Preterion's Content Management

Category: Blog

  • AI Shouldn’t Have the Keys to the Castle

    AI Shouldn’t Have the Keys to the Castle

    Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday business operations. From drafting emails and analysing documents to answering customer questions and automating workflows, AI tools are delivering genuine productivity gains.

    And this brings with it a plethora of potential dangers and problems.

    The problem is not the technology itself.

    The problem is how quickly businesses are placing trust in systems that are still evolving from a security perspective.

    Recent research highlighted a vulnerability known as “SearchLeak,” which affected Microsoft Copilot. While Microsoft responded quickly to address the issue, the incident exposed an important reality: AI assistants can become a pathway to sensitive business information when they are given broad access to business systems.

    In this case, the attack did not rely on malware, ransomware, or traditional hacking techniques. Instead, it manipulated the AI’s behaviour through carefully crafted instructions, causing the system to access and expose information available to the user.

    Yes, you read this correctly: the link contained malicious instructions for the AI reading it!

    The significance of this event goes beyond any single vendor or product.

    It highlights a broader challenge facing businesses today.

    For years, cybersecurity focused on protecting people from making mistakes. Staff were trained to identify phishing emails, avoid suspicious attachments, and verify unusual requests.

    AI changes the equation.

    Now businesses are deploying digital assistants that can search mailboxes, access SharePoint libraries, review documents, analyse spreadsheets, interact with customer records, and perform actions on behalf of employees.

    These systems operate with the permissions they are given. If an employee can access confidential information, the AI connected to that employee’s account can often access it as well.

    This creates a new category of risk.

    At Preterion, we strongly believe AI has an important role to play in modern business. It can improve productivity, accelerate innovation, reduce repetitive work, and help organisations make better decisions.

    However, there is a critical distinction between using AI as an assistant and using AI as an autonomous operator.

    An assistant helps people make decisions.

    An AI operator makes decisions on behalf of people.

    The further businesses move towards autonomous AI, the more important governance, security controls, and oversight become.

    So, What’s The Solution to AI Dangers?

    Before integrating AI into core business systems, organisations should consider several questions:

    • What systems does the AI need access to?
    • Can access be restricted to only the information required?
    • Are permissions aligned with the principle of least privilege?
    • Is there a human approval process for sensitive actions?
    • Can all AI activity be monitored and audited?
    • What controls exist if the AI receives malicious or misleading instructions?

    These questions are not intended to slow innovation.

    They are intended to protect it.

    The history of technology shows that new capabilities are often adopted faster than security controls can mature. AI is unlikely to be any different.

    The businesses that benefit most from AI over the next decade will not necessarily be those that adopt it first. They will be those that adopt it intelligently.

    At Preterion, we encourage organisations to embrace AI while maintaining control over their digital infrastructure. Innovation should never come at the expense of security, resilience, or operational stability.

    AI is an extraordinary tool.

    But for now, it should remain a trusted adviser—not the holder of the master keys.

    Preterion helps businesses balance Cost, Resilience Innovation, Security and Performance through strategic IT Service Management and vendor-neutral technology guidance. Our approach is built on ensuring technology serves and protects the business, not the other way around.

  • Your Copilot Is Not Your Lawyer

    Your Copilot Is Not Your Lawyer

    Why Businesses Need to Stop Using the Copilot Consumer Version (and What to Do Next)

    We’re all excited about AI assistants, and let’s be honest, Copilot is fantastic – especially because it is free and deeply embedded into the Microsoft ecosystem. But before your business team starts pasting sensitive data into the free, consumer version, you need to read the fine print. Those casual-sounding Microsoft Terms of Use are a defensive legal structure that could expose your company’s intellectual property (IP) and privacy.

    Here’s a breakdown of the two clauses that should make any IT leader or compliance officer nervous, and what your organization needs to do to keep things buttoned up.The Two Must-Read Clauses in the Consumer Terms

    Microsoft’s consumer terms are written with blunt language for casual users. But for a business, they are huge red flags:

    1. “For entertainment purposes only”: This is Microsoft’s polite way of saying, “We warned you, this thing can hallucinate.” The tool can and will make mistakes, so you absolutely should not rely on its advice for anything important or mission-critical. Human verification is non-negotiable.
    2. “We may use Your Content”: This is the kicker. When you submit content to consumer Copilot, Microsoft is permitted to process and use it to operate and improve the service. This means your content—your secret sauce, your confidential memos—could be used to train the model, unless you’ve specifically restricted it via an enterprise contract. If you’re dropping sensitive data in there, you’re taking a massive risk with your IP and privacy.

    Why the Terms Are the Way They Are

    This isn’t a malicious plot; it’s mostly just legal pragmatism and product strategy:

    • Legal Defense: The blunt language limits Microsoft’s legal exposure to casual users and helps them stay safe from misunderstandings.
    • The Enterprise Upsell: They market the consumer Copilot broadly, but the strong contractual protections—like data isolation and better security—are intentionally reserved for the pricier enterprise SKUs.

    Real Talk: Actionable Steps for Your Business

    You can’t—and shouldn’t—stop using AI, but you need to start governing it. If you’re a business, you need contractual protection plus operational governance.

    1. Block the Freebie for Secrets: Immediately restrict the use of consumer Copilot for any proprietary or sensitive content. If the data is involved in mission-critical work or is sensitive, always keep a human in the loop to look it over.
    2. Get the Proper Contract: If Copilot is serious business for your team, procure the enterprise agreements. These include the data handling and isolation guarantees that the consumer terms lack.
    3. Assign Ownership and Audit: Automation doesn’t eliminate the need for human bosses. Assign named owners for Copilot workflows. When feasible, log the inputs and outputs for potential audits.
    4. Standardize: Minimize risk by creating consistent prompts and templates for your team to use.

    Need a Quick Decision Checklist?

    • Sensitive Data Involved? 👉 Avoid consumer Copilot.
    • Need an Audit Trail? 👉 Get the enterprise contract and ensure logging is implemented.

    AI assistants are game-changers, but they aren’t magical replacements for human judgment. They are powerful tools that require smart management and stewardship.

    For more information on how companies are tracking and governing AI usage, check out:

  • Scam Alert: Fake Trademark Emails Targeting Australian Businesses

    Scam Alert: Fake Trademark Emails Targeting Australian Businesses

    At Preterion, part of our job is to protect your business—not just your infrastructure, but your peace of mind. Recently, we’ve seen a rise in a specific type of scam that’s targeting Australian companies, and we want to make sure you’re aware of it.

    What’s Happening?

    Scammers are sending out emails claiming that someone is attempting to register your business name as a trademark. These emails are designed to cause panic and urgency, pushing you to pay for unnecessary trademark services or legal action.

    Here’s how the scam usually works:

    • You receive an email claiming that a third party is trying to register your business name as their trademark.
    • The message urges you to act fast to “protect your rights.”
    • It may include references to Australian laws or government agencies to sound official.
    • You might see a professional-looking email signature, branding, or even a fake business card.
    • The sender might use a domain like markfilersau.com or similar to seem legitimate.

    These emails are fraudulent. They are not connected to IP Australia or any legitimate trademark or legal organisation.

    What Should You Do?

    If you receive a suspicious email like this:

    • Do not reply, click on any links, or provide any personal or business information.
    • Do not make any payments or share banking details.
    • Delete the message immediately.
    • Verify any legitimate trademark communication by contacting IP Australia or your legal advisor directly.

    Mirai Legal has published a detailed article with more examples and known scam domains. We recommend reviewing their post to familiarise yourself with the warning signs:
    CLICK HERE to visit or do a Google search: “Mirai Legal Trade Mark Scam Warning” to find the latest update.

    Need Help?

    If you’re ever unsure about a suspicious message, contact us first. The Preterion team is here to act as your internal IT department—we’ll help you verify, block, or report the issue quickly and safely.

  • Not Using 2FA? Malvertisers Can Trick Even IT Pros into Giving Up Passwords!

    Not Using 2FA? Malvertisers Can Trick Even IT Pros into Giving Up Passwords!

    Attacks on our private information seem to come from everywhere. The worst thing is that perpetrators have thought of a new way to access your data by the time you feel you are on top of the security your devices need.

    Where does it stop?

    Awareness helps. The type of attack we talk about in this blog is particularly insidious because it can even trick seasoned IT professionals who actively look for malware. If they can be fooled, what hope do the rest of us have?

    Malvertisers are particularly crafty with their attacks. Let’s look at their latest strategy to take over your devices.

    What is a Malvertiser?

    Distributing malware via online advertisements is the purpose of malvertisers. With advertising being a critical source of income for websites, malvertising takes advantage of these growing pathways to reach large online audiences.

    Malvertisers use a range of strategies, with the result always being to either direct a user to a malicious server or to get them to download malware onto their device. Online vendors are aware of malvertising strategies and work to prevent their attacks however this is not easy to accomplish.

    Let’s go Phishing

    Malvertisers use Phishing Kits to lure you in. They are an open-source tool that enables them to create websites specifically for phishing, demonstrating the lengths attackers will go to access your devices and information.

    You have seen the types of websites they create, straightforward websites with funny cat pics, trashy stories about celebrities, or blog posts with sensational headlines. These sites are all designed to get you to click on fake adverts that will take you to phishing websites where the aim is to get you to give them your password.

    Simulated Login Websites

    A new practice, the Browser In The Browser (BITB) Attack, has been uncovered and documented by mr.d0x. See his in-depth explanation about BITB attacks here.

    Essentially, the BITB attack involves the malicious player building a website that has a registration and login pop-up that mimics those used for a cloud service like Office365, Facebook, and Google, to name a few. They do this so well that it is likely to fool an IT professional.

    It looks so realistic because the pop-up they create has the correct URL, and it looks exactly like the actual window you would use to log in with Facebook and Google. This enables the attacker to collect usernames and passwords to hack accounts.

    If you are suspicious about a window you plan to use to log in, try dragging the window. If you can move it to the edge of the browser, it’s real. If not, then you know it is fake.

    How to Safeguard Against a BITB Attack

    The ONLY way to ensure you are safe against this type of attack is to always use two-factor authentication for all of your online platforms. The reason why 2FA is successful is that if you are a victim of such an attack, the attacker will need the code to access your account, which of course, goes to you and ensures they are locked out.

    A Few Last Words

    Always think about security with your online presence. The little extra time it takes to implement and use security measures like two-factor authentication is worth spending. Imagine the time, inconvenience, and cost of being successfully hacked. Prevention is undoubtedly worth the effort.

    Availability BPA business continuity Business Process Automation Cybersecurity disruption email scams employees Geeks Innovation Internal Security Policies password protection phishing productivity ransomware removal Recovery risk SaaS security Server Uptime SLA Software as a Service Tech Glitches threats Updating Hardware

  • Is Microsoft Sending Hackers To The Dark Side?

    Is Microsoft Sending Hackers To The Dark Side?

    In a recent article on bleepingcomputer.com, the news of a new zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft’s Windows operating system took an interesting twist I was not aware of.

    Some context on zero-day vulnerabilities

    A zero-day vulnerability has only been made known to the vendor (in our case Microsoft), meaning they have “zero-days” to fix it. This kind of exploit is considered dangerous as it allows hackers to exploit the flaw in real-life attacks, sometimes for years before both the vendor and the public are aware and can take counter-measures.

    When security researchers (basically, white-hat hackers) find such vulnerabilities, they have avenues to report them to the vendors. In most cases, big names like Microsoft, Apple or Google will offer a monetary reward. In recent years, big software companies have established bounty programs sometimes offering quite large amounts of money.

    Here comes the bad news

    What is surprising and unexpected about this recently discovered vulnerability is accompanying comments about why the researcher has decided to make the zero-day exploit public, together with proof of concept.

    Microsoft has dropped their bounty program rewards – in some cases reducing them ten times or more. Looking further at the article, it seems like this is just the tip of the iceberg, with many researchers complaining (with examples).

    Are we going to see more attacks because of it?

    Here’s why this is important and should be a concern for any business using the Microsoft platform and systems:

    We all know software is not perfect. Researchers and hackers constantly find new bugs and vulnerabilities. The bounty programs are an ideal way to incentivise experts to find proactively issues that need fixing. It is a continuous race between the good guys and the bad guys to be the first to discover exploits and either report or exploit them in malicious players’ cases.

    In both cases, it’s all about the money, and whilst bad actors will continue to do what they do because they can earn hefty sums of money or crypto coins, the good guys may choose not to.

    The Force is Strong – But which Force?

    Think for a minute what the possible scenarios maybe when Microsoft drops the ball and stops incentivising the white-hat hackers and security researchers. Any of them can turn to the dark web, sell the discovered exploits, and make up for the loss caused by a change in policy.

    Even more disturbing is that companies like Microsoft and Apple seem to be relatively slow in patching vulnerabilities unless they affect government institutions or Fortune 500 companies.

    In opposition to this, in the Open-Source world, large communities come together and establish bounty programs sponsored by large organisations, further bridging the apparent gap in security and maintenance between software that is free and open and locked-down, commercial solutions. The vendors may claim to be safe and suitable, but we cannot glimpse the code, so we don’t know the reality.

  • Transform Your Workplace with Business Process Automation (BPA)

    Transform Your Workplace with Business Process Automation (BPA)

    Business Process Automation (BPA) if you haven’t heard of it, is a way to save costs, reduce downtime and streamline a range of mundane tasks in your business to free up skilled staff and dedicate them to more strategic work.

    Gone are the days where you need employees to complete repetitive tasks.  Instead, with the implementation of BPA, you can automate complete business processes using technology, and minimal human involvement. 

    We define a business process as an activity or group of activities that are in place to achieve an explicit organisational objective.

    How BPA Improves Every Aspect of Your Business

    BPA is a broad subject, and in case you don’t know why you would use it in your business, here are some reasons why you shouldn’t delay. Using BPA is a sound business decision and designed to make your life easier, so let’s dive into how that can happen:

    Efficiency increases with reduced human involvement

    The idea of automation is not to put people out of work but to automate mundane and repetitive tasks and give human workers more interesting work to focus on. Technology doesn’t get bored, distracted, or overtired and works at a consistent speed, and is ideal for tasks like customer support ticketing or an automatic marketing channel.

    Save money by reducing operational costs

    Being able to decrease expenditure is a bonus for every business owner. When you automate tasks, you are eliminating steps that are time-intensive, saving on wages and resources especially when you look at your technology as a long-term investment.

    Consistent quality is easy with BPA

    Technology performs an action the same every time. It doesn’t forget steps in a process and replicates the required quality each and every time without cutting corners. Processes can be easily tracked, audit trails are available, and essential data analytics are generated by the software.

    Productivity increases

    Automated processes are consistent and quicker, and more efficient than if the same activities are performed manually. Paperwork is decreased as more functions are handled electronically, and your employees can do more complex tasks instead in the time available.

    Greater process accuracy

    Accuracy is important to every business, and preventing errors is way easier than fixing them after they have been made.

    Data analytics becomes more accessible

    With the right settings, data can be collected every time a process is run. This gives you invaluable data to track metrics in real-time that, when analysed, can help you make important decisions to create a growth strategy for your business.

    Examples of How You Can Use BPA

    You will be amazed by the enormous range of processes that can be automated. There really is no limit as solutions can be specifically tailored to fit your business leads.

    Here are a few examples to get you started:

    1. Managing staff records: make employee onboarding paperless by automating collating personal information, required forms, setting up payroll details, and allocating workplace resources.
    2. Streamlining your purchase order system: purchase orders are a big element in most companies, automating the process negates the need to be forever shuffling through piles of paperwork.
    3. Customer/supplier invoicing: simply keep all of your invoices in one place with an attached approval process that makes sure the process flows easily and on time.
    4. Generating reports: automatically generate and distribute reports that are needed to support your everyday operation.
    5. Simple accounting: not all accounting tasks can be automated, however simple tasks that are time consuming can be automated to free up staff for more complex tasks.
    6. Manage meeting calendars: set it up so that you can organise meetings automatically, including invites, to make it easier to ensure that they are managed efficiently. Meeting automation platforms (MAPs) provide features to not only support your meeting but enhance communication and post meeting follow-ups.
    7. Management of facilities: decentralizing processes enables a quicker response time, more accurate maintenance monitoring and an audit trail to track the entire process.
    8. Communicate across your business: update staff, customers and other shareholders easily with automated communications.
    9. Marketing channels: you can automate the email blasts to qualified leads, that have automatically been tracked, monitored and nurtured.

    A Few Last Words

    BPA is a big subject that enables BIG results for your company. Cost savings increased productivity and accessible data analytics are just a few of the many areas you can benefit from when you implement BPA in your business.

  • Embrace the Geekiness of Team Members for Inventive & Surprising Results

    Embrace the Geekiness of Team Members for Inventive & Surprising Results

    Do you know who the geeks are in your business? If you don’t maybe they are flying under the radar. Did you know it’s in your best interest to flush them out and learn how to maximise the innovation they can apply to your unique business challenges?

    Who is a Geek & How Do You Identify Them?

    Geeks are generally talented members of your staff who do not fit easily into your work culture. They are obsessed with their work, not interested in (or good at) rule following, yet they are the ones that are leading the company’s innovative thinking.

    Not interested in being popular, they can be difficult to manage because they perceive the world differently and that governs how they approach their work. The challenge is to tap into their brilliance and determine how to channel it into the areas that you desperately need to address.

    5 Tips for Successfully Working with IT Geeks

    Geeks are like anyone else, the trick to working with them is to first get to know them, understand their needs, and compromise to develop best business practices that you all can work with.

    Check out our tips:

    Get a handle on geek psychology

    Social niceties are a geeks Achilles heel. They will never fit in socially and will miss lots of social cues that float into their workspace. Instead of judging them, make allowances for the different ways that they think. Emotional conversations are rare but practical ones are very forthcoming.

    Don’t force team building on them or expect they will join after work socialization because they just don’t feel comfortable. It’s time to allow for diversity of thinking and not expect them to participate. Always ask but accept no as a valid response.

    Geeks don’t follow the usual rules, but to ensure that they are productive it’s helpful to understand when to rein in their unconventionality and when to give in to it.

    Make sure they know their worth

    Don’t be shy letting them know that their contributions are extraordinary, they love to hear positive feedback, remember their work is everything. This keeps them motivated to achieve even greater accomplishments.

    Give them the workspace they need

    Geeks don’t necessarily play well with others, so use your project management tools (if you have them) to create dedicated online workspaces that allow you to compartmentalize access according to roles.

    With the physical space, talk to your geeks and understand what their unique requirements are to be able to focus fully on the work. It may be that they have sensitivities to light or sound. Find ways to make their space more comfortable for optimal productivity.

    Be sensitive to all interactions

    Geeks can be prone to truth telling. Blunt, honest conversations are their norm and may bruise the egos of other team members with their perceived insensitivity. This is where you need to have a contingency plan that swings into place to put out any fires.

    Dispel negative stereotypes

    You also need to manage the perceptions of the other members of your team. Negative stereotypes hurt everyone, and it is productive to help them see geeks as people who are wired differently with unique operating systems. Geeks are neurodiverse and not intentionally difficult it is just the way they are.

    They are extremely talented and not difficult to manage once you develop an understanding of how their brains work, and the best ways to approach them. Celebrate their individuality and talent and embrace them as unique, and essential, contributors to your business.

    A Few Last Words

  • Tech Glitches: How to Avoid Impacting Productivity

    Tech Glitches: How to Avoid Impacting Productivity

    Technology is going to glitch; some days more than others and odds are that your productivity will be impacted when it does. Glitches can originate from an internal or external source and can cost you in both time and money.

    Can they be avoided? We think that at the very least malfunctions or attacks can be minimized and here is how.

    Tech Issues That Could Already Be Affecting Your Productivity

    Tech issues that you are not aware of can be slowing down your employees, simple problems that can easily be rectified.

    • Unintentional loss of data: Unreliable technology, blackouts, and employee errors cause data loss, one of the most common issues that contributes to the productivity loss of your employees. When staff must restart projects, and redo tasks because items are not saved – they waste time having to retrieve data.
    • Ad hoc employee access: Do you have a logical filing system that staff can easily follow to access the files they need? Do they know where the software they use is kept and how to use it? Monitor your systems, talk to your staff and hold regular training sessions, and create documentation so that employees can seamlessly conduct their work.
    • Computer shutdowns: Are some of your systems or technology outdated? Are they prone to shutting down in the middle of important tasks or freeze just before a document is saved? Update software and technology to enable employees’ productivity with workstations that work.
    • Slow/unreliable network connections: Apart from holding workers back, a slow internet connection can significantly affect productivity. In the current marketplace, reliable and fast internet is easy to access in most areas and there really is no reason to stumble along with a subpar connection.
    • Lack of spam filters: When inboxes fill up with spam, workers slow down dealing with it and run the risk of accidentally downloading a virus. With a spam filter in place, the time spent by employees checking emails is dramatically reduced.
    • Delays in tech repairs: Downtime caused by technology breakdowns. Minimise the amount of time it takes to fix technical issues. Ideally have an IT company on speed dial who can fix breakdowns immediately.

    The Bare Minimum of Protection

    There is a minimum of protection that you should have in place, more is better depending on your business, size, and network configuration.

    If you are not at least doing these things, you are seriously at risk of a crisis:

    Back it up

    Make it a habit to back your files up every day, even better automate the process so you don’t need to remember. Make it easy to recover your files, this helps to mitigate the interruption to productivity.

    Check backups regularly

    Automation is great but fallible, regularly check your backups to ensure they are complete and viable. It needs to be recoverable in case of a crisis. You don’t want to find out your backup is corrupt when you need it in an emergency.

    Store backups safely

    The next step to having a backup of your data is to store at least one copy offsite. Robberies, natural disasters, and fires can be devastating, even more so if you lose all of the data you need to begin trading again.

    Don’t catch a virus

    Install virus protection on your system, you may need an assessment by an expert to implement the solution that gives your network the most comprehensive coverage. Regularly check to make sure that your virus protection is always turned on and keep updates current.

    Configure your firewall

    Regardless of the size of your business, you need to always have a firewall in place. People attack business networks for lots of reasons, sometimes just simply because they can. Preventing an attack is much easier than needing to recover from one.

    Install security patches

    Security patches are an essential part of your system. They are created to address reimagined viral attacks, new attacks, and loopholes that you are not already protected against. Simply update them as soon as they are available for maximum protection.

    A Few Last Words

    Productivity through technology is often overlooked. These simple ways of boosting your productivity are easy to implement and can make a real difference to your bottom line.

  • Internal Security Policies: Your Best Defence Against Threats

    Internal Security Policies: Your Best Defence Against Threats

    Headlines love stories about the big cyber-attack from reprehensible outsiders. These do happen way too often, but what we don’t hear about often enough is the overwhelming percentage of breaches are caused by an error or action of a staff member. Usually inadvertent, but sometimes malicious.

    Where Do Employees Go Wrong?

    Human mistakes happen, you can mitigate risk through policies and training and reduce how often they happen. However, while it may be difficult to eradicate them altogether, you can strategise to reduce their impact in the event that they happen.

    So, what are the key areas where errors happen:

    • Misaddressed emails
    • Stolen devices – or personal devices without the right security
    • Insecure home systems for remote workers
    • Unhappy employees with malicious intent
    • Employee’s identities hijacked by cyber criminals

    What Security Policies Do You Need to Secure Your Business?

    It’s not just one policy that you need to ensure the security of your business, but rather a group of policies that address critical areas that form your security program.

    Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

    The AUP outlines both the practices and constraints that your employees using company assets need to consent to before they are granted access to your internet and network. Every new employee should sign one at the commencement before being given a network ID.

    Access Control Policy (ACP)

    Limiting access to information and data systems available to employees is standard. Not everybody needs access to everything so building in security stages that require different types of access is an additional level of security.

    The ACP outlines these access types as well as:

    • criteria for all user access
    • how network access controls are mandated
    • the software controls of your operating system
    • corporate passwords and the required complexity
    • how corporate systems are monitored and accessed
    • how to secure any unused and unattended workstations should
    • how access is cancelled when an employee exits the company

    Change Management Policy

    Having a framework for managing change within your organisation starts with your Change Management Policy. This documents how changes will be communicated throughout the business and how they will be conducted to minimise disruption.  

    Remote Access Policy

    With more staff members working remotely, your Remote Access Policy is more important than ever. It outlines the ways that are acceptable for workers to remotely connect to your company’s internal network. You can also add BYOD guidelines to this document.

    Email/Communication Policy

    This policy covers how your employees are allowed to use the company’s electronic communications and can cover:

    • email
    • blogs
    • social media
    • chat features

    Information Security Policy

    This is a high-level policy that covers a wide range of security controls. It is designed to ensure that all employees who do use any of the organisations IT assets and network are aware of and comply with all documented guidelines and rules.

    Disaster Recovery Plan

    How well you recover from an attack, or a crisis is a matter of planning rather than good luck. A comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan outlines how any incident will be handled and triggers risk assessment and staff training to ensure its success.

    Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

    The BCP ensures that the Disaster Recovery Plan is being used effectively to restore your business following an attack or disaster. This includes all applications, data, and hardware that is vital to mitigate damage and restore business continuity.

    A Few Last Words

    Having these policies in place in your business, and combined with robust IT security solutions, will protect your business in the event of an attack and enable you to recover. Every business is different and it’s advisable to get expert assistance to ensure that you are fully covered.

  • Take the Opportunity to Explore NEW Technology When Updating Hardware

    Take the Opportunity to Explore NEW Technology When Updating Hardware

    Hardware can be expensive to upgrade and easily become redundant if you don’t make the right decisions when purchasing. With such a significant investment, BEFORE you spend is a great time to jump outside the box and look at how you can do what you do better and save on costs by investing in the latest solutions.

    Don’t Make These Mistakes When Buying Hardware for Your Company

    First, let’s have a quick look at the biggest mistakes that businesses like yours make when looking at updating computers and other technology.

    Failing to Complete a Comprehensive Network Analysis

    It’s advisable to regularly conduct a network analysis, especially before purchasing, to ensure that you have an understanding of what works and what doesn’t work in your current setup. It helps to chart your data flow through your core technology, so it is easy to identify issues.

    Skipping this step could mean spending money in the wrong areas.

    Not Discussing User Needs

    The best people to ask about the effectiveness of your technology are the employees. They use it every day and will be able to tell you about its successes and failures. This information can inform the plan that you make to update your system.

    Only Buying When Things Break Down

    It’s better to use a proactive plan for your technology rather than buying ad hoc as needed. This way you can get the most benefit out of your budget and have the leverage to negotiate discounts when you buy.

    Only Buying the Cheapest Equipment

    Being smart when buying is essential but with your technology, the cheapest option is not always the best option and a good long-term investment. Sometimes you need to spend a little more initially for the best solution that saves money over time.

    Not Consulting Experts

    If it’s not your job to maintain networks, then talking to experts that have all of the latest information is recommended. An IT expert can help you to understand the latest in technology and how you can make it work for you.

    SaaS as an Alternative to Expensive Computer Updates

    SaaS applications are run in the cloud. For a regular fee, as a business, you can access the latest software and hardware, via an internet connection, without the significant upfront expenditure.

    The SaaS provider is the one that maintains the servers, software, and databases that permit you to use their product/services remotely. SaaS can be tailored to fit your requirements and you only pay for what you use, and you can scale up or down depending on the season and your turnover.

    This allows you, as a business, to focus more on your core products and redirect the budget that would usually be spent on software and infrastructure to other areas of the business.

    A Few Last Words

    SaaS is worth serious consideration for any size business. It offers considerable savings and access to software and hardware that you wouldn’t be able to use otherwise. The first thing you do is audit your network and determine your needs.

    Once you have done this you can talk to a number of providers to determine who would be best for your business.