M2 welcomes Taurus Asset Finance

By on November 24, 2015 in Blog, Company news

The team at M2 Computing are delighted to welcome a new client, Taurus Asset Finance. Taurus Asset Finance is a London based financier with operations in Los Angeles, specialising in alternative asset classes such as real estate, intellectual property and media.

Following a complete systems review, we made a number of recommendations to improve their overall IT performance. Last month, we moved the business across from an on-premise exchange email server to Microsoft Office 365, with a view to migrating all their data to Sharepoint Online and implementing OneDrive for file storage.

We have provided new workstations for all employees including those based in the U.S, replacing their previous PCs running on the unsupported Windows XP platform.  We now provide IT support for Taurus Asset Finance across both locations with M2 Assist Gold for London based employees and M2 Assist Silver for those located in the states.

The new IT setup will vastly improve the computing experience for Taurus Asset Finance, particularly for remote users who will no longer require a VPN connection for remote access. They now have the benefit of high availability through M2 Cloud with fast and convenient access to their emails and documents from anywhere, at any time, on any device.

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Save time in Outlook with Quick Parts

By on November 22, 2015 in Blog, Microsoft, Tips & tricks

Outlook users, if you find yourself entering the same things into email messages, you should take a look at the Quick Parts feature, which saves snippets of both text and images for easy reuse. While Gina briefly mentioned this feature in her guide to Tweaking Outlook to empty your inbox faster, let’s take a closer look at how to use it.Open up a new email and create the “Quick Part” that you want to save for later re-use, then find Quick Parts in the Text section, and choose “Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery”.

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Give it a name and a brief description so you can easily find it later.

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Now, any time you want to enter that snippet of text, you can simply pick it from the drop-down button menu. Hovering your mouse over it will show you the description that you entered above. If you want to edit your Quick Parts, you can right-click on any one of them, and choose “Organize and Delete” from the menu.

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This will bring up the Building Blocks Organizer window, where you can preview, delete, insert, or get back to the Edit Properties dialog that you were shown when first saving it. Unfortunately you can’t actually edit them from within this dialog.

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If you want to edit from Outlook, you’ll have to insert it, make your changes, and then save it with the same name, and you’ll be prompted to “redefine” the building block.

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Government presses on with controversial spying law

By on November 19, 2015 in Blog, Security, Web privacy

Every web user in the UK will have their browsing history stored and made available to the police and security services, if home secretary Theresa May’s controversial new laws are approved by parliament.

The so-called Draft Investigatory Powers Bill would see the sites – but not individual pages – that every single UK web user visits over the course of a year stored. These sites will then be accessible by police services without a warrant.

Police bosses have come out in support of the bill, claiming it will allow officers to establish more about a criminal’s network or conspiracy as soon as a lead comes in. Critics, however, have called it “indiscriminate mass surveillance” and a violation of people’s rights.

Technical challenges to achieving this vision

Problems with the bill could come in the form of sophisticated security and encryption tools used by big technology companies. For example, WhatsApp would be required, under the new laws, to keep all communication between its users on record for 12 months.

The messaging service, however, uses end-to-end encryption, which means messages are coded in such a way that, technically, even WhatsApp itself wouldn’t be able to decipher the text.

Other encryption tools are used to keep personal data safe and secure. By removing these at the government’s request, companies could be putting themselves in danger of suffering a breach similar to that recently experienced by mobile operator TalkTalk.

Despite these concerns, the government is pressing ahead with the legislation, claiming that adequate protection has been put in place.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile told sky.com: “It is a significant and formidable bill which will enable the authorities to catch serious and organised criminals and terrorists and to protect the public. I think the protections that are built into it should satisfy any reasonable person.”

The bill will be examined by both Houses of Parliament, before a final version is voted on next year.

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TalkTalk communication fiasco

By on November 19, 2015 in Blog, Security, Topical

October 2015 saw one of the most high-profile corporate cyber-attacks ever, although this incident may be remembered as much for the ineptitude of the public relations that followed as for the breach itself.

Indeed several weeks after TalkTalk suffered one of the most significant hacks in recent memory, the business had still not offered its customers an explanation on how their data was compromised.

The attack saw sensitive information on more than one million customers put at risk. In response, the company offered an apology but explicitly refused to accept liability for its customers being victims of fraud as a result of its data loss.

The need for clear communication

UK businesses will draw many lessons from this unfortunate episode and, among them, will be the need for clear, credible communication in the immediate aftermath of an attack. In this case, the public statements made by TalkTalk appeared as ill-prepared as its online defences, and only time will tell what effect this may have on its long-term reputation and profitability.

Initially, following numerous reports of an outage, TalkTalk claimed that unspecified “technical issues” were to blame – there was no word on data compromises. Next, it told customers it had taken the site down temporarily, although behind the scenes it was informing police and stakeholders of an attack.

The first mention of a hack came more than 24 hours later, when a statement was released by the company admitting the recent issues had been the result of an attack. Only then were customers told their information could have been compromised. The statement admitted that the site was pulled down in an effort to protect customer data.

Despite admitting it had been hacked, it was a further week before TalkTalk opened up on what could have been stolen. In this announcement, it finally admitted that there was “a chance” that hackers had got their hands on “names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, TalkTalk account information, credit card details and/or bank details.”

After being pressed by the media, TalkTalk began offering confused and contradictory statements. First it claimed that the loss came as a result of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. However, these kinds of attack are only able to bombard a network with traffic, thus taking it offline. DDoS alone cannot retrieve information. Additionally, this contradicts a previous announcement from TalkTalk, in which the company claimed to have taken the site down itself.

More likely is that a DDoS attack took place in order to allow hackers the chance to take another route in. Or, as Trend Micro’s Rik Ferguson explained: “a DDoS was used to light a metaphorical fire in the front yard while the thieves snuck in around the back.”

More than two weeks on, TalkTalk has still not told customers specifically what information of theirs was leaked. However, this could be because of the sheer volume of victims. With more than one in 60 Brits affected by the breach, TalkTalk may not yet know exactly who was hit, and what was taken.

If you suspect your business has been hit by a cyber attack, contact your IT support team immediately.

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Save time on Christmas card labels using Word

By on November 19, 2015 in Blog, Microsoft, Tips & tricks

It’s almost the season to be jolly. But before you can relax and enjoy the festivities, there’s a long list of tasks that will ensure your holidays pass without a hitch.

From buying gifts to finding the perfect turkey, all of this can take months of preparation. But first of all, there’s the Christmas card list. Friends, family, work colleagues, neighbours…the window cleaner…the list goes on and on! Each card needs to be handwritten and addressed for postage – which can be a laborious effort.

This 3-minute guide will make light of your mail merge

There is, however, a simple way to produce a list of labels that you can print and use to address your envelopes for posting. It’s called Mail Merge and, if you’ve heard of it but been put off in the past, thinking it to be a complicated process, never fear – this 3-minute video will demonstrate step-by-step how this feature can save hours in Word.

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Microsoft announces OneDrive storage cap

By on November 19, 2015 in Blog, Cloud computing, Microsoft

Microsoft is to scale back the storage volumes on offer through its OneDrive platform, after users turned to it for entire film collections and computer backups.

The tech giant revealed in October 2014 that it was to remove storage limits on its OneDrive platform for Office 365 users – a move that many put down as an attempt to take some of Dropbox and Google’s market share. As part of the announcement, Microsoft said it was offering an unlimited service in order to become “the world’s cloud storage leader.”

Now, it has been forced to announce a reversal, blaming the U-turn on users storing far too much unnecessary data on the platform. This included movie collections, hours of high-quality video and computer backups. In certain instances, total data volumes exceeded 75TB – equal to 14,000 times the average.

Working for the benefit of the majority

Sustaining this, Microsoft claimed, would turn the service into an “extreme backup scenario” that is tailored specifically to a small handful of users. Instead, capping the service would deliver “high value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.”

The new plans will see users capped at 1TB. Meanwhile, the 15GB limit offered for free has been scaled back to 5GB, whilst the 100 and 200GB plans are to be scrapped altogether, replaced instead with a new 50GB tier.

Users who have more than 1TB of data stored on OneDrive needn’t get worried about losing their files just yet, though. Microsoft is allowing one year for users to remove what they don’t need. It’s not yet been made apparent what Microsoft will do with accounts that remain over the 1TB limit once the year is up.

To compensate users that signed up solely for the unlimited storage – not necessarily the full Office 365 suite – Microsoft announced it is to offer a pro-rated refund on subscription costs. For those using the free model but with between 5GB and 15GB of files, Microsoft has also given a year’s grace, as well as the option to redeem a free one-year Office 365 subscription, which includes 1TB of storage.

For further information regarding OneDrive and storage options for business, contact your IT support provider.

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Microsoft unveils ‘flagship’ store in New York City

By on November 19, 2015 in Apple, Blog, Microsoft

Tech fans on America’s east coast have a new opportunity to browse Microsoft’s latest offerings, after the company opened its first ever ‘flagship’ store on New York City’s famous Fifth Avenue.

The store opening, which took place on October 26, conveniently coincided with the release of the firm’s new Surface products, including the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book, as well as the launch of Xbox One title ‘Halo One’.

The move is thought to be the latest of Microsoft’s attempts to compete with Californian rival Apple, which already owns 450 stores across the world – one of which is situated on Fifth Avenue, among the world’s most notable retail areas. Satya Nadella’s company currently has 116 bricks-and-mortar stores, all but two of which are in the US and Canada.

Competing with Apple for hardware and gadgets

With five levels, the new store is Microsoft’s largest yet by some way, covering more than 22,000 square feet. Visitors can expect to find the company’s latest gadgets and software on the ground and first floors, with the ‘Answer Desk’ – Microsoft’s ‘Genius Bar’ equivalent – on the second.

The third floor has been dedicated to the showcasing of new products from partner firm Dell and its PC gaming arm, Alienware. The top floor is taken up by a mix of staff areas and event spaces.

Present at the big opening event were Surface boss Panos Panay, as well as COO Kevin Turner and representatives of New York City – including its deputy mayor, Richard Buery and CTO, Minerva Tantoco.

Also there was Kelly Soligon, the general manager of worldwide marketing for Microsoft’s online and retail stores, who commented: “We’ve designed this store to be really inviting and very customer-focused. It’s all about customers getting hands on with the technology and having space and time to experience and play with the products.

“One of the things that we love about being the Microsoft Store and the flagship store is the ability to showcase those products immediately.”

Some have questioned why it took so long for the Redmond giant to establish a presence on such a prominent retail stage, but corporate VP of its retail and online stores, David Porter, said it was just a case of waiting for the right time.

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M2 Computing welcomes Cole Marie Partners Ltd

By on October 13, 2015 in Blog, Company news

This month we welcome a new client Cole Marie Partners Ltd, a leading Chartered Accountancy firm based in Reigate, Surrey.

The System

Their new design reverted to an on premise client server solution to improve the overall IT performance. All old PC’s running Windows XP where replaced with new workstations powered by the latest i7 processors, to give them the optimum computing experience. All employees still have a remote access option if working outside of the office including the payroll department based in Wales linked via a secure virtual private network.

As part of the new installation all users where migrated to the full Office 365 platform which provides them with the latest Microsoft Office software, business class email and the archiving and compliance features that they need to stay compliant.

Efficiency

In addition to installing the new hardware and software, we reviewed their Sage software installation and use. We found some inefficiencies with storing various versions of sage accounts data and M2 recommended switching to the Sage Client Manager Software which is specifically designed to address the problem in hand. This Sage Client Manager Software offers a number of additional features to improve productivity including the ability to open customer accounts created with older versions of Sage.

Ongoing

To complete the project Cole Marie are now covered by the M2 managed IT support service M2 Assist Gold package to ensure their systems remain in tip top order.

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Selfies to replace passwords

By on October 13, 2015 in General, Miscellaneous

Forecasters have long been predicting the demise of the humble password but now a new contender has emerged as a potential successor – the selfie.

MasterCard has been looking at ways of making online payments quicker and more secure, whilst also trying to do away with the effort of remembering old passwords. It settled on biometric recognition, which is simply the process of identifying someone through their physical features. MasterCard’s way of achieving this is either through the fingerprint scanners present on some devices (such as recent iPhones), voice recognition, or the simple selfie.

Using biometrics for security purposes is nothing new, although previous iterations have stalled for not being sophisticated enough to be truly secure. MasterCard hopes to have overcome this with its own system, due to be released in the US next year, before being rolled out globally in 2017.

Not only does MasterCard claim its new method allows people a quick and easy way to access their accounts without having to remember passwords, it said there could also be financial benefits on offer to online retailers. New research conducted by the payment processor found that more than a third of people abandon their baskets if they encounter password difficulties. An even greater number (six in ten) said that password woes had got in the way of them buying time-sensitive purchases, such as concert or festival tickets.

Commenting, president of enterprise security solutions at Mastercard, Ajay Bhalla, told telegraph.co.uk: “We believe that security is one of the barriers which is actually inhibiting expansion of e-commerce, because people have to remember passwords and because it is very inconvenient.

“The idea is these technologies should actually change your life, and make it extremely convenient to do shopping on e-commerce sites or on your mobile phone. That’s what we’re trying to refine in these programmes.”

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Dispelling the myths about Microsoft Office 365

By on October 13, 2015 in Blog, Microsoft, Topical

Most companies would like to benefit from the business agility and cost savings that result from a move to the cloud. But with the bewildering amount of contradictory information floating around on the Internet, there is always room for confusion.

Take Microsoft Office 365, for example. Many businesses are looking to embrace this software suite as a first step in their journey to the cloud. Many think of it merely as a version of Office that is accessible from a browser but, of course, there is much more to it than that, which is why Microsoft recently produced a myth-busting guide to correct some of the most common misconceptions.

So here are the top five Office 365 business cloud myths from Microsoft – things you may have thought were true – but which aren’t!

Office 365 is just Office tools in the cloud, and I can only use it online

No, Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based productivity services, which can include Office 365 ProPlus or Office 365 Business installed on your desktop. It can also include Exchange Online for email and calendaring, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business for collaboration, Skype for Business for voice, IM, meetings, and presence as well as Yammer for social collaboration.

If our data moves to the cloud, our business will no longer have control over its technology

Actually, when you move to the cloud, headaches and time spent maintaining hardware and upgrading software can be significantly reduced. Now you and your team can focus on your work rather than acting as a repair or IT support service. You have more time to spend improving business operations and launching agile initiatives.

Keeping data on-premises is safer than in the cloud

In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that your on-premises systems aren’t inherently more secure than they’d be in the cloud, says Mark Anderson, founder of the INVNT/IP Global Consortium, a group of governments and security experts solving the growing cybertheft problem. Many companies are routinely hacked and don’t know it, says Anderson, a tech visionary and founder of Strategic News Service.

Security has grown into a full-time job, one requiring a team of experts, and the few experts available require hefty salaries. Microsoft hires the best and brightest when it comes to thwarting security breaches, with the scale most companies can only dream about. What’s more, Microsoft Office 365 has a 99.9 percent financially backed uptime guarantee.

I have to move everything to the cloud – it is an all-or-nothing scenario

Not true. While early cloud supporters proclaimed the cloud as the Holy Grail, it is rare for businesses to migrate their entire enterprise to the cloud over the weekend. Most implementations begin with a hybrid approach, moving a single application, like email, and growing from there.

The hybrid cloud creates a consistent platform that spans data centres and the cloud, simplifying IT and delivering apps and data to users on virtually any device, anywhere. It gives you control to deliver the computing power and capabilities that business demands, and to scale up or down as needed, without wasting your onsite technology investments.

Cloud migration is too much for my business to handle

That’s what we’re here for. If you read articles about companies moving petabytes of data to hosted locations, you could soon begin to feel that “going cloud” is too big a challenge. Of course, your journey to the cloud needs to be properly planned with integrated IT support and it is not something to be taken lightly. So we’ll help you every step of the way with information and tips on firewall configurations, reverse proxy requirements, identity options, migration possibilities, and a phased approach for hybrid setups.

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