Did you know that there may be hidden security risks in your office and that they can be found on your computer?  These security risks can make you more vulnerable to data loss and data theft.  So, what are these risks and how can you combat them?

There are four main security risks that you should be worried about and these risks are:

1 - The browser/browsers that are installed on your computer can be a security risk, especially if they are not updated on a regular basis or no longer supported. Older versions of Internet explorer are no longer supported and only internet explorer 11 and its replacement Edge are still supported by Microsoft. If you use other browsers such as Firefox and Google Chrome, make sure that you have the latest versions installed.

2 - The operating system that is running on your computer might not be supported anymore by Microsoft and that means you can no longer get updates for it. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows Vista 5 years ago and they will end extended support in April 11, 2017. Microsoft ended extended support for Windows XP in 2014. The extended support for Windows 7 ends on 14 January 2020 while the mainstream support for Windows 8 ends on 9 January 2018 (and extended support for Windows 8 ends on 10 January 2023). The difference between mainstream support and extended support is explained here.

3 - Legacy software and legacy systems can cause major security headaches and you must ask yourself if you still need them? If you are using older software that only works on an older Operating System, you should think about replacing the software with an up to date version. If this is not possible then you should think about limiting who can use it and if the computer that it is on needs to be connected to your network. If you have an older computer that is still being used, you must ask yourself if it can be replaced and if not take it off your network if it does not require internet or network access. If you are not sure if any Microsoft products that you use are still supported, please click here.

4 - Do you have Anti-virus software on your computers and how often is it updated/upgraded? You should be updating your Anti-virus software whenever an update is available and that should be around three to five times a week. Some Anti-virus software can slow your computer/computers or cause issues with any browser based SaaS software you use. If this is the case look for an alternative that won’t do this, as you might be inclined to just remove the Anti-virus software.

iPing provide managed services and IT services and we can help provide you with an overview of your computer/computers security risks and how you can improve it. So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.

Passwords are one of the main things that protect your IT infrastructure and they are also the weakest link, so how often do you change your passwords and what areas of your IT infrastructure is password protected are two questions that must be asked regularly.

Passwords are used when you want to log into your employer’s network onsite or offsite, and they can also be used when you want to access certain folders/directories in your employer’s IT network.

Make sure that your employees :

1- Never have an open network that allows you to access everything once you have keyed in your password to log into your computer. When Sony got hacked a few years ago, the hackers hacked into the main network and then had access to everything on the network as every user had open access to everything on the network. They also found a file called passwords which had the login details  and passwords for every employee who had access to Sony’s network. Make sure that users only have access to files, folders and software that is relevant to their job, why should the HR department have access to all the files, folders and software used by the website development team.

2 - Never leave Post it’s with passwords written on them on your computer screen or your desk. If you need to write passwords down, keep them in a notepad that is locked away in a drawer that only one person has access to, or use .

3 - Never have passwords that are too easy to crack, make sure that they are a minimum of eight characters long, comprised of alphanumeric characters, must have at least one uppercase letter and have a symbol. Passwords like your partner’s name, your children’s name or your date of birth are way too obvious. One of the easiest passwords to crack is one belonging to someone in your IT support department, because as they have so many passwords to remember, they make sure theirs is so easy to remember.

4 - Make sure that passwords are changed on a regular basis such as once a month or once every two months. The more often they are changed the harder it will be to crack them and make sure that everyone is reminded to change their password on a regular basis.

iPing provide managed services and IT services and we can help provide you with an overview of your IT networks password setup and how you can improve it. So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.

If you have a system failure in your organisation, two important questions will come to mind. How long will it take you to get your organisation up and running again? How much downtime and data loss can you afford?

This is where business continuity should come into play as it’s where an organisation has planned and prepared how it can continue to operate when faced with major incidents or disasters. Your organisation continuity plan should have three core components resilience, recovery and contingency.

Resilience
You can increase your organisation’s resilience by redesigning all its critical functions and infrastructures with various disaster scenarios in mind. What this should include is staff rota’s and data redundancy. This will help you maintain essential services on and off site.

Recovery
You must be able to recover or restore critical and less business functions and this can be done by setting recovery time objectives for different systems, networks and applications. Recovery time objectives will help you prioritise what needs to recovered or restored first.

Contingency
Your organisation will have procedures in place to deal with whatever incidents and disasters might occur, including ones that could not be foreseen. Contingency preparations are only brought in to play when resilience and recovery arrangements have not worked.

When you start thinking about business continuity, you should also be thinking about your data and how it is backed up. Backing up your data can be done in three ways:

You only backup your data, and this is normally stored on a local external hard disk or in the cloud, but you could use both just in case you might encounter issues with your local external drive. If you only need your data back as quickly as possible then this is the backup solution that you should be doing, as backing up your data can be done daily.

You clone your hard disk which results in an exact duplicate of your hard disk being made. This is more useful when you need to reinstall an OS and any software needed, especially if you have a disk failure and you need your systems back on line yesterday. This will require you having one or more donor hard disks that will be used to clone your hard disk.

You make an image of your hard drive and this is where image backup software copies everything on your hard drive into a large compressed file which can be saved in the cloud or an external hard drive. Images can be very handy as you can store various images at the same time and this can come in handy especially if you have malware/viruses infecting your hard disk and you want to bring your last known good configuration.

Each of the three-backup solutions have their uses, but when you need to be up and running as quickly as possible you must choose which one suits you best and decide how often you will back up your data, clone your hard disk and make images of your hard disk.

iPing provide managed services and IT services and we can help you with your business continuity and how you back up your data. So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.

One of the most important things that you should be doing is making sure that your data is stored in a safe and secure place and this is now much easier and cheaper to implement since cloud storage has become so widely available. There are two kinds of cloud storage available, local cloud storage and external cloud storage, and knowing who will be accessing the data helps you determine the type of cloud storage that you will be using.

Local storage is where your data is stored in a NAS (Network-attached storage) box in your office and is designed to plug into your network seamlessly. NAS boxes are essentially storage case in which you can store 1 or more hard disks in them and they can be bought with or without hard disks. They also vary in price from €30 to over €6000 making them very affordable.

External cloud storage is where your data is stored offsite with Amazon, Microsoft etc. and it can be accessed anywhere in the world. External cloud storage is normally used by companies who have sales people out on the road who need to access data 24x7. I

If you are planning to use external cloud storage it is worth noting that there are 2 types of external cloud storage, synced and non-synced storage. Synced cloud storage is where all the data on your computer/server is replicated in the cloud. Non-synced storage is where you decide what data is stored in the cloud.

The one problem that you will run into when you use synced cloud storage is that if you decide to delete a file from your computer or sever, it will also be deleted from your online cloud storage account. The purpose of cloud storage is that it is a place you store files that are too big to store locally, or where you store multiple versions of the same file. If synced cloud storage is not going to be an issue then feel free to go with it, otherwise go with non-synced cloud storage.

iPing provide managed services and IT services and we can help provide you with various cloud storage options. So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.

Over the past few days we have started seeing a notice from Microsoft in the bottom right hand corner of Windows. The notice is to let you know you can now upgrade to Windows 10. Firstly we wish to reassure our clients - this is an official message from Microsoft and it is safe to click on the message.

Microsoft are offering customers presently using Windows 7 and upwards a free upgrade to Windows 10.  This free offer will be valid for one year from July 29^th 2015.  If you avail of this free upgrade, there is no additional cost for the first year of install, after this one year period,  there will be a cost for Windows 10 and there will be a cost for installation on any new computers.

Microsoft have confirmed to us:

“Once you upgrade to Windows 10 with the free upgrade offer you will able to clean reinstall Windows 10 on same device any time.”

The free Windows 10 upgrade is a full version and can upgrade from an older version of Windows or perform a standalone install. Microsoft will also make the software downloadable as an ISO disc image, for those who want to keep it on DVD or a USB memory key.

iPing are advising our customers only to register for the free version of Windows 10 for now. We are suggesting a ‘wait and see’ period of around six months for Microsoft to iron out the bugs before we start planning whether or not to move iPing’s customers to Windows 10.

If you have any questions on this please give us a call or an email 01 5241350 or visit www.iping.ie

As the old adage goes, all good things must come to an end. This was true for Windows XP and now on July 14th 2015 it will also be true for Windows Server 2003. Just like when Windows XP went end of life, Microsoft stopped supporting it and releasing patches etc for it and so the same will happen with Windows Server 2003.

If you want to see how many days are left until support ends for Windows Server 2003, you can look at the Microsoft count down timer here

So what does this mean for you and your business if you are using a 2003 server? Well the first question you have to ask yourself is what we are using our server for. If you are using your server for email, file and print sharing, you could consider either getting a new server or moving these services to the cloud. This will really depend on how much data you have for email and files and this is something iPing can advise you on.

If you are using your server to host applications that you use to run your business i.e. accountancy packages, stock control systems, CRM applications and the like, you will need to investigate how ready these systems are to move from Windows 2003 server.

Depending on the application you will either move them to newer cloud based offerings from the provider and off your server, move them to a newer version of windows server that is still supported by Microsoft or you will decide to take this opportunity to move to a new application provider who has a system that is now better for your business. In all of these cases iPing can help you to move your applications from Windows 2003 server to a supported alternative.

The most important thing in getting over the impending Windows 2003 end of life is actually addressing the problem. As of writing this blog there are 242 days of support left and this may seem like an eternity. The thing is though IT systems take time and planning to migrate as they are complex systems that are critical and if you want to be sure the move is seamless, now is the time to be thinking about moving off your 2003 Windows Server.

If you would like some help in planning your Windows 2003 Server upgrade be sure to contact iPing!

I just received a call from someone pertaining to be from Microsoft telling me that there was a problem with my computer. The person said that he would be more than happy to help me find the problem on my computer and then they could help me fix it.

Just to further set the scene for you - the call was from a very noisy call centre with a really bad connection. It is also very important to know that we are an IT Support company based in Dublin and it is usually the iPing team who are calling people to help them with their computers and not the other way around. So it was very strange and suspicious for me to get this on spec call. I should probably also note that iPing is a Microsoft partner and this is not something they would usually call us about.

So in taking all of the above into account and being very suspicious that this was a crank call, I nonetheless went through the motions to see what it was I was asked to do so that I could let you know when you are at risk of being scammed.

1. The first thing he asked me to do was to open up a very specific part of the windows event viewer so that he could show me that my computer was reporting some spurious and fake errors. He was doing this to build some trust.
2. Once he thought that he had convinced me that my computer had errors and that he had my trust, he wanted to connect into my computer and fix the problems.
3. When I asked him how he was going to connect into my computer, he said he wanted me to go to a website and enter some details and this would allow him to connect to my computer.

When we got to the above stage I just hung up the phone as I was now very happy that this person was a not the kind of IT support person you want to be dealing with. I had considered letting him connect into a virtual computer for some fun but I decided I had enough real work to do for some of my excellent customers and this person had taken up enough time.

After hanging up the phone, I got a call back again about ten minutes later from the same person, wondering what had happened. I told him that I knew he was a scammer trying to steal my credit card information, and he was going to get some serious bad karma for doing work like this. He asked me what made me think this and I told him that he was speaking to the owner of an IT support company and that we deal in ensuring people do not have IT problems.

Again I told him his karma was taking a beating and that he should find a better job. At this stage he lost the plot and started shouting down the phone at me calling me many bad names that I cannot mention in a business IT blog but I will be more than happy to share with you over a pint.

In summary if you get a call similar to the above from a very loud call centre saying that the person is calling you from Microsoft and the person says you have problems with your computer - you need to be very careful. As you can see from this link, Microsoft will never call you unless you call them first to report a problem to them.

We have spoken to quite a few companies in Dublin and the surrounding areas and these cyber criminals seem to be targeting people and companies in this area with this scam. We think they have extensive lists of phone numbers and are automatically dialling them and hoping to catch people unaware.

This is the attempt of the iPing IT Support team to help educate you on good IT Security.

Be Safe.

Over the past few months we have seen a sharp increase in the number of phishing emails people are receiving from a contact that they know telling them that they have a document to download. A phishing email is one where a nasty hacker tries to get information from you without you knowing like your username, password, bank details or some other important information.

These emails are usually from a person looking to steal your username and password, get access to your emails and possibly worst of all send the scam email to all of your customers, friends and family. They are able to send emails to all of your email contacts once you click on the link they send you and enter your email address and password, as by doing this they get your email login information.

Here are some top IT support tips to let you identify one of these scam emails:

• The subject line of these emails is usually something generic so as not to create too much suspicion so this is the first thing that should make you suspicious. Some examples the iPing IT Support team have seen recently are “Document” “Link” or even “Important Google document”.
• You are asked to click on a link which brings you to a web page looking like Google which asks you to enter your email address and password to download the document.

So what do you do if you receive one of these emails:

• We are advising our clients to mark these emails as phishing to help Google and the other email companies identify them.
• If you receive one of these emails from a customer, friend or family member, you should immediately let this person know that they have been hacked and they need to change their password ASAP.
• If you have clicked on one of these emails recently, opened the link and entered your username and password, you need to change your own password straight away. For some information on good password management see the previous blog.
• If you need some help changing your Google Apps or Gmail password have a look here for some help.
• The most important thing is to be very vigilant before you put in a username and password after clicking on a link in an email. If unsure, it is worth while checking with the person who sent you the email just to confirm if they really did send it.
• If you are sending an email to a customer, it may be worth considering not using generic subject lines so as to help people know it is an email from you. This can also make the task of writing emails a bit more creative.

This is an area of the IT service industry that is changing at a frightening speed and as we become more and more reliant on technology, there are bad elements of society looking to profit from our reliance on computers.

If you wish to have a discussion with an IT expert on any aspect of your business IT services, we would be more than delighted to sit down and have a coffee and a chat with you. You can contact a member of the team through the website.

A business phone system or a PABX is critical to the running of your business and we recommend that a business should aim to have the best one that it can afford.  With this in mind it is worth spending some time on selecting the best phone system for your business as it is one of the more important decisions you will make.

If you have been in business for a few years you will be more than aware of the mammoth phone systems that filled large parts of rooms of office buildings.  These big phone systems are full of cards, wires and make clicking noises as calls go through them. If your office had a big system and you were in the same room as it, you will remember it from the distinct noise it makes.

Over the past ten years, phone systems have been getting smaller and smaller and it is now the case that a phone system that would have taken up one or two racks in your office can now fit onto the equivalent size of an office computer. With this massive reduction in size, we have also achieved an exponential increase of the available voice services which would have previously only been available to multinational companies but are now available to small and medium sized companies at an affordable price.

In this article we are going to have a look at some of these voice services and what value they bring to you and your business.

Voicemail to email

It is now possible to have your voicemails recorded in sound files and then sent to you via email. If you are out on the road you can open these sound files on your smart phone or on your laptop. This means that you are getting those important messages days and hours before you would have in the past and you are able to now react to potentially critical issues before they become critical.

Conference Calls

A conference call is a call where three or more people are on the same call having a meeting. Conference calls have been around for a number of years now but with the advancements in technology, they are now more widely available and fit the price bracket of all companies. If you are a financial company by law, you may be required to have your conference hardware based in Ireland so as to make sure that any decisions taken on the call are governed by Irish law. One of the major advantages of conference calls is that they can bring people together from locations all over the world to make decisions and discuss items. When you use conference calls with VoIP you get a powerful service that is now truly cost effective. Love them or hate them, conference calls are here to stay and when they are used correctly, they are an asset to your business.

VoIP

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the glue that now binds all the New Age telephone systems together. I could talk for weeks on this topic alone. It is suffice to say that VoIP sends your voice over the internet when you are making a call and not over the old telephone lines. This means that wherever we have an internet connection we can connect back to our phone system and it also means cheap phone calls to other international destinations that were expensive in the past.

Call Recording

It is now easy to have all the calls that are made to your office recorded for future use should you require this. This can be very useful for training sales and support staff or helping with proof of authorisation if you are a financial company who takes orders over the phone.

CRM Integration

It is now very possible to have your phone system integrated into your customer database or CRM software. This mean that, for example, as you receive a call from a customer, the phone system will be able to fetch the customer details from your CRM and present the customer information to you on your computer screen. This all happens as your phone is ringing and the customer information will be presented to you in your CRM. The benefit of this is of course the superior customer service you can provide to your customers and more targeted marketing practice and sales options.

If your company has one of the old phone systems that you are using just for making phone calls and receiving phone calls, now may just be the time to take advantage of some serious advancements in phone system technology.

If you would like to update or purchase a new phone system please contact iPing.