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Women in Tech: Cyna Milinazzo, President and CEO of Liberty Communications

Women in Tech: Cyna Milinazzo, President and CEO of Liberty Communications

Cyna Milinazzo is the owner of Liberty Communications – a telecom provider in Colorado and proud Wildix partner.

I had the privilege to sit down with her to discuss her background in telecom services, her experience as a woman in the industry, and why she chose to partner with Wildix:

Cyna Milinazzo in Her Own Words

My introduction to the telecom industry came in 1985 when I began my career working for my brother’s telecom business. After a few years of managing his office, I expanded my knowledge in the industry by moving on to work for a business that specialized in underground cabling. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the experience I gained from this transition set the stage for pivotal business decisions I would make in the future.

Eventually, I found my way back to working with my family as I partnered with my three brothers to run our own telecom company, which also came with all of the inherent ups and downs of running a family business. Even though I had the least ownership of this company out of all of us, I always treated it as my very own knowing that someday I would love to break out on my own in the telecom industry.

In 2006 when I asked my husband to quit his electrician job and join me in starting a new company, I was thrilled when he actually took me up on my idea!

We created Liberty Electric, specializing in low voltage structured cabling as a subcontractor for many small telecom companies in the Denver Metro area.

Starting a new business wasn’t easy – there is always tremendous risk with a startup, and Liberty Electric wasn’t even profitable for the first year.

It was a scary time financially as I continued working with my brothers while my independent cabling company grew.

I finally decided to take the leap in 2011 and left the family business to devote all my time to my own company.

In order to incorporate my expertise and provide our customers with comprehensive solutions, I expanded Liberty Electric by bringing in telecom services and updating the company name to Liberty Communications. My business has been flourishing ever since, and I’ve never looked back!

A year and a half ago when Wildix approached me, at first I didn’t see a need to add Wildix to our array of products. It has always been a challenge to gain more market share without losing the “boutique” approach we offer our customers, and I’ve always been committed to remaining focused on this integral aspect of our business model.

I had begun to notice a shift in the market at that time, though, and I was just starting to realize that I needed to be thinking about ways to differentiate Liberty Communications from others in our field.

Although we have been courted by many different vendors over the years, we’ve always been very selective about who we decide to take on.

After learning more about Wildix we were confident that you’re one of the good ones – I am so happy that Liberty Communications made the decision to add you as a vendor.

I envision Wildix as our vehicle for achieving a leading role in the Colorado market without losing what makes us special.

Being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated workforce has its challenges – finding the right network to move beyond plateaus can be tough. 

Twenty-some years ago it was quite a challenge for a woman to gain respect in male-dominated industries such as IT or construction; today, challenges still exist but are often more subtle.

When starting out in the telecom industry, I let myself be somewhat shielded behind my brothers as I navigated the system and learned invaluable lessons. I’ve been ignored by owners and contractors, excluded from construction meetings, and dismissed when trying to set sales calls.

After years of persistence, I’ve gained much more knowledge and distinction in the industry, and am now well known for my expertise and enthusiasm.

I’ve now been in the industry for so long, other telecom companies contact us for help when they need a hand – everyone in the area knows that Liberty Communications is there to help, without a second thought, and that we deliver quality products and reliable services.

I could have let challenging situations scare me off, but I embrace the fact that some say I’m sort of a “bull-dog” in male-dominated industries.

I even now also own a roofing company serving clients in the Denver Metro area as well. And I’m proud to have developed Liberty Communications as a company of go-getting, powerful women who support and inspire each other to be the best they can be every day.

On top of owning small businesses, I’m a wife, a mom, and a caregiver for my own mother. Finding my work-life balance can be difficult, as it is for many women, but at the end of the day I love to work, and this business is my passion.

I’m living the life I want and am lucky enough to not only have a supportive family circle behind me but to also be surrounded by hard-working, inspiring men and women every day at Liberty Communications.

Update

Since the original publication of this article, Cyna was chosen as one of the 2021 CRN Women of the Channel. With unprecedented circumstances causing massive overhauls in the industry, CRN focused on honoring women who lead their companies through times that were anything but normal.

“During the pandemic, Milinazzo’s role was not only to maintain growth goals but provide greater value and application of the company’s technologies. She sustained business in the channel and grew it 20% over the previous year.”

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Are Your Desk Phones Listening In On You?

Yealink vulnerabilities show how that in UCC, security matters

Yealink vulnerabilities show how that in UCC, security matters

For better or for worse, data collection is something many of us have become accustomed to. From cookies on webpages to search terms being tracked, our activity over the internet is normally monitored to some degree, even to the point of general acceptance.

That said, as much as we’re used to that level of web tracking, we would be shocked to learn of similar tracking happening over business telephone systems. After all, it’s highly unusual for office phones to be actively gathering data on us, in particular because for most businesses, voice calls are where highly confidential knowledge is exchanged.

So, what happens if it becomes clear your phone system has the capability of actively listening in on you?

Worse, what if you can’t even know for sure who’s on the other end of the line?

Security Concerns from Yealink

These questions are especially relevant for business owners now in the wake of a troubling report regarding phones by the Chinese-based vendor Yealink, especially their T54W devices, which raised concerns about the privacy and security of the company’s hardware.

On September 28 of last year, US Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) filed a letter to the US Department of Commerce referring to a report conducted by the consulting firm Chain Security. In that referenced report, Chain Security noted numerous security flaws in Yealink devices, along with numerous functionalities that appear to intentionally gather customer data.

More worrying still, Chain Security’s report concluded it is “highly likely” that Yealink is sharing customer information directly with the Chinese government, especially through its hardware.

This data gathering appears to occur primarily through how Yealink phones interface with company networks and PCs. Namely, Yealink devices make use of a device management platform (DMP) to connect to programs running on the PC. In most circumstances, this would be perfectly normal for the vast majority of VoIP hardware that connects to a PC-based system.

What’s far less normal, and even outright alarming, is the fact that the Yealink DMP is then capable of recording voice calls and even tracking web history on that connected PC — both without the end-user’s knowledge.

Potential Tracking Components

According to the Chain Security report, the Yealink DMP “collects and retains the WAN IP” of the end-user’s device, and can log any web traffic from devices connected to it. This is in addition to how the DMP collects call records conducted either on the phone or any devices connected to it.

All this is worth noting in particular because the Yealink DMP can be operated by a remote Yealink employee, who can use the platform to access any collected data, be that IP addresses, web traffic or entire call recordings.

More concerning still, using the Yealink DMP, remote Yealink employees can at will enable recording on an active call and retain the recording afterwards

This access doesn’t appear to be used by Yealink on an occasional basis, either. Chain Security also notes that during “normal operations” Yealink phones communicate with Chinese-controlled AliCloud servers, suggesting potential control and interception of the exact kind described above.

Metaphorically speaking, none of this may be an actual fire, but the monitoring activity combined with the server contact certainly make for a lot of smoke. (Things get even more suspicious as we consider Yealink’s direct and long-established ties to the Chinese government and their continued data sharing with them, Chain Security likewise reports.)

Broader Security Concerns

Beyond these problems, Yealink devices in question appear to have just plain obvious security flaws — ones which may compromise an entire company server.

Chain Security points out that Yealink phones are “pre-configured to accept credentials for connection and access to the device from 187 ‘trusted’ digital certificate authorities.” In other words, entirely unknown to the end-user, Yealink devices may be accessed by an incredible amount of additional entities, meaning if any such users are compromised they’ll have easy access to Yealink end-users’ networks.

But hackers may not even need to be a “trusted” authority anyway. Unknown entry to the device is further blown open by its inability to protect against brute force login attempts, meaning hackers are fully capable of accessing it simply by guessing username/password combinations.

As if these factors weren’t bad enough, the Yealink devices lack industry-standard digital signatures to authenticate valid changes to firmware. As a result, if external actors gain access to the phones, they can instantly overwrite current software on them so long as the new firmware is compatible with the hardware.

This easily means a hacker can install firmware that surveys not just what’s recorded on the Yealink phone (using the aforementioned data collection it performs), but even activity across the entire company network.

The Bottom Line on Yealink Devices

What this leaves us with is a phone that can record calls, IP address and web activity — all at any time and without the end-user’s knowledge — and communicate that data elsewhere.

While it’s easy or even proactive to assume the data will end up at Yealink or even the Chinese government, it’s just as possible that entirely unknown agents can exploit the vulnerabilities in these phones for their own ends. Either way, the result is far less than desirable for any business.

By all accounts, even in an age where data collection is to be expected, the security architecture in Yealink phones allows for far more surveillance than any business should feel comfortable with.

Bigger Takeaways

While this should certainly serve as a warning for anyone interested in Yealink phones in particular, we can also draw larger security takeaways here.

It should be first noted that using this example to cast doubt on all Chinese-produced hardware would be ridiculous; after all, an enormous number of devices are produced in China and have nowhere near these issues.

The actual bigger questions are those over security and trust in general. As this example shows, communications hardware has incredible potential to intrude upon your privacy, even to the point of acting as a covert surveillance device right on your desk.

To keep yourself secure, it’s vital that you be able to trust the manufacturer of VoIP devices. The vendor needs to be able to demonstrate not just effective security measures, but a willingness to give up their own control of devices outside applying necessary software updates.

When considering a new vendor, then, there are plenty of important questions to ask: for example, how much is your vendor telling you about the security parameters in their hardware? What role does the vendor play in managing the device after it’s sold? What ties does your vendor have to other entities that might want your business’s information?

Above all, if a vendor is holding onto things like permanent DMP access, it should instantly raise a red flag. Capabilities for remote control in this manner are all but certainly going to be either poor security design at best, or active attempts at datamining at worst.

To keep your business fully secure, it’s crucial to weigh these factors such as much as any other security points. If you can’t trust your vendor to protect your own privacy, after all, what good are they as a technology partner? And if they’re clearly sharing data with a government involved in information warfare, the situation only becomes more problematic.

When you weigh your options for hardware, then, don’t just consider security in broad terms. Just as vital is to consider how much trust you can put in the vendor to keep you safe — or, more important still, whether the vendor itself is a potential security threat.

To see how Wildix designs security in our UCC systems, check out our free white paper.

For more updates on security in the UCC industry, subscribe to receive our magazine for free!

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E911 Regulations: What MSPs Need to Know

Explaining the US emergency service laws your phone systems must follow

Adhering to regulations is crucial for any business, and telephony providers are no different. PBX installations in particular, on top of adhering to customer expectations, must also follow legal standards in order to steer clear of fines, litigation and other significant penalties.

In the US, some of the most important telephony regulations are those around Enhanced 911, or E911. These are crucial to know about because they don’t simply regulate how you sell PBXs or how they may be used — instead, they specify exactly how dialing emergency numbers must work for a multi-line telephone system (MLTS).

If you plan at any point on selling an MLTS in the United States, these are the main points of E911 regulations you need to know.

What Are E911 regulations?

Like the name implies, E911 regulations require that any time 911 is dialed, the call itself communicates additional information to emergency dispatchers.

In short, E911 laws require that every 911 call must also convey:

    • A callback number for emergency services (either for the device placing the call or a central agent on the site of the MLTS)
    • The location of the device that called 911

These requirements were put in place by two federal US laws: Kari’s Law and Ray Baum’s Act.

Let’s dive into both of them now for more detail on the technical requirements behind E911.

The E911 Laws

1. Kari’s Law

Adopted by the Federal Communications Committee in 2019, Kari’s Law establishes two main requirements for 911 calls.

The first requires that emergency services are immediately contacted when “911” is dialed on an MLTS device, without having to dial for an external call. In other words, the dialer must not have to take an additional step before sending the emergency alert: simply entering “911” on the device must be enough to contact emergency dispatchers.

The second part of this law is more complex. This section specifies that any time a 911 call is dialed through an MLTS, a notification is simultaneously sent to a “central operator” who is on the same premises as the MLTS.

This “operator” can be most anything: a front desk, a security office, the IT department or similar. The agent just has to be a person who’s on premises and will actually see the alert.

Likewise, there’s room for you to decide what the notification is. To meet legal requirements, the alert can be an email, a text message, a screen alert or any other electronic message. It simply has to be sent right as the PBX issues a 911 call, and it must be prominent enough that the operator on the premises is unlikely to miss it.

So, what exactly should this notification say? Here, requirements become stricter.

Per Kari’s Law, this notification must convey, at a minimum, the following information:

    • The fact that a 911 call has been made
    • A valid callback number for emergency services
    • Details on the caller’s location, which the MLTS also sends to the public safety answering point (PSAP) as part of the 911 call

It’s worth noting that points 2 and 3 can, in some instances, be waived. According to the law, if it is “technically infeasible” to add this information to the notification, it isn’t required to provide it.

However, if you can’t provide that info, you will have to prove that it’s “infeasible” for the system to provide it, which of course will be a complicated process. All in all, it’s best to simply include that information from the start to make things move most smoothly.

2. Ray Baum’s Act

While not entirely about 911 calls, Ray Baum’s Act features a portion that applies to E911 considerations.

According to Section 506 of this act, all 911 calls must include a “dispatchable location” embedded in the call (regardless of what device they originate from).

“Dispatchable location” here means a specific street address, plus any additional information required to pinpoint the exact calling location, like apartment number or suite number. In short, the call must also carry data specifying exactly where emergency dispatchers should go.

This ties into point 3 from the second part of Kari’s Law mentioned above, and the good news is by covering this requirement from Ray Baum’s Act, your phone system will fulfill that part of Kari’s Law as well. It’s simply worth mentioning because by not having it, you run the risk of violating two regulations.

It’s also important to note that all devices, both fixed and unfixed, must be in compliance with Ray Baum’s Act by January 6th, 2022. So if by early 2022, your unfixed devices can’t report a dispatchable location to 911 operators, you will be considered in violation of this law.

So in brief …

Here’s a quick overview of what your phone system needs to meet E911 regulations:

  1. If you’ve installed an MLTS, each phone on the PBX must reach emergency services immediately just by dialing “911” (not requiring the dialer first push a key to make an outbound call).
  2. Any time 911 is dialed, the MLTS must also send a prominent notification to a central operator on site, and the notification must include:
    • The fact that a 911 call has been made
    • A callback number that emergency services can reach
    • Information on the 911 caller’s location
  3. Any system must also tell emergency services the street address (and, if necessary, apartment or room number) from which the call was made.

What happens if you’re not compliant?

If you install an MLTS without meeting the three requirements above (or a phone system that doesn’t fulfill point number 3), your business will become liable under federal law. (It should go without saying this isn’t a preferred state to be in.)

Specifically, businesses that don’t adhere to these laws face fines of up to $10,000, with a further fine of $500 each additional day that you are not in compliance.

For US telephony providers, staying in business all but requires fulfilling these federal regulations.

How do you ensure compliance?

Obviously, there are two ways to stay in compliance with these laws: either have a system that’s compliant from the beginning or alter a noncompliant PBX to become compliant.

If you’re taking that latter option, the good news is that creating compliance with Kari’s Law is fairly straightforward. As any technician can tell you, removing external dialing requirements from 911 calls is not a hard exception to add to a dialplan. Likewise, it’s not much of a hassle to make an MLTS send the required notification any time 911 is dialed from it.

However, the bad news is that guaranteeing compliance with Ray Baum’s Act is nearly impossible without support from your vendor.

If your devices don’t already have capabilities for location reporting (or else don’t communicate this), adding in locations threatens to become a taxing process. Obviously, it will mean you’ll need to input the information yourself — but depending on your PBX’s setup and your vendor’s degree of involvement, this may turn into hours of manually adding the locations for each device into your system.

Consider also that this process is only for fixed devices. For unfixed devices, manually inputting locations will be outright unachievable — since, of course, users might move the devices from where you said they were.

Ideally, if your devices can’t provide location details upfront, your vendor will give you some easier way of adding in this info or even help with the process. If not, you’ll be stuck singlehandedly putting additional work into a system you no doubt already went through a lot of hassle to simply sell.

The easier alternative, of course, is to just use a system that’s compliant with these regulations to begin with and is supported by its vendor when it comes to inputting additional information.

What’s a good compliant system?

For a PBX that’s capable of acting as an MLTS and more — all while being fully in line with Kari’s Law, Ray Baum’s Act and other E911 regulations — an excellent choice is Wildix.

For starters, every Wildix system is ready-made to easily comply with Kari’s Law. By default, Wildix PBXs do not require a prefix to dial an external line.

So long as “Prefix for external line” is empty, your Wildix PBX will comply with the first part of Kari’s Law.

So long as “Prefix for external line” is empty, your Wildix PBX will comply with the first part of Kari’s Law.

The Wildix system can also be set up to send the required emergency notification to any call group the end-user requests, as outlined in Wildix technical documentation.

So, what about the more difficult part, conveying a dispatchable location? Here too, the Wildix system features full compliance with little difficulty on the MSP’s part.

With the use of CLASSOUND, Wildix’s premier voice system for cloud-based international calls, specific geographic locations can be bound directly to fixed phones, not simply to the devices’ DIDs. For unfixed devices, Wildix Collaboration, Wildix’s main calling app, automatically tracks location through a built-in geolocation feature.

How E911 reporting is conveyed through the Wildix system

How E911 reporting is conveyed through the Wildix system

As important as it is to be in compliance with federal law, getting there shouldn’t have to be a painstaking process. With Wildix, MSPs have full legal compliance as the factory default on their systems and the full backing of their vendor in achieving compliance on any installation.

For more tips on managing your PBX, subscribe to receive our magazine for free!

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Direct Mail is Back in a Big Way

Why direct mail marketing is returning, and how you can use it to your advantage

Direct Mail is Back in a Big Way

They say that everything old is new again, and that applies to marketing trends now more than ever. Direct mail is making a huge comeback after spending years looking outdated, out of touch and well, old. This shift in marketing strategy isn’t without good reason, but it may not be for all the reasons you think.

Direct Mail vs. Direct Mail

In the last 15 years, direct mail has largely fallen out of favor as a marketing tool. In fact, most physical mail has fallen out of favor due to the boom in digital communications, advertising and social media. The United States Postal Service (USPS) reports that since 2006 the number of parcels they handle has decreased by 33%, dropping from 213 billion units to 143 billion units in 2019.

So how does this help you? With less competition in people’s mailboxes, you’re much more likely to get your message to stick.

Email vs. Direct Mail

In a time when almost all communication, commercial or not, is digital, it’s hard to stand out in an inbox. The average office employee receives over 120 emails per day: just think about how many emails you delete without opening from companies you’ve never heard of.

Compared to their inbox, the average person’s mailbox only receives two pieces of physical mail per day. When your odds of standing out are 50/50 instead of 1 out of 120, it’s a whole lot easier to make an impression on your prospects.

Direct Mail vs. Digital

In addition to email, the average consumer sees over 60 digital ads per day. With ad blockers essentially the default on computers these days, it’s critical that nothing stands in the way of your messaging.

While the average digital ad has a lifetime of only seconds, one report states that physical mail has a lifetime of up to 17 days. In addition, 54% of consumers report that they’ll discuss a piece of physical mail if they’ve already heard of a brand but never purchased from them. With over half of the recipients actively talking about your company over the course of 17 days, it’s a great opportunity to make an impression!

Getting Started

At this point, you might be wondering how you should get your own mailing campaign off the ground. Although the specifics will be different from business to business, there are some important points to remember.

It’s important to remember that direct mail should be used in conjunction with your other marketing campaigns, not in place of them. Supplementing digital and email marketing with physical mail can really drive home your value to potential customers. While you can always send something robust like a catalog or magazine, you can also send something as simple as a letter or a postcard. The important part here isn’t so much what you send but the fact that you’re getting your messaging into the hands of potential customers.

With both recognition and the impact of a message you can hold on your side, you’ll start to see your marketing returns take on an entirely new dimension of growth.

For more tips on marketing your brand and boosting your sales, subscribe to receive our magazine for free!

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How to Present Your Business: Go Big, or Go Home

For today’s UCaaS customers, bigger does mean better

How to Present Your Business: Go Big, or Go Home

The tech world is changing every day — but if you look at the priorities of some MSPs, you may not realize that. Many of them are refusing to keep up with these changes and, as a result, are on their way to going out of business.

Plenty of systems integrators, especially those who’ve been in the market for years or even decades, still believe they hold some special power just because they’re a small, local business. These MSPs will say that they won deals because they earned customers’ trust and confidence; they’ll say that their business value comes from how end-users rely on them to keep phones and PBXs up and running every day.

Not only is this expectation wrong but it hasn’t been right for years!

The truth is that these days, people have changed where they look for trust. For most, small businesses mean very little when investing in reliable technology. What matters to customers far more now is buying from a reliable multinational brand.

Think about this yourself. When a business wants to have a web server up and running, who do they trust for that service: Joe’s Web Solutions from down the street or a giant like AWS?

When a business wants to have their computers repaired, who do they want to cover their warranty: the local PC repair shop, or the computer’s manufacturer, like Dell or Apple?

In almost all cases, businesses will select big brands to maintain their technology because they see those big brands as more powerful and reliable. Telephony is far more than cabling and PoE switches. Now, it’s all about a reliable service, which, thanks to brand positioning, customers think only the biggest brands can provide.

I know this is not a pleasant picture for most MSPs. But you shouldn’t file for bankruptcy just yet: even with this change in customers’ minds, you as a small business have a role to play that can win you deals and money.

That role is local presence, specialized expertise and reliable service — but always backed by the power and reliability of a good brand. And, if your brand is a good one, they will help your business to succeed in this role with technical support and sales assistance.

For Wildix Partners, this is exactly the role we emphasize: acting as the local sales team and tech force driving the Wildix brand. What each and every Wildix Partner does is, on the one hand, provide customers with the reliability they expect, given through a global brand. The sale of each Wildix installation is carried out by Partners in this way to ensure you have the offering that end-users can feel secure in purchasing.

However, this is not to say Wildix Partners are mere agents who pass along the value Wildix initially designs. Actually, it’s the opposite: all Wildix Partners are the reliability that customers want to see in a worldwide brand.

Because Partners handle sales, installations and repairs directly, they create the security end-users believe they can find only in big tech names. The entire system of support that runs Wildix comes entirely from this Partnership.

This is why I keep urging you all to say “I AM WILDIX”: you, our Partners, are the sales, the tech, the direct forces that ensure Wildix runs worldwide. Without your hard work, Wildix could not exist.

Of course, there is another side to this that not all Partners have decided to embrace. Because Partners are so much of the value in Wildix, it’s critical that they use the Wildix brand in sales and marketing — even more than they use the brand of their own business.

I know this isn’t a pleasant thought. Your business is something you built, something you put enormous time and effort into creating. It’s only natural for you to want to put this branding first.

But remember what your customers think they need to be successful: they want a big technology brand, not a small business. They want the reliability they see in technology with global reach and modern capabilities.

If you’re not leaning into the brand of the technology you’re selling, you can’t give customers what they want. Try as you might to sell your small business, end-users will feel more comfortable buying the protection they see in a global technology brand. To them, the days of finding value in just some small business are over.

Plenty of Partners realize this fact. For example, years ago, many MSPs would ask that their instance of Wildix be rebranded to show their business’s logo. But nowadays, this never happens anymore, because MSPs know their customers would rather see the name of a global technology brand!

So for your own success, it’s critical you set aside the ego of promoting your own small business and put the winning strategy first. Yes, you spent a lot of sweat creating your business — but haven’t you also invested a lot in joining Wildix? Hasn’t Wildix invested in you?

When you proudly declare to your customers “I AM WILDIX,” all you’re doing is reaping the rewards of your contributions to the Wildix brand.

These are earnings you deserve as a Wildix Partner, but you can only earn them if you learn to start putting Wildix first. As you know, the easiest way to win sales is by giving customers the solution that already exists in their mind; when it comes to technology nowadays, that solution will almost certainly be a specialized global brand, not the logo of the nearby general store.

For success to come your way, the best thing you can do for your business is to show your customers that exactly this kind of global brand is not just what you’re selling, but who you are.

For more tips on achieving sales and business success, subscribe to receive our magazine for free!

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