As New Zealanders come together to combat Covid-19, many of us find ourselves in unknown territory when it comes to online activities and lockdown. Video-conferencing and the ability to speak face-to-face with colleagues, clients and contacts is more important than ever before.
Unfortunately, this is a time when we need to be more security aware than ever as we work from home, and do more online. Vodafone NZ recently urged customers to be even more security-aware during COVID-19 pandemic.
Colin James, Vodafone NZ Head of Cyber Security and Netsafe board member said, “"It is unfortunate that at times like this there are global fraudsters who will take advantage of COVID-19 fears for malicious gain.” James continues, “Scammers are opportunistic and will take advantage of any situation for their own gains. Sadly, the current COVID-19 situation has created a considerable avenue for them to exploit, as they prey on people’s fears or need for information.”
The number of people adopting videoconferencing apps to stay in touch with friends, family and work colleagues has exposed safety and security issues for some popular providers. For example, Zoom has seen exponential growth in recent weeks, causing the chief executive to apologise for "falling short" on security issues and pause development of new features to concentrate on safety and privacy issues.
We’ve chosen two online partners to highlight – GoToMeeting a video conferencing provider and NordVPN who provide online security accessible to everyone. These are both products we have come to know and love in our first few of weeks of lockdown!
One of the most difficult things about working from home is losing face-to-face interactions with your coworkers, managers and clients. Online videoconferencing apps can be a lifeline during this unprecedented lockdown period.
Videoconferencing apps like GoToMeeting are a really easy and effective introduction to videoconferencing. They are well established, and large companies around the world use them for online meetings. Plus, they have some great security features:
What is a VPN? VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, it offers a higher degree of protection and security as you’re surfing the web – either at home of outside.
A VPN system safeguards you by routing your online activity through specialized servers and encrypting your data.
This hides your online activity and protects you from the many dangers on the web like hackers, data selling, identity theft, and much more. So you can relax and log into your accounts, make bank transfers or shop online without any worries.
Why we like NordVPN:
Looking for more ways to stay productive while working from home? Learn more about how to stay productive when working from home and some simple tips to improve your home broadband speed by making changes to your home and network settings.
