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How’s the January health kick going?

Lots of us take our health seriously – once a year, anyway – and it’s good to spend time thinking about whether you’ve been looking after yourself (and better still, doing something about it).

Your doctor would probably like to see you once a year for a health check, just to pick up any small problems and stop them getting worse.

It’s exactly the same principle with your technology.

So why not book in for an IT check-up, to make sure everything’s in great shape for the journey ahead?

You do this for yourself, you do it for your car, and it’s a good plan to think the same way about your workplace tech. Because it might have to work pretty hard in the year to come.

Getting everything checked out now will pay dividends later.

We’ll help to pick up any minor-but-urgent fixes that could help prevent a disastrous breakdown in a few months’ time. Sometimes a simple software update will speed things up dramatically – which means less time watching the egg timer!

If there are bigger, but non-urgent jobs that you can safely leave for another day, we’ll tell you that too.

And if you’re all good to go, you can carry on with confidence.

It may even be a great time to think about new technology and prioritise your IT projects. Do you know what you need to prepare for if you want your system to develop as your business grows? That could be something as simple as switching to cloud storage, or it could be a larger project, such as digital transformation.

Our experts carry out top-to-toe IT health checks for all kinds of businesses, and we’ll give you honest, jargon-free advice on the best solutions for a trouble-free tech set-up.

To book your check-up, get in touch.

Optimity IT, a leading London-based managed IT services and connectivity provider is delighted to announce the acquisition of CoopSys. The acquisition will help Optimity to strengthen its accomplished IT Managed Services portfolio which both companies have been operating for 20 years.

CoopSys is a well-established sector specific managed IT services provider that focuses in the not-for-profit sector. Specialising in IT support, security & compliance, infrastructure and consulting services, the company has seen significant growth due to a dedicated and unique focus on customer excellence delivered by a highly capable and skilled team.

The acquisition will strengthen and broaden the services Optimity provides to existing customers and demonstrates the ambition of both companies to offer best in class solutions, platforms and support services on a UK wide basis. Backed by FPE Capital, Optimity has extended its connectivity portfolio into fully managed IT services creating flexible, secure and intelligent workplace environments for its customers.

Discussing the deal, Optimity’s CEO, Leeland Pavey said:

Managing Director of CoopSys, Philip Anthony commented, “Finding a new owner for CoopSys with an aligned ethos, was never going to be any easy task; but it was very quickly apparent that with Optimity, we had a shared vision of what our customers expected and the benefits we can deliver to them.”

Notes to Editors:

FPE Capital

FPE is a specialist growth investor in B2B software and services businesses. FPE partners with ambitious UK and Irish companies to enable them to realise their potential. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. www.fpecapital.com

About Optimity

Optimity is a connectivity and IT managed services provider focused on servicing fast growing businesses. Optimity provides internet connectivity solution and has extended its product set into a full IT service for small and medium businesses, smart campus and workplace environments. www.optimity.co.uk

Another day, another scam. And this is a sneaky one.

Cyber criminals are getting smarter. This recent malware threat is unusually smart. It impersonates a highly trusted brand name to get a foot in the door.

Targets receive a convincing looking email that appears to come from a widely used e-signature platform.

Attached to the email is a blank image that’s loaded with empty svg files, which are carefully encoded inside an HTML file attachment (stay with us here).

In short, it’s very clever and it’s tricking its way past a lot of security software.

That puts businesses like yours at risk. Because code within the image sends people to a malicious URL.

Open the attachment and you could unwittingly install malware onto your device – or even your network – which risks exposing your data and leaving you open to a ransomware attack.

Recently, there’s been a wave of HTML attachment attacks on small and medium sized businesses, so it’s clear that companies need to take action to stay ahead of the criminals.

If you use software to sign documents electronically, double-check that emails are genuine before opening any attachments.

There’s a reason why the criminals have chosen to impersonate a trusted name.

Taking things a step further, you could block all emails with this type of attachment, to prevent employees from being exposed to scam emails in the first place.

If you’d like any further advice, or help implementing extra security measures, get in touch.

If you employ anyone aged between 16 and 19, you need to pay special attention to the cyber security training you’re giving your team.

A new study has revealed that a host of worrying online behaviour has become almost normalised among many young people. And much of this activity is illegal.

We’re not talking serious cyber crime such as ransomware attacks or stealing data.

But one in three 16 to 19-year-olds have admitted to digital piracy; and a quarter have tracked or trolled someone online.

Most of these behaviours may not directly affect your business. But some are so commonplace that too many young people view them as a part of everyday life.

That’s not something you want them bringing to work.

Casual software piracy or illegal downloads on devices used for work could open the door to a massive security breach.

The answer is simple: Hold cyber security training for all your employees on a regular basis.

This training should:

• Highlight the impact of bad online behaviour and potential for security breaches
• Help everyone understand how this kind of activity can harm people – and your business
• Make everyone aware of the scams and attacks that your business is vulnerable to, as well as the part they play in keeping everyone protected
• Make the consequences clear for anyone found to be engaging in this behaviour

If this is something you need some expert help with, it’s what we do.

Get in touch.

AI chatbots have taken the world by storm in recent months. We’ve been having fun asking ChatGPT questions, trying to find out how much of our jobs it can do, and even getting it to tell us jokes.

But while lots of people have been having fun, cyber criminals have been powering ahead and finding ways to use AI for more sinister purposes.

They’ve worked out that AI can make their phishing scams harder to detect – and that makes them more successful.

Our advice has always been to be cautious with emails. Read them carefully. Look out for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Make sure it’s the real deal before clicking any links.

And that’s still excellent advice.

But ironically, the phishing emails generated by a chatbot feel more human than ever before – which puts you and your people at greater risk of falling for a scam. So we all need to be even more careful.

Crooks are using AI to generate unique variations of the same phishing lure. They’re using it to eradicate spelling and grammar mistakes, and even to create entire email threads to make the scam more plausible.

Security tools to detect messages written by AI are in development, but they’re still a way off.

That means you need to be extra cautious when opening emails – especially ones you’re not expecting. Always check the address the message is sent from, and double-check with the sender (not by replying to the email!) if you have even the smallest doubt.

If you need further advice or team training about phishing scams, just get in touch!

Our phones are a goldmine of private information. Just think of all the financial details, personal messages, banking apps, photos and contact information that live behind that little glass screen.

And if your team use phones for work, they’ll often have access straight into company systems – email, contact lists, network access, file systems. So if they’re not kept as secure as any other device in your workplace, they can become a gaping hole in your cyber security.

Criminals know this, of course, which is why they target us through our phones just as much as they do through our networks and servers.

But cyber crime isn’t the only concern. Just losing your phone, or having it stolen, can put your data at huge risk.

So, whether you issue company smartphones, or your employees use their own, you should make sure everyone implements some simple security steps to protect your data and avoid disaster.

Start with making sure your people set up a PIN and a biometric login (like a fingerprint or face scan) to open the device.

Only install apps from trusted sources to make sure you’re using genuine software.

And enable Multi-Factor Authentication on all apps that store even a small amount of sensitive data.

Be careful about where you connect to Wi-Fi. If you work remotely or often connect to public networks, consider using a VPN – a Virtual Private Network – to add another layer of security. You never know who’s monitoring traffic on a public network.

Finally, ALWAYS make sure your phone is running the latest version of its operating software, and keep all apps up to date.

Smartphones have changed so much about the way we live – at home, and at work – but it’s too easy to take them for granted. And that could be a costly mistake.

If you need help to keep your smartphones safe, just get in touch.