The fax machine is an integral part of our past, but it still has a place in today’s world. Global statistics show that billions around the globe are sent every year, and many Millennials can’t think when they’ve ever needed to send one themselves! So why do we have this ancient device?

Security

Technology has always been a vulnerable target for hackers and cybercriminals. The Internet was not designed with security, meaning anyone can be hacked anytime – even if you think your account is secure!

What’s worse than having personal data compromised? Not knowing it until after the fact when there’s little chance of recovery or reversing those damages done because no one ever told us how much trouble our negligence caused others

Faxes are a popular method of communication for many reasons, including their ability to remain secure when compared with other methods. For these privacy-conscious individuals who have learned about hacking in the media and want nothing else can happen – they will continue using faxes even though there’s an easier way because, at least this way, their message gets delivered.

Reliability

Fax technology pre-dates the turn of the century and has not been completely replaced. Furthermore, in 1964, Xerox Corporation introduced LDX (Long Distance Xerography), an invention considered the first “commercial” version of today’s fax machine.

Signatures

The fax machine is still prevalent in countries where electronic or digital signatures aren’t yet recognised as legal. When physical signatures are needed, you can quickly receive a document via fax and sign it before scanning your signature onto the screen for sending back to whoever sent out this vital information! Businesses don’t just use faxes- they’re also employed within most industries that require authorisations such as finance (signing cheques), education (teaching courses) and more – that’s a lot of signatures needed per year.

The convenience of a fax machine is unparalleled in these places where people often need documents signed.

Internet access

The fax machine is a great way to communicate and share essential documents in areas where it would otherwise be extremely difficult or time consuming. The reliance on the telephone rather than Internet allows people who cannot access an online connection, such as those living off-the grid with no electricity supply for their home computers at all times of day (or night), can still get business done by relying upon this old technology that has been around since 1857.

Online faxing

Internet faxing has made it possible for people who want the security and convenience of a traditional office-based fax machine, but don’t live in an area surrounded by them or have access to one at all times. The same concept behind this old technology is utilised through online sending/receiving which allows you send or receive documents from your computer browser anywhere with internet connection.

The Bottom Line

Never have there been more options available to businesses to communicate internally and externally with stakeholders.

BNS’ msXfax Enterprise fax server is a virtual machine fax server with Cloud Connectors to allow it to connect to Exchange on-premises, Exchange Online (Office 365 email) or another email system, effectively managing outbound and inbound fax calls, delivering them efficiently to the correct destination.

It is an ideal solution for large enterprise customers or even small-sized businesses who understand the importance of maintaining privacy in fax communications with their customers and trading partners.

BNS Group announces support for the new Microsoft Graph API to securely access Office 365 resources.

Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides a unified programmability model that independent software vendors (ISV) can use to access the tremendous amount of data in Microsoft 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Use the wealth of data in Microsoft Graph to build apps for organizations and consumers that interact with millions of users.

“Older protocols such as IMAP are slowly being locked down by Microsoft meaning that ISVs have to implement the most secure access and move with the times” said Clive Pereira BNS R&D Director.

BNS’s enterprise fax server is the first product to be updated to implement the API.

msXfax Enterprise Fax Server version 8.3 build 29 provides support for the Graph API available from March 2021.

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Microsoft default installation of Exchange Server 2019 does not  support TLS 1.0 and 1.1   TLS 1.2 and above is supported.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/architecture/client-access/certificates?view=exchserver-2019

Customers who plan to install \ upgrade to Exchange 2019 and who have an existing fax server running on Windows 2012 R2 will need a patch from BNS to support Exchange 2019.

Customers who plan to install a new fax server will be required to install on Windows Server 2016 or better using the latest software release of msXfax.

30 August 2019

Sydney Australia

BNS Group release support for Microsoft Teams in msXfax, a powerful SIP based fax server capable of running on-premises or in Azure, AWS and other cloud platforms.

Designed to work alongside session border controllers (SBC)  which support T.38, the solution allows inbound and outbound faxing from Exchange on-premises or Exchange online using the same SBC supporting Teams Direct Routing.

Additionally, inbound fax can be routed to a Teams channel in addition to other destinations such as any email address or Exchange Distribution Groups etc.

Outbound fax is supported from any email client or application using Exchange on-premises, Exchange online or other IMAP\SMTP based email services.

Example of SBCs supporting Teams direct routing is the Ribbon SBC Edge series.  The SBC must support  T.38 version 0 on the internal side of the network and transcode to G711 on the SIP Trunk side.    Subject to your design, it may be suitable to use G711 fax pass through between msXfax and the SBC if msXfax is hosted in the same data centre LAN as the SBC.  Contact BNS for advice.

BNS Group’s SMS text messaging Server Software has been awarded the Certified for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 logo.

Microsoft’s Commercial App Certification is a validation service for cloud and on-premise applications built-on or integrated with commercial Microsoft technologies such as: Azure, SQL Server and Windows Server.

Certification tests validate that the solution follows coding principles and integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Technologies.   msXfax is also Certified for Windows Server 2016 and 2012R2.

24 September 2018 Sydney Australia

BNS Group is pleased to announce the availability of an Australian first  secure Office 365 PSTN faxing solution with Comvergence (Australian Cloud PSTN Service provider)  providing Office 365 customers a secure faxing solution using Azure or on-premises virtual machine Fax Connector software msXfax.

Similar to what Microsoft and Telstra offered to Office 365 Australian customers in 2018 for PSTN voice calling to the PSTN,  BNS Group and Comvergence partnered to offer secure 2-way faxing from Office 365 using a customer’s Azure\on-premises  Windows Server VM to the PSTN.

Security between Office 365 and Azure\On-premises VM uses TLS.  Security between Azure\On-premises firewall uses IP\SEC to Comvergence for PSTN connectivity.

No files or fax images are stored in Comvergence ensuring that the customer complies with privacy laws in Australia.

Australian Federal Government customers have added features for compliance with the Australian Signals Directorate Information Security Manual – Email Protective Marking gateway filtering.

msXfax enhanced security edition is deployed within Azure\On-premises VM to check for allowed classifications\DLMs which are allowed to pass information to the PSTN fax network.

Email Protective Markings can be configured to allow faxing to the PSTN Fax network. Excamples:  DLM=Sensitive:Legal, SEC=UNCLASSIFIED, SEC=UNOFFICIAL.

BNS is pleased to announce general release of msXfax Fax Server (Cloud Connector) version 8 build 28.

msXfax Fax Server technology now runs in clouds such as Microsoft Azure and AWS.   It also allows customers to provide enterprise faxing securely using hosted telephony service providers.

Summary:

• Support for Office 365 (Exchange online) and other IMAP/SMTP/TLS compliant email services
• Support for on-premises Exchange Server
• Cloud fax support with no telephone lines or hardware on-premises
• Certified for Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machines
• Supports any hypervisor including: VMware, AWS and Azure
• Multi tenant support for reporting, cover sheets, routing and billing
• Supports a variety of SIP Compliant platforms including T.38 and G.711 fax pass through.
• Supports high speed fax (V.34) with specific SIP solutions.
• Fully tested with Ribbon Communications \ Sonus Session Border Controllers.
• Accredited by Telstra for use on the TIPT network
• Fully tested with Optus.  Works with TPG SIP Trunks and other vendors.
• Fully test with Comvergence SIP Service provider based in Melbourne Australia
• Support for SQL transaction logging
• Government faxing – Email protective marking compliant gateway for 2012.3 standards.  (DLMs also supported).
• Support for services providers to use the platform as a service.  BNS has a provisioning database which service providers can use.
• Service providers also can use the transaction database to feed into their billing systems
• Extensive reporting capabilities including standard reports, ad hoc reports, graphs and dashboards

15 August 2018

A vulnerability explicit to JPEG color faxing on HP Multi-Function Devices has been reported by Checkpoint.

https://blog.checkpoint.com/2018/08/12/faxploit-hp-printer-fax-exploit/

BNS Group’s fax server solution does not support inbound creation of JPEG and does not use any parsers for JPEG.

Therefore, BNS Group’s fax server is not affected by the reported exploit.

For Government and high security networks, BNS Group’s fax server solutions allow for network separation and protective marking compliance amongst other security features.

BNS Group’s fax solutions allow MFD vendors to remove fax cards and fax lines from office MFDs providing a more secure centralised fax server solution for faxing.

For Government and High Security networks, BNS Group and Ricoh have achieved fax support on Ricoh MFDs without using analog phone lines connected to MFDs.    

Significant cost savings are possible by removing office based analog phone lines and centralising fax communications over modern day SIP connections using Session Border Controllers or SIP Service providers.

As customers move to Unified Communications, removal of legacy analog phone lines becomes an important consideration for solution architects.

msXfax fax connector supports Multi-Function Devices (MFDs) using SMTP as a transport between the MFD and msXfax.

Many office machine vendors offer capabilities to create applications on their MFDs which can allow users to send faxes via internal email networks to msXfax for faxing.

This allows MFDs to provide fax without fax cards and phone lines.

Significant savings can be be made by not purchasing fax cards in MFDs and not provisioning analog phone lines in new office deployments.

In high security Government networks, this can provide fully featured MFDs whilst meeting the ASD Information Security Manual (ISM) requirements for network separation.

Refer to this publication for further information.