To all SMEs: Free Christmas gifts from technology ‘wise men’

‘Wise men’ at Conosco are spreading Christmas cheer by giving small-to-medium enterprise (SMEs) free IT advice, tips and solutions to help businesses thrive in 2017 and beyond.

Max Mlinaric, Managing Director of Conosco UK, said: “We work with a number of SMEs and larger companies, and we thought: why not share our professional advice to help SMEs begin the New Year on the right IT footing?”

Conosco’s three IT Christmas gifts are:

The ultimate guide to cyber security for employees

The infographic is a simple way to inform employees about the importance of cyber security practices. This guide includes how business breaches occur and basic computer changes anyone can make to strengthen security. See – https://www.conosco.com/blog/guide-to-cybersecurity-for-employees/

Avoid taking the email phishing bait

Business should use our checklist to avoid their networks being compromised and opened to viruses or hacks. The checklist includes being able to accurately identify a phishing email from a genuine email, what to look for when you receive an email asking for a login, personal or financial information, and the use of unusual link addresses or domain names. See – https://www.conosco.com/blog/checklist-how-to-identify-a-phishing-email/

Advice from Conosco experts Noel Thompson, Remote Operations Director and Luke Morris, Technical Services Manager.

• Carry out security training for all staff so they understand today’s cyber threats. For example, the threat of ransomware – a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.

• Don’t just create a company IT policy, implement it and enforce it. This will save your business time and money if things go wrong.

• Get internet resilience – ensure your businesses computer or network system components are installed to back up primary resources in case they fail.

• Ensure failover is tested in a live working environment. Failover is a procedure in which a system automatically transfers control to a duplicate system when it detects a fault or failure.

• Educate employees not to share passwords with colleagues and/or leave them written down on post-it notes or pinned to office notice boards.
• Invest in your business’ IT. Use a consultant to evaluate your business IT processes and identify how to make them more efficient and profitable. Consider Conosco IT Advantage which involves a review of your business, staff, key drivers, objectives and pain points of your business.