Canitan is designated Critical Infrastructure – We are open

Canitan is designated Critical Infrastructure – We are open

At Canitan, our priority is to support and serve our customers through times of uncertainty. We understand that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting our daily lives in unprecedented ways. Canitan has comprehensive plans in place to provide our customers with continued access to their systems remotely.

As shelter-in-place orders are enacted in our communities, we will still be here for you, as Canitan is a designated Essential Critical Infrastructure under Communications Sector and under Information Technology Sector as defined by the Department of Homeland Security and as defined in the City of Austin Public Health Order. This means providing Technology, VoIP, and Security Services, including the operations of Technology, Security, and VoIP service providers and their employees, are considered essential services.

As a result, Canitan remains committed to being here to serve you. We take this threat with the upmost seriousness.

  • Until the Shelter in Place order is lifted our physical office is closed to non-employees, no one will be allowed to enter the building unless they are an employee. ALL employees have the option of working from home and are encouraged to do so.
  • Remote Support is operating at 110% and will continue to do so until this crisis is over.
  • Onsite services are still operating as usual with some exceptions. These measures are to protect our employees and you.
    • We will ask if anyone has been diagnosed or has had contact with anyone exposed to the virus before any work can be scheduled.
    • Social Distancing – ALL Canitan employees are REQUIRED to practice social distancing and stay 6FT from the closest person.
    • Masks will be provided and recommended and constant handwashing is REQUIRED when on a client’s site.
    • Employees CAN AND WILL leave any site they feel that their health is at risk.

Coronavirus – (COVID-19)

Keeping our community and employees healthy and safe while maintaining business continuity is our top priority. We want to do our part to help you stay connected and productive.

Many of you are probably working from home (WFH) and staying updated with the latest information from CDC and WHO. The way we work is transforming, but it’s an opportunity for us to transform together.

We are in disaster response / emergency mode. We are experiencing higher than normal service queue. And are working as fast as possible to take care of our customers. Contracted Managed Service Customers will receive priority service.

We have taken steps to support our clients and community as we all adjust to the ongoing situation, for example:

We’re committed to supporting our users and customers during this challenging time.

  • We have scaled up the bandwidth at our datacenter to handle the increased load. Data center in San Antonio has 5 Internet carriers with full redundancy, power redundancy, 3 Day backup standby power generation, etc. ,and are continuing to scale our infrastructure to support greater demand, ensuring streamlined, reliable access to our services throughout this period.
    • This will help ensure that all hosted servers and desktops are ready to go
    • This will help ensure that all VoIP service and VoIP Video Services / Video Conferencing services remain at full operational capacity.

Managed Service Customers

  • We’re offering free remote computer access (no monthly service charges) to ALL Managed Service customers. And are implementing this on a per client basis (as requested).
  • We are deploying VPN access / relay service for free (as requested) by ALL Managed Service customers allowing for direct secured remote access to office desktops

Non-Profits:

  • that need streaming capability throughout this emergency will receive drastically reduced rates for streaming / recording systems.
  • O365 – reduced rate setup and (free monthly service for all 501(c)(3) organizations) -upto 10 users
    • Additional users are $2 for Office 365 essentials and $4 for Office 365 Business Premium

VoIP Customers

  • Canitan Phones Systems are Completely Mobile and Ready for telecommuting:
    • VoIP Customers can take their phones home with them and use them as if they were at the office. (some adjustments to existing or router upgrade may be required to ensure highest quality phone service)
    • There is an APP for that – Cell Phone Apps are available to all phone customers
      • Please contact us if you need extension information.
    • Softphones are available to use on computers
    • Video Conferencing

Popular Android Apps Banned For Sending User Data To China

A major Chinese developer is in hot water with Google

from an extensive BuzzFeed investigation which revealed that the company’s apps were abusing user permissions, allowing the company to commit fraud on a massive scale.

As a result of BuzzFeed’s findings, Google took the step of removing six different apps made by the company down from the play store.

This was including a popular selfie app that boasted more than fifty million downloads. The apps were all products of the DU Group, which was spun off from Baidu, one of China’s’ largest tech companies.  The newly independent firm claims that its apps have been downloaded more than a billion times by users around the world.

Whether that claim is true or not, the reality is that the six apps Google removed from the Play store had been downloaded more than 90 million times.  The list of offenses varied from one app to the next, with some of them fraudulently clicking on ads to generate revenue, and others containing code that the DU Group could have selectively activated to engage in more nefarious forms of ad fraud.

A company spokesman had this to say about the matter:

“We explicitly prohibit ad fraud and service abuse on Google Play.  Developers are required to disclose the collection of personal data, and only use permissions that are needed to deliver the feature within the app.  If an app violates our policies, we take action that can include banning a developer from being able to publish on Play.”

The apps Google removed from the Play Store are:

  • Selfie Camera
  • Total Cleaner
  • Smart Cooler
  • RAM Master
  • AIO Flashlight
  • Omni Cleaner

If you have any of these installed, you should strongly consider deleting them and finding less intrusive alternatives.

Used with permission from Article Aggregator