October 2019

Trojan Emotet is back to Attack!

On 14th January 2020, (yes, less than 90 days away), support for Windows 7 operating system stops. No more updates or patches from Microsoft. Time is up for Windows 7 and you need to act now, to avoid disruption to your business! As I type this Windows 7 is 10 years old and by the time support stops it will be 11 so quite rightly it’s time to move to a newer, faster, brighter and more capable system Like almost everything in life items have a shelf life and operating systems from all vendors are no different. The challenges of what & how people use a PC compared to 10 years are are very different, as are the threats and the overall pace of change. In 2009 we didn’t have ‘TheCloud’ the birth of mobile computing, apps we’re only just with us; phones have changed the way in which we use and think about technology and on a daily basis and overall use and dependency has skyrocketed. So, it’s time to move on. OK that seems rather natural But in the same way the landscape has changed in terms of usage so has buying your new system and licensing. Chances are if you’re machine is running Windows 7 it’s also time to upgrade the hardware too. So there’s a few things to think about or at the very least consider. So speaking of which a few things to consider if you’re running Windows7 and need to plan for change: Applications – What applications are you running and do they work with Windows10 Licensing – Are you buying with a new PC or doing an upgrade. Would you be better off moving to a monthly model and future proof yourself Security – Having Virus, Firewall and Phishing protection on your new system is mandatory Microsoft Office – I know we mentioned applications before but versions of office are also going to end of support and may not work on Windows10 Machine Spec – No massive details here but Windows10 will be grateful of 8Gb of RAM as the new minimum and if the budget permits take an SSD (Solid State Disk) too Time is up for Windows7 and not surprisingly it’s time to start giving this subject some thought and for you to make a plan. The plan may take some time as you may have a number of dependant parts so it’s important you don’t get caught out, don’t be surprised and dare I say it don’t think you’ll save yourself the expense and make do. The 2017 NHS Cyber attack was possible because of old operating systems and the failure to provide updates https://www.nao.org.uk/report/investigation-wannacry-cyber-attack-and-the-nhs/ It’s also worth at this junture worth mentioning other Microsoft systems that will be going out of support in the next year. They include Office 2010 Exchange Server 2010 SharePoint Server 2010 SQL Server 2008/R2 Windows Server 2008/R2 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsforbusiness/end-of-windows-7-support Contact Think Cirrus on 0330 130996 or email hello@thinkcirrus.co.uk to find out how you can upgrade for better productivity and performance in your business.

What IT support & benefits can I get for my UK charity? Many charities are entirely unaware they are entitled to huge benefits for IT, especially around support & software they use to run their organisation. so lets show you some of the IT support & benefits you can get for your UK charity. The list below are just some of the fantastic software and service benefits that charities can utilise : Microsoft Office For charities of all sizes, Office 365 can be a cost-effective alternative to maintaining software or servers. Hosting all the business applications you’re used to in the cloud comes with many advantages such as flexibility, security and the ability to access your important files and tools from anywhere. Microsoft donate many of their most popular software titles to a wide range of UK charities. Now, here’s the really good news…..As a Certified Microsoft partner, we are able to provide free licences for many Microsoft services to your organisation. Charity Checkout Charity Checkout, the Innovation Partner to the Institute of Fundraising, changes the way charities connect with their supporters online. Charity checkout offer some great tools to help your charity: Team and individual fundraising pages: Empower your supporters to set up their own fundraising pages on your website. Event registration: Allow supporters to register for an event, pay for their entry and create a fundraising page, all in one seamless experience. Community fundraising: Provide your community fundraising groups with their own branded fundraising platforms. Corporate fundraising: Provide your corporate partners with their own branded fundraising platforms. Appeal pages: Create your own appeal and campaign pages. Online donations: Take online donations via credit/debit card, PayPal and Direct Debit. Adobe Creative Cloud If you have designers working for your charities, creating amazing promotional artwork for your events, they will need to use graphic design software. Adobe is the leader when it comes to creative software, it is software your designers will be familiar with and most likely there preferred suite of tools. Their software, which typically costs many hundreds of pounds for business is available to charities for a lot less. In most cases, it is straightforward to claim an IT software discount. Usually, it is as simple as filling in an online form and proving that your charity is registered in the United Kingdom. – or allow us to help your organisation and do the work for you. IT Services for Charities & Non-profit Organisations Cirrus provides IT support and managed services for charities and Non profit organisations From day-to-day support to specific projects and consultancy, we are able to provide a service geared towards their requirements and budgets. Because we care Our great value remote IT support is a firm favourite with charities. It enables them to get on with their good work, free of the concern that their IT will disrupt their day. Provided by our helpdesk team, our IT support and expertise are available when needed. From small ‘how-to’ questions to big problems, you can rely on the team’s broad expertise and technical knowledge to fix your issues. Should the issue require us to come to site, we’ll send one of our friendly engineers to fix the issue and make any recommendations. IT services for charities Cirrus has also been able to assist organisations in getting the best value from their IT budget. To this end, we offer solutions ranging from hardware, efficient Virtual Desktops, to money-saving VoIP telephone systems. To discuss IT support for charities and non-profit organisations, or for information on IT services, please get in touch. hello@thinkcirrus.co.uk or telephone 03303 130966

Are you cyber aware?Ensure you’re protected with Removable Media Are you cyber aware? Although cloud storage is a popular method of holding data, there are still physical products which are used by many people to store and transfer their information. Items like USB sticks, SD cards & external hard drives are good examples of portable devices and we don’t suspect that they’ll be disappearing any time soon due to their versatile nature both inside and outside of the workplace. However there is a danger to removable media, especially if you don’t know where the item has come from, or you’re unsure about who may have used it in your absence. But exactly how wrong can things go? Spread of Malware – if you don’t monitor and control your media, you are at an increased risk of introducing malware to your business systems. Information Loss – if the portable media is lost whilst out and about, you are open to compromising company data and losing important, sensitive client information. Financial Loss – you may face fines/penalties if the information lost is irreplaceable or of a sensitive matter to your clients. You may be thinking that these things are highly unlikely to happen to you. But cyber criminals are intelligent. One way criminals introduce malware into companies is called ‘Baiting’, which is where they might leave a USB stick or similar in a busy place, such as a cafe. The rest then relies on human psychology and curiosity, where someone will pick it up & take it away with them and eventually will be used on a computer or laptop. As soon as it’s plugged in, the malware is on its way through your systems. Are you cyber aware with your removable Media ? ensure you’re protected. Are you cyber aware? What can you do to stop things from going wrong? Cloud Storage – As previously mentioned, a popular alternative to physical portable media devices is the cloud. It’s accessible anywhere, and you can’t misplace it. Password Protection – To protect sensitive information in the case of a loss of a device, you should ensure it is password protected, to act as a deterrent for someone who may have found it. Lonely Devices – never leave your removable media unattended, lock it away when you’re not using it to avoid undesirables accessing it. Also, never attempt to access files from a device which you have found. It can contain malware which can infect your business systems. Scan Media – it’s a good idea to have a process in place where media devices are scanned after a certain amount of time, or if there is suspicion surrounding that device. Any devices bought in from other companies should also be scanned for malware too. A good recommendation is to have an anti virus policy that automatically scans the media when inserted. For more information on how we can help with Cyber security for your business, contact hello@thinkcirrus.co.uk

Amazing guest experiences start with amazing IT support! Hospitality bookings, rates and sales are up – but are your IT resources expanding as fast as the operations they’re intended to support? If your enterprise is growing, so are your IT headaches. There’s an overwhelming stream of data and applications, networking and connectivity challenges you need to manage and secure, not just to support basic business functions but provide the kind of unique experiences your guests demand. That means keeping your real world assets primed for any event, but also your branded digital assets, like critical online booking and CRM apps, operating at peak performance so they’re available and responsive to you and your guests 24/7 across all platforms. Registration, payment, and collecting guest data all require I.T. infrastructure. Guests themselves are accustomed to connectivity and technologies that may have been luxuries just a few years ago but have now become expected. Peace of mind Since hospitality organizations handle a lot of financial transactions, an ever-increasing number of which occur online, I.T. security is a big concern. You need to be assured that the financial information your customers have trusted you with is safe. Whether it is simply being stored in records on your servers, or the processing of credit card information Matters of security affect not only your networks, servers, and cloud systems, but also data that is handled on the go. An increasing (and still growing) proportion of customer transactions are taking place on mobile devices. It is imperative that your networks be impossible to access, assuring peace of mind to both you and the guests who have entrusted their personal data to your safe-keeping. With Cirrus proactively managing every part of your IT, you’ll get highly stable and reliable IT performance across all your physical locations and digital channels. Whatever’s on your agenda, Cirrus can help, acting as your single source provider for all things IT. We can also be the Managed partner to your in-house team. We can help you develop a secure and scalable IT footprint that grow with your operations over time, providing controlled and predictable technology costs. As a hotel, restaurant, or bar you can count on Cirrus to : Eliminating the need to deal with day-to-day technology issues Communicating with other service providers, like Opentable and Zonal to deal with issues on your behalf and get them resolved efficiently on your behalf – Cirrus will manage all that for you Proactively preventing I.T. troubles before they occur Consistently communicating even the most technical processes in an understandable, relatable manner Listening to the challenges you face and developing a technology strategy that addresses them Providing solutions that enhance operations at every level of your organization Giving you the peace of mind to know that your networks and data are secure Focusing on I.T. issues so you can focus on running your business Most importantly, at Cirrus Technology Solutions, we put people before technology. Everything we do, every service we offer, is a reflection of our “People First, Technology Second 2philosophy. Because while we love technology, we also understand that I.T. is only useful in as much as it serves to empower people and enhance the work they do. Work that, in turn, should facilitate growth, spur innovation, increase opportunity, and open up new paths to success. So in a nutshell, with Cirrus at your service, you get secure, reliable, user-enabling IT, you don’t have to think about. Allowing you to focus on providing the kind of “wow” experiences and service levels that win repeat guest loyalty, attract top talent, and build your brand visibility far and wide. Amazing guest experiences start with amazing IT support!

Is your business safe from cyber threats? What is CyberSecurity? What should we do? The topic of CyberSecurity, data protection, on-line threats, etc are hot topics at the moment, and quite rightly so. In the last 10 years Cyber Attacks total some 780 million incidents with the number climbing as we move ever more on-line, mobile and connected So let’s look at this and start with the basics so you can think about them in the context of your business and Is your business cybersafe What does it mean? The phrase of Cyber security relates to a few key elements: Data or Information as you may like to think of it; store, send or receive it, it’s the same thing Transport or how does it travel over the internet whether sending or receiving Measures – What should you do to protect your data and control the transport Your data and how it’s transport should be relatively easy for you to define & quantify, but there are variables and that’s where things start to get interesting & quickly.  Variables include: Risk a deeply subjective topic in itself and one that can vary hugely depending on the people, organisation, market, age of business People & Habits The #1 topic here is often passwords, what passwords are used, how they are used, how often they are changed, who knows them, password policies and so on But Why Us? *  Most cybercrime is opportunistic.  People who send e-mail with malicious content expect to be stopped 95+% of the time, but they’re playing the odds as they have probably sent them same message several hundred thousand times, maybe millions.  Do the maths for yourself.  Most threats are system generated, automatic and working 24×7 to breach your defences * Systems most organisations, especially SME’s have woefully inadequate systems to protect them from intrusion.  They typically lack both the equipment to protect and the means to notice if there is anything wrong at all The variables will be different for everyone and quite often shift over a period of time so whilst you think you may have things covered today a periodic review would also make perfect sense. The variables do also mean that one size does not fit all.  Each business needs to find a way to asses it’s own risk and adopt solutions and process for dealing with this issue.  Note here we’ve added the word process to the sentence, if you want to substitute the word process for common sense it would do you no harm at all So what should we be doing? There are a range of things that you need to consider and bearing in mind the variables you are going to have to make some decisions that suit your business.  It’s a bit like stepping out of the house on a cold day.  We all feel the cold differently and have preferences about what we want to wear, how we look, how we feel etc. Here’s what to at least start thinking about: Patching:  Patch your systems regularly and apply manufacturer provided updates, monthly at the very least.  Be sure to include all systems Passwords: Think about passphrases rather than passwords, mix upper and lower case and include at least 1 number or special character.  Change your passwords on a regular basis too Did you know that over 40% of cyber attacks are aimed at SMBs and they aren’t always from the outside. Make sure your passwords are secure and changed on a regular basis too. Data:  Think about your data.  What do you have, who can access it, where can they access it, how do you know if they’ve accessed it.  You probably don’t know the answer to a few of these which means you have a potential problem Transports: What protection do you have through internet connections, mail, anti-virus, spam.  Most SME’s will take this for granted and invariably have areas for improvement. These 4 items are by no means definitive but starting here will make you significantly more CyberSecure than before you started. Is your business cybersafe? We’ll be posting further updates to this topic in the coming week going a little deeper into the areas covered here, more examples and more specifics to help you understand any weaknesses and how to go about improving them and considering the question Is your business cybersafe? *There have been quite a few, very high profile and well documented thefts of electronic data from large corporate organisations.  These are planned and very deliberate.  But please don’t think that because your business isn’t listed on the stock exchange you are any less vulnerable.  You are not. www.thinkcirrus.co.uk https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/ Is your business cybersafe

Who are you going to call? This week we’ve had a few calls from clients saying things like ‘internet down’ but upon investigation it’s turned out to be a specific application issue.  But do you know how to tell the difference and whom to call? Let me ask you: When you’ve got a tech problem who do you call? Do you know who to call? Have you been in the position where all your providers blame each other leaving your frustrated? So who are you going to call?  Call Cirrus and let us take care of these issues so you can get on with running your business.  We’ll manage all aspects of your IT and if there’s an issue we’ll work with 3rd parties like your broadband provider, the copier company, till company, etc and isolate and resolve the problem.  Yes we’ll manage them for you and deliver you a seamless service. Lets be honest your speciality is your business and for most people figuring out what’s needed to manage, run, troubleshoot and find the way through the different relationships and technologies is simply a minefield.  To us however it’s what we do; we’ll deal with the blurred lines, the finger pointing and and lack of ownership being taken.   We’ll figure out what needs to be done and by whom and manage your issues to resolution. Call us, let us work out where the issue lies and what’s needed to resolve matter. Our Proactive IT management  gives you peace of mind, allowing us to plan structured maintenance, regular updates and IT projects to give you the best return on your IT investment and make sure you’re getting the most from your network. From Windows Updates to multi-phase deployment project, our  IT managed services let us manage your network for you to save you money and make your business more efficient. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/global-outsourcing-survey.html https://www.thinkcirrus.co.uk Send us an E-mail Call us on 03303 130966