For some firms – and individuals – it has been a massive wake up call.
For others it has been a natural extension of an evolving work pattern.
Some businesses had no cloud capability.
Some had cloud capability and were using it in a limited way – similar to using only one programme on your twenty-programme washing machine.
Few were taking full advantage of the freedom that cloud access allows teams.
Microsoft Office365 is a cloud-based, subscription platform that has been hailed as the gold standard of the modern workplace. While you will be familiar and are likely to use its Mail, Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps, it offers a raft of other benefits that sometimes fly under the radar.
Microsoft estimate that 87% of all Office365 installations have yet to be developed by organisations that have implemented the latest way of deploying their Suite of Office Applications.
Is it not time to make the most of your investment?
Cyber Essentials – a certification that helps you guard against online threats and demonstrates your commitment to good cyber health – is a must if your business has public sector contracts or wants to bid for them in future.
More and more organisations – especially central and local government – want their suppliers to show evidence that digital security ranks highly on their agenda, and the Cyber Essentials mark does just that.
It’s time to clean up your act and tighten your organisation’s cybersecurity.
As the number of internet-connected devices in the workplace rises, and the number of small businesses being targeted by hacking soars, it’s vital for every business to have a meaningful handle on how to beat cybercrime.
By Austen Clark, managing director of Clark Integrated Technologies
Scotland’s rural economy is vibrant and varied, and while farming, forestry and tourism may be the sectors most synonymous with a countryside location, there’s everything in between.
Food producers, professional services, engineering firms and oil and gas service industries all operate in rural locations.
Clark IT has evolved and grown from its rural base at Auchterless near Turriff in the fast paced and dynamic tech sector. So, we know better than most some of the perceived challenges there can be to operating outside an urban centre – and how the power of digital can overcome them.
When it comes to passwords and internet security, sometimes the simpler solutions are actually the best.
Let’s take a closer look at how to truly safeguard the information you value most.
We are often told how essential it is to create numerous complex passwords, and that they should be used uniquely across all our internet applications. The logic behind this decision may seem flawed, but it is rooted in real fears.
However, in practice, having too many passwords can be a terrible headache – not to mention a potential security risk. What if you forget your vital passwords? What if you write them down and misplace the note? What if someone else finds your passwords and accesses your accounts?
Advice for many years has been to simply memorise your passwords instead of storing them. People have been told that storing passwords in any form is inherently a high-risk activity.
While we encourage the use of password managers (alongside recommendations from the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC), interest in this tech has remained low. Yet the recommends a refreshed approach to passwords. Would it work for you?
NCSC suggests that established thinking around password creation is flawed, because it expects the end-user (us) to memorise numerous lengthy passwords.
Instead of taking this approach, it may make more sense to instead opt for three ‘random’ words – strong enough to work on many different platforms, and to not be guessed by aspiring hackers – but not so obscure that you can’t remember them, either!
The strategy is informed by real-world customer behaviour, making it a little more grounded and practical in scope.
Key areas to consider with this approach include:
Of course, no password solution is entirely failsafe. There is always the possibility this approach could be seen as weaker than completely randomised password approaches, though the NCSC argues this is not entirely true.
Instead, the randomisation and length of the passwords could in fact be considerably stronger and more targeted than some passwords that are traditionally considered as efficient, but are actually incredibly easy to guess and exploit.
To find out more about the topic, head for the official National Cyber Security Centre website. Get practical help with your cybersecurity by contacting our expert team.
