Why can’t TV channels ever broadcast good news? This is a familiar question and complaint, and it certainly applies to the coverage global communications and the Internet received in the past year. Frankly, the TV station reasoning is simple – good events are not entertaining. Billions of messages being sent and received securely and thousands of safe airplane flights are boring to report simply because those are the expected results. Someone hacking into government files or a plane crash killing 100 people is certainly distressing, but it does get people to watch the evening news. 

TMC (News - Alert) contributing writer Steve Anderson pointed out in the Oct. 29, 2015, TMC Cloud Computing Newsletter how a majority of cloud-based services users (55 percent) don’t believe these apps are keeping the data secure.  This is a perception-based conclusion not supported by observed statistics but damaging nonetheless. TV newscasts or shows designed to entertain viewers with scary scenarios focused on the “Dark Web” or cyber hacking only reinforce these negative perceptions. Perhaps the best solution may be the strategy the best defense is a good offense used by such diverse historical figures as George Washington, Mao Zedong, and Machiavelli. For cloud-based services, the strategy is to fixate prospective users on the positive aspects of the web and cloud technologies, thereby blocking out any negative views.

A good example is the automobile industry. Manufacturers emphasize safety features like anti-lock brakes and air bags without ever mentioning the 30,000 traffic fatalities that occur in the U.S. each year. Similarly, cloud-based services should emphasize safety features like firewalls and data encryption that either prevent intrusions or render the data secure. etherFAX, a hybrid fax solution, incorporates a multi-level encryption/security system known as a defense-in-depth approach. All fax transactions are processed in a secure and encrypted database so the fax documents are protected end to end. Even if the customer has a breach at its end, the document content remains secure. Fax is a relatively secure medium but management did not want security to be a factor preventing some customers from choosing an outsourced communication solution. 

Follow the path of positive positioning and Discover the Next Frontier of Communications at ITEXPO (News - Alert) Jan. 25 – 28 in Ft. Lauderdale.  Start the year with the latest communications knowledge and maybe even get a tan.

Max Schroeder is vice president emeritus of FaxCore (News - Alert) Inc. (www.faxcore.com ) and co-chair of the SIP Forum fax-over-IP Task group (www.sipforum.org)