The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the already-robust adoption rates for employee monitoring software. Prominent publications, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, have reported on this trend, and they have documented employees’ general unease about the practice. Indeed, even before employees were relegated to their homes, many were uncomfortable with the idea of invasive and unbridled digital oversight.

Given how ransomware attacks continue to hit the headlines, many businesses and cybersecurity experts are placing bets on air-gapped networks. Advanced technology that offers tough defense against cyberattacks is the need-of-the-hour since data theft is becoming one of the major business issues. Once an intruder finds a way into your organization's sensitive data, your businesses can weeks or even months to recover because all networked data is infected and encrypted, making it useless.

In 2020, agility is making a comeback. After running its course as a business buzzword, it has become an operational necessity for companies in every sector due to the novel coronavirus pandemic’s repercussions. Most prominently, this reality manifests in our workplace arrangements, as companies grapple with the efficacy and necessity of returning to work during a pandemic.

“My job here at Atlassian is to commit crimes and then write very, very detailed confession letters – metaphorically speaking.” Meet Alex: an engineer on our security intelligence team with a wry wit and a penchant for pop-color hair. Less metaphorically speaking, the team’s job (our red team, in particular) is to hack Atlassian’s systems exactly as real attackers would.

There was nothing in particular that should have drawn attention to the two individuals sitting for drinks at the bar in Reno. Just two old colleagues catching up over some drinks. But if someone had paid close enough attention (and perhaps spoke Russian), then they might have overheard that one of the pair was attempting to recruit the other into what was possibly one of the biggest ransomware operations to date.

2020 is a uniquely transformative year. Prompted by a global pandemic, we’ve been forced to change many things about how we live, work and relate. For most businesses, this means a rapid and comprehensive shift toward remote work. While more than half of all employees participated in a rapid transition to remote work, it’s clear that this is more than just a temporary change.

Disagreement is one of the defining trends of 2020. However, I think most of us would agree that this year hasn’t turned out to be the kind of year that many of us anticipated when we celebrated on December 31st. Difficulty abounds on many fronts, reducing our ability to operate with precision and excellence. For companies balancing concerns about employee health, adjusting to a new hybrid workforce, and responding to shifting consumer demands, the challenges are many.

We are thrilled to finally announce the launch of Wire's next generation conferencing calls with innovative audio and video capabilities. Built upon a reimagined and reengineered architecture using the latest technologies, the platform marks a new era in video conferencing security by providing enterprise, financial services and government customers with the world’s first completely end-to-end encrypted video environment.