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4 Ways to Protect Your Business Against Hackers

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The advent of technology and the internet resulted in multiple business innovations. However, it also leads to cyber-attacks. Four in ten businesses and a quarter of charities report having experienced cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months.

With big companies like Uber, Crypto.com, Medibank, and a host of others experiencing data breaches in 2022, what are the odds that your business will be spared when cybercriminals go on a cyber-attack or hacking spree?

Implement these 5 tips to protect your business from marauding hackers:

1. Change Your Passwords Often

Many devices, including phones and laptops, come with default passwords. It is your job to customise this password. When doing so, ensure you consider password strength. Don’t just use any phrase that comes to mind, especially your name, date of birth, the names of your kids, etc.

Remember, password strength is more than entering multiple numbers, case-sensitive characters, and random symbols. That is the first line of defence. Also, don’t only consider changing your password; change your username too.

Do you use a Mac system for business operations? Changing password on Mac is as easy as a hot knife cutting through butter. The same goes for other types of systems. Ensure you use a password that is strong and easy to remember. It may be hard to think of a password that matches this description, but it’s worth the time.

2. Secure Customer Data

Based on McAfee Security, out of 500 mid-sized American companies reviewed, 45% thought their business wasn’t valuable enough to be considered by hackers. The real question is, how many of these companies store customer data on their system?

If a hacker strikes and customer data is stolen, the consequences can be dire for you and your business’s reputation. You could be faced with lawsuits and many data breach compensation claims. So, always try to ensure that customer data is encrypted. If it’s financial data, consider outsourcing your business’s eCommerce to PayPal and Google Checkout, they are pretty secure.

3. Restrict Access and Block Irrelevant Websites

Want to reduce your chances of being hacked? Or do you want to reduce the chances of cyber-attack on your business? If so, restrict access to some online information while ensuring that only the required users have access to specific data.

It would be best if you also considered blocking websites from being viewed to reduce the chances of corrupting your business’s network with viruses and spyware-carrying websites. So, ensure you block needless websites. Plus, continually update your antivirus software should it be called to action.

4. Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Spyware

Were you sent a file? Check it for viruses and other malicious software. Did you recently install software? Check it as well.

Check all that comes through your business’s front door. You should also update your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Doing so is simple. It doesn’t take much of your time.

In addition to checking files for viruses and malicious software, ensure you install a network firewall to keep hackers at bay. By monitoring the incoming and outgoing network traffic, you can determine if there are any threats entering your business’s system.

Conclusion

A single hack can cause your business money. It can also damage your business’s reputation. While you consider implanting these tips, you may also want to consider outsourcing your IT, especially if you are a small business lacking IT personnel skilled in IT security.

The Important Summary To ITIL And ITSM

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A summary is a brief statement or restatement of main points. As the world trudges forth towards a digital environment, technological advancement becomes inevitable and essential. Many roles that used to be run manually by people are handed over to technology to ensure that human talent is developed more efficiently elsewhere.

In this, IT teams evolved to become a core component of a company’s operations, their support is indispensable. IT teams need to be quickly certified with ITIL v4 certification. This is where ITIL comes into play as they serve as a guide for these IT teams.

What is ITIL?

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is basically a set of guidelines that have obtained consensus. These guidelines are devised to teach organisations to adopt the best business methods that will allow them to maximise value from their IT services. ITIL equips IT teams across the country with a standardised set of criteria to ensure consistent and quality IT service being deployed to organisations.

Compared to its predecessor the latest rendition of the ITIL integrates the human factor into its guidelines. Its current framework emphasises innovation and adaptability. Instead of treating ITIL as an instructional manual to be followed.

The current version of ITIL encourages greater holistic thinking that is versatile where the same set of advice can propagate unique solutions that come from the IT teams themselves. Instead of focusing solely on the best processes and tools, the recent ITIL provides it but encourages IT teams to think for themselves.

For visualisation purposes, the ITIL is spread out across five broad categories like service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement.

These five stages are part of a cycle process. The first stage is to analyse stakeholders, finance and existing strategies. Then, the second does a deeper dive into the strategies and sees what can be improved upon. Next, are the tools and methods that can be utilised to transition into the revamped service. Then, the next stage is to observe whether the service is operating as it should be. Last but not least, is follow-up.

What is ITSM?

On the other hand, Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) is focused on the end-to-end delivery of IT services which consists of planning, delivery, and support to consumers who require it. Not to be mistaken with traditional IT support, ITSM is broader and incorporates all the processes involved in delivering IT as a service which contains the processes and tools that these teams will use as part of their job.

Some examples that demonstrate the use of ITSM are things like change supervision, capacity planning, configuration management, crisis recovery, performance optimisation, and many more. These are basically the technology services that are offered that directly impact the company’s operations and augment them. ITSM, in a brief, is similar to ITIL’s third stage of service transition.

What is the difference between ITIL and ITSM?

The key difference between ITIL and ITSM is that the former is a foundation where the latter will be analysed and adopted in the framework that is ITIL in order to maximise business goals. When a company wants to implement ITSM into their daily operations, ITIL would assist them in streamlining the process, that is how, when and where to use ITSM instead of haphazardly adopting the actions to be taken.

What are the benefits of implementing ITIL for businesses?

First and foremost, every individual has their own opinions and solutions. ITIL does well by aligning the IT team to business goals which allow businesses to charter a united front when it comes to dealing with problems.

Secondly, cost and benefits are normal considerations of a business due to profit-maximising behaviour. However,  they are only able to focus on that many things at a time. Instead of overwhelming a single department of the company, the ITIL reiterates to the IT team to track and optimise their IT costs.

Thirdly, technology is volatile and dynamic. It does not stay the same over time, and can change over months, weeks, and even days. It is constantly changing and having to design a framework for every change will be taxing, not to mention, unnecessary depletion of resources. To adapt better to changes at a more efficient cost, ITIL comes in to provide a steady set of guidelines that accommodates to the ebb and flow of IT.

Last but not least, it ensures that both employees and consumers are happy. With ITIL, processes become more streamlined which makes it easier for employees to implement and reduces workplace conflict when it comes to a clash of ideas.

With that, consumers are also better off as they will be receiving stellar services from employees, and there is a flow that consumers can understand better which increases the trust between the organisation and consumers. This will be a great boost to the operation and management of the company.

Conclusion

While technology may not be the easiest concept to grasp especially for those with limited knowledge in the field. Some time and effort dedicated to understanding it by reading are still possible.

Furthermore, the rewards that can be reaped from implementing more efficient technology have only proved to be beneficial for companies worldwide. This becomes even more important when you are implementing strategies that would not only boost convenience to your team but also to the stakeholders that matter to your company.

ITIL and ITSM are important concepts to be knowledgeable about so that one can continuously improve on their services whether your company business is highly reliant on technology or not. This guide is an eye opener into the ideas of ITIL and ITSM so it contains a summarised version of these comprehensive concepts. If you want to go into greater depth, more reading is required.

As they say, if you fear change, you will never step out of your comfort zone. The area outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens. Just by opening yourself up to new ideas and framework, you might find that your business strategy will improve and in that, bring in more revenue for the company leading to happier employees.

How to Find Excellent Tech Services if Your Business is Mobile-Based

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As mobile-based businesses become more and more common, the demand for quality tech services has also increased. Businesses are now looking for reliable IT support and consulting services to help them maintain their competitive edge.

If you’re looking for quality tech services in Dubai, here are several tips on how to find them.

Do Your Research

When it comes to finding quality tech services, doing your research is essential. Start by reading online reviews and talking to other business owners in your industry. Ask them which IT support and consulting firms they recommend and find out what made them choose those particular companies. Dubai mobile app development company needs to be research-oriented so that they are aware of the competition and can deliver the best services to their clients. Also, you want to be sure that the company you’re considering is reputable and has a good track record.

And this is easy to check –  just look them up on Google and see what comes up. If there are lots of positive reviews and testimonials, that’s a good sign. However, if you can’t find much information about them online, or if the reviews are mainly negative, you might want to think twice about working with them.

Look For Experience

When it comes to finding quality tech services, experience is key. Look for an IT support and consulting firm that has a proven track record in delivering quality services to businesses in your industry. Ask for referrals from other business owners, and find out how long the company has been in operation. The longer they’ve been around, the more likely it is that they’re doing something right.

In addition, look for a company that has a team of experienced professionals. Find out what qualifications and certifications they have and ask about their past projects. This will give you a good idea of their expertise and whether they’re the right fit for your business.

Consider Your Budget

IT support and consulting services can be expensive, so you need to make sure you’re getting value for money. Talk to different companies and get quotes from them before making a decision. Find out what services they offer and what their rates are. Then, compare these to your budget and decide which firm is the best fit for your needs.

Don’t forget to also ask about discounts and special offers. Many IT support and consulting firms offer discounts for new clients, so be sure to take advantage of this if you can.

Additionally, ask about their payment terms. Some companies require a lump sum payment upfront, while others offer payment plans. By knowing all these payment details, you can make an informed decision about which company is the right fit for your business and choose the option that best suits your budget and needs.

Check Their Customer Service

When you’re looking for quality tech services, it’s crucial to find a company that offers excellent customer service. After all, you’re likely to need their help and support at some point, so you want to be sure they’ll be there when you need them. Find out what their customer service policies are and how they handle customer inquiries.

It’s also a good idea to give them a call and ask a few questions before making a decision. For instance, you could ask about their rates, services, and payment terms. This will give you a good idea of how they treat their clients and whether they’re the right fit for your business.

On the other hand, if you’re not able to get in touch with them or they don’t seem very helpful, it’s probably best to look elsewhere.

Read The Contract Carefully

Once you’ve found a quality IT support and consulting firm that you’re happy with, it’s time to sign a contract. But before you do, make sure you read it carefully and understand all the terms and conditions. Find out what services are included in the contract and what is not.

Also, pay attention to the fine print. For instance, some contracts may have a clause that allows the company to terminate the agreement at any time without notice. Others may require you to give them a certain amount of notice if you want to cancel the contract.

By understanding all the terms of the contract, you can be sure you’re getting what you expect and there are no hidden surprises.

Finding quality tech services can be a daunting task, but by considering experience, budget, and customer service among other factors, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about which IT support and consulting firm is the best fit for your needs. Remember to read the contract carefully before signing, so you know exactly what you’re getting into.

By following these simple tips, finding quality tech services in Dubai should be a breeze.

Top 6 Services That Every Business Needs

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Handling your business can put you in a very dark place, and if you handle it alone, you are risking getting out of control at one point. If you spend too much time managing your business and logistics rather than concentrating on your company’s growth, this is why you should think about taking your business to the next level, which you can achieve by investing your time in the correct activities. Here is a short list of services that your business needs.

People

Even though most operational skills are overtaken by programs and automatized, some of them cannot be and demand human resources. Contracted workers and freelancing workers are the two alternatives available today, and you may hire one or both of them. This makes your business always ensured when it comes to skills which you could not win otherwise. When you are choosing people for your office on certain positions, and staff operating on the company maintenance, you must make smart picks, since your workers represent your company. This means that even when choosing a cleaning services company, to maintain your immensely important company visuals, it must offer outstanding levels of cleanliness and perfection. Every single human position in your company is of crucial importance, and you cannot afford to fail in this domain.

Information Technologies

You need to keep track of contemporary technologies and find software solutions that will help your company operate in a more efficient and effective way. There are several IT devices that may aid in the organisation of your business, accounting tasks, customer support, and communication between customers and suppliers, as well as between staff.

Accounting

Accounting and finance are vital parts of your business, and there is software that will enable you to handle them in a more efficient way. It is smart to talk with a professional and get a grasp on which one is the best one for your business if we take into consideration that there is software for different types of business. Specifically, there are payroll software, tax software, and bookkeeping software. Use of any of the previously mentioned software will help you deal with your cash flow, tax payment, expenditure, and other crucial business data.

Marketing

Marketing strategy is a core element for a better reach of your customers. With the development of new technologies such as web shops, social media, and other online marketing tactics, e-commerce and social selling have become the most important aspect of any organisation, whether it is a little firm or a large corporation.

Social networks became the best platform to operate when it comes to online marketing. Most people have their personal accounts on social networks, and it is a great chance for your product to be spotted by a considerable number of people. Almost every social network platform has its space for creating ads and promotion of content, additionally, there are online stores, like Instagram stores, where you can promote and sell your product.

Customer Support

Customer support is a wide term in the business world, and it can vary considerably based on the business you own. For small-sized businesses, trained customer service staff is not always the most efficient option, if we take into consideration that a single person cannot maintain a perfect balance between old customers and getting new ones. Hence, outsourcing to a contact centre can considerably improve the business flow, since there is manpower specifically dedicated to customer calls.

Logistics

When it comes to corporate organisation, good logistics is a must. It is an important component not only for completing specific processes in the retail and selling sectors but also for the general coordination of the business’s operations. For a better, easier, and more efficient business organisation, you can use any software specifically oriented towards business logistics. One of these is definitely time tracking, which is an important part of project and task management, where you have precise data on how much time it is needed for the individuals and groups to handle certain tasks.

On the other hand, outsourcing logistics frees time to focus on selling and new product placements. Fulfilment, warehousing, and delivery services by third-party services can be an overall money saver and will help you improve customer services.

Including different types of services, software, and professional engagement is a must in today’s business functioning. These factors are the ones that will help you grow your business, improve your strategy, and spread in some other departments. Besides this, not all services are now handled by individuals, and it is practically impossible to use a single service that will help you make progress.

Learn Why Saving Your Business Data In The Cloud Is Safer In 2021

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Talk about “the cloud” has abounded over the last several years. You’ve heard it. Some of your business colleagues have even talked about moving to it, but you’re still sceptical.

What’s this cloud that everyone keeps speaking about? What can it do for my business? If you want to find out, keep on reading.

What is the “Cloud”?

The cloud is a global system of servers and the software that facilitates them that allows users to access stored data as well as utilise services.

For example, if you use any of Google’s products, then you are using the cloud. The emails from your Gmail account are stored in the cloud and not on your computer’s hard drive. This is why you can access them from anywhere, on any device, once you have your Gmail password.

You can immediately see the benefits of the cloud for a company. You won’t have to invest in your own physical servers to store data. You also do not have to purchase software to be stored on your machine. You can run applications from the cloud. They can be accessed by anyone who needs them, from anywhere.

The primary benefit, of course, would be the cost-saving achieved by not having to maintain servers or hire staff to deal with them. However, business owners have asked about the safety of the cloud for their data. You can understand their concern. Data security could mean the difference between springing a surprise on your competition and a failed product launch because someone leaked your new innovation.

How secure is the cloud for business data?

Imagine it’s a few months before your product launch. All the data related to it is stored on your computers at your headquarters. You have a level of security both for the building and your IT assets, but it’s nothing advanced. You have also allowed some employees to work on it at home on their own machines, which have dubious security. One of two things could happen here. You can either be hacked by someone breaking into your headquarters and accessing your system. Or, they can hack one of the employees critical to the project because they have less security than the company’s computers and easily guessable passwords.

If you had adopted cloud data-saving products, you could have prevented this from happening. Learning more about cloud products and companies is easy. All you need to do is take the time and do your research to see what might be suitable for your business and its needs. As explained by the team at 360 Visibility, if your product data had been uploaded to the cloud, it would have been far harder to access. Data stored in the cloud is encrypted. What this means is that it is translated into code that can only be broken by someone with the encryption key.

Hackers are unlikely to get that. Even if they are able to intercept or gain access to your data, they won’t be able to turn it into usable information because of the encryption. Only hackers with hard to get specialist equipment and a lot of computing power might be able to turn the data into something usable.

Other ways the cloud is more secure

If your data was stored at your company headquarters and there was a natural disaster or a fire, it’s likely your data would be destroyed. Cloud storage on the other hand is everywhere the Internet is. Because the Internet is not a physical place, it is free from physical threats. Because cloud companies tend to back up this information to multiple servers around the world, your data is safeguarded.

Cloud companies also depend on multiple layers of security for your data. These are:

Firewalls

A firewall monitors network traffic to and from your system. The firewall can be set to stop certain kinds of traffic from making its way into your network. Firewalls can be software or hardware and can offer basic network monitoring to the most advanced next-generation security

Because of the nature of what they do, cloud companies often have some of the most advanced firewalls available.

Event logs

Cloud companies offer their clients event logs to help them monitor what has been happening with their data. It lets them know if there were attempts to access their data, by whom, when, and what types of data they attempted to, for example.

The business can see for itself if it has had any breaches and take steps accordingly rather than wait for the cloud company to inform them.

Artificial intelligence

Some cloud companies use AI to help them detect lower-level threats. There are advantages here in that where human beings are not available to scan networks 24/7, artificial intelligence systems are.

Data redundancy

Remember when we spoke earlier about backing up data? This is what data redundancy is. Cloud companies backup data multiple times on multiple servers around the world. Even if there are conditions affecting servers in one place, this does not mean that your data is lost.

Third-party security checks

Because cloud systems need to be absolutely secure, companies often hire third parties to see if the data can be breached. They will also hire white hat hackers to test the security of passwords, firewalls, and many of the other systems spoken of above here.

The point of both exercises is to see where they can make improvements in their security.

Updates to system security

A cloud company does not depend on the client to do the requisite updates and security patches to software to guard against attack. Instead, they take on this responsibility for themselves. This way, the level of security is not compromised by forgetful clients.

Cloud companies are also always seeking ways to make the data they protect more secure. You can rest assured that the latest technology will be applied to the protection of your data.

As time passes, the expectation is that cloud security and the technology it is based on will only get better. Some 94 percent of businesses surveyed in a 2019 study used a public or private cloud service. Your business could be the next to adopt them.

Swiss Private Bank Recognised for Advisory Excellence

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A Swiss private bank has been recognised for advisory excellence. In light of increasing standards within private banking, a clear definition of the services delivered to clients is necessary.

An efficient delivery of these services requires an optimisation of the processes and organisational adaptations as well as state-of-the-art information technology systems.

The world of private banking is changing. Increasing expectations of clients, changing regulatory requirements in applicable jurisdictions, as well as innovation among competitors all force private banks to precisely specify their market positioning.

A clear definition of client services is an essential first element in providing advisory services of consistently good quality. Well-organised and standardised advisory processes come next, followed by a well-thought-out delivery model for the monitoring of client portfolios.

The project scope included analysis of client needs and specification of new service packages in the area of non-discretionary mandates.

To enable an efficient delivery of client services, the processes within mid- and front-office were optimised and supporting information technology systems engaged. These measures took active account of both global and local regulatory requirements, thereby promoting excellence not only on the client side but also on the legal and regulatory side.

Finalix AG Overview:

Finalix develops and supports projects for companies in the finance and insurance industry. Finalix clients include universal banks, private banks, asset managers, private equity companies and insurance companies.

Finalix are passionate doers with character and live a flat hierarchy. Finalix share our knowledge and actively exchange ideas with each other. Work-life balance is no empty phrase for us –Finalix promote part-time models. With us, you will accompany and develop value-creating projects with banks and insurance companies.