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Hello Webroot Community, 

I wanted to create a space for us to come together and discuss Webroot and COVID-19.

Consider this our office hours. 

In case you might have missed it, we created a page here where we’ll keep a running list of articles, blog posts, and other pieces of content about our COVID-19 response.

If you have specific questions on what we’re doing as a company during the pandemic and our tips for how you can stay cyber resilient in these uncertain times. 

Please add your questions below or join us Tuesday, September 15, 2020, at 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM MT

Hey everyone, I hope you’re having a great week and hanging in there! 

We’ve got a few questions this week (thanks to those of you who submitted) that our panel will get to in a second. 

What covid related practices or experiences you think Will be the new normal when pandemic will end? - Andrea R.

What has been your biggest challenge when protecting computers on a home network? - Teri M. 

Are you about to lunch a unified Carbonite - Webroot console? - Vasilis T. 

What percentage of staff have returned to the office? - Dean O. 

How do you think businesses will need to adapt moving forward? - Eden

What COVID-19 related practices or experiences do you think will be the new normal when pandemic will end? - Andrea R.

It will very much depend on the type of business but I would go with:

  • More use of remote ‘skill workers’ who do not need to be in an office environment all the time
  • More flexibility about WFH generally
  • Less business travel and more use of video conferencing
  • Events that work at both a virtual and and in person
  • A push to stop businesses invading the privacy of their employees – I think a lot of undesirable practices have been adopted by some businesses
  • More startups using a ‘virtual’ to ‘near virtual’ business model that disposes of permanent offices completely
  • More ‘automated’ business services
  • Better employee training
  • A focus on initiating stronger business culture to tie people together more strongly in teams

So lots of different ideas on how it could change, but I still believe strongly that people buy and work best with direct contact with people, and no matter how good the technology that bonding cannot be replaced right now with technology. 

What has been your biggest challenge when protecting computers on a home network? - Teri M.

Difficult as the problem varies so much by each Client’s situation. I think for Webroot we have felt our trifecta of endpoint, DNS and training is very complimentary to delivering both affordable and balanced remote management and protection of company owned devices. And, of course we would add endpoint system/device backup and recovery and/or Microsoft 365 backup and recovery too. We’ve seen a lot of WFH personnel reach out for backups for a variety of reasons.

Then there is the ISP being used and he Router can you or do you need to secure that device and connection – VPNs and stronger access authentication maybe?

If you are talking about an employee owned device being used for work well that has another set of challenges.

So it all depends on where you start from and what policies and procedures and rules you need to have in place according to the WFH circumstances, access needed. So the overall challenges have been in enforcing policies that work for the employee and employer to effectively safeguard their data.

Are you about to lunch a unified Carbonite - Webroot console? - Vasilis T.

We are working on several development initiatives to create MSP friendly and highly effective cyber resilient backup and recovery solutions. Our focus is on Microsoft 354 right now as that is such a highly adopted MSP/SMB platform. Watch this space :wink:

What percentage of staff have returned to the office? Dean O.

At Webroot in Colorado we are still allowed to WFH until January and only those with an enclosed office to use the office. So right now very few people have returned. Probably 1%!

How do you think businesses will need to adapt moving forward? – Eden

I think the adaption will come when we are going back to offices and to social interaction. And, I think that adaption will be driven by what employees want not businesses - as suddenly the physical labor market has become a virtual one, and old management practices will need to change.  Businesses who don’t respect employees will lose out badly with high attrition rates of skill workers.  O course businesses like retail, travel, hospitality and other very people orientated tasks will face different pressures as all of a sudden the demand moves from low to very high.  Adaptability, flexibility, market understanding and coopetition  will all rank high in recovering from this pandemic.

Alrighty, that concludes another Office Hours this week. Thanks to @GeorgeA for helping us out today and answering your questions. Join us again next Tuesday at 1:00 MT!

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