World Backup Day 2018

World Backup Day is an event on the technology calendar setup to raise awareness and to remind us all about the importance of backing up our data. Everyone of us knows why we need to backup. The reality is that many businesses do not have a reliable backup system in place that is sufficient to be able to recover their data in a disaster.

What would you do if you lost everything?

Or, what would your business do? With 40% of all UK businesses suffering a cyber attack in the past 12 months, the threat of data loss is significant. However, hardware failures and human error continue to be the leading causes of data loss. The only way to ensure your business can recover, and continue to trade, is by ensuring you have a robust backup plan.

So let’s define exactly what backup is (and isn’t).

“Backup is when you have a second copy of your data stored in another location, in case the original is lost or damaged”

Backup is NOT storing your data in Dropbox.
It is also not copying the data to an external driver that is permanently connected to your PC.

What are the methods of backing up?

You can choose to backup your data to another local source. An external hard drive that is then removed and stored securely offsite. You can also opt to backup to the Cloud.

As always there are pros and cons, so let’s take a look:

Some things to ask yourself…

• What important data does my business store?
• Are we backing up all our data or only key parts?
• What would be the impact of a major data loss for 1 day? (loss of sales, cost of staff, rent etc)
• How long could we suffer a major data loss before it had a negative impact on my business?
• What is our current backup strategy?
• How long would it take to recover our data?
• Is our data protected from ransomware infections?

At m3 Networks, backup is at the forefront of our minds. Every. Single. Day. We take away the worry about data backup. We work with the leading backup solution providers to give our customers the very best solutions, so that they have the confidence that their business data is safe. If you would like to discuss how we can help protect your business, call us today on 01738237001.

5 Benefits of Fixed IT Costs

When you are looking for business IT support, you can find various types of contracts and agreements. You could just decide to Pay As You Go (break/fix) basis, pay in advance for blocks of hours, or choose a fixed price IT support contract which includes the majority, if not all, the things your business will need on a monthly basis.

The biggest benefit of a fixed price model, is that you know exactly how much your IT support costs will be each month. This is great for cash flow and essentially your IT costs just become another commodity – just like paying your rent, electricity and insurance. But there are some other major benefits that you may not have realised.

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Tech Myths Busted: no. 3 – You should shutdown your computer every night

Truth: You really should.

You will save power if you shutdown your computer at the end of the working day. It’ll also stop the fans from sucking in dust during the night.

Another advantage is that a regular reboot can resolve many computer niggles (it’s a cliche, but “have you tried turning it off and on again” – really does help).

Having said that, starting up a computer puts a lot of wear on some of the components, especially the power supply and the hard drive (unless you’ve made the switch Solid State Drives). And, leaving your computer on means it’s ready for instant use.

A good compromise may be to just set your monitors to turn off after 10 minutes, or just turn them off manually before you head home. Setting your PC to sleep or hibernate are also good options to save some power whilst keeping the computer in a state that will allow it to wake up quickly when you need to use it again.

NEXT TIME: Are Apple computers immune to viruses?

5 Steps to Email Compliance

Your email is NOT secure.

For most businesses, email is a vital method of communication. Many organisations rely on email to send confidential information within and outside the business. The widespread use of email for confidential information makes it highly vulnerable to exploitation. In fact, email accounts for 35% of all data loss incidents, a recent study found. So with huge potential to cause harm to your business, there is a need to secure, control and track email messages and attachments wherever you send them.

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Tech Myths Busted: no. 2 – Magnets can erase your data

Truth: It’s possible

Only certain types of hard drives can be affected. Solid state drives (SSD), like pendrives, are safe. Traditional hard drives, like those found in most computers are at risk, but you’d need a really big magnet. Like those used in MRI machines, for example.

For most people, there’s nothing to worry about – your data is safe.

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Why you should change your passwords right now

Think your password is strong enough?

We’ve all been guilty of using weak passwords. But doing so makes you vulnerable to having your online accounts hacked. We all know we should use stronger passwords, so why don’t we?

Well, humans are creatures of habit. We like to repeat; it makes things easier to remember. We also find it difficult to remember complex patterns, so we use passwords that are easy to memorise, such as your house name, or date of birth.

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Tech Myths Busted: no. 1 – Adding RAM makes your PC faster

Can more memory really improve your computer performance?

OK, so there may be a little truth in this one. With a really old computer, adding more RAM (memory) can give it a speed boost. An increase from 1GB to 2GB will see a noticeable improvement in an ageing system.

But in a modern machine where 4GB is the norm, the benefit is much less noticeable. Increasing to 8 or 16GB will only really benefit software that can take advantage of it – gaming, or video rendering/production for example.

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Top 6 Ransomware Defence Strategies

You are going to get infected by ransomware. There, I’ve said it. Once you get your mindset over that hurdle, it’s time to plan and put your defence strategies in place. Here are 6 tips that will greatly reduce your risk of infection, and help protect your company’s data.

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Can your IT provider prove how good they are?

We are delighted and very proud to shout from the rooftops that our overall customer satisfaction score for 2017 was a staggering 98.7%!

Industry averages are around 93%, so we’re outperforming most of our competition. All IT companies will say they provide amazing service, but how many can actually prove it?

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Christmas 2017 Opening Hours

We will be closed on the 25th and 26th of December 2017.Our Helpdesk is open on the 27th, 28th and 29th of December for any technical issues.

The office is closed again on the 1st and 2nd of January, and re-opens as normal on Wednesday 3rd of January 2018.

Have a fantastic Christmas!