Office 365 for Large Enterprise Automatically creating groups

“Beginning in March 2017, managers who have 2-20 direct reports, do not already have a direct reports group, and have permissions to create groups in Outlook, will automatically have a private group created for them with their direct reports. The manager will be added as an owner, and the direct reports of the manager will be added as members by default. The group will be named "<Manager's Name>'s direct reports", but that can be edited.”

“To help managers collaborate more effectively with their employees, we will automatically create Office 365 Groups containing the manager's direct reports. Managers can easily update, delete, or modify the group at any time.”

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Manage-automatic-creation-of-direct-reports-group-Admin-help-8387f129-19cc-4426-9911-e36fa0a01043?ui=en-US&rs=en-GB&ad=GB

How to Opt out:

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Manage-automatic-creation-of-direct-reports-group-Admin-help-8387f129-19cc-4426-9911-e36fa0a01043?ui=en-US&rs=en-GB&ad=GB

How to sell MDM ( Mobile Device Management )

Mobile device management is software to be able to manage a fleet of mobiile devices used by your workforce for security, monitoring and deployment. Mobile devices can be provided by a company or BYOD ( Bring your own Device ) is used where people use their existing devices.

Some example MDM products we use and support at Response IT : 

  •  Office 365 Mobile device management 
  •  Vmware airwatch
  •  Mobile Iron
  •  Blackberry Enterprise server

What does and doesn’t work in a communications plan to get users to enroll in an MDM? 

Are there incentives you have used that have helped to get user buy in to enrollment?=

What types of communications have been most effective?

See some below reasons why Users should enroll in company MDM Platforms : 

  • Full Vision of Polices applied to devices to the User 
  • Users get a VPN back to work to access work Files 
  • Users get Work Email for working outside and on the way to the office
  • Restricting limits such as Data useage and Apps to save shock personal bills
  • MDM platforms actually can reduce bandwidth bills
  • MDM can Automatically manage patching for you , weather it being forcing a security fix or stopping one
  • Compliance, having your own device is fine , however we need to make sure we meet out statatutory obligations to protect company data
  • Back out plan ( Easy to remove policys )
  • Easy Location of Device
  • Support of Device

Contact Response IT for support of an existing MDM platform or the creation and adoption of a new one today!

Test your Employee's - Internal Company Phishing Exercise

You can email out to the whole company explaining things such as Spear Phishing:

 http://www.response-it.co.uk/news/2016/10/23/spear-phishing-how-to-mitigate-risks?rq=phishing

and Ransomware explanations and examples: 

http://www.response-it.co.uk/news/2016/10/27/ransomware-the-small-business-guide?rq=cyp

But do these go unnoticed? It's difficult to tell until this is put to the test.... A short test could be to wait until you get infected or breached and diagnose the attack and seal the hole, but a better proactive test is to test your employees before the attack happens.

We have worked recently with a few companies after Management approval to create a test Phishing site's to monitor how many people would fall for the above attacks which give great insights such as

1) How many people and who opened the email
2) How many people entered credentials
3) How many people clicked a link
4) How many out of dated devices opened the link

After the above is found, user training can be employed to fix all the below and the whole process can be repeated on occasion automatically.

Contact us today about pricing for the service.

The cost of outdated Technology for Business'

Per the microsoft article here https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2017/01/19/people-spend-day-every-year-waiting-old-computers-boot/#sm.0000012c2ze3vacu5rmyddvyd145k

'People in Britain spend a day every year waiting for old computers to boot up'

Yes this is a marketing from Microsoft to sell it's Windows 10 Operating System , but it does bring out some interesting true facts ..... Computer shelf life or Out of the Box warranty is usually supplied for 3 years depending on what it is used for, and Microsoft OS is usually around every 3 years as well.

Below we would like to share of reasons to keep your Hardware and Software Up to Date

  • Not getting the new features new software and hardware gives you such as Virtualisation ( Multiple servers on a single box ) or leveraging the cloud with means no server!
  • New technology is usually built with less parts, thus less to go wrong and cheaper to buy and greener to run !
  • Out of Date software leaves you open to security problems, e.g. Microsoft not releasing anymore security patches for your operating system
  • Increased costs and time in fixing problems with your old hardware / software. Yes it usually can be done by sometimes by a quick fix instead of a long term fix
  • System Downtime due to Security problems or reliability problems
  • Cost of Warranty Extensions -> Usually manufacturers or Software and Hardware will rapidly increase the warranty cost extensions which means buying new can be cheaper!
  • Stress! (two-thirds of Brits with computers aged between 5 and 10 years admitted to hitting or shouting at them, with a further 6% being reduced to tears)
  • Legal risks of being audited depending on your business with can lead to fines due to unsupported software

Call us today to help us get you into the new!

 

M25 IT support and Services

Due to Response IT's office being located within 5 minutes of the M25, depending on the notorious M25 Traffic in London we can cover most business inside the M25 within an hour using Car or Train whatever's faster!

This gives you on call services such as

  • Network Support
  • Microsoft and Mac Computer Support
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Cloud Consultants
  • Malware / Cryptolocker fixes and prevention
  • Outsourced IT
  • Managed Services

For a fixed monthly fee or pay as you go rate! Contact us today to get a price and support for your IT emergency or prevention.

The M25 Area

 

The postcodes available for IT Support in the M25 are business that start with the following

  • AL2
  • BR1
  • BR2
  • BR3
  • BR4
  • BR5
  • BR6
  • BR7
  • BR8
  • CM13
  • CM14
  • CM16
  • CR0
  • CR2
  • CR3
  • CR4
  • CR5
  • CR6
  • CR7
  • CR8
  • DA1
  • DA2
  • DA5
  • DA6
  • DA7
  • DA8
  • DA14
  • DA15
  • DA16
  • DA17
  • DA18
  • E1
  • E2
  • E3
  • E4
  • E5
  • E6
  • E7
  • E8
  • E9
  • E10
  • E11
  • E12
  • E13
  • E14
  • E15
  • E16
  • E17
  • E18
  • E1W
  • EC1
  • EC2
  • EC3
  • EC4
  • EN1
  • EN2
  • EN3
  • EN4
  • EN5
  • EN6
  • EN7
  • EN8
  • EN9
  • HA0
  • HA1
  • HA2
  • HA3
  • HA4
  • HA5
  • HA6
  • HA7
  • HA8
  • HA9
  • IG1
  • IG2
  • IG3
  • IG4
  • IG5
  • IG6
  • IG7
  • IG8
  • IG9
  • IG10
  • IG11
  • KT1
  • KT2
  • KT3
  • KT4
  • KT5
  • KT6
  • KT7
  • KT8
  • KT9
  • KT10
  • KT11
  • KT12
  • KT13
  • KT14
  • KT15
  • KT16
  • KT17
  • KT18
  • KT19
  • KT20
  • KT21
  • KT22
  • N1
  • N2
  • N3
  • N4
  • N5
  • N6
  • N7
  • N8
  • N9
  • N10
  • N11
  • N12
  • N13
  • N14
  • N15
  • N16
  • N17
  • N18
  • N19
  • N20
  • N21
  • N22
  • NW1
  • NW2
  • NW3
  • NW4
  • NW5
  • NW6
  • NW7
  • NW8
  • NW9
  • NW10
  • NW11
  • RH1
  • RH2
  • RH8
  • RH9
  • RM1
  • RM2
  • RM3
  • RM4
  • RM5
  • RM6
  • RM7
  • RM8
  • RM9
  • RM10
  • RM11
  • RM12
  • RM13
  • RM14
  • RM15
  • RM19
  • RM20
  • SE1
  • SE2
  • SE3
  • SE4
  • SE5
  • SE6
  • SE7
  • SE8
  • SE9
  • SE10
  • SE11
  • SE12
  • SE13
  • SE14
  • SE15
  • SE16
  • SE17
  • SE18
  • SE19
  • SE20
  • SE21
  • SE22
  • SE23
  • SE24
  • SE25
  • SE26
  • SE27
  • SE28
  • SL0
  • SL9
  • SM1
  • SM2
  • SM3
  • SM4
  • SM5
  • SM6
  • SM7
  • SW1
  • SW2
  • SW3
  • SW4
  • SW5
  • SW6
  • SW7
  • SW8
  • SW9
  • SW10
  • SW11
  • SW12
  • SW13
  • SW14
  • SW15
  • SW16
  • SW17
  • SW18
  • SW19
  • SW20
  • TN14
  • TN16
  • TW1
  • TW2
  • TW3
  • TW4
  • TW5
  • TW6
  • TW7
  • TW8
  • TW9
  • TW10
  • TW11
  • TW12
  • TW13
  • TW14
  • TW15
  • TW16
  • TW17
  • TW18
  • TW19
  • TW20
  • UB1
  • UB2
  • UB3
  • UB4
  • UB5
  • UB6
  • UB7
  • UB8
  • UB9
  • UB10
  • UB11
  • W1
  • W2
  • W3
  • W4
  • W5
  • W6
  • W7
  • W8
  • W9
  • W10
  • W11
  • W12
  • W13
  • W14
  • WC1
  • WC2
  • WD2
  • WD3
  • WD4
  • WD5
  • WD6
  • WD7
  • WD17
  • WD18
  • WD19
  • WD23
  • WD24
  • WD25

Azure now offers a 99.9 percent service-level agreement (SLA) commitment option on single-instance virtual machines with Premium Storage

Just to show Microsoft's commitment to it's infrastructure in Azure to host your Virtual Machines, it has now increased it's SLA to the highest yet 99.9%

Previously, receiving an SLA required a minimum of two virtual machines configured for high availability. However, some IT organizations need SLAs for single-instance virtual machines, forcing those virtual machines to stay on-premises. With this new option in Azure, we are empowering organizations to move more workloads to the cloud.

To qualify for the single-instance virtual machine SLA, all storage disks attached to the virtual machine must be our Premium Storage, which offers up to 80,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 2,000 MB of disk throughput per virtual machine. Customers can continue to build for high availability by having two or more virtual machines deployed in the sameavailability set, which provides a 99.95 percent SLA, or by utilizingAzure Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

For more information about our SLA for Azure Virtual Machines, please visit the SLA for Virtual Machines webpage. For more information on Premium Storage and how to begin migrating your workloads, please visit theDisk Storage webpage.

What is an SLA?

This stands for service level agreement. It is what service providers agree with their customers on uptime of a service before a payment or credit will be applied to their bill.

What is the Refund?

Microsoft are not offering a refund, but service credit which can be used for the following months server : 

< 99.9% Uptime = 10% Service Credit

< 99% Uptime = 25% Service Credit

 

Disaster Recovery Plan Template (DRP) / Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

As Wikipedia put it a  Disaster Recovery Plan is

a documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. Such a plan, ordinarily documented in written form, specifies procedures an organization is to follow in the event of a disaster.

As Wikipedia put its a Business Continuity Plan is

the process of creating systems of prevention and recovery to deal with potential threats to a company.

THE TWO ARE DIFFERENT!

Disaster Recovery Plans should be oriented towards business recovery following a disaster, and mitigating the negative consequences of a disaster. In contrast, Business Continuity Plans focus on creating a plan of action that focuses on preventing the negative consequences of a disaster from occurring at all.

Business Continuity Plan

You should identify any potential risks and threats facing the company and the likely hood of them happening. Then you should list the likely hood of these effecting the company in what ways e.g. Loss of Sales , Fines and loss of customers

Disaster Recovery Plan

Some questions that should be put forward are

1) Is my Data covered in the event of a Diaster , can I recover?

2) What is my current recovery time in regards to services and 100% Business Availability

The cloud helps business' keep their data offsite usually in well-equipped data centers that are also replicated between different data centers to cover a natural disaster affecting their service. However customers should always operate the 3 level backup model and use methods to be able to make sure they can export and backup their cloud data.

Here's a link to a predefined template which can be filled out and actioned by a company and their IT Provider

Let Response IT help build your Disaster Recovery Plan and Business Continuity Plan to failure proof your business ! Contact Us Today

New "GoldenEye" Ransomware installed via Job Resumes/C.V.

There is a new ransomware out nickednamed "GoldenEye" like the movie, which is targeting HR Managers through fake Job interview application attachements.

The attackers are also targetting Recruitment companies and HR Consultants.

It uses existing specific exploits in existing Microsoft files such as .doc / .xls to run macros which install the virus

How to stop yourself getting infected?

Please see our article here about steps to prevent infections 

http://www.response-it.co.uk/news/2016/10/27/ransomware-the-small-business-guide?rq=Ransomware

I am already infected...

Please contact us today as there might be some methods to retrieve your data 

Could your business benefit from an IT Security Assessment?

According to the UK Government, in 2014, 60%* of SMBs experienced a security breach. The same survey has estimated that a severe cyber attack on a SMB costs upwards of £65k.

*UK Gov, The Information Security Breaches Survey – Department of Business, Innovation & Skills

Since 2014 Security risks and attacks have increased in quantity and sophistication

The government has put together some free training for companies to train staff of how to protect security

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cyber-security-training-for-business

What do you get from a Security Assessment?

We look at your current system as it currently is to locate and identify an potential security vulnerabilities and risks. It's a great way to get a third party audit of your current network and system and also a list of recommended upgrades or changes in a single report.

Access Control - Who currently has access, do they need access, how they access and what to

Patch Management - What is up-to-date and what isn't in your company with list of security exploits that can currently be used against your system

Malware Protection - What current defense do you have against virus, spyware and spam

Firewalls - Your current firewall configuration  

Backups - Your current backup configuration

Why should I get a security assessment?

A security assessment can prove beneficial to companies to not only reduce the risk for future attacks, but it can also offer up significant financial advantages. One of these advantages is the review of your current spending of the above to check for any unnecessary overspending on certain security solutions and suggest the most cost efficient alternatives available

Contact Response IT Today via our Contact Us Page to Inquire about our IT Security Assessment 

Office 365 Business Essentials Offerings in Surrey and London

Security

Your data has never been more secure and safe:

  • A 99.9% uptime guarantee with a financially backed SLA to ensure downtime is a thing of the past.
  • Secure encrypted datacentres which are compliant with world class industry standards such as ISO 270001, EU Model Clauses, HIPAA-BAA, FISMA and the Data Processing Agreement.
  • Backups are taken automatically and data is replicated in geo-redundant datacentres to ensure even if an entire datacentre went down, you are not affected.

Microsoft’s cloud offerings are far more secure and redundant than most small to mid-size businesses could ever hope for.

What do I need?

  • A computer with a minimum of Windows 7 Operating System
  • An existing company domain name where your email is hosted e.g. @smallbusiness.com
  • A steady fast internet connection - As all the services are hosted on the internet, you will need a good connection to upload your existing email
  • The latest version of Office 365 - Companies with Office Installations older than 2010 will need to purchase new licenses or purchase an Office subscription which enables you install this as part of your 365 offering

What do I get?

Office 365 is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are multiple plans available to suit different business sizes and needs. The Office 365 Business Essentials plan costs £3.10 per user per month and includes:

  • The Office suite – always have the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher and Access.
  • Office on more devices – experience Office on your PC, Mac, Windows tablet & Mobile and other select devices.
  • Office on any PC – stream full versions of Office programs on any PC with Office on Demand.

Plus these online services:

  • Email and calendars – Use business-class Outlook email, including a 25 GB mailbox per user, shared calendars and task-list tools.
  • Public website – Design and maintain your own public website with no additional hosting fees. Use your own domain name to promote your brand.
  • Team sites – Enable easy access and sharing of documents with 10 GB baseline storage plus 500 MB of storage per user.
  • Web conferencing – Host online meetings with audio and video using one-click screen sharing and HD video conferencing.
  • Instant messaging – Simplify how you connect with instant messaging and Presence (your online status).

Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 10

The Start menu is back - We've missed you , and so have our customers. Classic Start is a default install for customers with 8.1 installed, however Microsoft have listened to the users and brought this back! 

Inbuilt upgrader from Windows 7 just works - Not much explaining here , Microsoft has come along way since the Vista days of the updater breaking a load of Apps and Drivers. You are warned before of programs that might have issues and are made to uninstall these before update.

Stable - We've skipped a release (8.1) , Check below, Microsoft usually skips a good OS per release

  • WIndows 2000  :)
  • Windows ME :(
  • Windows XP :)
  • Windows Vista :(
  • Windows 7 :)
  • Windows 8.1 :(
  • Windows 10 :)

Built for touch - Like 8.1 Microsoft are making the User interface easy so this can be used on your Surface Tablet, Phone and Laptop with Touch Screen easily. Also Microsoft Office finally works with touch! 

Buil in Apps and App Store - Adobe Reader Client, Maps , Media player , Mail and Photo Viewer all included in the operating system and there's a store to find new applications without the risk of running into Virus on internet fake stores!

Built for Cloud - Small business now can use an Active Directory account linked to their Email Address for management without needing an on-premise server

Updates Slipstreamed - Microsoft is continuing to release new updates on a daily basis. That means instead of waiting to release new features through a service pack or major release, 

 

Free - It's was a Free Update util 2016 July for a whole year as long as your current license of windows is Valid. This link still might help you https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

 

Best Way to build a server room

Server Rack

Most server rooms or Datacenters are made up of a collection of racks. With the help of virtualisation nowawdays, most companies will have a single rack with all their Storage, Networking, Server and Patching equipment. Choosing the right rack can be hard as there are varying heights, width, depts and vendors to choose from. Most of the time these cannot be returned due to the size so they should be picked properly the first time round! 

Noise

This is a pretty big side effect of having the server room on your premise instead of hosted elsewhere. If this is in a seperate room, the enclosed space will help muffle the sound. We have had some customers who opt in for a silent rack , which has a sound rating of 25 DB , and of course saves space by not needing a server room!

Cooling

Keeping servers at a recommended manufacture operating temperature, keeps your data safe and warranty valid! For example a HP DL 380 has the following recommendations

The maximum recommended ambient operating temperature (TMRA) for most server products is 35°C(95°F). The temperature in the room where the rack is located must not exceed 35°C (95°F).

Cooling in most server rooms is done by Air Conditioning with airflow. This cooling should be specced correctly using BTU readings. You should also have monitoring at server and rack level to make sure you can monitor fan failure and rise in tempuratures to act.

Cable Management

This is always a battle in server rooms due to the amount of cables needed per phone , computer and server. Cable colours are important to see different networks such as Phone over Data as well as using the correct media for uplinks.

Power should also be looked at, make sure you understand your buildings power backup e.g. Generators

Label and Document Everything

The customer and IT Provider should know what each box does incase of a problem and for Auditing purposes as well.

Security

This is where all your company's data is ( if you are not already in the cloud ). There was a case with a building in London where some people walked off the street during an office move and helped themselves to a few servers without any employee stopping them! Make sure you lock your server racks and can account for the keys to server rooms. 

Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and E5 Subscription Options for Small to Medium Options

What is Windows 10 Enterprise E3

This is basically Windows 10 for Enterprises with Software Assurance.

What's Software Assurance? It's something you purchase with Microsoft products as a subscription to give you future upgrades on the product such as the next version of Windows or new features free of charge, and also roll back functionality. Roll back to Windows 7 if you want ( good for software that is not supported on 10 however you need to license your enviroment ) 

Benefits of Going E3 Enterprise

Support from one to hundreds of users. Although the Windows 10 Enterprise E3 in CSP program does not have a limitation on the number of licenses an organization can have, the program is designed for small- and medium-sized organizations.

Deploy on up to five devices. For each user covered by the license, you can deploy Windows 10 Enterprise edition on up to five devices. E.G.
    
    Your Office Laptop
    Your Office Computer
    Your Office Tablet    
    Your Home PC
    Your phone!

Move licenses between users. Licenses can be quickly and easily reallocated from one user to another user, allowing you to optimize your licensing investment against changing needs.

Why do I need E5?

E5 adds a new security service called Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). This is a cloud service that takes behavioural data from sensors built into Windows 10 and provides insights, detections and recommended responses. No matter what anti-malware product is installed on a PC, it’s only as good as the known threats it has been designed to block, the ATP service looks at behaviour and reduces the impact of a compromise either of a device itself or a user interaction. 

While this can work with third party anti-malware tools, it can also be used to provide a complete Microsoft security system, effectively allowing replacement of other vendors as designed to integrate with the built-in Windows Defender anti-malware in Windows 10.

Microsoft Cloud Service Provider Surrey - Lock your 365 Subscription in before the Jan 2017 Price Hike!

 

Lock your 365 Subscription in before the Jan 2017 Price Hike!

Per our recent article here -> http://www.response-it.co.uk/news/2016/10/24/whats-brexit-means-for-uk-it-hardware-and-software-costs?rq=brexit

Due to the drop in the pound Microsoft will be increasing the price of Subscription services in the UK by 22% on 1st January 2017

If you purchase from a Microsoft Cloud Service Provider like Response IT , we can lock your subscription price for a year. Use the last days of 2016 to save your company money in 2017! 

Contact us today!

New Variant of Cryptolocker - Free Unlock code if you infect two other people!

Bleeping computer has just found a new strain of the famous Cryptolocker which gives infected users a chance to share the virus with two other people who once have paid to unlock their files , the user will get an unlock key

It's a Pyramid version of Cryptolocker , Nasty , watch out for those links from anyone you could know!

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-scheme-spread-popcorn-time-ransomware-get-chance-of-free-decryption-key/

Zerto, Veeam, Microsoft Azure Backup Serve- Backup, Replication and DR straight into the Cloud!

 

2016 has definitely been the year of backup applications leveraging the cloud. In the start of last year we saw Veeam build a product called Cloud Connect which used it's backup software to replicate Virtual machines to another location. To spin this backup up into a useable environment for Always On or a Disaster recovery solution you then needed to utilize some third party hardware or convert the machines into AWS Machines. This could be done however it was not the easiest and went against what the cloud was for ... an always on scaleable solution! It did mean Small to Medium business; could start to have a cost effective Disaster Recovery site without the huge costs of replicating their whole onsite environment to another data center ( something only enterprise or large organisations could pay for)

Zerto a pretty new product on the scene enhanced this technology by reducing RPO's ( recovery point objective (time to copy backup files) to minutes instead of hours which means if a site when done lost work would greatly be reduced. Zerto also enabled replication from cross platform products for example replicate a Vmware environment to a Hyper V environment to  save on licensing costs for your DR Solution. It also in Version 4 allowed you to replicate VMware to AWS - http://www.zerto.com/products/enterprise/replication-backup-to-aws-amazon-web-services/. Zerto also has a minimum license of 25 virtual machines which is the high end of a medium size company in the UK.

The slight problem with Veeam V9 and below is you needed to host your own infrastructure to be able to host the repository. Now with Veeam 9.5  you can replicate this straight to Azure which means you only pay for the storage it uses until you turn the product one.

Released a year ago, Microsoft Azure Backup Server used Microsoft technology to backup Windows Machines using the Windows Agent directly to Azure. This was good however agents installs are not the best way to back things up now thanks to virtual environments. Now Microsoft Azure Backup Server is agent less which means it can backup your whole Virtual Center Server environment including Linux machines to Azure.

Small Business - Guide to Ransomware

What is it?

Ransomware is the ability of the attacker to launch an application usually on your Windows Desktop to Encrypt all your Company Shared files and hold the unlock key to ransom. The ransom is usually asked for by payment of a Bitcoin key which is totally untraceable.

Such strains of this attack has usually been nicknamed Cryptolocker

There are even companies selling this Virus as a service offering 10% of all the Ransom paid!

 

How do I stop it? 

Spam Filters

Make sure you have one of these before email hits your Office 365 or Email Server. They can scan Macro's and files and also block emails which have been bulk sent and this protects you before the email even gets to your server!

User training

Make sure users are wary of what emails they open with attachments. For Example why is my gas company sending my home gas bill to my work email? Why is TNT sending me a receive note when I have not received anything?

Keep Up-To-Date

Alot of Ransomware comes from out of date programs such as Flash and Java, sometimes through Averts! Make sure you keep these up-to-date or speak to your IT Provider about a tool to deploy these weekly and Advert Blockers.

Disable Macro Scripts

Cyptolocker variants like to use Zipped up PDF , Word and Powerpoint presentations harmless looking invoices to download programs to the computer. Make sure you read the warnings before enabling these.

Group Policies

Enable Group Policy's to Disable Executables running in AppData and Local App Data

Antivirus

Make sure it's turned on - Remember when you turned off the Anti Virus to stop it annoying you about updates or a false positive. Make sure you have a management center for all your Anti Virus Clients to check what users have what enabled!

File Resource Manager

Get alerts when specific files hit your server so straight away you can action the removal of the machine from the network. The process can even be automated!

 

What if I get infected?

Call your IT Provider Straight Away

You will start seeing your files changes extension from .doc ( Work document ) to .zzz and you will be unable to open these anymore. This means they are encyrpted and the virus is encrypting or has encrypted all the company data. There will also be Readme.html files are placed in each directory with the Unlock Key and instructions of how to pay as well as a deadline.

Call your IT provider so they can determine which computer is infected which will need to be unplugged and wiped. They can also get on with the restoring of Data

Try and Find an Unlock Key

Our friends at Kaspersky have put together a load of tools to be able to unlock for files for you for free here

Backups 

Backup is the only last method of defense. If there is no unlock key from above from your strain. Depending on your backup software ( Veam / Backup Exec ) you should be able to restore from the previous' Nights backup meaning only a loss of a days data compared to everything. This might be a good time to thing about your current backup plan, maybe a midday backup would be good to mitigate a 24 hours loss instead of a 12 hour lost.

Pay up

This is the last scenario, it never helps to pay Ransom's as it encourages it , however if this is your last option, maybe a 500$ Payment is cheaper then wiping all your Data. Payments do actually work if you leave all the documents on the system intact, it will actually decrypt it per case study.

A few of our top 7 reasons for you to be in the Cloud

Cheaper Startup costs

For Small for Medium business especially new , a three pound monthly bill per user rather than an initial three hundred pound Office license is much cheaper during the first year not to mention more flexible. If the user quits the license the next monthly cost can be cancelled and email archived.

Stability

Economies of scale plays into this alot. Cloud providers ike Microsoft and Amazon invest heavilly into making sure they have multi layers of reduancy in regards to all layers of their infrasturcure as well as users existing on two datacenters just incase one gets destroyed in a natural diaster. Yes..... these services still go down from time to time however this will only get better with time! 

Collaboration 

The world is opening up wether Brexit or Trump proves otherwise! Small Business now can be under 10 people dotted around the world with the help of the internet. Internet connections from e.g. the U.K. to Australia are still not good enough yet to stream a Virtual Desktop Faultlessly. The cloud can now enable remote workers login to their local data center and work without the slowness of before.

Mobility 

Mobiles and Tablets are taking on much more of the processing them previously thanks to good development and hardware. Cost of building Web Apps are more complex thanever due to security and amount of devices. Cloud providers work on unifying their apps to work across platform which saves internal development

Latest and Greatest

Companies especially Microsoft now are writing new features and products directly into the cloud which means you get these in your existing subscription for the same costs and it happens automatically, no need to wait for updating screens!

Scalibilty / Speed

One of the great perks about cloud is  the scaling. You can start your organisation on a 5 seat E3 Office 365 license and grow up to 1000 seats by just increasing your subscription count! Let someone else worry about the building of new servers and data rooms while you continue to run your business. The amount of servers Microsoft have you can now start using this scalable resource for Business Intelligence straight into 365.

Intergration

Previously when you purchased some software for example Sage Accounting, to be able to export that data for example into Excel to be able to forecast and predict figures you  would have you build custom written macros for this. With the invention of cloud it has started getting cloud providers to build API's and work with other third partners for click of the button intergration! For example a great Accounting Tool we use called Xero. To be able to keep track of our workforces expenses, we can use a seperate thirdparty tool called Receipt Bank and this how enable employees to submit their expense forms and receipts into Zero saving out Accoutant lots of work!

Moving Offices : IT relocation service Checklist

1) Planning

When will we have physical access to the new premise to do a site audit of what is currently there? It is useful to ask the previous company if they have plans to leave anything behind. A few site moves we have been hired on, Structured Cabling, UPS's and Phone Systems are mostly left behind for the new tenant to use! They would prefer to pass these down instead of paying for the removal.

Internet Service Providers - One of the longest wait times for a new premise will be Internet and Telecom lines. Allow up to 2 months for these and check if they can reuse any existing cabling to speed things up. This will need to be ordered and followed up weekly to make sure this does not delay the move which can be actioned by your IT Managed Serice Provider. Our recommended ISP can help you with this transfer by moving the numbers and IP Address of your existing setup to your new office.

 Cabling Requirments for new Office

  • How Many Phone Lines do you need?
  • How Many Cat 5 Cables per Desk?
  • Power Outlets for each Desk?
  • Room for Server Rack

What needs to be moved and who is physically doing the move? This can be a great time to perform an IT Audit of all machines and software as this all needs to be moved anyway! Can the people who will be moving your Office Furniture also help out with physically moving IT Equipment?

Moving premise can be a great time to retire old IT Infrastructure and be a useful time to upgrade existing infrastructure so you can run both sites in parallel to speed up the move and help with the testing. It can also be a great time to look at Hosted IT services and cloud.

 Why pay for a server room to be built if you can move it all into the cloud which will help you be more flexible for future moves!? 

Recyling old IT Infrastructure should be done with a proper provider so that hard disks and old backup tapes a destroyed to prevent leak of company data

2) Evaluation

  • Make sure backups of all company system data have all been completed and that there has been a tested recovery?
  • Have you notified staff of when they will need to shut their computers down so the hardware can be moved quickly and efficiently and when the system is expected to be back up to reduce IT Downtime?
  • Is the equipment insured during the move?

3) The Move

  • Depending on the size of your office, it's best to get employee's to pack and label their personal items up which will help with the moving of IT Equipment
  • Testing - Once all equipment is moved servers and systems should be checked and signed off before starting work.