As an IT support company, we are often asked by clients ‘What is the best way to choose a secure password?’  A secure password is completely random string of text, consisting of upper-case and lowercase characters, with numbers and special characters that is 8 or more characters long.

The most common passwords people use relate to something personal to them or their business; this is never going to be secure!  These types of passwords may be someone’s favourite food, the name of their children or favourite sports team.  These days’ hackers can easily find this type of information via social networking sites and other websites containing personal data.  A professional hacker with the intention of cracking a password for someone with a Facebook account is able to detect a wide range of personal information without even meeting them.  Data such as a passion for Chelsea football club can be detected from pictures of matches or a posted interest expressed online.  A hacker can run software to collect words from the Chelsea website and begin discrete trial and error attempts with likely passwords, in the hope one matches the passwords hash.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a password that cannot be cracked, if the attacker has the resources and time to put into cracking a password, they will!  However, having a longer, secure password will make cracking harder and more frustrating for the criminals involved.  To conclude, when choosing a new password, follow these steps to ensure it’s as secure as possible;

• Don’t make it basic just because its easy to remember
• Change your password every 60 – 90 days
• Ensure its completely random
• Choose 8 or more characters – the longer the better
• Ensure its made up alpha numeric characters, containing upper and lower case, preferably including some special characters
• Never reveal your password to anyone, especially over the phone, via email or on the internet – there are many scams involving passwords, always remember a supplier would never ask you to reveal a password
• Never write your password down – keep it in your head

One of the main reasons behind the increase in small IT support firms is the economy.  When the economy is bad, redundancies are more common and IT departments are generally the first to get struck.  Many IT engineers have been expensively trained to high levels by the companies making them redundant.  The next logical step for an engineer being made redundant is find another job, this either being a permanent post, contracting out to larger firms or trading their skills to smaller local businesses.

There are certainly a growing number of small IT support companies with highly skilled engineers across the UK, which is increasing the competition in the IT services market.  We believe healthy competition is a good thing in any service industry; it generally increases customer service levels and can lower overall customer charges.

With this increase in companies to choose from, it can be more of a challenge identifying a supplier that fits your individual businesses needs.  So if you find yourself searching for a Worthing IT support company, the following questions should help ascertain whether they are an appropriate match:

1. How many of you are there in your company and what are your plans for growth?  If there’s only 1 or 2 engineers, what happens when busy, sick or on holiday?
2. Do you have guaranteed response times to urgent faults?
3. Will we have a dedicated account manager; and will we be able to speak with the same engineers each time we call?
4. Are you legally insured with public liability and professional indemnity insurance?
5. Are you a registered partner with any IT related bodies or organisations, such as the BCS, Google, Apple, Microsoft etc
6. Are your engineers qualified and what qualifications do they have?  Also, how many years IT work experience do they have?
7. What are your labour charges; including Standard, Out office hours, Urgent call outs and Travel, and are there any hidden costs we need to be aware of?

Most small businesses either have their own email server or are using some form of cloud based email technology.   Choosing an email service that suits a company’s requirements is a vital decision; it can determine the level of employee productivity and help win or potentially lose business.  With so many email solutions on the market, it’s crucial to investigate and choose the best service that suits your needs.

Currently the main cloud based solutions are offered by Microsoft in the form of Office365 and Google with their Google Apps service, on top of this there are many smaller companies offering cloud services at competitive prices.

Microsoft and Google’s price plans work on the same basis; you pay per mailbox or user per month, Microsoft also offers a volume licensing option.  The cheapest Office 365 plan is £4.00 per user, per month, whereas the plan from Google is 70p cheaper at £3.30 per user per month.

Both Microsoft and Google offer an online Office suite as part of their Email service, this enables users to create and work on documents, such as letters, spread sheets and presentations.   To use these options in Microsoft’s Office 365 you would need to purchase a more expensive price plan, however Google provides Google Docs as part of their basic £3.30 per user service plan.

There are many advantages of opting for a cloud based email service.  It was once the case that you could only benefit from advanced business email when purchasing an expensive server running software such as Microsoft Exchange. Now it’s the opposite, with more features available using online email solutions.

After working with both Microsoft and Google’s solutions, we favour Microsoft’s most.  That being said, don’t rule out Google Apps, as it’s sometimes a better fit depending on organisation requirements.

Microsoft’s Office 365 uses Exchange without the expense and responsibly of buying and storing a server.  It offers the solution to businesses as small as 1 email address, and as large as global corporations.  The main benefits of Microsoft’s Online Exchange are;

Backups – all email is stored on online servers,  no need for manual backups anymore

• 99.9% uptime – financially backed
• Cost savings – no requirement for Exchange  IT support or maintenance, no electricity or server running costs, just the £4 per mailbox per month
• Redundancy – if your businesses internet fails, email is still accessible via phones or mobile devices
• Built in anti-spam and anti-virus security
• Excellent 24/7 free Microsoft support service

We are seeing a major trend with small to medium sized businesses moving their email solutions to cloud environments.  The only companies holding back are ones with security concerns, and for some this is down to the cloud still being a new concept.  Only time will tell how things pan out, but it’s our vision that most SME (Small and Medium sized Enterprise) email will be hosted off-site within the next 5 – 10 years.

What is not so well known is that Hackers are finding more and more ways to identify and hack into wireless networks. Once they gain access to a network, they not only use and exploit your internet connection; they also gain closer access to servers and computers within the network.

The risks that are associated with wireless technology have increased as the service has become more popular, nowadays most homes and businesses have a wireless network. This creates a multitude of targets for a hacker, as the amount of networks increase… so does the threat!

In recent years the targeting of wireless networks has shot up, hackers can download simple free tools from the internet , these tools require no more than a few clicks of the mouse to break into a badly pass worded wireless network.

It’s recommended that all wireless networks should have tight security measures applied; here are some tips to strengthen the security of a wireless network:

1. Use a strong form of wireless encryption, such as WPA2 ( Don’t use WEP or WPA as these can be broken into very quickly if the hacker knows what they are doing )

2. Disable SSID broadcast ( This hides your wireless network, making it harder for hackers to identify )

3. Create a whitelist of allowed MAC addresses on the router ( This will ensure only the IP addresses of computers and devices are allowed access to the wireless network )

4. Use a strong encrypted password for wireless access and change it periodically ( Ensure you make the password a mixture or alpha/numeric and a minimum of 8 characters )

These steps will help to protect a wireless network, but as technology is constantly changing, hackers are always looking for security vulnerabilities to exploit.

We will be blogging about new secure methods of network protection once we have installed and tested them fully.

Removing and cleaning up infections can take a lot of time and the threats are no longer confined to Microsoft Windows operating systems. Malware threats are becoming a lot more common on Mac and Linux based computers.

Malware is no longer something that’s created by individuals; the organized crime industry is now the main source of most malware in the wild. With botnets being created and sold as a means of sending out spam, card details stolen and money laundered through various crime organizations.

There was once a time when you didn’t have to worry about malware, and the possibility of finding a malware infection on your phone was almost unthinkable, however 2011 saw a massive rise in malware designed for the Android phone environment. This trend has forced IT support departments to analyse company defence measures and invest in professional hardware and software security.

In 2011 Apple’s OS X environment was compromised by multiple threats that dodged the requirement for an administrator password upon software installation. One of these threats even evaded an Apple Mac malware security update that was released to patch the vulnerability!

In the ever evolving technology world it’s essential that all computer and smartphone users wise up to security threats, especially when money and sensitive data is at risk. These days it doesn’t matter what operating system platform is being used, people should always be wary of sites offering free software. Little is free in this world and common sense is a far more valuable tool than any antivirus software, after all prevention is always far greater than the cure..

Malware most commonly infects via the following 3 methods;

1. Links and attachments in spam emails
2. “Free” software downloads from websites
3. Hi-jacked websites with virus links

To conclude, despite a widespread increase in malware infections across computers and devices, users can massively reduce the risk of infection by using common sense, vigilance and a good business class anti-virus, anti-spyware protection software, such as Eset Nod32 Business Anti-virus.

Microsoft recommends you don’t manually move your account unless it’s essential that you move urgently.  If you wait Microsoft will email you a weekend transition date and complete most of the move over tasks for you.

If you do need to move urgently then have a chat with your IT support and make them aware of the following issue:

Following the manual process that is documented all over the web you remove all user accounts and domains from the BPOS portal, and then verify your domain in the Office 365 portal.

What isn’t really documented but is highly important to be aware of is the fact that you will then need Microsoft Online Support to make changes in their Forefront spam security.  Until they make these changes you won’t be able to receive external email, and senders will receive the following error:  550 5.4.1 Relay Access Denied

Most importantly – this will need to be requested during office hours (Eastern American Time) and can only be performed by Microsoft.  Therefore, if you are a UK customer, this could result in email downtime. So it’s best to set up a backup email service while you’re waiting for MS to perform the request.

Once Microsoft has removed the old BPOS entries for your domain in their Forefront Security, you will need to run 2 commands in Powershell.

Powershell can be installed by following the steps in the following link:

http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/office365-enterprises/hh124998.aspx

once installed, enter the following command:

LiveCred = Get-Credential

Enter your Office365 admin credentials in the dialog

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session

Once connected you, execute the following cmdlets:

Set-AcceptedDomain -Identity “yourdomain.com” -OutboundOnly $True

Set-AcceptedDomain -Identity “yourdomain.com” -OutboundOnly $False

You may need to allow around 40mins for replication, after that you should be able to receive mail again without the “550 5.4.1 Relay Access Denied” error.

After this time you should then be fully functional in Office 365.

By far the quickest and most cost saving method is to provide businesses with remote IT support.

Cloud computing and remote IT support go hand in hand, when using cloud solutions for business you’re going to need expert IT support to keep your systems running smoothly. Remote support is becoming increasingly popular with businesses that require managed IT services but don’t have an in house IT helpdesk.

In modern times, there is a growing requirement to provide technical support quickly and efficiently to both servers and workstations but how does remote support work?

Remote support is a method for troubleshooting problems via remote desktop connections. Engineers use software that allows them to access the user’s desktop via the Internet. With the user’s permission, engineers can take control of the user’s mouse and keyboard, preform various diagnostic tests, remedy problems, run scans and install programs. This is all done remotely without the user needing to assist. Generally however, only software can be repaired remotely. A computer with broken hardware can in some cases be diagnosed, but must be repaired manually.

At Fenton IT we specialise in providing excellent remote support to businesses across the South East and even have clients as far away as Singapore using our remote IT support service. Get in touch if we can help support your business.

We’ve all recently seen at least one advertisement for fibre optic broadband – be it on the TV, in a newspaper or on a billboard but how do you know what one offers the best service?

BT is still pressing ahead with its infinity service, Virgin media have revealed plans to boost the speed of its network and now there are even offerings from TalkTalk and Plusnet!

Usually the deciding factor in the fibre or cable internet debate is the availability of fibre optics in your area, if you have the ability great, if you don’t then there’s always cable but with fibre optic connections becoming ever more popular and more lines being put in all around the UK it’s only a matter of time till your area is covered by a provider. As previously mentioned Virgin media is planning to increase the speed of its service this will mean customers currently signed up for 10Mbps will be boosted to 20Mbps, while users on 20Mbps and 30Mbps packages will both be upped to 60Mbps.

Those on 50Mbps will be increased to 100Mbps. Customers already on the top 100Mbps tariff will be raised to 120Mbps – the fastest speed Virgin Media is currently able to provide. So why not look and see when fibre optic could be an option for you, it could even already be available in your area.

Intel set to enter mobile market

The CPU manufacturing giant Intel has announced it will be entering the mobile market this year, Intel already has a deal with Motorola who will be producing the device based around Intel’s new Medfield chip that Intel claim is a balance of power and battery life. There are no formal specs yet but so far the proposed device is rumoured to run the Android OS however it is too early to say for sure.

With internet TV you can watch TV, browse the web, install software applications and watch videos on popular streaming sites such as YouTube.  This can all be done in one place for your convenience on a big screen, if that’s not tempted you, this might… All you need to enjoy internet TV is a compatible TV and an internet connection, you can use your existing TV or satellite service so there are no extra monthly charges to pay for the service from Google and Samsung, however Apple TV continues to be a fixed monthly fee.

Imagine being able to work from the sofa with a wireless keyboard and large LED flat screen TV!  This may soon become a reality for many business owners and directors!

We’ve selected some of these new technologies and services to blog about. These are the ones we feel are extra refined and are hoping to make it big this year, starting with Windows 8.

Windows 8

Microsoft’s Windows 8 is rumoured to be released in October and there are already developer previews available to try with a beta version being released shortly over the coming months. This version of Windows is sleek and modern with a new Metro style look which gives it the feel of a Windows phone. The main reasoning behind this is the huge increase in popularity of tablet devices, the Metro look increases usability on touch screen devices immensely while also bringing more gestures than in previous versions of Windows.
With this comes a whole myriad of new features including the ability to use a picture as a password, simply touch or gesture on 3 specific points of the picture to unlock the device. However the traditional password can still be used.

Another feature of Windows 8 is ‘Refresh’ rather than reinstall. Refresh functionality is basically still a reinstall of Windows, just like resetting your PC, but your data, settings, and Metro style apps are preserved. With Refresh there’s no need to first back up all your data to an external hard drive and then restore it afterwards, a nice time saving feature!

These new flashy features aren’t the only thing Microsoft’s been working on, they’ve also created a new file system called ReFS, with its main goal being resilience! The whole idea behind the file system is keeping your data safe by minimizing the chance at corrupting data. This new file system is said to be compatible with NTFS so there will be cross compatibility with older versions of Windows.

Microsoft has also spent time working on UEFI. UEFI is not a particularly new idea, like everything in IT, things change, evolve and improve and UEFI looks to fill in some gaps and make the pre-OS environment more flexible, maintainable and manageable. The reason it’s become relevant in the press recently is that Microsoft has stated that in order to get certification (i.e., a logo) for any boxes shipped with Windows 8 pre-installed, a feature called “secure boot” has to be enabled.

Secure boot is designed to stop malware inserting itself into memory before the OS starts to load. If malware is able to insert its self in before the operating system loads it can circumvent and avoid any malware countermeasures that happen to be installed in the machine.

Over all Window 8 is set to become a much richer and more secure operating system, saving businesses money on on-going IT support and maintenance charges.  Get in touch if we can be of assistance.