Many entrepreneurs struggle starting their own small businesses. There are too many things they have to take care of and too many things to organise. But maybe it doesn’t need to be as tough as it seems when you decide to outsource part of your services. Outsourcing is the practice of using outside firms to handle the work usually performed within the company. Probably the biggest advantage of outsourcing is that SMEs can entirely focus on their core activities. For example, if you are running a small marketing agency, you don’t need to employ an IT expert, you can easily outsource your IT which not only will make your life easier but also can significantly lower your costs.

The latest report by The Times presents a few examples of small entrepreneurs who highly benefitted from outsourcing their services. Paula Elliot, the managing director of the six-person marketing agency said that moving from a regular office to a serviced one revolutionised her working life. “They supply all the office infrastructure, telephone lines, stationery, etc. We don’t need to invest in reception staff or capital equipment (…) It makes things much easier and you don’t need to worry about business rates or furniture or anything”, she added.

Joy Burnford, joint managing director of the research consultancy company, admits that his business benefits from various outsourced services, as she claims that: “If someone else can do it, then they should. If it’s not building an asset for the business, then you should outsource it”. Burnford’s team of five have moved recently to serviced office, she also outsources IT support and book-keeping services.

Martin Hollis, the market research consultant, employs a book-keeper on an hourly rate to work for a half a day once a fortnight to do the administration. He also outsources his IT services because he believes that: ‘IT and book-keeping are two of the most-consuming things if you don’t know how to do them. I’m a huge supporter of doing only the things that I need to do. Some people are completely unable to let someone else to anything, in which case they will gently grind to a halt.”

Brian Clark who is a life couch also admits that outsourcing is very convenient. He had a lot of administration work to do but couldn’t afford employing a full-time worker so he ‘hired’ a virtual assistant. Basically, Mr Clarke dictates his reports and speeches and sends email voice files or scanned documents to his virtual assistant who does the whole typing work. He pays for the service in ten-hours blocks.

Various businesses discovered the power of outsourcing in the early 1990s, but many of them lacking the understanding of this practice. The key is to outsource wisely, as a random and mindless outsourcing can be harmful. Once you get it right, your company can benefit from numerous long-term benefits. Outsourcing can level SMEs with large companies by giving them access to the same economy of scale and expertise.

If you are considering outsourcing your IT, give Managed Networks a call on 0800 783 6170 or leave a callback request!

Sony’s online PlayStation network has been hacked leading to the theft of personal data and possibly credit card details from 77 million user accounts. The company admitted yesterday that it had been hit by hackers attack, six days after the data breach occurred and few hours after launching its new tablet in Japan. Why Sony waited so long to inform its customers about the threat? The data breach also raises an important question about our online security.

Sony admitted that it learned of the breach in its PlayStation network on 19 April and shut it down immediately. Since then the firm wasn’t rushing to give explanation to its confused customers, it only asked for “a little more patience”. Sony spokesman said it took several days of forensic investigation before the company learned their customers’ data had been compromised. No surprise that this announcement sparked fury among PlayStation users. One client commented: “The fact that you’ve waited this long to divulge this information to your customers is deplorable. Shame on you.”

Alan Paller, research director of the SANS Institute, thinks that Sony did not pay enough attention to security when it was developing the software running the network. Sony was mostly focused on launching innovative product ahead of the competitors and as a result the security suffered. “New software has errors in it. So they expose code with errors in it to large numbers of people, which is a catastrophe in the making” Paller added. He also suspects that hackers took over the PC of a system administrator who had rights to access to sensitive information about networks’ customers. They achieved so by sending the administrator an email containing malicious software that got downloaded on admin’s PC

Obviously, the data breach is a major setback for Sony. But the biggest issue is how the hackers are going to use the stolen information. The Japanese electronics maker said that there is no evidence that credit card details were stolen, but does not rule out such possibility. The firm hired “outside recognised security firm” to investigate the case.

The PlayStation data breach raises an important question about network and database security. How can we be sure that our data is properly protected if a major technology company like Sony cannot prevent the hackers attack?

Since it launched on November 11, 2006 the PlayStation network has had over 1.4bilion downloads. Sony said it would restore some of the network services within a week.

Apple, Google and Microsoft came under fire after allegations of tracking and storing the information about the users’ movement. Apple’s iPhone and iPad constantly track users’ locations and store the data in unencrypted files that can be read by anyone with physical access to the device, the latest research revealed. It was also reported that Apple, Google and Microsoft routinely capture their customers’ phones cell tower and GPS data without anyone knowing.

The security researchers, Pete Warden and Alasdair Alan discovered that iPhones and iPads keep the track of users’ physical location and store the data in unencrypted files. It appears that Apple has been recording information since deploying iOS 4.0 last June. The file is stored both, on the iOS device and any computers storing backup of its data.

The researchers wrote “The most immediate problem is that this data is stored in an easily-readable form on your machine (…). Apple have made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements”. However, Warden and Alan underline that there is no evidence that Apple or anyone else accessed the information.

According to hobbyist hacker Samy Kamkar, Android phones by Google collect nearby Wi-Fi access points and their geographic location every few seconds and transmit the information, along with the device’s unique id to the company several times per hour. By combining that information, it wouldn’t be hard for Google to figure out where you live and work. “They [Androids] are sending all your GPS coordinates. They know how fast you’re travelling. There is a unique identifier that’s always sent”, Kamkar added.

Just today, it emerged that Windows Phone 7 also silently transmits the precise physical location back to a central database. However, Windows Phones don’t store any of the locations on the device itself. By contrast, iPhone 4 can store the locations for months, if not years. Android indexes location of cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks, but only up to 200 and 50 entries, respectively.

Both Apple and Google have admitted that their phones report their locations, but only when devices’ location services are on. Their defence claims that the information transmitted from their phones is anonymous and users have the ability to turn it off. Neither Apple nor Google has revealed that the locations are also stored on the handset. Apple, Google and Microsoft are still to public their official statement regarding the controversy. MacRumors reports that one of its users sent an email to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking for explanations:

“Steve,
Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.”

Steve Jobs’ purported response was:

“Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.”

A lawsuit has been filled against Apple following its alleged tracking of the whereabouts of the iPhone and iPad users. Vikram Ajjampur and William Devito, the plaintiffs who filled the lawsuit on Monday explained: “The accessibility of the unencrypted information collected by Apple places users at serious risk of privacy invasions, including stalking.”

Is our privacy the price we have to pay for using hi-tech devices?

Virtualisation is being rapidly adopted by many companies for various reasons. Primarily, it brings significant money, time and labour savings. Businesses embrace virtualisation also because it improves business continuity as the disaster recovery becomes much easier once the enterprise has virtualised. Another reason to praise virtualisation is that it blocks malware attacks. Martyn Croft, CIO at Salvation Army UK says that thin-client virtualisation has helped to protect the business from scammers.

Two years ago Salvation Army replaced 1000 PCs with thin-client virtualisation. Recently, an employee from Salvation Army got a phone call from a scammer who was pretending to be from charity’s IT department. It’s quite a popular practice for scammers to impersonate IT department workers asking whether the computer is running slow etc. They usually get the users to download a Trojan virus, disguised as IT support file.

“The guy [scammer] got frustrated because he had not figured out there was not a PC in front of the user. Everything the scammer asked the user to do was thwarted by all the controls put in place,” Croft revealed.

Thin-client is hard to compromise as control filtering prevents users to be directed to malicious websites. The data and the desktop are secured at the datacentre, which also improves the security. However, it is essential to keep in mind that virtualization technologies connect to network infrastructure and storage networks. It requires a very careful planning with regard to access controls, user permissions, and traditional security controls.

Latest research carried out by Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA) revealed that the regulatory compliance will be the top issue affecting organisations’ IT in the next 12 to 18 months.

The survey of more than 2,400 IT security professionals indicates that new technologies (such as cloud computing), increase in regulations, data breach and the rise of personal technology in the workplace are accelerating complexity and risk.

The global economy is more and more challenging; enterprises need to manage their growth whilst complying with a growing number of regulations and standards. The top-ranked technology concern was segregation of duties and privileged access monitoring (chosen by 53 per cent of respondents).

“Occurrences such as WikiLeaks, the Zeus botnet and an overall rise in identity theft show in 2010 that the variety and volume of threats is on the upswing. Security is everyone’s business, not just IT‘s. This area will continue to be a losing battle if organisations do not get top-down commitment,” said Greg Grocholski, CISA, director at ISACA.

Information Technology needs to be carefully managed in accordance with growing number of government regulations to consumer privacy and hackers attacks.

If you feel like your business is not protected enough, give Managed Networks at 0800 783 6170 or request a callback. We will try to find the best possible solution for you.

The latest research by the Cloud Industry Forum revealed that nearly half of UK businesses (48%) are already using some form of cloud service. The main driver for change wasn’t actually the need to keep costs low, but the desire for increased flexibility. Worldwide, Microsoft predicts that by 2014 four out of 10 SMEs will be in the cloud by 2014. Is cloud computing soon to replace private IT infrastructure entirely?

Probably, one of the most significant indicators of cloud services success is the high rate of satisfaction with its technology. The survey showed that 94 per cent of cloud users were happy and satisfied with the service and are planning to expand the technology into different parts of their operations.

As for 52 per cent of the companies yet to invest in cloud services, they are very keen on doing so. Only 2 per cent of them weren’t interested in developing the cloud technology.

Andy Burton, chairman of Cloud Industry Forum, commented: “The reality is that customers are trying the cloud, they’re doing it for a purpose and they’re very happy with it.” He also added that much of the interest in cloud came from business leaders, but 65 percent of the companies converting to cloud had the decision taken by IT managers.

In a broader perspective, the latest research by Microsoft’s “SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011” predicts that four out of every 10 small or medium businesses will adopt cloud-based services by 2014. The survey was carried out across 16 countries. It was also discovered that the larger the business, the quicker it adopts cloud services.

As cloud computing becomes more and more ubiquitous and existing IT systems outdated, the businesses will migrate to cloud rapidly.

Small and medium enterprises are putting themselves at risk by not implementing sufficient IT security practices. Nearly 40% of SMEs have been hit by a malware attack, yet many of them don’t do anything to prevent subsequent threats.

A survey by internet services company Eclipse on 1,000 SMEs revealed that 71% of users do not have any IT security software on their computers at work. Some 58% of respondents admitted to use the same password for every website and online service they use, 46% share their passwords with friends and family. What is more, around three-quarters of employees would not be able to spot a rouge link.

The lack of security awareness can result in huge financial implications to SMEs. Clodagh Murphy, director of Eclipse said: “In today’s uncertain economic world, it is understandable why SMEs may think twice before investing more in IT security. However, no investment at all could prove to be catastrophic to their bottom line.”

SMEs need to be mindful about the impact of threats on their daily operations and work closely with their internet service and security providers to develop transparent guidelines to protect their business.

Salaries for UK IT professionals have risen 5% over the past year, a latest research by IT recruitment firm CV Screen revealed.

A detailed study of 50 IT roles and over 7,000 advertised positions in the UK during the first quarter of 2011 showed that the average salary for a permanent IT position is now £38,946, up 5% on the same period last year.

Matthew Iveson, director at CV Screen, commented “The rise in IT salaries can partly be attributed to the recovery of the economy and jobs market over the past 12 months. Employers are gaining confidence and their recruitment budgets have increased over the last year. Rather than cutting back on staff, we are now seeing employers looking to grow the size of their workforce and are having to offer more competitive salaries to secure the best talent.”

CV Screen points out that the number of registered vacancies increased dramatically, by over 25% in the first quarter of 2011 compared with 2010, whilst the number of application per role has actually dropped by 20%. This means that the employers may struggle to fill vacancies. The employer-driven market is now shifting towards a candidate-driven market, which is driving salaries up.

There still exists a lack of good quality candidates within certain areas of IT jobs market, particularly for .NET, PHP and Java roles. Employers have been forced to offer higher salaries to attract the best calibre candidates.

The rise in IT industry salaries may continue, as Iveson stressed “Whilst it is difficult to make predictions for the next 12 months, we strongly believe that rising inflation and the increased cost of living will push IT wages up further and therefore the salary increase trend will continue well into 2012.”