Chamber membership provides access to key information, expert advice and legal protection, enabling you to stay informed, legally compliant and free to focus on what you do best – building your business.
Four things to consider in an IT Support Provider Whether you need IT support for the first time or are thinking of switching providers, we believe these four items will help in your searching. Firstly, customer service is extremely important. How well the provider listens, understands, and adapts to your needs is vital. Also, their tone and language are indicators to how kind and friendly they are. Secondly, the type of contract you make with your provider will set the tone of the relationship. Some IT support providers tie their clients into 12-month contracts or longer. While some can be month by month like ours. This is
something to be mindful of when conducting your research. Thirdly, response times and how quickly the provider responds are crucial in IT support. You should expect some form of communication within the first 10 minutes, but resolution times will depend on how high or low your request is. Lastly, you will want to assess what range of services the IT support provider can offer you. The majority will provide the essentials such as cloud and security services. However, we have come across some companies who can’t offer 24/7 support or Cyber Essentials. Advice from Cambridge Support
Cyber Threats It’s always good to remind ourselves how to keep ourselves protected from cyber threats in our businesses, job and personal lives – let’s take a quick look at some easy wins. Password re-use is possibly the worst habit we have trained ourselves to do over the last few decades. Fortunately, there are solutions to help us with this! Password managers store all your online passwords meaning you do not need to remember them, and keep the actual detail secure. Using three random memorable words to create your passwords ensures they are strong and memorable, but hard for computers to guess. 10 connected
It’s increasingly important to use multiple layers of authentication to verify that it’s you accessing your personal or business data. Typically two types of factors are used which has led to the terms “2FA” or “MFA” (M=Multi). A combination of two things from different groups is required such as what you know, something physical you have access to, what you are (fingerprint, face) and where you are. Just because email is everywhere we can’t be complacent. Phishing emails are still the main cause of data and information breaches, therefore we need to remain vigilant with what we open. Always check the sender, query
whether you were expecting the email, look at formatting and spelling, and question the sense of urgency phishing emails are often sent with. Keeping our devices and the sensitive information they store or enable access to secure is a continuous task. Devices being lost, stolen or tampered with and files being stolen is a risk we all face when we are out in the world. You can easily protect yourself by backing up data, encrypting the device and keeping them close! We also firmly believe that one of the most effective methods is to lock your devices, always. Advice from CyberScale
