Blog

What an extraordinary time we are living through, as we undergo a global transition in how we live and work. This health crisis requires remarkable efforts from people, communities, organizations and governments to safeguard our personal and collective health. As individuals, we naturally focus on the health and safety of our friends, family and loved ones in times of crises, but I am struck how an overwhelming feeling of community is all around us, where we now worry on a much deeper level about those we know and interact with. Our world has never felt smaller. Our problems feel larger, but together we are strong and resilient. 

At Zix|AppRiver, we’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks focusing on employee safety and, fortunately, we are all working safely and productively at home. This is important because it allows us to help our customers and partners meet the challenges of today’s remote work environment – and in turn, help restore some normalcy to their day-to-day lives.

When I reflect on what we’ve all been through in the past weeks, I feel people initially felt uncertain, stunned and unproductive in the U.S., as they had their personal and professional worlds slammed together. I also experienced some of this, but at the same time witnessed an incredible level of compassion and resiliency, as businesses and people adjusted to this period of isolation. 

As we continue our preparations in the U.S., with no certainty of when the end will come, I’d like to provide an update on what we’re doing to help our work community.  Our organization was founded on the idea of enabling people to communicate securely, and for many years, Zix|AppRiver customers and partners have trusted us to manage some of their most sensitive information and communication. We feel honored to have earned this trust and feel it is our duty to repay it in these challenging times by giving back, however much we can, to help those same organizations persevere. We have solutions that can help, so we are going to help. 

Our first priority is education. As one of North America’s leading providers of productivity and security solutions, we feel we’re in a unique position to share best practices to help organizations weather the storm. To that end, we’re launching the following resources to assist in your preparedness. 

• To provide insight into how we are addressing the situation as a business, we have a new resource center, hosted by our CIO Shelia Carpenter, where you can see what Sheila and her team are doing for our organization. You can find that new site here: https://zix.com/covid19 and https://appriver.com/covid19

• We are publishing a new webinar series with our top security experts and partners from Microsoft to help organizations be prepared, not scared.  Details can be found here: https://go.zixcorp.com/Prepare-Dont-Scare.html
   
• Join us at  https://zix.com/covid19 and https://appriver.com/covid19 on Wednesday, April 1, to hear Sheila Carpenter our CIO and I answer some of the most frequently asked questions on our COVID-19 response and action plan.

• We published a new dedicated COVID-19 resource page on both the Zix & AppRiver websites for up to date information.  You can find them at: https://zix.com/covid19 and https://appriver.com/covid19

Additionally, we want to help enable organizations be productive and secure. Specifically, we are making the following security service available at no charge to assist you:

• Healthyemail Encrypted Messaging Service – Recognizing the increased demand for secure, digital communications, we’re making an encrypted message service called Healthyemail available for any organization that needs to send secure messages and large files. This simple to use utility is available for new and existing customers at no charge.

Unfortunately, now is a time for heightened cyberattacks and I encourage organizations to take advantage of some of our free 365 Auditing services. Our team is happy to help ensure your environment is optimized. Detail can be found below:

• Office 365 Security Audits – Clearly many organizations run on Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud. Office 365 is an essential tool for business, but especially now given the increases in remote work that might be exposing your organization to new threats. To help protect our customers, our Office 365 Security Audit can check accounts for vulnerabilities that leave your network open to many types of attack, including:
  • Phishing and Ransomware Attacks
  • Conversation Hijacking
  • Login Theft
  • Malware
  • Dangerous New Threats

• Office 365 Monitoring – To further enhance our Office 365 Audit, we moved up the planned release of our new scheduling tool, which is now immediately available. Our same Security Audit tool can now automatically create audit reports so you can monitor your environment and provide insight as events unfold. Should something change in your customer’s environment, the information is available so you can take additional precautions.

• Microsoft Teams Productivity Services – To help drive productivity, we’re happy to help facilitate access to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft introduced a Teams offer that allows paid components for Free for 6 months. Our team can enable this for customers and partners. 

For further information on how to utilize these services, please visit https://zix.com/covid19 or https://appriver.com/covid19. Also, for those who didn’t see our March 10 communication on our own continuity plans, you can view that communication https://appriver.com/resources/blog/march-2020/appriver-customerpartner-advisory-coronavirus. As new developments arise, and in response to questions we may receive, we will be sure to share any/all updates we have at the appropriate time.

In the meantime, from all of us at Zix|AppRiver, stay healthy and be well.

David Wagner

President & Chief Executive Officer