRC website or use the number on a letter you have received in the past.

Be aware, however, that scammers can keep phone lines open, which means the original connection remains active even if the consumer has hung up. So always use a different phone to call back or wait 10 minutes if its the same line.

Crucially, HMRC will only contact customers due a refund by post. It will never be by phone, text or email, nor will consumers be asked for their PIN, password or bank details. Its advice is to watch out for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in emails, as well as the use of threatening and urgent language such as you only have three days to reply.

Lewis says the tactics scammers use can be very effective and well-honed, and that it is important not to rush into anything. They know what the trigger points are for people and that if a call or email is out of the blue you can start to get flustered and make a rushed decision, rather than taking a moment to consider what it is you are being asked to do, he says. Dont respond immediately. There is never a need to do that. Ask for a second opinion from a family member or friend or someone else you trust.

Many phishing emails avoid using a persons name and opt for a generic greeting such as Dear customer. Check the from email address carefully, too. Some use random characters and can be easier to spot, but others may end in hmrc.gov.uk and appear more convincing.

Avoid opening the message and do not click on any links or PDF attachments.

Forward suspicious emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599. You can also contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm or use its online fraud reporting tool, particularly if you have lost money

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Here’s the Top Cyber-Security Software You Need To Consider Downloading For 2020 – Grit Daily

Only 66% of businesses around the world can say they are truly prepared for nowadays cyber-security threats, according to a study by eSecurity Planet. The good news is that companies have started spending more in IT security in 2019 than in previous years.

But while security seems to be getting better, its still costing companies an average of $3.92 million in data breach damages.

Dont wait till that happens to you before taking action. These tools are a must for those who value their privacy, as well as businesses that dont need the hassle of an expensive data breach any time soon.

Did you know that there are 350,000 new malware (malicious software) types are discovered every day, with the total number of known malware almost reaching 1 billion in 2019? Thats a lot of threats for one piece of software to prevent, and there are certainly areas where using anti-malware wont cut it.

Still, its a much better option than trusting that 100% of your employees will practice due diligence. It only takes one click on a malicious pop-up for your company data to be exposed or deleted, so better play it safe with some great anti-malware recommendations.

As a crucial side note, definitely offer ALL your staff thorough cybersecurity training to prevent such situations in the first place. That includes anybody with Internet access; no exceptions.

According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), over 80% of data breaches happen due to weak or re-used passwords. It can seem daunting requiring employees to remember long, randomized passwords for who knows how many business accounts, especially with the need to change them once in a while. And yes, writing them down on sticky notes is a password leak waiting to happen.

Fortunately, there are plenty of password managers that can do the job for you. Not only can you create strong, completely randomized passwords, but theyll also store them offline behind a master key making it that much harder for hackers to breach your accounts.

Obviously, your master key could become compromised as well, but its no different than a hacker finding out an email password and resetting accounts left and right.

At least the master key is in your hands and you dont have to rely on a third partys cyber-security being up to par. (Anyone remember the 3 billion exposed Yahoo! accounts?)

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) allow for secure web-browsing and data transfer, especially in work environments heavy in mobile devices. Each of those smartphones, tablets, laptops (and fridges, apparently) can be used as a vulnerable entry point into your organization.

Even the latest Wi-Fi protocols have severe vulnerabilities that arent making things easier for anybody.

VPNs encrypt (obfuscate, essentially) any data sent or received over a network. All that data moves through an encrypted tunnel, ensuring it gets to the right people without being intercepted or tampered with.

VPNs are also quite versatile and can be installed on most devices nowadays. Some can even be set up on the routers themselves, meaning every device connected to that router will benefit from encrypted connections.

However, be wary of running free VPN software in the hopes of cutting costs. Research found that 38% of free VPNs on the Android platform contained malware. Theyre also known to log and sell browsing data to malicious third parties. Youd be better off without a VPN at that point.

Now, using a VPN can be a huge weight off your shoulders, but its no use if your own browser betrays you.

Hopefully, your business isnt part of the 8% whom Microsoft pleaded to stop using Internet Explorer.

Yes, many enterprises still rely on Internet Explorer (IE) today because of its compatibility with legacy hardware and/ or software (especially based on the ActiveX framework). Bad idea. The number of breaches and vulnerabilities associated with using IE today are endless.

But at some point executives should consider an overhaul to their business if its keeping their employees stuck with a vastly unsecure browser.

Sure, the expenses of switching software around might hurt in the short-term theres no way around that. Its still better to act while your organization is smaller in scale, rather than be caught off guard when the inevitable need to upgrade comes along.

Instead, try one of these privacy-focused browsers. Take Brave, for example, automatically upgrades all connections to HTTPS wherever possible, meaning browser-website communications are encrypted.

Ideally, nobody would be visiting HTTP-only websites, but theres still a long way to go for a fully encrypted Internet.

Finally, install an ad-blocking extension for good measure.

Lets be honest, nobody likes ads. Allowing ads might be a decent enough way to support your favorite news site or content creator, but wed all rather find an alternative. Moreover, many ads contain malware, some of which can even activate without being clicked.

This isnt just shady websites were talking about, either. The New York Times, the BBC, AOL and many others have had malware injected into their adverts, leading to users devices getting infected. Its safe to say that your business security is more important than the fraction of a cent these services receive from a single ad view.

uBlock Origin is the clear winning choice in this category. It distinguishes itself by using very few system resources and by not allowing acceptable ads in exchange for advertiser money. In fact, the creator doesnt even accept donations for his work.

Moreover, the extension is open-source, meaning anyone can look behind the scenes to see if there are any potential vulnerabilities in the source code.

Optional: Using a script-blocker like uMatrix in tandem with uBlock Origin allows even more control over what content can be displayed on a webpage. It certainly blocks most vulnerable avenues to infiltrate an employees device, and then the entire network.

On the other hand, the learning curve might be a bit much. Theres a handy guide for uMatrix right here, but uBlock Origin does perfectly fine on its own too.

At the end of the day, protect yourself with the right security tools for you and your organization.

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Here's the Top Cyber-Security Software You Need To Consider Downloading For 2020 - Grit Daily

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Limited internet to be restored in Kashmir, no access to social media – Reuters

Srinagar (Reuters) - Limited mobile data services and internet will be temporarily restored in Jammu and Kashmir from Saturday, ending nearly a six month communications lockdown after Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew the Muslim majority regions autonomy.

FILE PHOTO: Indian security forces personnel patrol a street in Srinagar January 10, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

Access will be limited to about 300 whitelisted websites and internet speed would remain low, the local Jammu and Kashmir government said in a notice late on Friday.

However, social media applications that allow peer to peer communication will continue to be banned, it said.

The decision will be reviewed on Jan. 31, the notice added.

The move to restore the services comes days after Indias top court ordered the curbs to be reversed, saying that freedom of internet access is a fundamental right and that its indefinite suspension is illegal.

Modis Hindu-nationalist government has frequently used internet shutdowns as a tool to quell dissent in troubled parts of the country.

It has argued that the blackout was needed to maintain order in the Himalayan region where security forces have been fighting a long-running separatist insurgency encouraged by neighboring Pakistan.

The internet lockdown in Kashmir region since Aug. 5 has severely disrupted the lives of millions, impacting everything from college admissions to bank payments and businesses filing tax returns.

Access will temporarily be allowed to websites of banks like State Bank of India and HDFC, education institutions, news, entertainment sites including Amazon Prime, travel, utilities and food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato as well as email and search engines including Google and Yahoo.

While the local government restored limited internet in some parts of the region earlier in January, some people are still struggling to get online.

Nasir Nabi, a student from north Kashmirs Kupwara district, where some services were restored, is pursuing a masters degree through a distance learning course and has been unable to access the universitys website.

Because of the slow internet speed, the 23-year-old has not been able to download the study material or get information about any examinations.

Shameem Ahmad, a shopkeeper from the same region, said he has found it difficult to complete bank transactions as the internet speed is very low and most of the times it fails to process the request.

The internet shutdown in Kashmir, which has been on for more than 150 days, is the longest such outage in any democracy, according to digital rights group Access Now.

Writing by Aditi Shah; Editing by Michael Perry

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Analyzing AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) and Cyren (NASDAQ:CYRN) – Riverton Roll

AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) and Cyren (NASDAQ:CYRN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares AppFolio and Cyrens net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for AppFolio and Cyren, as provided by MarketBeat.

AppFolio presently has a consensus price target of $87.03, suggesting a potential downside of 30.19%. Cyren has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 134.38%. Given Cyrens stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cyren is more favorable than AppFolio.

Volatility & Risk

AppFolio has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cyren has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares AppFolio and Cyrens revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

AppFolio has higher revenue and earnings than Cyren. Cyren is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AppFolio, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

37.1% of AppFolio shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.1% of Cyren shares are held by institutional investors. 42.5% of AppFolio shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 54.2% of Cyren shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

AppFolio beats Cyren on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

AppFolio Company Profile

AppFolio, Inc. provides industry-specific cloud-based software solutions for small and medium-sized businesses in the property management and legal industries. It offers AppFolio Property Manager, a cloud-based software solution for the real estate market that provides property managers of various sizes and tools and services designed to streamline their property management businesses, such as posting and tracking vacancies, leasing vacant properties, and accounting, as well as facilitating tenant, owner, and vendor communications. The company also provides MyCase, a legal practice and case management solution that provides managing calendars, contacts and documents, time tracking, billing and collections, and communicating with clients and sharing sensitive and privileged materials for solo practitioners and small law firms. In addition, it offers Value+ services, such as its Website design, electronic payment services, tenant screening, insurance, contact center, premium leads, and tenant debt collections services. As of December 31, 2017, the company served 11,708 property manager customers; and 9,349 solo practitioners and small law firms. AppFolio, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

Cyren Company Profile

CYREN Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides information security solutions for protecting Web, email, and mobile transactions worldwide. The company operates Cyren Cloud Security, a SaaS security platform, which provides Internet security services, including Web Security that provides the enforcement of Web policy and state-of-the-art threat protection for business users; DNS Security, which allows businesses to protect employees at headquarters, visitors in remote offices, customers at retail stores, or students on a campus; Email Security, a cloud-based secure email gateway; and Cloud Sandboxing that protects businesses against breaches and data loss from threats. It also operates Cyren Threat Intelligence Services, a platform that offers cloud-based cyber threat detection APIs and SDKs to technology and security vendors. The company's threat intelligence services comprise embedded email and Web security services; Endpoint Security, which detects malware on various endpoints, including mobile devices and embedded operating system devices; and advanced threat protection services that comprise tools for combating mobile malware, ransomware, and other Web-borne threats. CYREN Ltd. sells its products through direct and indirect channels, including value added resellers and managed service providers to enterprise customers and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Commtouch Software Ltd. and changed its name to CYREN Ltd. in January 2014. CYREN Ltd. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. CYREN Ltd. is a subsidiary of WP XII Investments B.V.

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Analyzing AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) and Cyren (NASDAQ:CYRN) - Riverton Roll

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University to Help Society Wrap Their Minds Around Artificial Intelligence – Governing

(TNS) Researchers at the University of Michigan have been exploring the need to set ethics standards and policies when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence, and they now have their own place to do so.

The university has created a new Center of Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC) that will focus on AI, data usage, augmented and virtual reality, privacy, open data and identity.

According to thecenters website, the name and abbreviation alludes to the ESC key on a computer keyboard, which was added to interrupt a program when it produced unwanted results.

In the same way, the Center for Ethics, Society and Computing (ESC pronounced escape) is dedicated to intervening when digital media and computing technologies reproduce inequality, exclusion, corruption, deception, racism or sexism, the centers mission statement reads.

The center will bring together scholars who are committed to feminist, justice-focused, inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to computing, the university said in a news release.

Associate Director Silvia Lindtner said the center has been in a soft launch phase since March 2019. The idea for ESC was born out of making a critical engagement with the politics and ethics of computing a central aspect of technology research and design, she said.

We established ESC to build on and give legitimacy to the long-term scholarship and activism in technology, engineering and design, and to create an interdisciplinary space to explore and apply critical, justice-oriented and feminist approaches to computing and technology research, Lindtner said.

Director Christian Sandvig said the center is hosting a visiting artist working on robotics this term, and that the center includes faculty from computer science, architecture, music and business schools.

We are fairly unique because we are aggressively pursuing research approaches and topics beyond what people normally think about as computing, Sandvig said.

Lindtner said the universitys public nature allows the center to engage deeply with the broader public, policy experts and actors in the social justice movement.

This is a topic that used to be on the fringes, but more recently has gotten broader attention as we have experienced many unintended consequences of technology, Lindtner said.

Some of the concerns the center will be tackling include gender and racial stereotyping in AI and data-based algorithms, as well as an overall lack of accountability and digital justice.

Sandvig said a lot of companies are now rushing to nominal ethics conversations as a solution to the negative perceptions of their products, but ESC is not interested in ethics-washing.

Were looking ahead to difficult debates about the future path we are steering with technology in society, Sandvig said. We need to make it normal that there is an extensive program of research about this topic ethics, justice, technology, people and the future and it must be central to the enterprise of developing technology and training students.

The center is sponsored by the School of Information; the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research, and the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts at UM.

2020 MLive.com, Walker, Mich..Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.

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University to Help Society Wrap Their Minds Around Artificial Intelligence - Governing

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