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Donna Aplin
The new buzzword around town is “metaverse.” But what does that actually mean for businesses? Is it just something that social media companies need to be concerned about?
According to people like Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, the metaverse is coming. He stated that “Life without AR will soon be unthinkable.” Whether that’s a short-term or long-off prediction, companies need to be ready.
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Donna Aplin
It’s hard to turn around online these days without running into ChatGPT. Both Bing and Google are levering this advanced artificial intelligence language model. And you can expect it to show up in more business and personal tools that you use every day.
ChatGPT has revolutionised the way businesses interact with their customers. It has also affected how they get things done. Teams are using it for everything from emails to generating ideas for product names.
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Donna Aplin
Since the pandemic, employers around the world have needed to change. They’ve had to shift how their employees operate. Remote work is very much here to stay. Organisations and employees can both benefit from the work-from-home and hybrid work revolution.
Cost savings is a driver for supporting remote work. Employee morale and productivity also can be higher when employers grant this flexibility.
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Donna Aplin
Cloud account takeover has become a major problem for organisations. Think about how much work your company does that requires a username and password. Employees end up having to log into many different systems or cloud apps.
Hackers use various methods to get those login credentials. The goal is to gain access to business data as a user. As well as launch sophisticated attacks, and send insider phishing emails.
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Donna Aplin
Data visualisation is a powerful tool for communicating complex data. It presents it in a simple, easily understandable format. But it is not enough to simply create a graph or chart and call it a day. To truly make use of information, it is important to create insightful reports. Reports that effectively communicate the story behind the data.
Insightful reports help decision-makers understand key trends and patterns. As well as identify areas of opportunity and make informed decisions. If analytics graphs and bar charts are only telling part of the story, it can lead people to wrong decisions.
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James Greaves
Ok, so lets look at security policies and the eventual demise of the password. I did something unusual (for me) the other day – I went out for a drink in Sheffield city centre. Why does that matter to you? And why would I write about it here? Well, it was while I was out mingling with actual real live people that a conversation arose about security and passwords (seriously, I’m an absolute blast when I am out on the town, honestly) and what the best policies are around passwords. It came to my attention that there are still a lot of people still following best practices from a decade ago…
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Donna Aplin
Netflix is one of the most popular and well-known streaming services. It has nearly 231 million subscribers around the world. It has been growing steadily for almost a decade.
The platform has become an essential part of many people’s daily entertainment routines. They fire up their devices, log in, and pick right back up on their favourite shows.
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Donna Aplin
Passwords are the most used method of authentication, but they are also one of the weakest. Passwords are often easy to guess or steal. Also, many people use the same password across several accounts. This makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
The sheer volume of passwords that people need to remember is large. This leads to habits that make it easier for criminals to breach passwords. Such as creating weak passwords and storing passwords in a non-secure way.
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Donna Aplin
Scheduling appointments is a common activity. Salespeople often set up virtual appointments to answer questions about a product. Software companies allow people to schedule live demos. Telehealth therapists allow clients to book video sessions.
Those are just a few examples of some groups that are going to love a new Microsoft Teams feature. Virtual Appointments was recently added to the platform. It adds a new meeting style tailored for engagements with customers.
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Donna Aplin
Many people worry about someone hacking their computer. But they’re not really thinking about their wireless printer getting breached. It’s a tool that most individuals use sporadically. For example, when you want to print out tax forms or mailing labels.
Printers tend to be out of sight, out of mind. That is until you need to print something and run out of ink. Well, they’re not out of the mind of hackers. In fact, unsecured printers are a classic way for criminals to gain access to a home network.
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Donna Aplin
The number of apps and web tools that employees use on a regular basis continues to increase. Most departments have about 40-60 different digital tools that they use. 71% of employees feel they use so many apps that it makes work more complex.
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Amar Khan
Customers look for convenience. In today’s world that means technology that makes their life easier. From webforms to POS systems, you need to keep the customer experience in mind in all you do.
When people aren’t happy with their experience interacting with a company, they leave. And their experience might not have anything to do with your products or services. Maybe they found it hard to navigate your website. They may have a question, but no one was around to answer it.
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Donna Aplin
These everyday objects can lead to identity theft…You wouldn’t think a child’s toy could lead to a breach of your personal data. But this happens all the time. What about your trash can sitting outside? Is it a treasure trove for an identity thief trolling the neighbourhood at night?
Many everyday objects can lead to identity theft. They often get overlooked because people focus on their computers and cloud accounts. It’s important to have strong passwords and use antivirus on your PC. But you also need to be wary of other ways that hackers and thieves can get to your personal data.
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Donna Aplin
There’s a reason that browsers like Edge have added breached password notifications. Data breaches are an unfortunate part of life. And can have costly consequences for individuals. Hackers can steal identities and compromise bank accounts, just to name a couple.
Cybercriminals breach about 4,800 websites every month with form jacking code. It has become all too common to hear of a large hotel chain or social media company exposing customer data.
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Donna Aplin
No business wants to suffer a data breach. But unfortunately, in today’s environment, it’s difficult to completely avoid them. Approximately 83% of organisations have experienced more than one data breach. (IBM Security 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report)
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Donna Aplin
What is the cost of aging IT hardware in my business? OK, so we all know that IT equipment costs money, and in a lot of cases, the IT hardware isn’t cheap when looking at the cost in isolation. However, there are many other things to consider when thinking about replacing aging IT hardware in your business. This article looks to look across the board at the impact of running old hardware in your business. The challenges associated with aging equipment include diminishing support, availability of replacement parts, and the frustration staff experience when using outdated technology. That impact can be on time, money or stress, but either way, it does have an impact. Read on to find out more about the cost of aging hardware to your business.
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Donna Aplin
There are a lot of things that have changed since the invention of the internet. One of these is how we bank and access our accounts. You used to have to go into a local bank branch to make deposits and withdrawals. Now, you can take a picture of a check and deposit it from your phone.
Approximately 73% of people around the world use some form of online banking at least once a month. People have never had such convenient account access. But that convenience can come at a cost.
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Donna Aplin
Cybersecurity researchers uncovered an alarming mobile statistic. During the first few months of 2022, mobile malware attacks surged by 500%. This is alarming both in scale and because many people aren’t yet protecting smartphones.
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Donna Aplin
OK, so if you’re reading this article, you’re obviously thinking about getting a Cyber Insurance policy for your business or organisation. If that’s the case, then you need to really think about what might be required in order to get the policy at all. Cyber Insurance, in our opinion, is a must have for all businesses or organisations of every size. However, the Cyber Insurance market has been stung over recent years, losing billions of £’s in the process. This is, in part, due to the fact that they provided policies to businesses that we’re anywhere near properly protected, so they had lots of claims on their hands, which had to be paid out, because the insurers hadn’t necessarily been collecting the right information from their customers during the application process. This has now led to higher prices AND more stringent policies and checks are in place during the application process.
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Donna Aplin
Here at ESP Projects in Sheffield we have been looking into the main causes of Cloud Breaches. Misconfiguration of cloud solutions is often overlooked when companies plan cybersecurity strategies. Cloud apps are typically quick and easy to sign up for. The user often assumes that they don’t need to worry about security because it’s handled.
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