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May 31, 2022 In IT Security Services, Managed IT Services By admin

Is Your Business Making These Cyber Security Mistakes?

It feels like every day we’re being warned about a new threat to our cyber security, doesn’t it?

That’s for good reason. Last year, ransomware attacks alone affected 81% of businesses.

And the cost of cyber-crime is estimated to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025, according to the ‘2022 Cybersecurity Almanac’.

But we’re still seeing far too many businesses that aren’t taking this threat seriously.

It’s not only your data that you could lose if your company falls victim to a cyber-attack. The cost of remediation or mitigation can run into tens of thousands.

And at the same time you’ll suffer an average of 21 days downtime after a cyber-attack. Imagine… 21 days without being able to use all your business technology as normal. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

That’s not to mention the loss of trust your clients have in you, which could lead to you losing their custom.

It’s really important that your business is taking appropriate steps to keep your data safe and secure.

That most likely means a layered approach to your security. This is where several solutions are used, which work together to give you a level of protection appropriate to your business.

This reduces your risk of being attacked. And makes recovery easier should you fall victim.

It’s worth pointing out that you will never be able to keep your business 100% protected from cyber-attacks. Not without totally locking down every system, to the point where it would be very difficult to do business (and your staff would constantly be looking for ways around the enhanced security).

No, the key to excellent cyber security is striking the right balance between protection and usability.

There are three mistakes that are most commonly made by businesses – and they’re also some of the most dangerous mistakes to make.

Is your business making any of these?

Mistake 1) Not restricting access

Different employees will have different needs when accessing company files and applications. If you allow everyone access to everything it opens up your entire network to criminals.

You should also make sure to change access rights when someone changes roles, and revoke them when they leave.

Mistake 2) Allowing lateral movement

If cyber criminals gain access to a computer used by a member of your admin team, that in itself might not be a disaster.

But what if they could move from your admin system to your invoicing system… and from there to your CRM… and then into someone’s email account?

This is known as lateral movement. The criminals gain access to one system and work their way into more sensitive systems.

If they can get into the email of someone who has admin rights to other systems or even the company bank account, they can start resetting passwords and locking out other people.

Scary stuff.

One strategy against this is called air gapping. It means that there’s no direct access from one part of your network to another.

Mistake 3) Not planning and protecting

Businesses that work closely with their IT partner to prepare and protect are less likely to be attacked in the first place.

And will be back on their feet faster if the worst does happen.

You should also have an up-to-date plan in place that details what to do, should an attack happen.

This will significantly shorten the amount of time it takes to respond to an attack. That means you’ll limit your data loss and the cost of putting things right again.

If you know you’re making one (two, or even three) of these mistakes in your business, you need to act quickly. We can help.

Give Net Activity a call, and we’ll review your current security arrangements.

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May 26, 2022 In Managed IT Services, VOIP Services By admin

5G: What You Need To Know About The Future Of Business VoIP Systems

Fifth-generation technology, or 5G, will significantly enhance the performance of your business’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. That’s because 5G networks have much higher speeds, greater capacity, and reduced latency than 4G LTE networks. This means that businesses can enjoy crystal-clear voice quality and low call latency no matter what device or where they make calls. Here are three ways to take advantage of 5G for your VoIP system.

Explore VR and AR

With 5G network speeds, virtual and augmented reality can become more common for many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). 5G easily surpasses 4G’s Gbps (gigabits per second) limit, which is currently holding back businesses’ adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.

VR and AR need to process significantly more data because of the visuals they must process as users move, and this puts an enormous strain on mobile networks. 5G is set to ensure a better user experience by facilitating smoother connections and preventing network delays that can affect your bottom line.

Improved video conferencing

One of the major hindrances to smooth web and video conferencing is slow network data transfer. Fortunately, innovations like Web Real-Time Communication and 5G networks can enhance VoIP for businesses by providing open and stable streaming as well as sufficient transfer speeds. These will allow businesses to view higher-quality videos, even those at 4K and 8K resolution.

Beyond improved streaming quality, 5G networks will also be able to support video calls with a larger number of participants, which is timely, considering the current shift to remote working.

Utilize mobile VoIP

VoIP calls heavily rely on sufficient download and upload speeds. For example, mobile VoIP users may experience unstable and poor call connectivity and clarity when their 4G networks are limited to 12 Mbps upload and 2 Mbps download speeds. These limitations could also lead to packet loss. Packet loss happens when one or more “packets” of data traveling across a computer network fail to reach their destination, which is typically caused by network congestion. Packet loss reduces audio/video quality and can even cause calls to be dropped, leading to a poor VoIP experience. But thanks to 5G’s greater speed, packet loss can be prevented.

Moreover, 4G network providers set a fixed amount of bandwidth for every direction it transmits a signal to. But unlike 4G, the 5G bandwidth can be adjusted on the fly. This means that 5G network providers can allocate bandwidth to mitigate congestion. In practical terms, businesses could reach their customers even if the latter are in crowded places that normally max out 4G mobile network capacity constraints, like in football stadiums or airports.

When your business decides to adopt the up-and-coming 5G network, you can expect to see significant VoIP improvements. If you’re looking to set up a VoIP system for your business, call or email Net Activity today.

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May 23, 2022 In Managed IT Services, Office 365 By admin

Up Your Schedule Management Game By Using Microsoft 365’s Bookings Feature

Are you struggling to keep track of your tasks and events? Microsoft 365’s new Bookings feature may be just what you need. With this feature, you can easily create and manage appointments for yourself or your team. Here is some key information on how to use the Bookings feature and some of its benefits.

Visibility

Bid goodbye to the days of scribbling on Post-its and frantically going through your schedule to find out where you’re heading for lunch. Bookings provides you with a unique scheduling app that is compatible on both desktops and mobile devices. Here, customers can select times and dates based on current availability — simply enter the contact information and then book it. The system then fully automates the process of managing your appointments.

No more rain checks

Cancellations and missed appointments mean wasted time slots unless you’re able to fill them up with new bookings. Avoid lost income by controlling how much advance notice is required to make a cancellation. With Bookings, appointments appear immediately in staff calendars and can be added or revised by customers in their own personal calendars.

Additionally, a confirmation email is automatically sent to the customer, followed by another automatic email reminder before the appointment time. The web page also offers a rescheduling service: customers can simply click on the link on the confirmation email and pick a time that’s better for them.

Synchronization

Once completed, the booking is then synced to a centralized calendar where businesses are given the option to reschedule, cancel, or reassign the appointment to other staff members as they see fit.

Should you decide to reassign a booking to staff members, Bookings offers a nifty feature known as “split view.” This shows which staff members are booked at which times, and lets you compare everyone’s schedules side by side. The appointments are synced not only to your calendar but to the staff members’ calendars as well. Moreover, this versatile system accommodates Office 365, Outlook, and even Google Calendar, so clients and staff can keep whatever calendaring service they prefer.

Double duty

Appointment setting might be the primary function of Bookings, but the system can also be utilized to build your company’s customer list. Once customers input their information into the system, it automatically creates contact entries for those customers. The contact card contains personal information such as your customer’s name, address, phone number, and email address.

And as your company grows, you can add more staff members as well as create additional booking pages for free. Furthermore, staff members aren’t required to have Office 365 subscriptions to be a part of the service.

Efficient tech resources aren’t enough to maintain a successful business anymore. To really stand out from competitors, you need comprehensive appointment management. Give us a call if you need any questions answered or issues addressed. We’re more than happy to help.

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May 19, 2022 In Managed IT Services By admin

Three New Teams Features To Look Forward To

The use of Microsoft Teams has just exploded in the last few years, and it now boasts 270 million people using it every month.

Of course, it was the right tool at the right time when we all rushed to working from home at the start of the pandemic.

But the growth of Teams has continued, even if some believe the growth has slowed down a little recently.

Teams is so important to some businesses, that the owners and managers wonder how they ever managed without it.

Teams gives us the ability to stay connected wherever we’re working and to collaborate on projects with no fuss.

Because it’s part of the Microsoft 365 package, it’s the logical solution to keep a team working together in the hybrid work age.

One of the things that makes Teams so special is Microsoft’s commitment to constantly making improvements and adding features. They’re not just making the core features better. They’re helping all of us be more productive and less distracted.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen new features such as a virtual whiteboard you can use to throw around ideas in a video meeting.

Also, new and improved chat features, such as pinning chats to the top. You can also filter messages more easily. And change your view to allow you to focus just on the task you’re working on.

There are always more new features in development to make the experience even better.

There are three new features being released soon that we’re excited about.

The first is due for release later this month. This feature feels like it should have been there from day one. When you rename a Teams channel, it will automatically change the name of corresponding SharePoint folder.

This will help to make everything a lot more organized and will save you time hunting for the right folder.

Then in June, a new Chat With Self feature will be released. This will allow you to send yourself notes, messages, files and images. How have we lived without this feature for so long?! We think this could be a real game changer.

And finally, an improvement to Teams calls you can make from your browser, rather than the Teams app. It should be the same experience with the same features in both.

Of course, there are many other updates being released throughout the rest of the year. With Teams, there’s always an exciting new update on the way.

If you need any help setting up Teams, so it’s customized to your business, get in touch.

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