An IT Support Blog from London

Read the latest IT news, tips and insights from IT Support pros at HTL Support

Why is Ransomware Becoming the Favourite Attack Dog of Cyber Criminals?

Why is Ransomware Becoming the Favourite Attack Dog of Cyber Criminals?

Of all the types of malware wreaking havoc these days, one clearly stands out - Ransomware. This troublesome malware appears to be gaining a lot of fans in the cybercrime community and has, in turn, caused considerable stretches of downtime on a large number of organisations.

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Virtualising Your Servers: Benefits, Advantages and Savings

Virtualising Your Servers

Server virtualisation has been a viable IT strategy for some time. Virtualisation has its origins as a technical concept in the 1960s, but it is more recently that the virtualisation of servers has become commonplace, and it is a matter of priority for many IT managers: the 2017 Spiceworks State of IT survey suggests virtualisation is at the top of the list for software investment. The reason for this is simple: by making use of virtual server hosting UK companies are saving on expenditure and seeing the implementation and management of software applications becoming much more flexible.

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3580 Hits

When Should You Choose A Private Cloud Over A Public Cloud?

When Should You Choose A Private Cloud Over A Public Cloud

Forrester Research expects the global private cloud solutions market to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 11% from 2016 to 2021. While this is certainly small compared to the growth rate of public cloud solutions, it still means there are enterprises out there who are interested in using private clouds. But when would you likely choose a private cloud over a public cloud?

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4219 Hits

Understanding the Business Benefits of Moving To Hosted Desktop

Benefits of Hosted Desktop

The ever growing number of personal computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets in the enterprise can present serious challenges in costs, maintenance, security, compliance, and productivity. But many of these challenges can now be addressed by employing hosted desktop. You may not be aware of them yet but there are actually several business benefits of moving toa hosted desktop. Here are some of them.

Saves hardware, power, and maintenance costs

Just like many cloud solutions, hosted desktop enable you to save on hardware costs. Instead of using desktop computers in your offices, you can use thin clients instead. These are lightweight machines that don’t require certain built-in components like hard disks, CPUs, or RAM. That means, they’re substantially cheaper than the average desktop computer.

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5 Hidden IT Risks that are Slowly Threatening your Business

5 Hidden IT Risks that are Slowly Threatening your Business

Information technology risks range from the very apparent to the silent and hidden. The majority of businesses mitigate the most obvious risks: only an irresponsible IT operation will do without network firewalls in place or skip on regularly updating operating systems and software. Yet it is the less obvious risks which can trip up even carefully run IT functions – and which can cause progressive or indeed sudden harm to your business.

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3760 Hits

How Can Phishing Attacks Hurt Your Business?

How Can Phishing Attacks Hurt Your Business

Based on the 2016 edition of Ponemon’s annual Cost of Cyber Crime report, phishing is now one of the most prevalent cyber-attacks today. Should you be worried about it? It depends. If you think any of the consequences of phishing attacks outlined below can impact your business, then maybe you should be.

 

Tarnish your company’s image

Most phishing attacks are designed to steal personal information. The way cyber criminals do this is by crafting legitimate-looking emails that compel recipients into disclosing their personal details.

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14 Questions to Ask Before You Renew Your IT Support Contract

14 Questions To Ask Before You Renew Your IT Support Contract

You walk into your office tomorrow. Before you can get a cup of coffee, one of your managers tells you that your IT service contract is going to expire in two months.

You've been frustrated with poor service and technology for months. Now, you have an opportunity to improve the situation. Your IT manager stands at the ready with a few recommended IT service providers. Are you equipped to sort through the options and call them?

Before you sign on the dotted line to renew your IT service contract, go through these questions. Investing an hour today could save you months of effort, risk and frustration.

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Shadow IT - a Threat or a Benefit?

Shadow IT - a threat or a benefit?

Acceptable practice or unacceptable risk?

Shadow IT is the practice of using technology within a business without the knowledge or approval of the IT function.

This includes anything from a single employee using a low-cost app, to an entire department, such as Project Management, adopting a cloud software application to support its Line of Business (LoB).

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3926 Hits

Your IT Support Provider Plays a More Critical Role in Your Business than You Think

Your IT Support Provider Plays A More Critical Role In Your Business Than You Think

When you enter into a managed services agreement with an IT support provider, you’re likely driven by the potential cost savings, particularly in terms of labour costs. What you probably don’t realise is that, in addition to helping you save on costs, an IT support provider can actually play a very critical role in the success of your business.

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4676 Hits

Can Your Network Withstand the Onslaught of IoT Botnets?

Can Your Network Withstand The Onslaught Of IoT Botnets?

DDoS attacks that force websites to go offline and cripple servers are nothing new, but many of the massive DDoS attacks last year, which also happened to be the biggest in history, had a common characteristic we’ve never seen before. They all originated from hordes of zombified IoT devices, also known as IoT botnets.

Because IoT devices are here to stay, this threat won’t be going away anytime soon. If your network includes websites and other Internet-facing applications, you need to understand what these threats are, how it can impact your business, and what we in the business community can do to protect our IT infrastructures from these types of attacks.

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