Playbook Volume 9 - ChannelVision Magazine

device (BYOD) and having remote workers connecting to corporate resources via public Wi-Fi con- nections, companies must make sure that communications on em- ployee mobile devices are secure. That means on internal or external wireless LANs, cellular or wired networks. Using strong, two-factor authentication and encryption is key, as is VPN functionality for us- ers that connect from home or a public Wi-Fi hotspot. Mobile device management software is available for locking down company functions on a user device as well. Patch, Patch, Patch. Performing regular maintenance and keeping security protections up-to-date on both endpoints and the UC system itself should not be a “nice to have.” Taking advantage of unpatched sys- tems with known security flaws is one of the top ways that bad actors enter company networks to install malware or exfiltrate data. Patching can be a labor-intensive process, but the effort taken to do it can pre- vent significant brand and financial damage down the road. See the GDPR Looming. The EU’s General Data Protection Regu- lation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25, and it will give EU regulators the power to levy punitive damages as high a €20m (or 4 percent of glob- al turnover, whichever is greater) on those that fail to adhere to a series of requirements when it comes to securing the data of EU citizens. Any damages could be significant enough to put a smaller organization out of business. Any business that has any deal- ings whatsoever with the data of EU citizens is subject to the GDPR, even if that business is located in the United States. In other words, if a company has a customer on the Continent, or has dealings with a business that may be headquartered overseas but has a location stateside, or if a business is involved in, say, the restaurant or hospitality business and has foreign tourists as part of its customer base, GDPR comes into play. The requirements include: all breaches must be reported to regu- lators within 72-hours of the orga- nization becoming aware of it; the regulator must also be informed of “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” measures taken/pro- posed to address the breach and/ or mitigate its effects; if the breach is sufficiently serious to warrant notification to affected customers, the organization responsible must do so without undue delay. Compliance with GDPR requires changes in technology, processes, reporting and more. Adopting technolo- gies such as hosted UC with encryp- tion can go a long way to helping com- pany’s get ready. o 10-year marketing veteran David Portnowitz leads Star2Star’s creative, digital and co-op market- ing efforts. L UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES We are now recruiting Sales Agents Connect with Neutrona Networks! SD-WAN asaService Neutral.On-net.Anywhere Subscription Model Pure Internet Solution: Bring You Own Access (BYOA) Solution Design, Deployment, Monitoring and Ongoing Support 24x7x365 Add-Ons: Local Connectivity Services, Neutrona’s Express Lane & Neutrona’s Cloud Connect to Amazon Web Services, Microsost Azure, and others! 19 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK