Seven Reasons why office grade cloud backup is so important!

Having flexible onsite support with remote access is such a valuable tool to have in your business. This reduces downtime and gets your business working with minimal disruption if the worst does happen!

Why is cloud backup so valuable to a company?

1.      Avoids accidental deletion – This is the most common issue that arises when it comes to data loss. Human error! If you delete a user by accident or a member of staff does so without realising it, a backup could restore that user either to an on-premises Exchange account or a 365 account.

2.      Data retention policy gaps and confusion – Policies are designed to help companies comply with regulations, laws and internal policies. Even if you do have a data retention policy, having it accessible makes sure it’s protected but easily accessed by employees who may need to see it.

3.      Internal security threats – It is more common than you realise to have internal security threats within a company. Internal threats originate within the organisation itself and usually are carried out by a current or former employee, a contractor or a business associate. For example, if you have an employee that has left the company but you haven’t changed user access to accounts or changed the passwords, then this can pose a threat to the company.  Having a high-grade recovery solution mitigates the risk of critical data being lost or destroyed.

4.      External security threats – Ransomware is becoming more and more of a threat each week. Criminals are finding more ways to infiltrate systems through unsuspecting users. It can be as easy as an employee clicking on a link and the entire organisation’s data being encrypted. Then a ransom will be asked for, in order to lift the encryption. Daily online backup systems can easily restore data to where it was before the attack.

5.      Legal and compliance requirements – Even though Microsoft has its own eDiscovery, having a third-party backup solution that is purpose-built to easily search within a backup is essential. It can quickly bring back data to meet any regulatory compliance needs.

6.      Managing hybrid email deployments and migrations to Microsoft 365 – Whether you are migrating to Microsoft 365 or have a blend of on-premises Exchange and Microsoft 365 users, the Exchange data should be managed and protected in the same way, which makes the source location irrelevant.

7.      Microsoft Teams data structure – Microsoft Teams is not a self-contained application. Data generated in Teams resides in other applications too, like Exchange Online, SharePoint and OneDrive. With this added layer of complexity, making sure all levels of this data are secured for the businesses is imperative!

Summary

The ever-changing environment of technology means that, as companies, we have to be constantly aware of the threats and how they can, in the worst-case scenario, affect our data backups.

Pearce IT has many years of experience in providing businesses with IT Solutions to a diverse variety of clients across a breadth of sectors. This ranges from a single PC setup to multiple site organisations. Your IT security should be at the top of your list, to protect all YOUR data as well as to protect all of your clients’ data.

If you would like to find out how we can resolve any IT data backup issues, then please get in touch for a quote today!

Call or Email us on 01452 222 000 | hello@pearceit.co.uk

One Stop Shop for all your IT needs!

Usually, when a customer first gets in touch with us, it’s with one service in mind, something that they need at that moment in time. However, we have so much more to offer, where we can collectively support you, protect you and guide you to safer technology and IT solutions for your business.

On our social media recently, I’m sure you have seen that we have been talking about consolidating your IT and creating a plan for the coming year. Well we would love to offer you a helping hand towards creating an IT plan for your business for 2023!

Did you know about the wide array of products we offer to consolidate all of your technology needs?

Here are some of the key services we can offer you:

Online daily backup

Up to 30 copies of your data are stored securely within the UK. You’ll gain 24/7 access to work on your files through any internet-enabled device such as a smartphone, tablet or PC/laptop. Business Grade Online Backup doesn’t need to be expensive with plans from as little as £12 per month.

Cloud-Based Desktop

Solutions to access your desktop from any internet-connected device.

Cloud Drive

Onsite IT Services connect all your technology together. Whether your business is a small home office or a multi-site organisation, Pearce IT can help store your data securely, with access from all your devices.

Bitdefender Antivirus and Security

Protect your data from viruses and malware. Our clients have a zero infection rate, thanks to our Antivirus and Malware protection.

VoIP Telephone Systems

With Voice over IP (VoIP), you can have your own number which belongs to your business with telephones in any location.  Whether you want a non-geographic number or a regional number for your satellite offices, VoIP technology can help you.

Internet Access

Internet and broadband for business – solid, secure and reliable connectivity on demand. This can range from 4G dongles to fibre broadband and leased lines.

Intelligent Email Signatures

Custom designed email signatures for your business that even work with smartphones and tablets. We can also create bespoke signatures for your business too.

Microsoft Office 365 Backup and Archiving service

Protect your business communications and files with an extra level of security.

IT Consultancy

Pearce IT are proud to be a Microsoft Silver Partner, which enables us to advise and implement Microsoft Office 365 into your business.

We can offer our expertise in GDPR compliance, Disaster Recovery and Strategic IT planning.

IT Hardware

The hardware we supply is not only up to the job now but will be sufficient for its lifetime of service.  We are often asked “how much RAM do I need?”, “What’s the difference in processors?” and “how much space do I need?”. Our knowledge of systems and requirements is second to none.

So why have all your IT managed by one company?

Outsourcing is great, but if you have lots of different suppliers, managing these effectively is time-consuming, so saving time by using a single company for all your IT needs makes sense. You’ll have a single company to contact for help and support and a single invoice to pay, giving you more time to run your business. Not only that, but by having everything under one roof, you get a seamless service too.

Pearce IT Limited has built up a strong local reputation as a leading IT services provider across Gloucestershire, and we have a long list of happy customers. We’d love to be your virtual IT team through the life of your business.

Do you need to consolidate all of your IT solutions? Email or call us at 01452 222 000 to see how we can help, or visit www.pearceit.co.uk.

Technology Trends to look out for in 2023

What are the new trends in tech for 2023?

Threats are just as likely to emerge due to improperly secured networks leaving sensitive data accidentally exposed, or unwary or indiscreet employees using non-secured devices while working from home.

A shift to a culture of home and remote working that started during the Covid-19 pandemic and has persisted in many organizations, as well as the spread of the internet of things (IoT) into every area of business and society, means there has never been more opportunity for laid back security to cause headaches and expense.

Cyber security

The more devices we connect together the more potential back doors and windows exist. This is a way that attackers can make their way into secure data. With an increase of wearable devices and smart home technology, they are often not used to store sensitive data, but can be used as gateways for attackers. Having a secure cloud system is a governmental initiative that will be coming into effect, starting in 2023.

Recently, a cybersecurity priority for many organizations has been to secure the millions of devices worldwide that are being used for home and remote working since the start of the pandemic.

However, for companies, it is becoming increasingly apparent that personal devices are also being used for work that isn’t protected by their IT systems. Connecting to networks with non-secured devices can lead to phishing attacks through human error, such as tricking users into sharing passwords.

Addressing Ransomware and threats

Working remotely in large teams can mean that it is possible that the whole team won’t actually know each other. Accounts can be made to impersonate employees. It also increases the threat of ransomware. This is where software is injected into the network that can erase valuable data unless users pay out the ransom. This has caused havoc in lots of large companies losing lots of data. There is a big movement in 2023 that will increase Cyber security measures from all aspects of technology involved in businesses and avoid the worst happening and losing valuable data.

An Example of this was Acer computer design/manufacturer.

Using a Microsoft Exchange server vulnerability, Revil hackers gained access to Acer data and leaked images of personal spreadsheets and financial documents. A hefty ransom of $50 million was requested. However, Acer has never confirmed whether the ransom was paid or not.

MFA

With Cyber security increasing in 2023 we have grown to understand the term ‘2FA’ Two Factor Authentication. However, it is likely technology will be moving to ‘MFA’ Multi-factor authentication. This will be where there will be more than two levels of security to access data and personal accounts, etc.

GDPR & AI regulations

The UK is changing the GDPR regulations to its own British data protection system. This reshaping will be more business and consumer-friendly. This has come into effect as a result of Brexit and post- covid working changes.

The privacy field has been expanded in terms of what clients are interested in and where the trends are coming from.

Everyone is digitalising post-covid. Rapid digitalisation means the need for updates for the GDPR standards.

Transparency and consent are the main areas of update in GDPR. Transparency - more detailed and informative privacy notices are required; the purpose of, and legal basis for, processing must be explained. Consent - must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous; consent must be provided by clear affirmative action.

How Can You Guarantee Better Internet for Your Business?

Securing faster broadband

These days, fast internet services are massively important for businesses, with nearly every business having some externally facing presence, be that a website or a customer portal. More everyday than this though, is the constant traffic that connects your business operations to the outside world. Email, video messaging, conferencing, chat and VOIP telecoms all require a constant and steady internet connection to work effectively. More recently, we’ve seen the movement of entire suites of software to the cloud, removing the need for many businesses to spend much-needed capital on large equipment purchases. You can now use extremely powerful design-oriented or code-crunching computer hardware remotely, with the actual hardware located in a data centre anywhere in the world and allowing interface by the user over a browser or an app session. 

This is a revelation for many industries, and can allow businesses to grow well beyond the limitations of their physical assets, but with all these services and software systems needing bandwidth, how do you leverage the awesome power of modern cloud systems if your internet connection is terrible? 

Finding a solution to bad business broadband  

You can certainly look for the best deal in business broadband among the ISP’s out there that offer these packages, but normally the speeds you receive will be around the same as a standard consumer broadband deal. As many businesses sit on industrial or commercial parks or estates that are ageing, this isn’t ideal, as during business hours everyone in the locale is online using outdated copper-bearer lines from their local cabinet. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a supplier that could install super-fast fibre to your premises, assuring you of fast speed and high bandwidth, all day every day? Well, you can, with a Fibre line from City Fibre. 

What’s the difference between that and my standard fibre broadband deal? 

CityFibre owns, operates and maintains Fibre to the Premises infrastructure in over 60 cities in the UK. As of 21 March 2022, 1.5 million premises have been connected to the CityFibre network. Getting Fibre to the Premises (or FttP) from CityFibre ensure much higher speeds and availability resulting in a solid and fast connection to the outside world, with no risk of contention from other broadband users on copper infrastructure in the surrounding area. 

If your business broadband is faster and more stable than standard broadband connections, this allows your businesses to use cloud resources to their full potential. Whereas it’s fair to say that installation of a fibre line to your premises does come at a cost, higher speeds and functionality for network-dependant services in your business will provide a great return on investment over time. 

How do I get the best internet connection for my business? 

Currently, depending on location and availability, Pearce IT can offer your business the ability to realise its full potential through a fast Fibre to the Premises connection through City Fibre at up to 1000 Megabits per second, for both Upload and Download.  

This will allow you to pass all your essential business services through a lightning-fast connection, with astoundingly high uptime and less contention. You may even be able to leverage this better connection to give your business a way to access resources that were unavailable before. 

City Fibre lines from Pearce IT can be particularly useful if your business has heavy cloud-resource users, or has large teams working collaboratively from remote sites, or on documents stored in cloud locations. As most businesses now use cloud resources of one type or another, a faster and more stable connection gives you the edge and ensures that your workflow doesn’t suffer during peak usage times. 

If you’re looking to get better speed and quality for your business broadband, then get in touch with us today via the site contact form, or by phone on 01452 222000, and ask us about our City Fibre packages. 

Is Your Business Ready For The Analogue Switch-Off?

The Big Digital Switchover You Might Not Know About…

All over the UK there’s a focus from ISP’s and customers alike to get faster and faster network speeds and more bang for their buck on their fibre and standard broadband packages. With most UK households now having an array of internet connected devices, and the vast majority having more than one TV (we’ll omit the term ‘smart’ here, as it’s actually become very difficult to buy a TV that doesn’t run an operating system), as well as other entertainment devices, like games consoles, PC’s, and systems like Alexa or Google Dot, demand for network services is at an all-time high, and only looking to increase.

More devices being used at the same time mean those devices will be using more bandwidth, hence more total demand on the line, and the need for ‘faster’ or higher bandwidth broadband supply.

Supply, Demand, and Broadband

With demand ever-increasing, you’re eventually going to find an obstacle to supply, and in this case it’s the good ol’ laws of physics, as there is a limit to what can be done on the, now rather antiquated, copper bearer lines that have been the backbone of the UK’s telecommunications network for decades.

This means that two things need to happen. Firstly, it means investment in new infrastructure, and that comes in the form of full-fibre networking, to get the fastest speeds possible, as efficiently as possible. This rollout has been ongoing in the UK (albeit slowly) for many years and looks set to take a few more years yet before the project can be signed off by the UK government. Even then, there will be areas of the UK (streets, roads, and lanes too remote to access, or with too much groundwork to do to fully replace copper with fibre) where a physical change to fibre-optic lines will be impractical or too expensive to be covered under the plan, which means that, secondly, any older copper infrastructure that stays will need to be cleared of any unnecessary baggage to maximise its effectiveness.

This means that the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) analogue signals, which have been directed along the copper infrastructure since the UK telephone exchange was invented, will stop.

Analogue vs Digital

Working with analogue signals is markedly different from digital signals. Transmitting and receiving data via analogue methods uses an electromagnetic signal (also known as a waveform) that varies in its wavelength (how far apart the peaks of the signal wave are) and amplitude (how high the peaks of the signal wave are). This is generally more variable, and more accurate than digital signals, which are just made up of a series of ones and zeroes, or on-off states. Digital signals can carry information faster though, and that’s more important in the modern age. It’s also significantly easier to encode and decode digital signals accurately, and ensure lossless delivery of information.

Switching analogue services to digital is nothing new in the UK; television went the same way, with all analogue signals being switched off on 24th October 2012, marking a switch to fully digital terrestrial television services. And so it will be with phone-lines, with a switch to digital lines being in place before the end of 2025.

Retiring the analogue service for phone lines means that those maintaining the analogue equipment don’t have to devote time and money to ensure ageing infrastructure carries both analogue and digital signals. Analogue equipment is rare, expensive, and hard to maintain when compared to digital equivalents, and all the innovation in electronic communications is taking place in the digital format.

What does an analogue shutoff mean for businesses owners?

It’s highly likely that you’re using digital lines for much of your business function, but in many cases, business owners are running more than just phones over their phone lines; Intruder and Fire Alarms, Point of Sale and Card Payment systems, CCTV, Access Control systems, secondary data lines for emergency internet access – the list of possible services being carried by your analogue line could be quite long. Obviously, if these services are not switched over to a digital subscriber line before the analogue shutdown, they will cease to work when that analogue line is switched off.

The good news is that all these services function much more effectively over a digital line, and if you are still using an analogue phone instead of digital VoIP services, you’re missing out on all of the great things that digital phones bring to the table.

In short, moving from analogue to digital will allow our national network infrastructure to work smarter, harder, and faster. If you need to check if you’re ready for the switchover, or you’d like to see about updating your network, telecoms equipment, or you’re interested in making your business more resilient or more effective, then get in touch with Pearce IT today. Call us on 01453 222 000 or use the contact form on this site.

IT Support is Great. Unlimited IT Support is Better.

The ideal IT solution

In an ideal world, IT problems wouldn’t exist. Or at least they’d be easily solvable by any Tom, Dick, or Harry experiencing them. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and technology doesn’t always behave the way it’s built to every time. 

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if every member of your staff knew how to resolve every small IT issue they came across, like your office printer suddenly disappearing from the network, so that your IT Support contract was utilised only for major, business-breaking issues? 

IT Support can be expensive

If not used appropriately, limited IT Support contracts can become expensive for businesses. 

It is quite easy for contracted IT support labour to get eaten up by cosmetic IT problems such as Bill in Sales not knowing how to print his latest sales collateral in duplicate, which lead to your business incurring expensive hourly charges for the more complex IT issues.  

This hurts business owners when the types of problems they get charged for are the very reason why they took out the IT Support contract in the first place. 

A mountain of unresolved IT problems

Situations like the above can sometimes result in budget-focused management putting rigorous checks in place on the use of IT support, creating a Catch-22 situation.  

Limited contracted IT support ends up being policed, and minor IT issues go unreported to avoid eating up contracted hours.  

The major drawback with this is that minor, and often easily resolvable, IT issues can build up over time and snowball into company-breaking problems that are much more difficult (and costly) to solve. 

So what’s the cheaper IT solution to the expensive IT solution? Aside from the obvious investment in better IT equipment and improved network reliability, we’d suggest an Unlimited IT Support contract with Pearce IT. 

Unlimited Support? Sounds expensive…

Look at it this way – what would really be the more expensive of these hypothetical scenarios? 

Situation A - You have a limited IT Support contract with your Managed Service Provider that allows you X number of ‘free’ hours of remote IT support for a fixed price each month. Any support provided over and above the free IT support labour is chargeable at an hourly rate. 

You have a small team so figure that you’re unlikely to use all your contracted hours each month so it shouldn’t be an issue. 

Then you find that your team face regular IT issues such as emails not sending, connectivity issues, printers requiring regular troubleshooting, staff activating spam and phishing emails, people forgetting passwords, ‘slow’ workstations, document recovery due to unintentional file deletion, and the list goes on...  

Soon, your ‘free’ hours are gone, and you’re charged £80+ per hour for simple IT fixes which continue to occur, your IT support costs continue to rise and, before you know it, you’re way outside your budget. 

Situation B - You take out an Unlimited IT Support contract that takes care of all your remote operational IT support needs for all your business’ IT equipment at a fixed cost each month.  

No matter how many hours of remote IT support your business requires, your Unlimited Support package has it covered, and you receive no extra charges for remote support labour. 

Not only do you feel confident knowing what your IT costs are each month and can budget accordingly, but your team has confidence that if they have a problem with hardware or software, they have a dedicated team available. 

This minimises your downtime, prevents simple issues from snowballing, and ensures that your IT estate continues to perform as it should, but you also know that should any more serious problems occur you will not be faced with unexpected IT support labour costs, as this will all be covered by your Unlimited IT Support package. The only extra costs you may need to pay would be for equipment replacement and parts, or on-site IT labour, etc. 

Ok. So, these scenarios may well be fictional, and Situation A may seem slightly dramatized, but it is not all that far from the truth in our experience. That list of IT issues we mentioned? All common IT problems. 

Unlimited IT Support from Pearce IT

This is precisely why we launched our Unlimited IT Support package. We wanted our customers to know that whatever IT problem they faced, they didn’t have to worry about costly support charges. 

Let us take care of the seemingly innocuous and mundane IT issues, so that when you do face a major IT issue, you have peace of mind that the remote IT support labour to fix it is still covered under contract. On-site labour and maintenance are still charged for of course, but if your network and equipment is covered through us, we can fix most common service issues remotely. 

You can get Unlimited IT Support with Pearce IT from as a little as £10 per user per month. Just get in touch to discuss your needs. 

Level Up your Security, and Streamline your Business.

Do I need Cyber Essentials?

It’s becoming increasingly obvious to business owners that cyber security is probably the most important thing to address if you want less risk to your business resilience, as most of the threats to business continuity are online these days – malware, ransomware, hacking, data-theft, spyware, and good old incompetence or just disgruntled employees can badly damage or destroy prospects, contracts, or even whole businesses.

As we are right now in the UK, many businesses have vastly improved their online and in-house cyber security, and awareness of threats and countering tactics are routinely taught and highlighted in organisations across the nation, but even with business owners and IT departments making inroads into safer business practices, there exists a very definite requirement for teams and organisations working in certain sectors and industries to provide services that meet a certain standard.

Why do I need contractors with robust cyber security?

If you are an aerospace manufacturer for example, it’s no good operating stringent security protocols for your in-house data handling whilst simultaneously retaining a business on contract to consult on design or finance when that company has little to no cyber security awareness or process. That is how leaks happen, which can have potentially disastrous results in terms of product launches, company data breaches and corporate espionage.

But how do you check that your providers or contractors have the security chops that you need to ensure safe and secure services? It goes without saying that the easiest way to achieve this is to have an accredited standard for cyber security that you know will guarantee a minimal level of security across all your suppliers, without you having to audit them individually or install compliance officers into their company infrastructure. Luckily, this exists, and it’s referred to as Cyber Essentials.

What is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme, representing a system of best practices that ensure a reasonable level of safe and secure cyber operations in every type of network. Ostensibly, the Cyber Essentials certification declares that a certified organisation has gone through a set of technical checks and audits to make sure that there are no loose ends or open back doors on the organisation’s networks and endpoints. These are, by and large, common sense practices and contain such processes as checking to see which ports are open on a network firewall or router, and closing them if not used, or ensuring that all software in use inside an organisation is digitally signed and regularly updated. Networking equipment must be secure, with firmware under active support and with no factory-issue passwords. Endpoints, from phones to servers, must carry antivirus software and run no software that is not on an approved list specified by the organisations IT or security administrator.

Physical access to computer equipment may also need to be controlled, and with cloud services, admin level operations, and domain-based local logins, accounts must be locked with complex passwords, and multi-factor authentication (2FA or MFA) must be active across all accounts in the organisation.

Do I really need Cyber Essentials certification?

It depends, but our view on it is yes, you do need Cyber Essentials certification. For your business to operate in certain markets, it’s pretty much a requirement for gaining contracts. If you’re looking to supply for clients in the public sector, such as the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, or the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, then you will need to be Cyber Essentials certified at a minimum. Many other businesses that supply into these public sector institutions will require you, as a subcontractor, to have Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification. This is especially important if you are being considered as a provider in a SIAM or other distributed service model where you will be providing part of a range of services among multiple suppliers. You’ll be expected to provide assurances that your services or contributions will be secure to a specified minimum standard, and the easiest way of accomplishing this is to make everyone compliant with Cyber Essentials.

Cyber Essentials seems like a lot of effort…

It’s really not that bad. Yes, you may have to redesign areas of your network, and yes, you may have to purchase new equipment or ensure that any existing equipment is up to date and remains supported. You might even have to update internal policies and documents surrounding IT and device usage at work, as well as arrange things like cyber security awareness training. You could even be in the position where you have to move everything in your organisation to cloud services, ensuring they are removed from out-of-date infrastructure on your premises. Here’s the thing with all this though – you should be doing this anyway.

Cyber Essentials is common sense for business

We really mean it. You should be doing it. Regardless of whether you are contractually obliged to undergo an audit and certification, taking your business through the Cyber Essentials process is a bit like tidying up your workshop or garage. Everything is put in its proper place and recorded – any horded electronics, and anything extraneous or buggy software-wise is gone – it’s like a life-laundry for your business, and your staff and clients will appreciate it. At the end of the day you will have achieved three things; firstly, your staff will have a greater awareness of your, and their responsibility around making sure that business is conducted efficiently and securely; secondly, your network will be hardened, more secure, more streamlined, with authentication, regular updates, enforced backups, security software, firewalls, and telephony systems all functioning as they should, with nothing made difficult to find, overloaded, or cluttered; and thirdly, your clients will know at a glance that you take the security of your data and business (and therefore theirs) very seriously. It may even open avenues of business that weren’t available to you beforehand.

Get in touch for Cyber Essentials

Pearce IT, through our certification partner Assured Technical, is offering full Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus auditing and certification services, and our team will work closely with you to make sure that everything is assessed, identified, and resolved so that you can be sure of gaining that all-important certificate. We offer all the solutions that you need to move forward with a secure, safe, and prepared business infrastructure. Get in touch with us today on 01452 222000 or contact us via the form on this site to arrange a visit and a chat about your business IT strategy.

In an uncertain world, be certain of your Business Security.

Beefing-up business security never hurt anyone, so best start now.

The world is an unstable place. If you look at any aspect of nature there is constant change, and an ever-moving needle trying to point due-equilibrium. It’s the same with humanity, as stability is very hard to achieve in a global economy, let alone a global society. 

With the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we see once more how easy it is to poke holes in the thin sheet of stability that the developed world enjoys. The frankly horrible human situation and the emerging refugee crisis are obvious priorities for the international community to fix, and to try to prevent from happening in future. 

In the UK, most of us find ourselves removed from these events, with an unfortunate minority very personally involved, through family, friends or colleagues who have ties to Ukraine or Russia, making the pain of what is going on very real and present. It’s certainly struck close to home for us at Pearce IT, with some team members having very close ties to Ukraine. Recent events have left us all in shock; we’re doing what we can to support those affected, and we stand with Ukraine. 

The displacement of people isn’t the only disruption that stems from the crisis – fuel and energy prices, as well as food prices have been affected across Europe and the wider world. It’s important to consider these issues in perspective against the human tragedy involved, but the fact is that these issues do impact day-to-day routine in nations with fuel, energy, food, and other service and manufacturing needs affected by the current situation. 

Then, of course, there’s the issue of cybersecurity.  

Should I worry about foreign state cyberattacks? 

There’s a great deal of real fear surrounding the disruption of tech companies, banking, and service infrastructure across the globe by Russian state actors, and whereas this is not entirely unfounded, it’s important to consider the vulnerability of the UK national cyber infrastructure in a wider context. 

We have, currently, a relatively strong national cyber security and cyber warfare capability, with the armed forces and GCHQ working together to make sure that the country enjoys robust defence from nation states looking to harm areas of our society that require technology to function, and to protect national infrastructure from cyber attack. It would be reasonable to fear attacks in these areas during direct military action against the UK, but if there is no ongoing threat from a foreign power then it is reasonable to assume that our institutions would be able to defend us from normal levels of cyber-espionage. 

That leaves another, much more immediate threat that we need to guard against – cybercrime. 

 

How do cybercriminals take advantage of global disruption? 

International disruption is a call-to-action to cybercriminals everywhere. They know that elevated security on national infrastructure and a focus on foreign threats will allow them greater freedom of movement to concentrate on members of the public and businesses, and so cyber attacks by criminal groups on the general populace and the business community will be increasing right now.  

The current situation will be creating new opportunities for phishing, smishing, spoofing, and other message-borne threats to carry malware, ransomware, and harvest login or payment card information from unsuspecting users. Typical of these are emails and messages that look like they come from bona-fide senders, soliciting charity donations or assistance for people affected by the current crisis, but are in fact phishing for login or personal payment details. As many of these attacks are email-based, reliable email filtering and anti-spam software will be able to harden most networks and disallow cybercriminals access to the low-hanging fruit. Mail filtering packages such as SpamTitan Plus can make sure that no nasties are making it into your inbox, and that your team or family aren’t clicking on things that they shouldn’t be.  

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA or 2FA) is available on most online portals, email services, and websites, and if enabled means that there is an additional level of security in place that is very difficult to circumvent. By ensuring that MFA is enforced in your business or your personal email, you can remove most immediate cybersecurity dangers. Productivity packages and email platforms, such as Microsoft Office 365 use MFA to secure your logins and access to online data storage, and backup platforms such as Dropsuite can make sure that your emails and storage are backed up and proof against ransomware. 

That covers the threats directed at you purposefully, but what about the places that you visit online?  

How can I guard against visiting bad URLs? 

 

Surfing the internet has always been associated with issues around security, and although general website security has vastly improved in recent years, the web is still full of sites that carry malware, addresses that are insecure or redirect you to malware-heavy locations, or adware, spyware, and other privacy-based threats watching your online activity and harvesting your data. 

Installing a modern internet security package is the best way to ensure that you stay safe online, and cutting-edge software such as Bitdefender can help you to avoid dodgy sites and embedded malware with real-time site scanning, as well as maintaining a constant blacklist of known bad sites. Your payment details can be secured by fully encrypting all of your online card payments, so you can shop securely. 

How can I fully secure my network? 

With so many threats ranged against the average user, it’s essential to make sure that your cyber security toolkit is up to date and that you’re using everything you can to keep your network safe. If you need comprehensive cybersecurity advice and products, then please get in touch with Pearce IT today. We have powerful security tools on-hand to make sure you’re protected from the array of cyber threats out there, all at extremely competitive prices. We also offer unlimited IT support for as little as £10 per user per month, so you can rest easy knowing that you have a dedicated team of service professionals available to you, with no contracted time limits getting in the way of resolving your IT issues. Get in touch with us on 01453 222000 for a comprehensive security review and reliable advice. 

Equip Zero-Day Threat Protection for your Email with SpamTitan Plus.

The #1 Anti Spam Solution

In the modern business space, the vast majority of communication is done by email. This is of course, as it should be – email is an effective, traceable, and very capable vehicle for sending messages, pictures, reports, and a whole myriad of other files. Mailboxes can be shared, archived, multi-user managed, in the cloud or on-premises (though this is becoming increasingly rare), and are able to be set up to allow you to carry your business communications in your pocket, and view the same mails when you sit down at your desk.  

Are Email Threats New?

We take all of this for granted now, but it’s been a long slog to get here, and anyone that has been using email since the early years probably remembers the pain of receiving those regular spam messages, opening up your email client to find ten, twenty, or more emails from some random senders, selling some or other snake-oil product, or requesting subscription to mailing lists, were flat-out mailing scams, or at worst contained malware. You’d then have to manually move the whole lot to Junk, and if you didn’t have an IT team, you probably had to go to the trouble of manually blocking the sender domain yourself. This spam was an unwelcome annoyance to have to regularly deal with, but people still needed and wanted to send email, so spam filters were developed to automatically scan incoming messages for tell-tale signs that they weren’t genuine inter-business communications. 

The creation of the spam filter effectively kicked off an arms race, with the mail service providers and security companies on one side, and cybercriminals on the other. Email was where business took place, where personal and monetary data were shared, so in time, the security and filtering became more and more sophisticated. 

In the years 2000-2010, although the development of cyber security and email filtering systems was rapid, it was but a sleeping tortoise compared to the nitrous-fuelled, rocket-powered, meteoric rise of spam and malware. New threats appeared every week, sometimes piggybacking other threats. Mail domains became warzones, with spam filters needing constant updates to deal with the ever-evolving threat of malware through spam, as well as other new routes of attack, such as address spoofing and phishing. 

The Modern Email Threat Landscape 

Fast forward, and as we enter 2022, not a lot has changed; there is still a war of attrition going on between Cyber Security professionals and cybercriminals, but now the weapons have evolved; advanced email-borne attacks are now so sophisticated that a phishing mail can operate using a fake sender domain, exhibiting very little in the way of suspicious attributes, fooling the majority of mail hosts’ baked-in spam filters, and even getting past some off-the-shelf solutions. New phishing threats are the opener in a multi-step attack on networks, allowing the route for unsuspecting users to click on links to incredibly detailed and convincing fake-sites, as well as creating a conduit for malware code resulting in attacks such as ransomware infections, cryptojacking, and data-theft. 

Some solutions deal with these threats in novel ways, but they are not always successful in fighting brand new attacks, called zero-day attacks, as they often rely on a database of known threats in order to profile potentially infected messages or attachments. SpamTitan Plus uses a sophisticated AI Predictive Analysis solution that looks at the behavioural features of threat messages and attachments, rather than matching up actual physical code against a database of known malware. This allows SpamTitan Plus to effectively scan mail-borne malware and phishing threats as the carrier message is passing the filter, even zero-day threats. 

URL Rewriting and Rerouting in Real Time 

SpamTitan Plus rewrites and checks any embedded URL, and, if safe, will allow navigation to that location. If the URL is found not to be safe, then the user will be redirected to a blocking page, stopping any connection and eliminating the potential threat. This means that users won’t be redirected to a malicious web location if they accidentally click on a phishing link, they’ll only ever get as far as the filter due to the URL being rewritten. 

This is great of course, as it means that there’s a shield between you and anything harmful, but some solutions can be somewhat overzealous in their analysis of potential threats, blocking legitimate links and attachments. SpamTitan Plus however, enjoys the lowest false-positive strike rate of any spam-filtering product on the market, meaning that less of the stuff that’s actually meant for your inbox gets stopped in error. 

Get Yourself Protected 

Easy to use, simple to integrate and very reasonably priced, SpamTitan Plus is the best choice for fortifying your mail service and keeping the cyber-nasties out of your organisation’s inboxes. 

If you would like to discuss increasing your mail security, any of our other security offerings, or you need to refresh or review your overall IT strategy, get in touch with Pearce IT today. 

Why It’s Vital to Back-Up your Office 365 Data

As we move into deepest, darkest winter, pop another log on the fire, grab your cocoa with both hands, snuggle up, and get ready for a bone-chilling tale of ill-prepared users, and how you can avoid the pitfalls of not backing up your online data… 

Wind the clock back to a fictitious Christmas five years ago, and you’re just getting ready for shutdown, everyone has extra workload to make sure you can close your business over the holidays without loose ends flapping everywhere. It’s been snowing heavily, and the roof tiles give way slightly, letting a drip-drip-drip of near-freezing water seep into your on-premises server until…  

Well, you get the picture, but you learned from that and moved your emails, files, and working domain into the Cloud, using Microsoft’s excellent Office 365 platform. A few years on since ‘That Christmas’ you don’t have to worry about that leaky roof, dodgy servers, or users’ endpoints being critical points of failure. You’re relaxed. All-chill. Sit back and pop your feet up. Everything is in the Cloud. It’s all backed-up automatically, right? Nothing can go wrong.

Or so you thought…  

OK, enough with the theatrics 

Whilst we’re on the subject of stories, there’s a myth that if you have Office 365 data in the cloud, it’s backed up. Wrong - Microsoft don’t back-up your data as standard, so it’s vital to have a solution in place to protect yourself, your users, and your customers. It’s also easily assumed that your Office 365 data in the cloud is invulnerable and proof from equipment failure, and this is true to a degree; Microsoft for example do run a tight ship when it comes to making sure their cloud platforms have high-availability and geographical redundancy, meaning that the virtual machines that run all this wonderful cloud wizardry are ready to switch over to another physical host machine or data-centre elsewhere in the region, should a certain machine or server-hall develop a problem or get particularly swamped with operations, keeping your user experience fairly uninterrupted and consistently responsive. 

That, however, is not the entire spectrum of cyber-threats that you’re up against on the modern web. Data-thieves or ransomware attackers can still gain access to your Office 365 infrastructure through hacked user accounts (company directors or department heads needlessly having Admin rights with no additional checks is a classic security failure) and can possibly hold entire document libraries for ransom. Then there’s the good-old genuine mistake, where someone has deleted or changed a file, or moved something so it cannot easily be found, or permissions have been changed on cloud storage, with users are locked out of sites or libraries with no access to their data until a fix is identified and implemented. Let’s not even mention the damage that a disgruntled employee, or any other bad actor inside your organisation, can do in the space of minutes, let alone the hours, days, or weeks that they may still have access to your data during any notice period. It’s also worth looking at the wording on your cyber insurance, should you have a policy (most organisations should, and in some sectors it’s a legal requirement). Likelihood is, if you’re not backing up your cloud data, your policy is invalid.

We’re getting dramatic again… 

For good reason, as despite them running a high-availability, geographically redundant platform, there’s no secret-sauce that Microsoft pour on Office 365 that magically makes it significantly more secure than other cloud platforms, and as mentioned there’s no supplied backup solution. There are also still ways to get into Office 365 Cloud Tenancies uninvited, and organisations need to ensure that they are doing everything in their power to check that the doors are locked, and the drawbridge is up.

The X Factor 

 

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA or sometimes referred to as 2FA) is now used everywhere, from websites to banking apps, and even some Electric Vehicles now have the option to require input from a mobile device before they can start. There’s no doubt that knowing something (password) and having something (your phone) mean that any individual looking to gain access to your cloud platform account surreptitiously now has the serious problem of not only needing to know your password, but also needing physical access to your mobile device. It’s fair to say that simply by turning on and enforcing MFA across your organisation, the size of the attack surface (The sum of the different points, or attack vectors, that an unauthorized user can try to enter or extract data from an environment) available to your everyday hacker becomes very small indeed. 

That takes care of one threat, but we’re still left with zero-day ransomware, genuine error, or malicious disruption. If only there was a way you could just save everyone’s email, OneDrive files, Teams activity, and SharePoint files and folders to a separate cloud backup, that would back up these data at several points throughout the day without any prompting or interference, allowing you to just reload individual items or entire user accounts’ worth of files back to earlier versions or their original places… well, there is. 

Enter Dropsuite 

Cloud backup services have been around for a while, with varying levels of value and functionality for the admin or end-user, but the solution that we recommend is a cloud backup service called Dropsuite. 

Dropsuite is a brilliant system that, once it has access, can back up and save Office 365 data with incremental backups running every couple of hours. Everything is easy to control from a central console, making the platform a breeze to deploy and manage for in-house IT admins and MSPs alike. We make Dropsuite available to clients from as little £3.75 per Office 365 user, per month, which is an absolute steal if you’re looking to bulletproof your Office 365 data for a reasonable cost. 

In addition to highly granular file storage backup and recovery for SharePoint and OneDrive, Dropsuite’s Email Archiving solution helps organizations efficiently store, safeguard, manage, and discover data from most email systems through Journaling. This means that shadow copies of all selected email activity are automatically created and moved to a storage area in real-time. Retention, eDiscovery, Legal Hold policies, and Compliance Review are just a few items that make Dropsuite’s Email Archiving a super-strong tool for your business’ communications archiving and compliance. With unlimited email archive storage and powerful search functions, finding relevant communications for historic and current projects or legal issues is a doddle. 

Packed with other features, it’s a must-have if you’re looking to deploy some serious data-security onto your Office 365 tenant, or if you manage multiple tenants and are looking for a cost-effective backup and storage security solution.  So, with Dropsuite there’s really no excuse not to implement this vital layer of security, and in doing so make sure that you and your users don’t star in some dark wintery tale of your own. 

If you need advice or guidance on the best way to protect your data in the cloud, then pick up the phone or drop us a mail today. We’ll be happy to hear from you, call us on 01452 222000.