Blog
How to help, survey results & cyber attack risks
Ukraine — how to help It almost feels futile to be writing newsletters about IT while we're watching what's happening on the other side of Europe. Our thoughts are of course with everyone involved and affected, but life and work must continue where it can. If you're...
The 2009 / 2019 10-year challenge
Social media is awash with people posting photos comparing their 2009-self to a recent picture. (No, you can't see ours.) If we were building artificial intelligence (AI) / facial recognition software it would be incredibly useful to have a documented worldwide...
Choosing and using passwords
Strong passwords are your first line of defence against intruders and imposters. The best security in the world is useless if a malicious person has a legitimate user name and password. That's why we've put together this simple guide to help you protect your security...
Expect The Unexpected
Last week you may have been affected by - or at least heard about - the O2 outage. It affected customers on O2 and GiffGaff, along with operators who use its network including Tesco Mobile: it's estimated up to 32 million people were affected. And then there's...
Our New Policy For Your Passwords
We love offering you a truly personal service – we like to think we make as many friends as we do clients – and it’s our human touch that helps demystify the strange world of IT and lets you focus on your day-to-day work. That said, we also need to make sure we’re...
Understanding multifactor authentication
If we had our way, the more important something is, the more-simply it would be named. 'Passwords' are important, and easy to talk about. So are 'keys' and 'padlocks' and other physical security devices.Multifactor authentication sadly doesn't fall under the...
Putting the ‘s’ in https
On July 24th 2018, Google's Chrome browser (by far the most popular) started warning people if the website they were visiting was not secure. What does that mean for you? Visit any website in Chrome. It will either be marked as secure, or not secure, and...
Important mobile device security update
We've always recommended that you take care to protect your mobile devices, whether they are phones or tablets: at the very least you should have a swipe pattern or, better still, a PIN or biometrics (fingerprints, facial recognition etc.). We're now upgrading that...
Change your Twitter password
If you have a Twitter account, whether it's work or personal, you should log in and change the password immediately. And as you're doing that, think about whether you've used that password anywhere else. Here's why: Twitter yesterday announced that they have...
How GDPR affects you – and it will
You've hopefully heard about GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation). In short, it's a huge update to the 1998 Data Protection Act, designed to give people more control over their data. It will come into force on 25 May 2018, after which most processing of...
Spectre and Meltdown computer chip vulnerability
You may have read about the computer chip vulnerability affecting nearly all (modern) computing devices and operating systems which was in the news at the end of last week. Should you be worried, and what should you do? Firstly, don’t panic. Although a flaw has been...
Sharpen-up on spear phishing
This month we've been targeted by a spear phishing attack: an attempt to scam us out of thousands of pounds. In short, someone pretended to be Adrian and sent an email to Manuela, our finance assistant, to ask her to transfer a sum of money to a "new supplier's" bank...
Reap what you sow
Every time you connect your new watch, fridge, lightbulb, central heating, toilet... to the internet with the idea of increasing your level of control (who, after all, hasn't dreamed of raising the toilet seat from their phone?), you are adding another potential...
Facing-up to your responsibilities
This month... more information about passwords, tech news & some useful links for your navigational and listening pleasure. Password management - update We've talked in-depth about passwords and password management before, but in the ever-changing landscape of IT...
How to avoid becoming a ransomware victim
We've been asked about this more than anything else over the last few weeks and it is in the news again, with Sky News reporting a widespread attack on University College London. Ransomware is malware that infects your computer and either locks you out of your system...
WannaCry? Important ransomware information.
The IT topic on everyone’s lips at the moment is the NHS ransomware problem – ‘WannaCry’.
Last week, hospital systems across the country ground to a halt, as well as up to 200,000 machines worldwide
250 reasons to be happy
We've just passed 250 service ticket ratings since we launched it late last year - we're proud to announce a 98% positive rating (and the issues identified in the remaining 2% were fixed quickly, which is a big part of why we introduced it). In a perfect world, IT...
How secure are your passwords?
Are your passwords easy to guess or do you use the same password for several online accounts? If either is an area you’re concerned about (and you should be), take a look:-
I like your newsletter because it is easy to read for non-tech people.
Hayley
Bowman
PA to Managing Director
The Anslow Partnership
