How much time do you spend thinking about IT security? Unless you have been affected by a security problem, you may have never given it much thought.
Your business probably has a number of people accessing its computer systems who are likely to manage their own passwords.
If they manage their own passwords, that means they are setting their own levels of security for your network. Beryl in accounts only comes in once a week, so she can’t be expected to remember anything complicated, can she? What’s wrong with ‘password’ anyway?
And Steve in the sales team dearly loves his fiancée, so why shouldn’t he have ‘Nicola’ as his password?
Passwords like these are a really bad idea because they’re easy to guess. In fact, ‘password’ is probably the worst you could possibly choose.
Not using effective passwords puts your entire system and company data at risk. Here’s how to come up with strong passwords.
Does every computer in your business have up-to-date security software? And do you assume that this is sufficient to protect them, no matter what they subsequently do online?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to both those questions, well done for having the software. But don’t think your job is done.
Staying safe isn’t just about having the right security software in place. The safest users are the ones who are well-informed, so help your staff to understand how your security software works, what spam, viruses and other threats look like … and how to spot a malware-infested website.
Make sure you have an IT security policy that explains what your people need to do to stay safe.
Firewalls act as a filter between your business network and the outside world. They allow safe traffic through, but block questionable connections before they can do harm.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you get your IT security basics right:
It is important your employees have safe, secure tools to go about their work with minimum risk to the business. Over and above that, they should be empowered and informed about security threats so they know how best to respond.
If you’re in any doubt about the security of your business, speak to an IT security specialist (perhaps your regular IT supplier) who can discuss your needs and the potential risks.
Adrian Case is technical director at Akita.
Professional networking site LinkedIn has become an important tool for people looking to stay in touch with old colleagues and make new contacts.
But some time ago the site introduced a new feature that can feel intrusive. When you sign in, you can see who has viewed your profile.
To see who's been looking at your profile, sign in to LinkedIn. Then select Profile > Who's Viewed Your Profile:
If you'd rather other people weren't able to see your details in this list, it's easy to turn off the feature.
There are lots of reasons you might want to do this. For instance, perhaps you're researching applicants for a vacancy at your company, but don't want to reveal your details yet.
That's it — you can now view other people's profiles without alerting them to the fact.
Just remember that the information you can see about other people will mirror your own setting. If opted for anonymity, you won't be able to see who's viewed your profile either.
A new report from information security and risk management firm WideAngle suggests the UK could be falling slightly behind other countries in terms of cloud computing adoption.
Of UK businesses surveyed, a total of 86% said that issues around data protection, legislation and regulation have been at least partly responsible for cloud computing being adopted more slowly than they would like. Globally, the figure is slightly lower, at 76%.
The report also reveals that organisations fit into one of five cloud personas, depending on the enthusiasm they have for cloud computing and the extent to which they have adopted it:
Which cloud persona sounds most like you?
Marketing has evolved as technology has evolved. Billboard ads and newspaper adverts feel somewhat outdated. Television, the internet and smart phones are taking over the marketing world, forcing marketers to shake up their strategies.
Now, instead of ringing up the local newspaper or radio station, marketers are emailing websites or working out how to integrate adverts into mobile apps.
However, traditional marketing — such as networking and face-to-face marketing — is still around. In some cases, these channels have embraced technology. For instance, Skype and email have really made it easy for marketers to stay in touch with their target audiences.
Your marketing can now be optimised and targeted to show content or products to people who are most likely to be interested in them. Some say this has made advertisers’ jobs too easy.
One example of this is Facebook’s advertising scheme. This lets you specify what age, gender and precise interests you would like to pinpoint with your ad.
Facebook even allows you to advertise to people who are connected to a specific person. You can also choose to target to people with a specific relationship status, language, education level or workplace.
This brings a whole new level of marketing: social marketing. Sites that provide social marketing include Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, LinkedIn, Yelp and YouTube. Each has its own, unique selling point, but all share a common factor: personal data collection.
Nowadays, marketers need to track and measure multi-channel campaign that may include email, search, social media, telephone, and direct mail. They will also track clicks, responses, purchase patterns and other such data.
Marketers have been using these digital methods for a long time, but not as long as traditional methods such as networking.
Networking events provide many benefits for a company. They build relationships with other businesses and create opportunities that could lead to new people coming into the business to work or to spend money.
In conclusion, technology has aided marketers greatly over the past few years. But although in many ways it has made marketing easier, it has also added complexity.
The ratio of online to traditional marketing now stands at about 70:30. Because of the enormous diversity on the internet, marketers must do outrageously impressive things to get noticed.
Adam Stevens is a technology and marketing enthusiast as well as a writer for Intxt, a bespoke mobile marketing specialist.
When looking to invest in a printer, you're faced with a myriad of options.
Colour or black and white? Single function or all-in-one? Entry level or advanced? But underpinning all these choices is the age-old question in printing: laser or inkjet?
The two technologies remain fundamentally different. Inkjet printers squirt ink onto a sheet of paper through tiny nozzles, while lasers use a static charge and heat to make dust (called toner) stick to the page in a way that makes up letters and images.
In recent years, there’s been talk of a closing gap between the two. The distinction between home and business printers has also become much less clear.
Laser printers have got smaller and cheaper. Inkjets are faster, quieter and better-quality than ever before too. But even so, lasers remain king of the office.
Unless you want to regularly print high-quality photos, a laser printer is almost certainly the best choice for your business. If you mainly print black and white text, it's really the only type of printer worth considering. Here's why:
For most companies, the choice between laser and inkjet is a simple one. But what do you use in your business?
This is a guest post from Dave McNally, director product marketing at Dell Imaging EMEA.
Adding page numbers to a Microsoft Word document sounds like it should be a simple task. But if you don't know how to do it, it's hard to work out how.
We've seen people adding numbers to pages individually or even writing them on after they've printed their document out. So, today we explain how to add automatic page numbers to a Microsoft Word document:
If you need to make further changes to your page numbers, just double-click any page number in the document.
In what has become a traditional September event, Apple last week announced the latest additions to its iPhone range.
If you're in the market for a new business mobile, here's our quick guide to the new iPhones:
It's been a while now since any new smart phone has offered much more than incremental improvements on earlier models. And it's a similar story with iPhone 5s and 5c. Sure, the fingerprint reader is neat and other improvements sound welcome.
However, if you already own a relatively recent iPhone (a 4s or 5) then there's no compelling argument here to upgrade, unless you've filled your current handset to capacity.
Owners of earlier iPhones will probably find they're getting a little long in the tooth by now. In that case, upgrading to one of the new models probably isn't a bad move.
Similarly, if you're considering buying your first iPhone then now is a good time, because it'll be a year or so before another improved model is announced.
In all cases, unless you're set on having a colourful iPhone or the price difference really matters, you'll be better off opting for the 5s over the 5c. It's much more powerful, has much better features and is likely to last you longer as a result.
Don't let all the buzz around the new iPhones blind you to competing handsets. While Apple arguably offers the most integrated and simple user experience, other manufacturers offer smart phones that you might find more suitable — especially if you're not already tied into Apple's way of doing things.
CNET has a good comparison of how the iPhone 5s and 5c stack up against competing handsets from HTC and Samsung. Suffice to say, if Apple isn't your thing, there are plenty of powerful alternatives out there.
iPhone 5s will be available from Apple on 20 September. You can order iPhone 5c now. Learn more >>
You should be able to leap over tech problems easily
IT should be a tool to increase your company's profitability and empower your staff.
However, bad IT practices are holding businesses back from achieving their true potential. Here are six things you can do to stop IT interrupting your business.
Relying on a single place to hold all your information is inviting disaster. If the hard drive containing your data fails or an employee makes a simple mistake, you could lose everything.
Always keep valuable data backed up, whether on another drive or in the cloud. Most importantly, test your backup system on a regular basis. Don't simply trust it to work.
Cyber attacks on UK businesses are costing the economy £27bn a year. This means putting proper security in place is vital — from firewalls to fully-fledged antivirus and malware protection.
In short: get a plan or suffer the consequences. Draw up a clear policy on what employees are and aren't allowed to do online, and whether they are allowed to use personal devices for work. (In 2012, 51% of the UK's secure IT networks were breached because staff used their own devices.)
Don't neglect the simple things either. Using strong passwords and changing them regularly will make your systems much more secure.
If you have server (an increasing number of businesses are opting to use the cloud instead), it's the heart of your business operations. And one day it will fail, with potentially devastating consequences.
Always remember that technology has a set lifecycle — generally 3 - 5 years — so it's essential to upgrade.
Technology can't look after itself, either. Make sure you monitor and maintain your systems properly. Although this will cost, it's a good investment if it stops your systems from suddenly failing.
Buying a cheap and cheerful piece of kit off eBay at a bargain price might sound like good business acumen to you and your bottom line. But you'd be wrong.
Such hardware is fine to use at home for a few hours a week, but for a company that will be using it for hours every day (or even 24/7, in the case of servers, hard drives and the like), it won't last.
With 86% of companies experiencing at least one period of downtime in 2011, it pays to invest in hardware designed to withstand the rigours of punishing commercial use.
Many companies operate on the fly, buying equipment at the last moment when they suddenly realise they need something.
This can lead to extra unexpected costs and result in a mishmash of devices, software and services that aren't joined up. A rushed purchase could also see you buying something that's missing a vital feature.
Keeping a proper track of your IT systems is also vital so you know what assets you own.
Think installing a cracked copy of vital business software will save you money?
Think again — the list of dangers is long and any one of them could be catastrophic for your bottom line, never mind the moral issues.
You could be fined. The software could be infested with malware that leaks your valuable data. It could be disabled remotely by the software maker. You might miss out on vital security updates.
In 2011, research found more than 25% of UK computer users admit to using pirated software. Businesses are the largest single group.
If caught, expect to be fined for each piece of software, and to be forced to pay the cost of buying that software legally. Don't forget to factor in legal costs, plus the damage to your reputation.
In extreme cases, you can be jailed for up to ten years. Now there's a cheery note to end on.
This article was written by Danny Walker, director at IT Farm.
When you're trying to keep your website or blog regularly updated, one of the biggest headaches can be finding good photos that you're allowed to use.
You can't go just grabbing photos you like from other websites, because it's hard to know who owns the copyright. If you're not careful, you could find yourself in hot water legally.
So, for this Friday's tech tip we reveal three places to find free photos for your website:
Website stock.xchng offers thousands of free photos, most of which you can use freely on your website.
From the home page, just enter what you're looking for in to the search box.
When the results appear, select an image to enlarge it. If you like it, check the information beneath Usage in the right column. Most images are royalty-free, but always check.
If you can use the image, select Download to sign up for free and then download a copy of the image to your computer.
Morguefile is very similar to stock.xchng. Just search for images from the home page.
When you spot an image you like on the search results page, select it to view it in a box on screen. You can check the usage rights here — look for text that starts 'You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work...'
If you want to use the photo, just select Download Image.
Yep, the drill's the same on RGBStock too. Search, select the image you like, and then review the usage rights.
You need to be signed up to download images, but signing up is fast and free.
Although each of these free sites offers photos that can be used in most circumstances, you might find there are restrictions if:
If you want more flexiblility in how you use photos, it might be better to buy them from a site like Shutterstock or iStockphoto. These stock photography sites tend to offer a range of usage options, with prices to match.
Where did you get the photos for your website?
Old skool: the new TSB website
Ta-da! When you've finished putting the finishing touches to your new website, you want the world to know about it.
That often means emailing your customers, shouting about it on Twitter, posting to Facebook and maybe even paying for some ads on Google.
However, if you're about to set a new site free, you might want to take note of what happened to the relaunched TSB bank earlier this week.
The new bank is being spun off from Lloyds. But when it launched on Monday, its new website promptly hit problems.
Many customers reported they couldn't access the site at all. As a result, the news story that generated most attention was about the website problems, rather than about the bank's launch.
But perhaps worse than launch-day hiccups is the fact that the new bank's website has a decidedly old feel to it. I mean, look at it. Could it be any more 1999?
It's not that an old design is a bad thing in itself, if it works. But surely an organisation billing itself as 'Britain's newest bank' should at least have a vaguely fresh website.
As you might expect, it's come in for a slating on Twitter:
Getting a new website off the ground is not an easy thing to do
It's almost certainly much harder when you're doing it for a brand that has a history dating back to 1810 and is part of a heavily-regulated industry.
But in this day and age, when a website is such a central part of your customer experience, it's absolutely inexcusable to pass off an outdated design as your main customer-facing website.
In a sector where trust is everything, starting out with a website that looks like it hasn't changed in ten years is not a great way to win people's confidence.
How often do you send confidential business documents via email? Weekly? Daily? Several times a day?
It's hardly surprising that we turn to business email when we need to send a document. It's quick, convenient and universal — pretty much everyone you need to contact has an email address.
But have you considered security? Any sensitive information contained in or attached to your emails will be stored on your company's email server. Often, this isn't scrambled or protected in any way.
If your server was hacked, for example, it would be trivial for online criminals to access this important information.
What's more, unless you take steps to hold on to it, the data on your email server won't stick around for ever. It might get automatically deleted after 30, 60 or 90 days.
If your company ever faces legal action, information about when you sent an email and what it contained can play a significant role in your defence. But only if you still have it, and can prove that it's not been tampered with.
An archiving system can help you address the security issues, while also ensuring you have a complete record of all emails sent and received by your company.
In fact, a proficient and advanced email archival program will keep all your emails and attached data safe, such as PDFs and Word documents.
You can be sued for breach of contract or unfair dismissal years after the event itself, so it may be a good idea to keep your email archive for six years or so. If you choose a good archiving system, that data will be stored in encrypted form and be easily searchable, so you can quickly find what you want.
If you've decided the time is right to store your confidential company data, you can outsource the work to a company that specialises in document archiving.
They will be able to offer a range of options to copy all your data and store it in a secure archive. And — of course — you'll benefit from their specialist knowledge and experience.
Alternatively, it is possible to create your data archive in-house. Doing this requires significant knowledge and effort, because you need to maintain your archive on an ongoing basis.
Whichever option you choose, you need to make sure it does the job it is supposed to do. That way you can avoid data breaches and external tampering, as well as having the necessary data to hand if you need it.
Leilah Osher is a small business consultant who specialises in writing about business storage services and document archiving.
Sometimes, you don't have the time to wait for your phone to charge fully. Perhaps there's time to give it a quick boost, but you're not sure if the part-charged battery will make it through the day.
Well, this week's Friday tech tip should come in handy next time you need to boost your smart phone's battery by the maximum amount in the shortest-possible time.
It's really simple: even while your phone is charging, it's still using power. Assuming you keep the screen off, the most significant draw on the battery comes from staying connected to mobile and wireless networks and Bluetooth devices.
So, to reduce the draw on the battery, switch your phone into flight mode. This turns off all the wireless radios inside your phone, so they don't use power:
If you leave it in flight mode while it charges, you'll find your phone's battery fills up a little faster.
Just remember: you won't be able to make or receive calls or texts while in flight mode, so be careful if you're expecting to hear from someone.
Google Glass looks like this. Would you wear it? (Image: loiclemeur on Flickr)
Have you got your hands on Google Glass yet, the first wearable technology from the ever-present search giant?
While it's fair to say these interactive glasses don't look particularly stylish, many experts believe they're a sign of things to come. In a few years' time, stepping outside without your wearable technology might feel as strange as leaving the house without your mobile phone does today.
Questionable styling aside, Google Glass can do some pretty neat stuff. It's voice controlled, so all you have to do is say "Ok Glass," followed by a command:
With its built in microphone, camera, mobile connectivity, earpiece and head-up display, Google Glass is the most practical, powerful wearable computer there's ever been.
But while it might be clever, isn't it stretching things just a bit to say that Google Glass could save the high street?
Well, if a new report from digital commerce solutions firm Venda is accurate, then devices like Glass could encourage people to make purchases on the high street via location-based promotions, in-store mapping and exclusive in-store offers.
The report —Wearable technology: the high street’s secret weapon? — polled a representative sample of 2,043 UK adults on their attitudes toward the new technology. Its findings make for interesting reading.
Wearable technology can make it easier for people to learn about product availability and where to find those items on the high street. In many ways, it's a natural extension of how some mobile apps work at the moment.
For instance, catalogue retailer Argos offers a mobile app. You can use it to search for a product, locate a branch nearby with stock, and even reserve one to pick up later in the day. Google Glass would make facilities like this more accessible.
According to the report, over a third of UK consumers would use Glass to plan their shopping routes and over a quarter (27%) would use the technology to search for available stock. Among 18-24 year olds, the proportion rises to 45%.
Additionally, more than one in five consumers said they'd like to use the technology to unlock additional offers, which could give retailers an opportunity to boost impulse buys.
Eric Abensur is Group CEO of Venda. He reckons wearable tech has lots to recommend it to retailers and shoppers alike: “Consumers will be able to make informed purchase decisions and redeem offers, while Glass will help retailers promote the visibility of products on social networks in a novel and engaging way."
There's a flipside, of course. Retailers are already struggling with the concept of 'showrooming', where customers use smart phones to check online prices while they browse in store.
Tools like Glass could make it even easier for people to check online costs instantly, perhaps forcing retailers to compete on factors other than price.
Or will we see a widespread ban of Glass from shops? Not likely, reckons the report, which suggests that any moves by retailers to prevent the use of wearable technology in-store will be negatively received by consumers.
In fact, almost a third of consumers (28%) felt retailers should not be allowed to ban Google Glass when shopping and over half (52%) felt retailers that banned Glass might have something to hide, such as negative product reviews.
“Wearable technology has been identified as a potential driving force for the high street’s renaissance," reckons Abensur. "With this technology, margins can be preserved and conversion optimised by offering the right offer to the right customer at the right.”
He may have a point. However, it's still very early days for Glass, which isn't even officially available in the UK yet.
Given that the same research found 79% of UK adults said they would feel a degree of embarrassment using the wearable technology, it's unlikely we'll see Glass all over the high street in the near future.
But then ten years back, who'd have predicted smart phones would play such a central role in our lives?
Wearable technology is on the way. The first retailers that figure out how to exploit it could find themselves with a healthy competitive advantage.
Beep-beep-beep-beep ... ring-ring, ring-CLICK, bzzzrrrrcscscscsssshhh-doiiiing-doiiiing ... you are now connected.
As older readers will remember, for years that was the sound of the internet. Back then, getting online wasn't a matter of simply flipping open your laptop or tapping the screen of your iPad.
You had to use a dial-up connection. This meant making sure your external modem (pictured) was switched on, checking nobody else was using the phone, then opening the connection on your computer and clicking connect.
After enduring 30 seconds of annoying fax machine-type noises, you'd be on the information super-highway, as we used to call it back then.
If you were lucky, your internet connection might hit the heady speeds of 56 kilobits a second. (For comparison, a typical broadband connection is about 100 times faster.)
At this point I was going to say that those were the days. Except they weren't. With barely enough bandwidth for low-quality streaming radio, YouTube was an impossibility, and every website took its time to load.
It wasn't all bad though. You could pass the time by guessing what images were of while they slowly resolved themselves on screen.
Oh, and you could play 'guess the phone bill'. With many services charged by the minute, it was common to ration your time online.
These days, most of us are lucky enough to have a broadband connection. And while broadband in the UK has its faults, it has revolutionised the experience of using the internet.
Broadband has become so ubiquitous that when BT announced the end of its dial-up internet service last week, the most surprising thing was that it has kept it going for so long.
But while the vast majority of UK internet users moved to broadband years ago, there's still a small minority of people — mostly in rural areas — who are unable to get broadband.
BT says only a 'tiny number' of its customers were still using its dial-up service when they discontinued it, but has acknowledged that around 1,000 people won't be able to move to broadband because it's not available where they live.
And that's the thing. On the basis that any connection is better than none, dial-up does still have its uses. For people in areas not covered by broadband, it's often the only cost-effective way to get online. It can be handy in an emergency too.
For these reasons, the days of dial-up aren't quite over. Although BT no longer offers the service, a few other providers do:
If you're in need of a dial-up connection, it's good to know they are still available. But speaking for myself, I'll be happy if I never hear that noise again.