In the wake of the recent hacking of the Sony Playstation Network, in which over 100 million users were thought to have had their personal information stolen, internet security has once again become a huge issue. As of the 12^th May 2011 Sony still do not know when the PSN will be back online and the event has served as a warning not just to console gamers but to everyone and anyone that uses the internet. If a company like Sony can be on the receiving end of this then surely we are all at risk.

Email Viruses

The most obvious online security threat to many individuals and companies arrives in the form of spam emails. We’ve all at some point received emails advertising Viagra or some other miracle drug that does something or other ‘instantly’ for ‘only $9.95’! Not only are these incredibly annoying, but they can be harmful to your computer or laptop.

Emails can contain viruses or links to phishing sites – sites that imitate a real site in order to procure information from you – and for this reason the use of a sophisticated email security service (like that offered by us!) is recommended.

Asia ‘Worst Purveyors’ of Spam

Sophos have recently conducted research into the source of spam for the first quarter of 2011 which has revealed that Asia have now surpassed Europe as the chief culprits. Spam remains a problem across the globe though, with Graham Cluley from Sophos stating that “too many computer users are risking a malware infection that sees their computer recruited into a spam botnet. To combat the spammers, it’s not only essential for computer users to run up-to-date security software, they must also resist the urge to purchase products advertised by spam.”

CE Services

For just a £1 a month we can safeguard your email account. We will redirect your email to our servers, check that it is free of viruses, trojans, worms and spam content, and forward it on to you when we are confident that it represents no threat.

In addition to this CE Services provide a number of internet security solutions to match yours or your business’s own personal needs.

Originally this was going to be an article from us at CE Services about how to ensure safe online working. However when discussing it the password section ballooned bigger and bigger so we decided to give it the space it deserves!

Your Password

If we said to you design a key to your life by which you could access your family pictures, online banking, insurance details, home movies, business finances, diary or most intimate thoughts you would make it as difficult to replicate or fake as possible. So why when choosing a password do so many people ignore the gravitas of that decision?

For millions of people their passwords is their key to their life

In the IT world we have soreheads after repeatedly banging our heads against a brick wall with regards to password strength! The number of offices where a user’s login is Password1 or the same as the login is incredible. The minimum your password should be is:

• Not a word you would find in the dictionary
• Mixture of upper and lower case letters
• 8 Characters long
• Include numbers
• Include at least one symbol such as # or $.

For example an OK password maybe: 48LoFK7$

Best Password Practice

For best password practice however your password should be at least 14 characters long.. For example:

!PP!£14Y&i$B:)TE*

This is easier to remember than it looks:

Attention – Password –Protection – Is – Extremely – Important – For – You – And – I – Scammers – Beware – Smiley face – The – End – Star

Microsoft rate this password as 4/4 or ‘best’ for password strength.

Test your password @ :

https://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/checker.aspx?WT.mc_id=Site_Link

People often think that these types of passwords are difficult to remember but they shouldn’t be. It is commonly assumed that it takes 21 times of doing something for it to become a habit. Most users will login in 21 times in 2 days. (Assuming they are locking the computer every time they leave it! But that’s a different article!)

However we’re sorry but it isn’t enough to have one good password!  It is important to have different passwords.

The standard reply to this is there are too many to remember which the author empathises with and recognises that having similar passwords is infinitely better than having them written down, stored in you mobile phone etc.

So what is the best solution to this conundrum?

Prioritise your most important passwords.

For example prioritise your PC login or online banking password and make sure they meet the above requirements as well being unique! Different users will prioritise their password strength differently, but is  useful to think of it from another perspective,

from all the sites you use a password for which ones have you got the most to lose by your password being used by a malicious entity?

This might lead you to think that security of your fantasy sports team isn’t as essential as your online banking so you could use the same password for all your online sports teams.

So if you’re reading this now and have a weak password CHANGE IT NOW. When you next meet your family or work colleagues pass on this article and make sure they have strong passwords. As it is no use you having a strong password if the one your partner uses to check your joint bank account is weak.

“Outsourcing your IT support has been recognised to potentially have many important potential benefits for any organisation” Bahli & Rivard, International Journal of Management Science

Outsourcing your IT is a simple way of making sure your IT systems constantly work and don’t eat up your time. Organisations don’t employ a mechanic to maintain or fix their vehicles,. They just want to know they, work are safe and secure. So why do they use so much of their resources trying to manage a constantly changing vital piece of their company; the IT systems? Below are ten reasons why outsourcing your IT is any size company’s IT solution.

1. Expertise

Outsourcing your IT gives you access to a team of people who are constantly working in the IT Support Industry. This means they are coming across issues facing businesses in the United Kingdom each and every day. Your problem will be an easy solution for them. The IT support industry is constantly evolving with new technology where as in house IT support can become stagnated and co placement.

2. Cost

70% of IT spend is spent standing still (Gartner, 2003). Outsourcing your IT support saves money. Every size of company can make significant savings through outsourcing. For example a company of 25 employees would save £40,000 per year! if they outsourced their IT support. A company of 400 employees would look at a saving of £107,250 per year! The biggest single saving is wages and all the costs and time associated with that such as, tax and NI payments, recruitment, pension contribution, training, accreditations, overtime, mobile phone bill, company car, fuel card, sickness pay or holiday pay

3. Full time cover

Outsourced companies offer cover 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Usually no call out fee is charged. What does your company do when your IT support manager is on holiday or sick?

4. Consultation

An outsourced company can advise on the best way forward for your IT infrastructure with a totally business focussed mind as they will not hold any emotion towards previous projects that they have implemented or only buy kit because, ‘they know how to use it’. A large proportion of in house IT spend is spent on buying hardware which is totally unnecessary for its purpose. An outsourced IT company will save you money by buying kit that is fit for the job.

5. Issue spotting not problem stopping

Through constant live monitoring of your servers, network and hardware an outsourced IT company can spot any issues before they become problems. This will minimise any downtime your company will ever experience.

6. Virus and Spam filtering

An outsourced IT company will setup your virus and spam filters to the exact severity you desire. Any viruses or spam will stop at their filter before it gets anywhere near your systems

7. Skills shortage

There is a lack of experienced qualified IT support experts in the British job market place. This has 2 main consequences. Increased wages for the skilled IT support engineers and in turn a higher fixed cost for companies who do not outsource their IT support. The other result is that businesses with their own internal IT support often end up with IT staff who would not get the position if there were more highly skilled workers available.

8. Focus on your business

IT management and support is one of the most time draining processes of any business. Why let it take up so much of your valuable time when as identified it is less expensive and quicker to have an outsourced IT solutions company to take on this responsibility.

9. Fixed Costs

Outsourcing your IT allows you to budget for the entire year with certainty. With the majority of outsourced IT contracts parts and labour of all your hardware are covered at no extra cost. If you have an in house IT department these costs have to be absorbed by your business and they can run into the tens of thousands of pounds.

10. Reputation and Staff morale

Customer interaction through your IT systems is one of the biggest determinants of customer’s perception of your business. Correspondingly poorly managed IT department can reduce staff morale especially if the network is slow or un-secure.

With the majority of our new service contracts being for complete IT outsource I started to think is this the future and is Outsourcing suitable for all? It used to be just IT Managers ringing in to log service calls but now end users ring in with PC queries and financial directors take more of a key role in the contract management. For smaller businesses this seems to work very well and we are proof that IT can be outsourced effectively.

But the majority of our existing client base still has well established IT departments and many of the IT staff have become good friends over the lifetime of the support contracts. Many of these customers still need an IT department and we at CE are a great way for them to gain the extra skills and man hours they need. We still work very closely with our customers IT departments implementing new projects etc. So I think the Outsourcing route is a way of saving money but it’s not for everyone.

Gartner today reported the findings of their fifth annual outsourcing study. Their report demonstrates that many companies are developing outsourcing strategies to help them through tough times, but suggests that organisations need to regularly assess their service levels and contract terms to achieve greatest return on investment. 

Allie Young, Vice President of Gartner, explains: “The well-educated buyer and provider will have the advantage. The potential for outsourcing to address immediate cost pressures as well as long-term recovery goals will be unprecedented… Many organisations that are not outsourcing will consider or move aggressively to outsource their IT or business processes to focus on their core business.”

I wonder if the Technology we have now was predicted by anyone 30 years ago and how far ahead of itself is Technology from being an idea to household reality?

After watching my 1 year old twins using the keyboard to schroll through photo’s of our day out at the park. I started to think about how technology will change over their lifetime. They allready see the computer as part of the furniture. So even in their first year they are using technology that would have seemed more fitting to Star Trek 30 years ago when I was their age.

I am still excited by the gadgets that my toddlers are possibly allready taking for granted.