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Matthew James
Due to the recent large-scale cyber attack on the NHS, a lot of people are asking the question ‘what is ransomware?’ So we felt it was best to update our post from last year with some more specific information.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a type of computer software that blocks access to data using encryption technology and displays messages requesting actions (usually payment) to get it back, hence the name ‘ransom’.
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ESP Projects
With an increasingly small range of funds available, Charities, often overworked in this age of austerity, are being forced to work harder for the grants and donations they need to keep ticking. Digital marketing for charities hasn’t always been easy, but now, more than ever before, it is an essential task. Publicity, positive image and getting a message across are all getting more difficult to achieve in an ever more competitive environment, with different charities online vying for attention.
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Donna Aplin
ESP Projects have joined forces with Sheffield Foyer to provide an intuitive e-learning course programme as part of their rehabilitation to help the homeless.
The MoveOn course is aimed at people looking for their first job or first tenancy to prepare and give them the key life skills to live independently and re-integrate into the community.
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Ian Barwick
Over the past year, many organisations have been pushing harder than ever before towards a secure web with the use of an SSL Certificate. Google announced their plans of ‘Moving towards a more secure web‘ back in September 2016. Starting with the release of Chrome 56 that was rolled out late last week, users will start to see a “Not secure” message in their address bar when visiting a login or payment page which doesn’t use the secure HTTPS protocol.
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ESP Projects
Before outlining what measures you can take to protect your computer, it’s perhaps more useful to understand what a computer virus actually is. There are many forms of threatening viruses but perhaps the worst kind that can affect your business is what’s known as ‘Ransomware’. This does what it says, it holds your files and data to ransom within your system or server. It works by encrypting certain data so that you can no longer access it. -
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Jason Francis
Over the years, we’ve ‘bid’ for Website Design work in a whole variety of different ways. One of the most common, is that organisations approach us with their ‘Development Brief’ or ‘Request for Proposal’. -
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James Greaves
We have all been there haven’t we, happily working along and then ding, Outlook flashes up a notification about that parcel you ordered and that you can track it now… But hang on, did I order a parcel, am I expecting a notification from DHL or the Royal Mail to let me know where it is? -
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Donna Aplin
Mobile Marketing
If you’re a business wanting to market yourself effectively, embracing the opportunities that mobile marketing presents are more important than ever. With mobile browsing now exceeding desktop, the question shouldn’t be ‘should my company use mobile marketing?’ but ‘how?’
That’s all well and good if your company has the luxury of having its own in-house group of techies or a reliable marketing agency to hand, but staying ahead of the curve poses a number of problems, not least knowing where to start. This blog post hopes to at least give you some information to help you make an informed decision on the best course of action, by outlining the difference between responsive design and mobile websites; along with the pros and the cons for each.
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Matthew James
During your busy work day you receive an email with a word document attached, you open it to view the contents and accept the prompt to run macros. The contents of the file will be un-exciting, maybe even blank, but the damage has been done. Allowing the file to open and run its macros has already opened the door for Locky and the quite devastating results of its work.
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Ian Barwick
1. Trust & Security
Web hosting is all about trust in your provider. Can you trust them, not just with your data but with your client’s data also?
Security is important for everyone but it is vital for sites that deal in credit card transactions or collect confidential customer data. The technical challenge of providing a secure hosting environment is a tough one and reputable providers devote a lot of time and effort to securing their systems and keeping them secure against an ever-changing threat environment.
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Matthew James
A brief overview:-
- Be aware or the re-emergence of Spam emails using spoofed sending address of a colleague/high ranking officer of your organisation/supplier.
- Simple yet sophisticated in its operation
- Utilises social engineering to trick you to send money, and no, there is no Nigerian prince involved.
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ESP Projects
It’s no secret that many of ESP Projects clients are charities and we’ll try to help them out wherever possible and however we can. Support Dogs is an excellent cause, and we were delighted to hear that one of their dogs, Azerley, is in a shortlist of four for the Crufts Friends for Life award.
Azerley and Support Dogs will be featured on Channel 4 throughout Crufts (March 10-13) and the winner will be decided by public vote. There is a lovely video about the difference Azerley is making to the life of one little boy, Cohen, here
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ESP Projects
ESP Projects has had a long association with SEYH (Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber). As one of the first social enterprises, we have never forgotten the community values which we believe should have a place in every successful business. Just as we continue to work by those principles, so we also believe it is important to support SEYH as the leading advocate of Social Enterprise in our region. ESP Projects provide IT support and web services to SEYH, and for a number of years now we have been a sponsor of the annual SEYH awards.
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ESP Projects
Last week ESP Projects were at SheffEx, Sheffield’s annual business exhibition held at Pond’s Forge. We have visited before, but this was our first time to exhibit. It was definitely a positive experience but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. What was interesting speaking with other stall-holders at SheffEx is that, for many of them, the main benefit of attending these events is not to make sales to visitors, but to swap notes and ideas (and possibly do business) with the other companies and organisations in attendance. It was really interesting to meet people from other businesses in the region and it is striking how much potential there is for these local companies to support one another.
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ESP Projects
Whilst ESP has very little to do with Talk Talk at a business level, we are providing this information for the many concerned home users. Potentially ALL Talk Talk users data may have been breached.
Talk Talk has announced that potentially all of their user’s data has been breached following a DDoS attack (allegedly by a ‘Russian Jihadi group’) that took the Talk Talk website down on Wednesday. There is a chance that the following customer data, not all of which was encrypted, has been accessed:
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ESP Projects
Microsoft Edge is the new browser coming bundled with Windows 10, being very similar to internet explorer but with new and improved features. Microsoft Edge now uses an extension system, much like rival Internet browsers Firefox and Chrome. It is now streamlined to be much faster than internet explorer.
Because this new browser has been completely rebuilt in a new engine, this browser no longer supports plug-ins such as active x. Internet Explorer is not being gotten rid of entirely. It will still exist as there will be a need for compatibility with older technology.
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ESP Projects
All the former Charms functions are contained in a new Notifications panel, called Action Center. When you launch Action Center, a full-height bar appears on the right of the screen – it’s designed to match the Notifications setup in Windows Phone. Most of these functions are standard to us from iOS and Android; features such as toggling Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Location on and off, but it’s great to have.
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ESP Projects
Cortana is your clever new personal assistant. Cortana will help you find things on your PC, manage your calendar, track packages, find files, chat with you and tell jokes. The more you use it, the more personalised your experience will be. To get started, type a question in the search box on the taskbar. Or select the microphone icon and talk. (Typing works for all types of PCs, but you need a mic to talk.)
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ESP Projects
For years, Microsoft has put the Windows name on phones because it’s a familiar brand, but with Windows 10, it’s also the name of the operating system you get on the phone. Most of the time it doesn’t look like Windows 10, because the interface that looks right on a notebook or large tablet is hard to see on a small screen.
But because Windows 10 for Phones is the same operating system core (Microsoft even calls it OneCore), you can plug in a keyboard or a mouse and even a screen to your phone – and when you do, the same Continuum experience that switches a notebook into tablet mode switches the phone into PC mode.
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Donna Aplin
Why use hosted backup?
Backup is one of the most important elements of any IT network and ensuring that this procedure is completed regularly, reliably and securely is constantly under review.
In many situations, swapping hard drives or simply remembering to complete this process on a daily basis is not feasible, i.e. access to the comms room is not readily accessible, staff are not in on certain days etc.
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