Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn and adapt their behaviour as they gain experience. The code that powers AI gets smarter and smarter as it’s exposed to more data and scenarios. As computers have developed more processing power, AI has become useful in lots of different ways. We believe every business will be using some form of AI in the years ahead. AI is reshaping what's possible in business AI is already being applied in many different industries to carry out a range of specific tasks; with more and more use cases expected to emerge over the coming years as the technology gets more sophisticated.

As we approach the holiday season, and hopefully find some time to slow down and relax, you might want to consider how you can keep your mobile devices from intruding on your sleep or other quiet times. While the easiest way is to turn them off, or leave them in another room, that’s not always possible when we need to stay in touch or be available for particular people or other notifications. But thankfully there’s been a lot of development done in recent times to help with what’s known as ‘digital wellbeing’.

We have all become familiar with using Zoom during the recent lockdown. Catching up with family, friends and colleagues. You may also have noticed some stories in the media about updates for Zoom. Usually these are just adding features to make it work better, but there have been some big updates recently that fixed some of the security issues Zoom had been experiencing.

As with most things in life stock availability has been disrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak. Purchasing priorities have changed since we moved to a work from home environment. Orders for webcams have increased to a point that not only has stock sold out, but our suppliers cannot give reliable ETA’s for replacement stock.

As you’ll be aware, the Coronavirus outbreak is having global ramifications on many industries over and above the personal ramifications many are experiencing.  The quarantine zones established to control the spread of the virus are having a substantial impact on both the manufacturing, and shipping of products from Asia.  We have increased our stock levels to minimise the impact during this period but please be aware there may be a longer than usual ETA for some hardware orders.

Watch out for realistic phishing emails which are on the rise. Phishing emails are becoming more sophisticated and realistic with the main goal to trick you into clicking on a link that you shouldn't. Many of these are intercepted by your antivirus/antimalware software, however the clever crooks are always finding ways to get these emails to elude the filters. They will often use common respected brands to create an atmosphere of trust. These can include: Your subscription has expired Your payment was declined Someone is using your login You have an undelivered item which is being held at depot You have won something All we can advise is that you need to be extremely suspicious, hover over the link with your mouse. That should display the URL of the site and allow you to verify it is legitimate. If you think you have clicked on something you shouldn't, shut down the computer and call your friendly IT provider.

Having an enjoyable a holiday and immersing oneself in the festive season can cause some of us to take the eye off the ball and become complacent when it comes to cyber security threats. Unfortunately, the cyber criminals don't have that same Christmas loving and giving attitude and we can be certain that they have been beavering away in the background trying to find more devious and destructive ways to cause grief and losses to businesses in 2020. Some experts have claimed that the value of cyber-crime in 2018 was over US$1.5 trillion which is far greater than we thought and if this is correct, it will be substantially higher in 2020. With the escalating tension between Iran and the US, more cyber attacks from Iran are expected to be targeted at the US and her allies. Make one of your business New Years resolutions to upgrade your security systems so as to reduce the risk and impact of a cyber attack. Even with the best defences in place, people will always be the weakest link. We are human after all, we make mistakes and can be tricked into clicking on things we shouldn’t. The best form of defence for business owners is to train their staff to be able to know what is good and bad and to always be extremely vigilant. If you would like information on how to best train your staff on security awareness please get in touch.

KnowBe4 have recently released details about a new form of Phishing Attack. Users are receiving emails from HR which are offering better benefits or pay rises. That’s something we’d all like just before the holidays. These emails normally have a link which looks like a SharePoint document, but in fact it is a phishing landing page. Quite often phishing attacks spoof email addresses. At first glance it looks like it’s come from a legitimate source, maybe your HR manager. If you receive an email or phone call you feel is suspicious it would pay to call the person appearing to have sent the message. They will be able to confirm if they actually sent it to you. I nformation for this article was taken from KnowBe4

It’s very easy to look at security as just protecting yourself from attacks from outside your own organization. The below article shows there are a lot of things we must think about with our internal staff and contractors. These threats can be either malicious or accidental. One very interesting statistic from SolarWinds shows 62% of businesses found insider mistakes were the leading cause of security incidents. Whether malicious or not, the result can be devastating to an organisation. The article focuses on two commonly overlooked security issues – employees who leave your organisation, and imposters who try to get passwords reset. Continue reading at the link below to see how these can happen and, more importantly, what can be done to help prevent these breaches. Source Article