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One of the weakest points in any security system, whether it be an IT system, or other system, is usually the human operators of that system. There is a whole subset of “hacking Techniques” dubbed “social engineering” where the goal is not to find weaknesses in the technological level of the system, it is to glean information from the end users to enable increased access, or to trick the end user into performing some task on their behalf, we have covered a couple of the methods used here and there.

I have Office 365, do I still need to backup?

Office 365 has become more and more popular over the past couple of years and is now used in businesses all over the world. It has become increasingly beneficial to many users improving productivity, reducing costs for hardware and allowing users to access data wherever they might be.

Due to the data being in the cloud users are led to believe that there is no need to do Office 365 backups. Microsoft do have measures in place to backup and replicate data at their end but basically this is only a simple form of backup and does not actually protect you from human error such as accidental deletion or an employee maliciously deleting data.

The General Data Protection Regulation was first proposed in 2012, and what followed was four years of discussions, debates, and amendments, with the regulation finally adopted by the European Parliament in 2016. Countries, companies, and organisations were given two years to comply, with the regulation being enforced from 25 May 2018. What originally seemed like a reasonable amount of time to prepare has passed quickly, and at the time of this writing, enforcement of the GDPR is barely 3-months away.

As you will have noticed, ESP Projects has been posting regular content relating to GDPR (General Data Protection). Which comes into force in May 2018. Recently, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has released new content aimed at charities. Adding to the ever-growing list of resources on its website. The documentation has been added to the Small Business advice and guidance section.

In part one of this cloud solution article we introduced the the Internet of Things and explored how this concept might be used to improve processes for industry by allowing data to be transmitted between devices in several locations via the cloud. We came up with the idea of taking electronic equipment with associated data output and adding connectivity to it, enabling management and reporting of that data. It would also offer scope for control of said devices remotely, opening up possibilities for engineering support and maintenance without the need for someone to be on site. We thought that Raspberry Pis (mini PC’s) would be the ideal hardware component, that could be used alongside a controller device, adding an element of ‘Smart’ functionality to the equipment or machinery it was attached to. Here we look at the practical implementation of such a solution.

Internet of Things

Many of you will have no doubt come across the term ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). This is the term applied for the connection of devices (not just computers) over the internet, allowing them to communicate and share information. As a concept, this is something that has been bandied about for many years but its only recently that, due to progressions in technology, has really started to gain momentum.

What is TypeScript?

‘TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.‘ While that all sounds very fancy, it pretty much boils down to JavaScript, but with lots of added juicy bits.

The Juicy Bits

Recently, new versions of JavaScript became available, but are not currently supported by all major browsers. TypeScript allows us to leverage all the new benefits by allowing developers to write client-side logic in a similar way to server-side logic.