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Security and Cyber-attacks: Are You Doing Everything You Can To Protect Your Business?

Posted on June 25, 2021July 26, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

Security is a key priority of any online organisation. As the amount of data, and its value, increases year on year, demand grows for organisations to use the very best security measures to keep up with new and evolving threats.

Faxing remains a critical part of many organisations’ communications infrastructure, yet a reliance upon outdated, insecure and expensive on-premise fax servers generates a number of challenges.

Today, a new hybrid workforce needs to be enabled to send and sign vital documents and paperwork and do all this securely, regardless of when or where they are working at anytime. This is precisely why outdated, insecure and expensive on-premise fax servers are unreliable and unfit for the resilient and regulatory demands of today.

Digital cloud fax is an alternative and more secure option.

As well as improved privacy, the best digital cloud fax providers offer encryption using advanced security standards, combating sophisticated cyber threats.

Digital cloud fax services push the boundaries of security for managing the transfer and storage of important information. These fax services handle the entire fax process on the cloud, taking the responsibility from small internal IT teams that struggle to keep system security processes completely up-to-date, and passes it to dedicated experts whose sole job is to remain at the forefront of security protocols.

With security threats developing daily, it’s no surprise that existing legacy systems and outdated approaches are ill-suited to tackle modern threats. Fax technology is no different. With many organisations wrestling with ongoing digital transformation journeys, most are caught in a dangerous no-man’s land. As they digitise their operations, they also increase their risk, but their security processes have yet to evolve at the same rate.

The recent cyber-attack on Ireland’s Health Service Executive highlights the everlasting threat to data and stands as a reminder to remain vigilant in protecting IT systems. The cyber-attack caused significant delays to very important health services, such as radiology and diagnostic systems, maternity, and infant care, among others. Patient data stolen from the cyber-attack was shared online, in what was a huge breach of patient privacy. The importance of protecting IT systems from cyber-attacks is realised most when it affects key areas such as healthcare.

Whilst all agree that security and cyber-attack prevention is extremely important, many may not realise that they are not doing their utmost to protect their systems. It’s crucial that organisations seek the best expertise and solutions in their field.

Digital cloud fax secures vital paperwork and documents across the enterprise and is well suited to handling today’s modern security threats, rather than relying on outdated, expensive, and ultimately less secure legacy fax server technology.

Secure the sharing of your documents by switching to eFax today. Get instant access to all our fax technology by signing up to our cloud fax service and starting your free trial.

Are Hybrid Workforces Here to Stay?

Posted on June 25, 2021July 19, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

Since the pandemic struck the world, most of the EU workforce that previously worked in offices, were forced to work from home. The huge shift to remote working was made possible by technology, such as online fax services and video conference applications, that provided all the capabilities of being in the office and often with even more benefits. As many companies are now in the position to welcome talent back into the workplace, the next stage begins by asking where the workforce will be stationed in the long term. eFax conducted research asking UK IT leaders about the hybrid workforce model. Here are the results:

Transitioning to a hybrid working model

Digital transformation initiatives have allowed organisations to move much of their workforce to remote working. Office fax machines have been swapped with online fax services, whilst video conferencing has replaced in person meetings, enabling employees to perform remotely without limitation.

This has worked very well, with more than three quarters (76%) of UK IT decision-makers stating that their organisations could have made the transition to a hybrid workforce sooner, if they were aware of the pros and cons of moving to a hybrid working model, before the pandemic began.

Should companies continue to offer flexibility to work remotely after the pandemic?

Despite the success, would companies prefer their employees to be back in offices, under their watchful eye? What is stopping organisations from forcing workers back into offices when restrictions are fully lifted? With most employees now accustomed to the flexibility of being able to work remotely, and many employers now offering this in the long term, organisations that do not offer such flexibility risk deterring their workforce and being unfavourable to future talent. Half of all UK IT decision-makers (51%) believe the inability to attract and retain talent and over a third (38%) believe being unable to accommodate family life, are big risks if business does not enable a hybrid workforce. A further third (34%) believe it would risk a disengaged culture among employees.

It is clear that companies have enjoyed success from a hybrid workforce model, made possible by their digital transformation initiatives. Although many employees may choose to return to the office, the possibility to work remotely is a great option for those that wish to use it. A hybrid workforce is here for the long-term.

Secure the sharing of your documents by switching to eFax today. Get instant access to all our fax technology by signing up to our cloud fax service and starting your free trial.

What Are the Security Benefits of Cloud Computing?

Posted on October 20, 2020April 1, 2025 by Scott Schweigert

As the digital age explodes, so have the stakes for protecting our online data.

With cyberattacks and security breaches exposing 4.1 billion data records in the first half of 2019 alone, the demand from businesses and consumers for a secure way of storing and managing data has reached its boiling point.

That’s where cloud computing comes in.

There has been a significant evolution in the way that we save, store and access data. You no longer need to store documents on one particular device. You can access files from anywhere with a solid Internet service connection, at any time. That’s all because of cloud computing.

Cloud technology has been taking the business world by storm. Over 94% of companies reportedly are already taking some advantage of the enhanced security, reduced costs, and flexibility it offers them when storing and accessing their data.

The advanced security benefits of cloud computing systems have not gone unnoticed. Governments have also started rolling out cloud technologies across various organisations globally, to help them to manage and store their confidential information.

We figure that if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us.

How Does Cloud Computing Work?

We’re glad you asked. Cloud computing is an application-based software that securely stores data on remote servers, which can be accessed through the internet. It works by enabling users to upload and download data onto any chosen device, such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone.

The easiest way to think of how cloud computing operates is to imagine it divided into two main parts; the backend and the frontend.

The frontend enables a user to access data stored in the cloud using an internet browser or a cloud computing software. The backend comprises servers, computers, databases, and central servers. A central server administers the system following a set of protocols and using a unique piece of software called middleware.

Cloud computing serves as an umbrella term for different types of cloud services. These services include:

Cloud Storage — designed to store and back-up your files for regular access. Files can also be shared and synced across devices.
Cloud Hosting — this facilitates multiple types of information sharing, such as email services, application hosting and data storage.
Cloud Backup — this software is designed to serve as a failsafe solution if your company experiences a server crash, cyberattack or other data loss.
Software as a Service (SaaS) — SaaS solutions use the web to provide a service, for example, Google Apps, Office 365 and eFax.

Cloud computing was conceptualised during a time when the risk of cybersecurity threats was at the forefront of the minds of developers and businesses alike. This means at the root of all cloud technology is a structure designed to protect against security problems.

Cloud-based services are by no means the newest solution to confronting the issue of data protection, but their rise to prominence only happened in the late 1990s, making it far newer than systems like email and fax.

Yes, that’s right — email and traditional faxing methods are not secure methods for sharing information. Using generic email services and old-fashioned fax systems mean that at this current moment, your business is highly vulnerable to operating inefficiencies and cybercrime. But how vulnerable?

Cyberattacks: What Are the Threats to Your Business?

Cybersecurity threats remain a risk for businesses in 2020 and far beyond.

With the illegal exchange of data rapidly becoming a form of digitised currency, there is a lot of money to be made from the breaches and theft of online information.

These violations might be through malware threats, phishing attacks, ransomware attack, or other kinds of cybercrime.

The impact for companies that suffer such attacks can be detrimental. They can be subject to sensitive data losses and leaks, risk receiving harsh data penalties for data compliance mistakes — not to mention have their reputation irreparably damaged by losing the trust and integrity they have built with their customers.

Small businesses are not exempt from these risks either. In the UK, small companies alone are collectively subject to almost 10,000 cyberattacks per day.

A lot of these attacks target out-of-date internal storage solutions built before digitalisation fully took effect. These old systems were not fundamentally designed to face the challenges of modern data security, as — at the time of their inception — the cybersecurity threats just didn’t exist.

But that isn’t the case for cloud technology.

No obligation. No set-up fees. No risk.

Defend Your Data: Protect Your Business with Cloud Computing

Back when the word “cloud” was still considered to be a buzzword, there was a tangible paranoia about storing data offsite. However, the security benefits of cloud computing continue to prove that it is a highly-effective tool in the battle to protect data.

It does this through a combination of advanced cybersecurity features combined with physical infrastructure to create a comprehensive, secure solution to your data management needs.

Cloud services allow companies to store their data on external servers, managed by other firms with expertise in cybersecurity. These remote servers offer protection by being separate from your security network, which means even if a cybersecurity attack compromises your business, the cloud facility remains safe and separate.

Because the cloud services offered by third-party firms are their central model of business, these firms have the resources to invest a lot of time and energy into making sure they can offer their clients state-of-the-art security when it comes to managing their data. Providing this level of secure technology is unlikely to be something that most companies can afford to do internally.

The impact of COVID-19 accelerating the rise of homeworking has created a global need for employees to access the same files and be able to share them with colleagues in different locations.

Unless handled securely, these practices can lead to massive data leaks and network-wide malware infestations. Cloud services encrypt all data and provide employees and employers with sophisticated tools for easy and secure sharing.

Cloud Computing in Action

It’s time for businesses to remove their heads from the clouds and put their data up there instead.

Fax is an example of a business process that has been revolutionised by the integration of cloud-based technology.

eFax is a cloud-hosted online fax software that uses cloud technology to transmit digital files between businesses. eFax digital systems include advanced encryption, adaptable access controls, security monitoring, regular service updates to ensure your documents are protected and many more tools designed to safeguard the security of your business.

Using Transport Layer Security (TLS) and state-of-the-art data centres, eFax ensures every fax sent and received has the highest level of protection and is a strong supporter of cloud technology improving cybersecurity for their business customers.

Now is the time to utilise the security benefits of cloud computing and act to protect your company against the most dangerous threats.

Be part of the cloud computing revolution and protect your business by switching to eFax today. Get instant access to all our fax technology by signing up to our cloud fax service and starting your free trial.

How to Fax From Mac (iPhones, iMacs, Macbooks and iPads)

Posted on October 20, 2020April 1, 2025 by Scott Schweigert

Welcome to the future: sending a fax from Mac iOS.

Apple technology is the cornerstone of modern existence. iPhones, iMacs, Macbooks and iPads dominate the tech market. Their streamlined interface makes them easy to use, while their advanced security profiles have protected consumers from data theft and malicious attacks for years.

Mac products, it could be argued, are the opposite of a fax machine.

One is lean and sophisticated. The other is cumbersome and outdated. One is packed full of useful features that are constantly updated. The other hasn’t really changed since the 1970s.

iOS devices are coveted in many business circles for their ability to improve performance and efficiency. Conversely, fax machines are loathed in many business circles thanks to their drain on resources and potential for serious security breaches.

Fortunately, these pieces of hardware needn’t share the same space. Fax machines have remained in business culture for many years now because fax is such an important method of communication, but you don’t need a fax machine to fax anymore.

In the digital age, you can send a fax from Mac computers.

Why Use Fax Software for Mac Devices Instead of Fax Machines?

Cloud fax is a revolutionary technology that, much like Apple, has changed the way we communicate.

A digital alternative to fax, cloud fax allows businesses to easily send fax online from Mac and iOS devices without the need for a fax machine. As the name “cloud” implies, the service is entirely online. Digital fax documents are transmitted over the internet, sent through Mac computers.

Cloud fax takes the essential communication tool that is fax, merges it with Mac technology and removes the need for fax machines altogether. But cloud fax is more than just a simple fax machine replacement. The technology enhances your fax experience.

Fax machines are famously archaic. They are limited in their design, highly inflexible and are known to have a range of functionality issues, from errors to security flaws. You can’t use fax machines for remote work. They aren’t compliant with data protection laws like GDPR, and their affinity for technical issues is nothing short of legendary. Yes, they let you send faxes, but they come with a host of nightmare problems nobody wants to deal with.

The same cannot be said of faxing from a Mac with an online fax service.

Yes, Macs can also send faxes, but that is where the similarities end. Macs are fast, flexible and built to meet the demands of our modern world. They offer security, keep data secure and easily support remote work lifestyles. The benefits of using a Mac to send your fax are seemingly endless, but a few key advantages are:

Fax is available anywhere you can take your Mac.
There are no queues when using your own Mac computer.
Everyone can have their own Mac to fax with, rather than sharing a fax machine.
Macs use state-of-the-art data security systems to secure your data.

However, these are far from the only advantages you’ll see. Faxing from a Mac has its benefits, but upgrading to cloud fax also has its own rewards:

- Cloud fax saves your business money. It doesn’t require expensive fax machines, paper, ink and other resources. Nor does it require phone line rental and associated costs. The only fee is a low-cost monthly subscription.

- Your cloud fax account allows for multiple user access at any one time, while also enabling large files to be sent instantly. This saves your business valuable time and boosts efficiency.

- Cloud software is maintained remotely, which means if you have issues with your fax, they can be solved by a team of technicians immediately instead of arranging an engineer call out to fix your fax machine. But issues are rarely a problem for cloud fax, which has reliable uptimes thanks to being managed by a team of support staff.

Built with high-level data encryption and access controls, with the ability to manage and delete files easily, cloud fax is compliant with modern data protection laws.

When you fax using iOS devices, you not only get the advantages of Mac, but you access the business-boosting benefits of cloud fax.

No obligation. No set-up fees. No risk.

How to Fax from Mac Computers with eFax

Mac iOS is famed for two things: being the brainchild of Steve Jobs and for being very easy to use. Apple products have risen to their dizzying heights because they were sold not on their technological capabilities, but on their lifestyle enhancements. iOS isn’t here to be the highest-spec device available, it’s here to be the best system and interface to use on the market. Using your Mac is easy, which means sending a fax from your Mac is easy too.

Register — Navigate to the eFax website on your web browser of choice. Safari works well if you’re on iOS. Register your eFax account, and sign up for your preferred package. Opportunities start at just £11 with a free trial available.

Sign In — Once you’ve signed up you can sign in. When you fax from your Mac, you do this by entering your login details on the eFax website. This will send you to the cloud fax portal.

Send Your Mac Fax — From the portal, you can access the eFax message centre. You can draft your fax transmission, attach any files, add signatures if required and send your fax. This all works very similar to an email, but instead of adding an email address to your address bar, you add the recipient’s fax number. Don’t worry if your recipient doesn’t have cloud fax, the documents sent from your Mac will be automatically converted to file types readable by fax machines whenever necessary.

How to Manage Incoming Fax from Mac

To manage your incoming faxes — as well as to review historic faxes, archive old faxes and curate your received files — you can go to your eFax cloud faxing portal and navigate to the document management centre. Here, you’ll find all your fax documents along with your sent files. It’s quick and easy to find faxes for the sake of referral — an important benefit for modern data protection laws.

Fax from your Mac today with eFax. Sign up to our industry-leading cloud fax service, and get immediate access to all our features. It’s fast and easy to join. Discover why 10 million other businesses have already made the eFax switch.

How to Find a Fax Service Near Me

Posted on October 20, 2020October 21, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

Being able to find a fax service near you can be a minefield of frustration and disappointment.

With COVID-19 plummeting most people into a remote-working environment, getting easy access to your office fax machine, or any fax machine at that, is likely to be an impossible task. You could buy one for your home office; however, fax machines are expensive. They are also large, bulky and resource-intensive.

Alternatively, you could spend ages scrolling through the results of search engines to find that your nearest physical fax service provider is tens of miles away. In the UK, physical stores offering fax services are few and far between. You could pop into a local hotel, post office or library to see if they have a fax machine they would let you use, though there is no guarantee they’ll have one, and there is likely to be a charge if they do let you use it. Ryman stationery shops offer a printing and fax service, charging £1.50 per page you want to send or receive as fax (£3.50 if it’s for an international recipient). Though these stores tend to only be found on the highstreets of busy cities so they might be hard to get to if you live out of town.

At this point, you would be forgiven for crying out in despair, “THERE MUST BE ANOTHER WAY!”.

What if we told you there was?

What if we told you that as you are reading this, we know there is a fax service sitting innocently on top of your desk right at this very moment? Or charging on your bedside table — or squeezed into your trouser pocket, digging into your leg.

With roughly 43 million fax machines used to send billions of fax documents every year, at eFax we understand the necessity businesses have for their employees to be able to access a secure and flexible fax service 24/7.

This is where our digital fax solution comes in.

The Tech Revolution: Faxing at Your Fingertips

Location, location, location.

Here at eFax, we understand the level of importance the location of our fax service has for our clients. That is why we offer our service in the most prime place of them all: at your fingertips.

Our solution is simple. Utilising the advances of cloud technology, we have built a secure and effortless service that enables you to send a fax from your laptop, desktop, mobile phone — any device you choose. All you need is a good internet connection and a low-cost eFax subscription. No fax machine required.

Online faxing is a straightforward practice that eliminates the need for the legacy fax machine. It allows you to send and receive fax documents over the internet using phones, computers and tablets. Instead of transmitting physical paper files, our system operates using digital documents like PDFs. You upload your document to your eFax account and send it using our custom-built online portal.

This process means you don’t have to print off documents to fax them. However, if you want to fax a physical document, you can always capture it using smartphone cameras for easy upload to our service. You can also easily view and retrieve all archived faxes.

The technological revolution of these services means you can also use our online fax services to send documents directly to a fax machine. You can also have fax documents sent to your eFax digital account from a traditional fax machine. This process is achieved through custom eFax document converter tools that ensure files submitted by digital systems and physical fax hardware are compatible with the recipient’s technology. Other core communication tools, such as email, are incapable of performing this action.

No obligation. No set-up fees. No risk.

Why Do Businesses Still Need to Fax?

Believe it or not, fax in the modern day is still prevalent.

While usage has decreased since the 70s and 80s, many businesses still fax. It has a few significant benefits over any other kind of document communication format. The highly visual nature of fax documents make them easy to dissect and extract information quickly, and the nature of sending image files improves the legal authenticity of the content. As a result, you’ll find industries like healthcare, legal, and finance all rely on fax just as much today as they did thirty years ago. This reliance has a trickle-down effect on other sectors.

Fax is also a key tool for businesses that operate internationally and for those considering global expansion to reach new customers and improve net profits. A lot of countries opt to use fax as their main method of communication, believing it to be the most secure way of sharing their documents. A great example of this comes from Japan, where fax machines are prominent in almost all industries. Without the ability to fax, companies will struggle to succeed in this international market.

However, while the use of fax for communication has stayed in high demand, and fax machine sales have remained strong globally, our need for a physical fax machine has been steadily declining. This decrease in the necessity for fax machines is best highlighted by national telecoms provider BT announcing that they will shut off their ISDN and PSTN services by 2025. The move brings to an end the use of analogue phone lines and moves communications technology into an entirely online space.

Traditional Faxing vs Online Faxing

Why is there an urgent need to upgrade your old-fashioned fax machine to an online fax service?

The fax machine is a piece of technology that has truly stood the test of time — up until now. While it stands proudly in the corner of your office, like an unchanging relic from a bygone era, the fax machine still carries technical issues that — in any other piece of hardware — would have been updated and resolved. Issues with fax machines include:

Fax negotiation failure
Communication errors
Paper jams
“No Fax Detected” warnings
Destination number blocks
“Number Busy” notifications.

If you use a fax machine regularly, you’ve probably experienced all of the above at least once. These problems mean the fax isn’t sent properly and productivity is hampered.

What we can deduce from this is that while the fax itself is a great method of communication — it’s visual, it’s easy to use and it’s legally authentic — the fax machine is not fit for purpose in the modern world.

Online faxing offers the same fundamental service of the physical fax machine but brings it into the digitised age. There are also a lot more additional benefits of switching to a digital solution:

Increased Data Security — Fax machines were not built for modern data security threats. They are easy to hack and come with a wealth of other problems, such as the increased risk of human error and a high chance of unauthorised file access. The physical files from machine faxing are also easy to misplace or damage. These risks can create major problems for businesses, especially in light of new data compliance laws. eFax, however, features a wealth of security benefits that help to secure your documents and bring fax data security in line with 21st-century demands.
Lower Costs — eFax is a much more cost-effective solution for your business. Monthly subscription costs are low, and there are no additional fees. You don’t have to pay for the resources required to send paper fax. You also don’t need to pay for fax numbers, phone lines, maintenance and the actual costs of the units themselves.
Flexibility — With the rise of remote working comes the need for solutions to facilitate the demand. Fax machines are not supportive of flexible work. They are not mobile or remotely connective. eFax, however, is a completely remote experience. You can send online fax from anywhere you have an internet connection, which means flexible working becomes easy for any employees who need to send a fax as part of their job. Finding a fax service has never been so easy — or so close.

For an online fax solution that is never far from your grasp, join the millions of businesses that subscribe and use our services each and every month. Get instant access to all our fax technology by signing up to our cloud fax service and start your free trial.

History of the Fax Machine and Why It’s Still with Us

Posted on September 16, 2020October 21, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

The fax machine is a legitimate antique.

The history of fax shares its origins with the first-ever Christmas cards and the day when William Wordsworth was accepted as Poet Laureate. It was a time when Charle Dickens wrote and Karl Max plotted revolution. An era when London was about 20% of the size it is now, surrounded by fields and farmland.

It’s incredible to think that technology born 50 years before Winston Churchill is still not only alive and kicking, but also continues to be widespread — used by millions of businesses across the world.

It’s incredible but also concerning.

How could a relic like fax continue to play such an important role in the modern era?

Did you know that 75% of the US medical sector’s document transmissions happen over fax? It’s a mind-blowing figure when you consider the scale of the US healthcare industry. This isn’t just doctor’s offices and hospitals, it’s all their suppliers, research labs and secondary services, too.

Thousands of facilities are using technology that is also found in the Smithsonian History Museum.

So where did fax start and how has the fax machine lasted so long when other technology of its time has so willingly perished?

eFax explores the history of fax.

Origins of the Fax Machine: The History of Fax

The year the fax machine was invented was 1843. Scottish inventor Alexander Bain began experimenting with his new technology, setting forward a patent and developing the fax machine in the direction of the device as we know it to this day.

His early work was a little more rudimentary than the hardware we’re familiar with — it could only transmit an image through projecting it onto a surface close by.

However, this concept was improved upon over the years by a series of other inventors. Frederick Bakewell was the man that took Bain’s original technology and developed it into a system that could transmit clear images. But it was Giovanni Caselli that demonstrated the full capabilities of the fax machine to none other than Napoleon’s son, Napoleon II, in 1860.

Nearly two decades before the advent of the telephone — and nearly two decades after Bain first envisioned the idea of the fax machine — Caselli was able to transmit pictures over a wired connection, which allowed for long-distance communication of images.

And thus the fax machine was born.

At this time, faxing was still limited in its capabilities because of the requirements of a wired connection and a lack of infrastructure to enable this. For decades after, fax remained expensive and rare. Continued developments made fax more and more viable as a technology, but the change was slow and it slowed down even more during war times.

However, as developments continued, the fax machine became much more accessible and affordable, which paved the way for the heyday of fax.

Fax Machines in Their Prime

Xerox is credited as the force that took the fax machine mainstream, with the advent of its Long Distance Xerography (LDX) technology in 1964 and subsequent Magnafax Telecopier machine launched 1966 to utilise the LDX system.

LDX essentially let any fax be sent over any phone line.

Since, by this point in history, phones had been installed in nearly every business and home, fax went from being a technology that required very specific communication pathways and wiring to being a system that anyone could use.

Xerox’s invention quickly transformed the fax landscape. Within a few years, businesses began manufacturing better quality fax machines that were cheaper, faster and more efficient.

The fax machines arms race had begun.

The number of fax machines in use skyrocketed from this point onward, facing an upward trajectory that would last just over two decades. At the dawn of the 70s, around 25,000 fax machines were being used in the USA, a major increase on the early 60s numbers.

By the 1990s, that number grew to 5 million fax machines.

Fax became the commercial system for document transmission. It was everywhere, in all businesses across the developed world. From the UK to the USA and Germany to Japan, the fax machine was the undisputed market leader.

No obligation. No set-up fees. No risk.

Fax Has Not Died a Natural Death

The growth of the fax machine aligns with the lifecycle of many other technologies of the past and the current era. It’s not uncommon for new hardware and software to go from zero to hero in a few short years.

Just look at smartphones.

However, there is always a cut-off point. Eventually, the technology becomes obsolete as new developments seek to replace it and the movement dies. For example, in the 80s, 5 billion floppy disks were sold annually. In 2020, the floppy disk is no longer produced.

This is the kind of trend technology normally follows, but fax machines have proved an exception to the rule.

Despite being a technology that peaked in the same era as the floppy disk, fax machines remain in constant use while floppy disks died their natural deaths, replaced first by CD ROMs and then by digital download files.

The survival of the fax machine is not normal. It’s become outdated, residing in technology museums while manufacturing of the hardware continues. And this isn’t because there is no replacement technology available. We have computers and email, which serve as updates on the fax machine’s basic principles, so why is it that fax didn’t die alongside other tech of its generation?

The simple answer is that fax is too valuable to leave in the annals of history.

Let’s take a look at another example: phones.

Phones were invented around the same time as the fax machine, yet we still rely on phone calls daily for all facets of life. The difference is that the way we make phone calls has changed a lot. We have smartphones now, we don’t rely on the original technology that introduced calling as a practice.

But for fax, that’s not the case. To send a fax, most people use fax machines, which have remained largely unchanged for half a century.

It’s like making a phone call on an old landline dial-up phone. You just wouldn’t do it these days. So why hasn’t fax developed the same sort of technology?

Cloud Fax: The Fax Machine Reborn

Cloud fax is to fax what smartphones are to phone calls.

The next level, the advancement in technology that makes life easier.

Like smartphones, Cloud Fax is entirely digital. It uses digital technology to increase security and productivity and introduces a range of new features that make old school fax machines look like the dinosaurs they are.

Cementing its similarity to smartphones, cloud fax is compatible with older technology. Those left behind in the outdated era of phones can still receive a call from your smartphone and those who still use outdated fax machines can still send faxes to and receive faxes from a cloud fax system.

The technology converts the transmitted data automatically.

So why hasn’t cloud fax replaced fax machines entirely and become the next step in the history of the fax machine?

It’s all about uptake.

Millions of businesses currently use eFax instead of fax machines in 2020, but there are still tens of millions that don’t. Cloud fax is widely and easily available. Access isn’t the problem, the issue is awareness and people’s willingness to change.

The future of fax is in the cloud. The history of fax is still being written. As we move through the 21st-century, we are set to remove fax machines from the picture entirely and move fax into the digital era where it belongs.

Discover the next stage in the history of fax. Sign up to eFax today for exclusive access to innovative fax solutions. Keep faxing, but ditch the fax machine.

Why It’s Time to Replace the Fax Machine

Posted on September 11, 2020October 21, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

We here at eFax are in the business of faxing, which means we’re painfully aware of how many businesses are still using fax machines.

How many is that?

Millions.

Around the world, about 43 million fax machines are used to send billions of fax documents every year. While they’ve all but left the home environment, fax machines are still present in businesses around the globe, in worryingly high numbers.

You might have noticed we’re not painting fax machines in a particularly positive light. Find out why we think it’s time to replace the fax machine.

Fax Machines, a National Crisis and the US Healthcare Industry: A Lesson in Failure

Welcome to the US healthcare sector, a place facing a mounting health crisis.

During these unprecedented times, efficiency in the healthcare sector is paramount. Time wasting costs lives, but wasted time and slowdowns are exactly what the US healthcare sector is experiencing. And it’s all because of fax machines.

Fax machine communications account for around 75% of all document transmissions in the US healthcare service, which is bad news.

This isn’t even because fax machines are a nightmare for security and data protection (which they are), instead, it’s because they are slow, cumbersome and prone to errors — both technically and as the result of human input.

Since the healthcare industry in the US is reliant on outdated technology, there is no way to avoid using it, which forces healthcare professionals to deal with the associated issues.

These issues are irritating and time-consuming enough already, with fax machines notoriously hated amongst those working in the US healthcare industry. However, during the current national health crisis, things have become far worse than usual.

Owed to the enormous scale of the crisis, the sector’s reliance on fax machines means that data and documents are being churned out by fax machines at an alarming and unmanageable rate.

Some 1,000 documents are being faxed to individual doctor’s offices every day.

And it’s becoming too much to handle.

Responsible for three-quarters of all medical communications, fax is being used to share a vast amount of information essential to saving lives, but the quantity of this information has become overwhelming.

There is no internal infrastructure devised to deal with such demand or to monitor this data. And faxes — being so inefficient as they are — mean the paper is just stacking up. The result? Information communicated via fax is being acted upon much too late.

In a national health crisis, that costs more than just dollars and it only gets worse.

The numerous technical problems posed by fax machines also mean that sometimes files aren’t sent properly, are sent incomplete, don’t send at all or are sent in duplicate, creating more work.

Normally, this would just be a minor annoyance that could easily be remedied. However, the sheer volume of fax being sent right now means that the errors are lost in a sea of fax machine noise.

Not only is there too much fax data to manage, but there are a multitude of errors occurring that are impossible to keep track of.

The fact that this data is all paper-based also means it then needs to be manually entered into a digital system, absorbing huge amounts of time and slowing things down further.

In short, the existence of fax machines in the US healthcare sector is worsening a national healthcare crisis, which has already cost tens of thousands of lives. At a time where the US healthcare sector needs all the help it can get, fax machines are failing it.

Should US Healthcare Axe the Fax? In Defence of the Fax

Fax machines have left the US healthcare sector in the lurch, but should this have been allowed to happen? Doctors in the States already know that fax machines are a nightmare to work with and have done so for decades.

So why does fax still exist in the US healthcare sector?

For the same reason it still exists in the NHS.

The problem is that fax itself isn’t actually the issue. Fax, as a method of communication, is invaluable for healthcare. It allows for essential documents to be transmitted quickly in a visual way that makes them easy to consume. Fax also enables the transmission of legally-binding signatures, which is very important for healthcare.

The issue is the fax machine itself: the hardware that sends the document.

As a method of communication, fax has a lot of benefits. The fax machine as a conduit of fax transmission is a dinosaur that refuses to go extinct.

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Fax Machine Technical Issues: Technology Built for a Different Time

Why is the fax machine such a problem?

In truth, it’s nothing more complicated than the fact that the fax machine is old. Over time, we develop new technologies. Why do we develop new technologies? To improve upon the previous generation of technology and to solve new problems in new ways.

Every year, fresh editions of technology appear to make our lives easier and better. Things are always moving forward. Well, almost always.

The fax machine is a piece of technology that bucks the trend. While the world around it evolves, the fax machine stays planted as hardware that hasn’t seen any sort of improvement for around half a century.

As a result, the fax machine still carries technical issues that would normally have been updated and resolved. Issues with fax machines include:

– Fax Negotiation Failure
– Communication Errors
– “No Fax Detected” Warnings
– Destination Number Blocks
– “Number Busy” Notifications

Each of these technical problems is different, but the result is the same. The fax isn’t sent properly and productivity is hampered.

If you use a fax machine regularly, you’ve probably experienced all of the above at least once. These, on top of a million other problems — from paper jams to stubborn fax machine antics — demonstrate just how many technical issues exist in the fax machine that lead to unsent communication or incomplete data transfers.

The example of the US healthcare sector demonstrates just how devastating the cost of fax machine technical failings can be.

But it’s not just the US healthcare sector that uses fax machines, as we’ve already established. Millions of businesses across the world are suffering at the hands of fax machines.

Yet how can you replace the fax machine if fax is irreplaceable?

Replace Your Fax Machine with Cloud Fax

What we understand about fax and fax machines is this:

– The fax itself is a fantastic method of communication. It’s visual, it’s easy to use and it’s legally authentic.

– The fax machine — the tool that enables fax to be sent — is not fit for purpose in the modern era. It’s slow, riddled with errors and it’s wreaking havoc as a result.

The solution is simple: fax without the fax machine.

On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. Surely fax and the fax machine are mutually exclusive? Can you have one without the other?

Well, yes. Yes you can.

Cloud fax is exactly that. It’s fax as you know it — the visual kind that sends a document from one piece of hardware to another that you can pick up and read instantly — but it’s all digital. Your phone or computer becomes the fax machine and the visual competent is the screen. It’s all there in black and white, but it’s online. You don’t flick through pages, you scroll through them.

Why is this better?

Because it uses the technology that should have replaced fax machines in the first place. Cloud fax eliminates the technical errors and the minefield of problems that fax machines present and, instead, puts the still-valuable fax communication method on a system that’s built for the demands of the modern-day.

So how does cloud fax solve the problems with the US healthcare sector and how can it serve as a replacement for fax machines to help solve your problems too?

Digital fax is a powerful tool because it’s easy to manage and control. It’s not reams of paper pumped out into a fax tray to be sorted. Management of the documents can be automated and categorised. The digital nature of the information also means it can be adapted and integrated with other digital systems so that a document faxed using cloud fax can be transferred to a different system where the data can be unpacked and used for whatever purpose it is needed for. You can remove the manual labour and all the confusion of having to figure out which piece of paper goes where.

Cloud fax simplifies the fax management process.

But there’s more than that. A lot of businesses want to replace their fax machine but they can’t because of one simple problem: other businesses still use fax machines. If they ditch their fax machine, they lose communication. In the US healthcare sector — with 75% of communication submitted via fax — cutting out the fax means you cut out the vast majority of document transmissions.

You just can’t do it.

But with cloud fax, you can send a fax online. Cloud fax is a system integrated not just with modern technology, but the technology from which it was inspired. Cloud fax is compatible with fax machines. What this means is that if somebody you know sends you a fax via their fax machine, the cloud fax technology will convert that file into a digital one for you to read. It also means if you need to fax information to somebody without cloud fax, you can just send the digital document to their fax machine and they’ll receive it as a paper fax.

Even when others are lagging behind, you can stay ahead of the game.

Upgrade to eFax cloud faxing today and replace your fax machines with the evolution in fax technology. Sign up now and get immediate access to business-saving systems!

Fax: The Progression From On-Premise To the Cloud

Posted on September 8, 2020July 19, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

Fax is one of the original technologies playing an important role in modern business. Invented before the telephone in the 1840s, fax cemented its importance in business and was popularised in the 1970s. It has always been a vital tool for enterprise level businesses, as it allows them to share and evaluate high volumes of information, often found in highly confidential legal documents.

Today, fax is a staple of business that has been revolutionised by the integration of cloud-based technology. IDG Cloud Computing Survey 2020 reported that enterprises’ average cloud spending is up 59% from 2018 to 2020 and 54% of enterprises’ cloud-based applications were moved from on-premise to the cloud. The clear trend of moving from on-premise to the cloud is one that now encompasses fax. Used in business for over one hundred years, fax has received new life with the progression to cloud-based services, and the subsequent improvements to capability, security, cost and efficiency.

Online cloud fax services remove the need for old on-premise servers and paper fax machines, drastically improving efficiency and accessibility by allowing users to fax anytime from anywhere by using a mobile device.

Cloud-based digital fax is much more secure than its on-premise predecessor. Faxes are encrypted before being sent directly to email inboxes. eFax uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) and state-of-the-art data centres to ensure fax receives the highest level of protection. It also removes the fundamental issue of shared fax machines often stacking unattended fax copies available for anyone to see.

Cloud fax is much cheaper, as there are no unexpected, ongoing costs, such as maintenance, upgrades, capacity expansion or redundancy, that are regularly incurred with on-premise systems. It eliminates soft costs such as paper, toner, and removes the storage and disposal fees associated with paper faxes. A significant reduction in cost is very beneficial to companies that face turbulent markets and exist within an economy in recession.

The switch from on-premise to cloud-based fax is clear, with transformative benefits across the board making it a no-brainer. Cloud’s dominance among enterprises will continue to grow on the steep trajectory that it is currently on – 32% of total IT budgets will be allocated to cloud computing in the next year (IDG 2020). Greater platform and service flexibility, security, disaster recovery, and reductions in cost, are the main drivers for why IT leaders are investing in cloud-based technology and moving their on-premise systems to the cloud. Cloud-based fax, an original staple of business for many years, enables enterprises to reap the rewards of digital transformation too.

Accelerating Continued Digital Transformation Across Enterprises

Posted on September 8, 2020July 26, 2022 by Scott Schweigert

“Some of the easiest digital initiatives can pay off in a time like this.”

Enterprise leaders advocate the importance of digital transformation, regularly referring to hot technologies including AI, blockchain, and big data to make their case. These technologies represent huge potential for enterprises seeking to unlock innovation and new ways of doing business. However, successful digital transformation ultimately depends on the seamless integration of both offline and online capabilities so that products and services can ultimately be provided efficiently, quickly, and better than before.

Many organisations have strong interest in digital transformation, but have often been held back by a lack of funding, strategy or governance. In 2018, support for the Axe the Fax campaign surged when health secretary Matt Hancock mandated the NHS from buying more fax machines and ordered a complete phase-out of the hardware by April 2020. Recent reports have shown that many trusts missed this deadline due to lack of progress.

Recent eFax research shows that whilst most UK IT decision-makers are accelerating the speed of digital transformation as a direct result of disruption to their workforce caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of decision-makers would have accelerated digital transformation sooner if they were aware of the full impact it could make in just a few months.

The findings also found that half of all IT decision-makers believe if more budget had been available, then their organisations would have been encouraged to accelerate digital transformation sooner, and many also believe more buy-in from leadership would also have encouraged their organisation to accelerate digital transformation initiatives sooner too.

Some of the easiest and lowest-cost digital initiatives can pay off in a time like this. Many enterprises have taken the opportunity to accelerate old paper processes to digital formats, similarly, the way we share, and review documents has also been improved.

Fax remains a vital tool for sharing important documents, due to the nature of sending files improving legal authenticity. However, the vast majority of workers do not have fax machines at home. Throughout the lockdown, they have been forced to seek out alternative means to share documents and data without risk. Cloud faxing has stepped in to remove the need for dated fax machines and allow employees to fax from anywhere, increasing workforces’ agility.

Digital faxing is also much safer than its physical counterpart, as fax files are sent directly to the email inbox and sophisticated data encryption is used to increase security and confidentiality. It also saves enterprises money, at a time when reducing costs is vital.

The accelerated digital transformation witnessed in the last six months will continue to benefit companies as restrictions on the workplaces begins to ease. Technology that was adopted during lockdown to solve the problem of teams being away from each other and transition away from legacy systems is unlikely to be dropped when employees return.

The lockdown has enabled many enterprises to get to grips with the need for digital transformation and combine the operational changes needed with digital applications even if prior to the crisis began, they may have previously lacked the required knowledge, expertise, and focus to successfully achieve a change of this scale.

Scott Wilson
Director of Service
eFax

Can Fax Machines Be Hacked and What Is Faxploit

Posted on June 2, 2020March 17, 2023 by Scott Schweigert

There are very few cyber security scandals that caught the headlines like the Sony Pictures Hack. Thousands of documents were stolen and displayed online, including emails and messages between executives. In the wake of the hacks, Sony’s management team sought a way to avoid the vulnerabilities of email that caused such great problems. The result was they turned to fax machines.

While Sony might have been alone in the scale of the security attacks against them, they were not alone looking for ways to protect their data from hackers and thieves. With data protection becoming more and more important to businesses, and the vulnerabilities of platforms like email becoming more and more obvious, companies are starting to seek other ways of protecting their data, and that has led them to fax.

What Makes People Convinced Fax Machines Are Safe?

The concern about email comes from its access to the internet, and how hackers can access accounts that should be protected. The technology is also widespread, which means it’s well-known to many hackers, with a near-endless volume of attempts to find weaknesses to take advantage of.

Fax machines, however, are old-fashioned pieces of technology not connected to the internet in the same way. They are analogue devices that transmit data through phone lines instead of over the internet. Fax machines have also fallen out of favour, which means they don’t provide the same value to hackers, resulting in the hardware falling under the radar.

Fax machines are essential “off-the-grid” devices that can safely transfer sensitive data. At least, that is the theory.

Can Fax Machines Be Hacked?

Yes, fax machines can be hacked — well, kind of.

Fax machines are digital devices, which means they have programmable computer elements that can be manipulated by external sources. However, there is a major difference between fax machines and emails, resulting in a misconception that they are safe for data transmission. You cannot hack into a fax machine and access what’s on it like you can an email. The fax machine as a unit is not what is vulnerable to hackers. Instead, it’s those pieces of technology connected to it that are hackable.

What Hacking Threats Are Fax Machines Vulnerable To?

There are two major hacking threats not often considered by those who use fax machines as a method of increasing security:

Interception — It’s true that while on a fax machine, your data is secure. Why? Because a digital hacker cannot get the data from the machine as they would with an email portal. However, once that data is sent, it becomes vulnerable. Fax machines do not encrypt information; they are old-fashioned machines that don’t possess the ability to scramble and unscramble messages. That means the data is transmitted without any protection. Because it is sent using analogue lines, it’s not as easy to get hold of. But if a hacker were to intentionally infiltrate the line, they could access the data sent without any problems.
Faxploit — Modern technology has become very good at protecting against malicious attacks through the use of firewalls. It doesn’t always work, as Sony proved, but it often takes very persistent and sustained attackers using sophisticated techniques to get past. This is not a problem for most small businesses. Fax machines, however, do not have firewalls protecting them — but they connect to your IT network, often through the internet or cables. Hackers can actually use fax machines as an unprotected backdoor to your computer network, using elementary, malicious programs to bypass the systems protecting your more advanced hardware and causing nightmare problems.

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An Introduction to Faxploit

Faxploit is a method of computer network infiltration. It uses programs similar to other methods of hacking — such as malicious files — to gain unsolicited access to computers for criminal activity. This may be stealing data, conducting blackmail activities, or data manipulation. Only fax machines are vulnerable to faxploit, hence the name.

The discovery of faxploit was made by Checkpoint Software Technologies back in 2018, who also coined the term. Despite being a serious vulnerability, it failed to gain much media coverage — especially in the areas potentially most affected, such as within business communities.

What Is Faxploit?

When a hacker attempts to infiltrate your system, he or she normally meets a firewall. A firewall protects against unwanted access and stops programs that could harm your network from getting onto your business computers. The keyword here is ‘normally’.

A fax machine does not have a firewall. Fax machines are old technology and aren’t built to fight digital threats. This is because they’ve never needed to, so investment in this technology seems superfluous. However, hackers have become aware of this. They’ve learned that fax machines are unprotected — yet they are often linked to IT networks of an entire business using the internet or cable connectivity because they connect to a multifunction printer or wifi. Since there is no protection here, hacks can launch an attack on the fax machine, gain entry and then access your computer network, spreading malicious files by hopping around using internal connections.

Imagine your computers are all locked front doors, but your fax machine is an unlocked backdoor. You’re all tightly sealed up where you think you’re going to be targeted, but people have worked out that backdoor is unprotected, and can just slip right in, gaining the same access as if they managed to break down the locked entrance.

This is faxploit.

How Does Faxploit Work?

Your fax machine connects to your phone line, which has no protection. Your fax machine is then connected to your IT network, which has protection from external threats — but not internal threats, as once something is in the system, it is trusted. Hackers can send malicious attacks through the phone line to your fax machine in the form of a script that runs on the device. The hardware has no way of stopping this happening, as there isn’t a function to prevent the script activating when the fax machine receives the message.

Why is that? Because when a fax machine receives data, it is programmed by design to take the information and turn it into a file without testing what it receives. The is supposed to be an image file, but hackers have found a way to get it to run scripts that aren’t just images; programming scripts that let them take control of the hardware. The script then allows the hacker to gain access to the fax machine and search for available networks connected. The hacker can then move through the network to remotely control computers on the system and engage their malicious files.

What happens after that is not ever going to be good news.

How Can Your Business Protect against Faxploit?

There is only one way to really protect against the faxploit, and that is to ditch fax machines.

The core problem behind faxploit is phone lines just don’t have built-in protection to stop emerging digital threats, and nor do fax machines. It would take a total reinvention of the technology to secure the platform completely. While the faxploit tested by Checkpoint was patched, that only protected from a very specific piece of code working. The basic flaw still exists in the fax machine, in that nothing is stopping it executing malicious scripts because it is designed to do what it’s told without question.

But this then creates another nightmare scenario. Fax machines might be old-fashioned and out-dated, but any successful business knows it’s still a significant player in the world of communication. Fax is still a major part of trade and relationships for many. Ditching the fax machine isn’t really an option.

Or is it?

eFax lets you ditch the fax machine without axing the fax. Our solutions enable fax transmission to continue through digital platforms. You can still communicate with old-fashioned fax machines, but all your documents and data transmit through computers or smartphones, not centuries-old hardware.

Make sure your business isn’t faxploited, but can still send and receive fax! With eFax, you lose absolutely none of the functionality of the fax but gain much-needed security. Sign up today and protect your business immediately.