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Business Reading

I’ve been thinking a lot on how I can achieve the goals I have set for myself and the business.It has become apparent that I can’t get better results by being the same person that I have always been. If you want MORE, you have to BE more. By developing your personal capabilities, you display leadership and learn how you can grow the business.

Unprecedented Ransomware Attack

Over this weekend you would found it hard to miss the news about a new Ransomware attack based upon a vulnerability in a file sharing protocol within Microsoft Windows that affects multiple operating systems. Over 100,000 organisations have been infected so far and Europol expects that this number will rise significantly as people return to work.

Being a life long learner

One of the things I like about being in IT is the ever present opportunity to learn new skills and technologies. But technology isn't just limited to electronics, there is plenty of software upgrades for the lump of fatty tissue between our ears and this guy is gold.

Picture this:

“You’re in the departure hall, the flight home is not boarding for another 30 mins. As you place your laptop bag down you spot a shiny new flash drive under the bench. Naturally being an intelligent, curious person anticipating a boring wait till your flight is called you slide your work laptop out and plug the USB drive in to have a look to see what it contains.

HaaS

HaaS. In case you haven’t heard enough acronyms in the IT industry, let me give you one more: HaaS, or “hardware as a service.” Simply, HaaS is an option to “rent” hardware on a low monthly basis instead of purchasing it outright. This eliminates the hefty cash drain for a network upgrade and allows you to pay for hardware as a service.

Virtual Disaster Recovery Testing

Time and time again I have done a new customer audit and discovered that their Backup Tape/Drive that they have been diligently rotating for months contains either nothing at all or backup files so old as to be next to useless.

Vertech has been countering this with our flat-rate Max Backup cloud DR service and we are now happy to announce that we can provide a regular Virtual Disaster Recovery Testing Service.

Ransomware emails & Staff Training

We've been seeing a steady stream of emails with increasing levels of sophistication targeting clients. Because of the serious risks associated with ransomware we've proactively enabled a new feature on the Vertech Mail Security platform across the board.

Productivity Tip #3​

If you have ever torn your hair out trying to get multiple busy people to agree on a single meeting time or

have spent more time firing emails back and forth than the meeting itself then this might be the thing for you. Microsoft Garage have released a handy free tool for Office 365 and Outlook called FindTime.

New Insurance exemption clauses

This morning I opened the mail and noted that our business insurance (ASB) had some new clauses with respect to damage caused

to electronic data. Gone is the old clause relating to the Y2K issue (that was a laugh) and in its place is an exclusion for "loss of or

damage to electronic data from any cause whatsoever including but not limited to, a computer virus"

I guess this means that the insurance industry is seeing a significant amount of claims from this cause and are seeking to eliminate this risk to their profits.