Beyond MFA – Keeping your accounts secure

Beyond MFA – Keeping your accounts secure

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) have both become key tools helping protect us from cyber threats. Requiring two or more verification steps to access an account adds a strong layer of security beyond just a password. However, even with its strengths, MFA and 2FA can still be vulnerable, especially when users approve sign-in…

Meeting Screen with conference solution

Get the most from your online meeting solution

How many people were familiar with Teams or Zoom before 2020? As the world changed dramatically in late March 2020, a significant portion of our communications and meetings suddenly shifted to a completely digital format, overtaking traditional phone calls and conference calls. The convenience of the format has lasted well beyond the lock-down years. Although…

Email Archiving vs. Email Backup: What’s the Difference?

Email Archiving vs. Email Backup: What’s the Difference?

Our emails contain a treasure trove of valuable information – from important work documents to cherished memories in personal correspondences. It’s crucial to safeguard this data, but are you aware of the differences between email archiving and email backup? These two services serve distinct purposes, and understanding their unique features can help you make the…

April 2023 – prices set to rise across the board

April 2023 – prices set to rise across the board

Technology has seen prices fluctuate significantly over the last three years. As the world rushed to work from home we saw hardware shortages combine with the wider silicon chip shortage leaving costs rising. 2022 saw Microsoft introduce their first significant price changes in their subscription model in a number of years and they are set…

A scammer sits, posing as the Ritz

A scammer sits, posing as the Ritz

Not quite the original song lyric but scammers appear to have targeted customers of London’s Ritz Hotel by contacting customers and asking to double check payment details. The BBC article can be found here – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53793922 A worrying detail here is that the scammers had an amount of information to hand to make the approach,…

Remote working?…’snow problem’

Remote working?…’snow problem’

A quick look out through the window this morning confirmed the overnight arrival of the forecast snow.  In previous years the first arrival of snow has brought with it a number of calls from users requiring remote access to the network, emails configured on external devices, telephone numbers redirected and voicemail greetings amended. For many…

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Behind-the-Scenes Support Gives you Peace of Mind

We are here to support you with any ad hoc IT issues whenever you need us – on the phone or on-site. We also provide behind-the-scenes support in order to ensure all IT systems are running smoothly and resolve any issues as they occur. In early 2017 we took on a new client who was unhappy with both the reliability of their network and…

Image by Hebi B. from Pixabay

Backup and beyond – the business continuity you always wanted but couldn’t afford

I’m not quite old enough to have worked with spools of half inch tape but magnetic tape was certainly the go-to medium for data backup on the first networks I managed. Backup solutions have changed considerably over the years – where we once talked about data backups we now talk about disaster recovery and business…

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Smile, you’re on Camera!

CCTV systems have been available for a long time whether providing monitoring, safety or security. In keeping with other areas of technology (telephony, audio-visual, etc.) selecting camera solutions which integrate with the network broadens the functionality with multiple points of access on site or remotely, email notification of activity, etc. VCI is able to help…

Image by Henning Westerkamp from Pixabay

The Value of both the Team and the Individual

We recently saw the retirement of opening batsman and former England Cricket Captain Alastair Cook who bowed out in the best possible way with a determined and pivotal personal contribution to the team’s success. In a fairy tale, victorious finish which included a century in his final innings, the last test match of the English summer…

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

Encryption: How to wish your data a safe journey

One of my defining memories of childhood holidays is the Tetris-like exercise of squeezing everything into the small family car (suitcases, rucksacks, travel games, sleeping bags, etc.) closely followed by the last minute checks. Are the passports packed, is the road atlas to hand (no sat-nav back then), last check of fuel, coolant, oil and…

Right from the Start – Benefiting from Experience

Right from the Start – Benefiting from Experience

The trouble with learning from experience is that the lesson is delivered just after the knowledge is required. This, of course, is one of the reasons we turn to others to benefit from the broader, collective experiences whether that be friends and colleagues or suppliers and consultants to a business. It is far from unusual…

Attention to detail……one person’s pedantry is another person’s saviour

My elder son had an English test at school yesterday. The comprehension section included a passage of text about a poisonous snake. Before answering the questions, he crossed through the word “poisonous” and above it wrote “venomous”. Yesterday was clearly the day for such scrutiny as I also had a client contact me with suspicions regarding…

There’s more bad news, some good news….and no change in topic.

2016 already looks to be the year of Ransomware. Scan any technical news publications over the last quarter and you will see councils, hospitals, at least one (US) police department and various other high profile establishments who have made the news having fallen victim to a ransomware attack. Browse back through recent articles on our…

Life on the Edge….or IE11 for W7 and W8 users

From 12th January 2016, Microsoft is no longer offering support for any versions of Internet Explorer other than the latest v11 (for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1) or Edge for Windows 10 (though IE11 remains an installed option). In Microsoft’s own words, “Internet Explorer 11 offers improved security, increased performance, better backward compatibility, and support…

“May contain nuts!”…….. Ransomware v backup (backup wins)

Having written about the dangers of attachments and spoof emails on several occasions (most recently here), my attention was drawn to an article on the BBC technology pages today regarding the ‘business model’ behind Ransomware malware products. The full BBC article is available here. I was interested to read how, contrary to anecdotal evidence published…

“May contain nuts!”…….. In an email world of attachments, remain detached.

Apologies if I am beginning to sound like a broken record but I find myself, once again, writing a short piece on bogus emails and the dangers that lie within.  It’s too big and common a problem to ignore. Below is an image of an email I have seen today. 1 – nothing too suspicious…

“May contain nuts!”…….. What is your Movie Star name?

You’ve probably seen or even played the game passed on through social media.  The title can be a little more, shall we say, ‘niche market’ compared with the generic “movie star” heading I’ve given but the game remains the same as does the risk it poses to your personal data. The game states that you take the…

“The lazy Phisherman”

I received the following email this afternoon (Friday 19th September….) From: Net Faxmashine [mailto:postmaster@docs-dig.com]Sent: 19 September 2014 13:53To: Robert CreechSubject: You have received a new fax message You have received a new fax. This fax was received by Fax Server.The fax has been downloaded to dropbox service (Google Inc). To view your fax message, please…

“May contain nuts!”…….. Navigating the internet (or “When and how to search”)

“At the roundabout, take the first exit”“In two more clicks you have reached ‘a’ destination…..(it might not be yours, and it might not be safe)” Imagine if your car Sat Nav picked a destination with only a tenuous link to the address you first entered, ending in the sort of area where you would never…

The Heartbleed Bug – do you need to act?

The latest concern regarding the safety of a cyber world has come in the form of the Heartbleed bug, the potential compromise of a system intended, ironically, to safeguard user data. The BBC has a good article outlining the flaw and surrounding issues – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26954540 The headline of “Heartbleed Bug: Tech firms urge password reset”…

“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 3

“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 3

If we’ve travelled the “Password 101” journey together this far then we are hopefully in agreement that network passwords are a good thing, and you have some ideas regarding how to create them. Now we need to consider how we manage and maintain all those other passwords required by the various devices we use, the…

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“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 2

In our previous visit to passwords (Password 101 – Part 1) we looked at the need for the password in the office environment. This article delves a little deeper and focuses on network password generation. There is a popular saying that your password should be like your toothbrush, “Change it every three months and don’t…

“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 1

“May contain nuts!”…….. Passwords 101 – part 1

Ah, the password…invaluable security tool, necessary evil, or simply the reason to have to call IT support before even starting the working day? The concept of a tool to help identify the individual is not new – we have placed our mark or signed documents for many a century – but the prevalence of passwords…

“May contain nuts!”……..If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you!

(“May contain nuts” – a series of short articles discussing familiar topics which we should all revisit once in a while) In the early 20th century two con-men, George C. Parker and William McCloundy, successfully ‘sold’ the Brooklyn Bridge to unwitting and, one assumes, wealthy tourists. There are other similar, perhaps apocryphal, stories and it…

“May contain nuts!”… Renewing your domain name

(“May contain nuts” – a series of short articles discussing familiar topics which we should all revisit once in a while) You have a website, and you have emails. You know enough to know that these are linked to the fact that you have a domain “yourcompany.co.uk” registered but, beyond that, it all works and…