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Back in 2018, the Senior Leadership Team ESP decided that we needed to be ahead of the other IT Companies in Sheffield in terms of IT Security.  We set out a plan, to get ourselves accredited with ISO 27001, which really demonstrates a high-degree of commitment to IT Security and Data. 

What green credentials does your IT Support Partner have? Here at ESP Projects in Sheffield, we’ve been working very hard for a number of years to improve our green credentials.  We are trying to do our bit for the environment.  We’ve implemented lots of measures that make us a better, more eco-friendly IT Support Provider and we are Proud of the changes we’ve made so far.  However, we are only a short way along our path – there are many, many more things that we are hoping to achieve over the coming years to make sure that we are the greenest IT Support Provider in Sheffield, by leveraging our expertise in both IT and communications.  OK, so what have we done so far?

In a recent post about security, I mentioned about setting up signature control software for an organisation in Sheffield, it wasn’t the core point of the article, more the introduction to a rambling discussion on security awareness of staff, but it also raised another question – What is signature control software? Other questions answered by this blog-post are; How do I set up my business email signature? How do I set up my email signature?

Microsoft have announced that they will be increasing their costs across all cloud products by approximately 9% as of the 1st of April 2023 – including all Microsoft 365 and Office 365 licences. They are doing this due to needing to align the pricing of their products globally to reflect the current exchange rate of each country’s local currency to the US Dollar. 

PATCH MANAGEMENT is a piece of software that needs installing on every PC, Laptop, Tablet & Server in your organization or business.  It is designed to collect security updates (and some feature updates) from the vendor(s) (the makers) of the software installed on your PC and apply them automatically on a planned schedule.  In most business examples, Microsoft Windows and Office Software are the most important, but there are also many other software applications installed on business PCs and they need to be considered too.

As most people are aware, businesses across the country are increasing their prices due to the current economic climate.  So, why is my business broadband cost increasing? Businesses in the connectivity industry (Telephone lines & Internet Connections) are no different.  The larger providers, such as BT & Virgin Media are now rolling out their price increases and the reason they are giving is that their own costs are increasing.  See here for more information regarding BT in particular https://www.bt.com/tell-me-more .  Their costs for gas, electricity and staffing (amongst other things) are going up, just like the rest of us!  ESP & DE provide Internet Connections and Telephone lines to our customers and we’ve therefore stated below, the increases we have been informed about from the industry as a whole.  We always try to stay transparent where possible and we feel the best way we can do this is to communicate to our customers (and website visitors) what those increases look like.  The majority of these increases will take effect from the 1st April 2023 and be reflected in your bill from us. 

Antivirus is a piece of software that needs installing on every PC, Laptop, Tablet & Server in your organization.  There is also an argument to install it onto mobile phones.  It is designed to detect and remove viruses and other kinds of malicious software from the devices that it is installed on.  It is also used to remove computer viruses where machines have already been infected.

What should I do about a data breach? GDPR came into force back in 2018 (on the 25th of May actually!).  Data breaches were still ‘a thing’ before that of course, but the GDPR requirements mean that businesses need to do much better at protecting the personal data that they store about people.  Of course, data breaches are still going to occur, in both small businesses and huge enterprises.  If governments and massive, multi-national conglomerates can’t protect their networks 100% of the time, then of course small businesses in Sheffield and around the whole UK have a difficult job! 

Cybersecurity insurance is still a pretty new concept for many SMBs. It was initially introduced in the 1990s to provide coverage for large enterprises. It covered things like data processing errors and online media.

Since that time, the policies for this type of liability coverage have changed. Today’s cyber insurance policies cover the typical costs of a data breach. Including remediating a malware infection or compromised account.