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When it comes to “IT security Tips” it seems everyone has their 2 cents about what you should, and shouldn’t do. For those who are not from the world of technology, it can be near impossible to understand the different reasoning’s behind the tips and synthesize this information into something practical to protect your business.

With the media bombarding us about large organisations being infected by ransomware every other day, caring about IT security should now be a must on a business’ agenda.

Gone are the days where protecting just the perimeter of a network was enough. In 2019, firewalls alone won’t protect you. Hackers are getting smarter, and so should your technology!

This means that, IT security now has become everyone’s responsibility… yes, every single employee in an organisation is suddenly responsible for avoiding ransomware attacks.

But let’s face it, your workforce is likely to have other priorities in their day. As much as a security education program will help keep your team conscious, it only takes one person to be less vigilant for an entire network to be infected by a ransomware!

So here’s the one technology every business should be looking at implementing right now:

Ah, internet scams. They’re everywhere these days and, as you can imagine, they are increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to fool you into handing over hard-earned cash. One of the most recent to emerge presents you with one of your own passwords as well as a lurid story about internet surfing habits in an effort to scare you into paying money to the scammer.

Without going into the gory details of that particular scam (because it is just one example of many), it does serve to highlight the necessity for two-factor authentication (2FA) for all your online accounts and services. With businesses relying on emails as its main communication tool, and hackers being aware of this, it’s an excellent idea to enable 2FA for your Outlook emails, too.

If you are one of the 37,000 franchise units operating in NZ reading this article, you most likely can relate to the fact that your growth opportunities could be limited by lack of systems for your front-line workers to interact your customers, as well as collaborate and communicate internally.  

Whether your people are behind the counter, onsite, in clinics, or on the phone, they are the first to engage with your customers, the first to represent your brand and the first to see your products and services in action. First line workers are the backbone to some of the world’s largest industries, and that is no different in our country. In New Zealand, recent surveys indicate that more than 124,000 people form part of our franchising industry first line.  

As a franchisor or franchisee, you need technology that enables your business and your people: technology that’s affordable on a small-business budget and doesn’t restrict your future growth.  

We started this year addressing the up and coming trends we see happening in tech and businesses. Though our content over the past 4 weeks we have addressed a few topics, which can, in a nutshell, be summarised to a trend that is here to stay: the fast approach of digital transformation in businesses.

With the world increasingly going digital, we appear to now have another issue in our hands: IT Security

Clearly, the events of 2017 have shown that the focus on cyber crime is only increasing, and becoming stronger. We have seen the smallest and the biggest businesses being impacted by this new wave.

All of the sudden, we were facing a new challenge and asking the question: What do I need to do to stay protected?

Think back to a time where you thought you had lost your mobile phone. How it feels when your heart drops into your stomach at the thought of losing, not the phone itself, but all the information stored on it.  

With this thought primed, it would be fair to say mobile phones have become the center of our worlds. However, what if having your mobile phone hacked was a million times worse than losing your phone. How would you feel if your life was hacked?

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is never truer than when dealing with IT processes that just aren’t working; insanity is never closer than at times when your company’s standard operating procedures for IT isn’t having the desired effect. But when you’ve tried everything twice (and double checked it’s not a PEBCAK issue), it may be time you changed your IT management processes. To guide you through this, we have highlighted the 5 indicators that an IT performance review is needed and a change should be implemented – for the better.

The profitability and sustainability of every accounting firm today is directly linked to the cloud. That’s because moving to the cloud means a new way of working which is more efficient, more accessible, more mobile and more in tune with how people like to access and use their information. It’s a digital transformation and if you’re not already on the path to a cloud business, the time is now.

While ‘everyone else is doing it, so should we’ isn’t logically a good reason for going cloud, what is are the simple facts of how much better it is than having on-premise systems. Those reasons range from the financial (it is cheaper up front) to the technical (you get the latest version always, with zero upgrade impact). And they extend to the fact that your clients today are increasingly expecting cloud-delivered services from their accountant.

If you are reading this post in isolation, hello!

As you may have guessed, this post is part of a three part series, and you have caught us on Part 2! In this series we discuss the three core components we can all implement to keep our personal data safe, in an online world.

[In case you want to catch up first, you can read Part 1: Keeping safe on Social Media here] 

Let's get into the topic du jour: Passwords

We have seen how ransomware attacks can spread globally in a matter of hours, the social aspect of the internet is leaving us vulnerable. These events are a dime a dozen, and although not all of them make it to headline news they are a daily occurrence!  

We have narrowed all key information down into three core aspects of how you can keep your personal information safe online, which we will deliver in three part series of blog posts covering social media, mobile phone and passwords. 

Cloud computing security can be a scary word for SME’s. I mean, how secure could your data possibly be if it’s floating around in space!? Especially with all of these cyber-attacks we are hearing in the news…

But what if cloud computing was safer than your small business system? Before you look for a cave to curl up in, let us explain a few points: