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Businesses are being warned to protect themselves after tech giant Google released research claiming that cyber thieves have extorted a total of £19m from ransomware since 2015. At a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Elie Bursztein from Google revealed the results of research conducted with Chainalysis, the University of California and New York University which looked at bitcoin transactions over the period. It concluded that ransomware has become a “very profitable market and is here…
Read MoreControlled Folder Access – that’s the name of a new feature coming to Windows which could add extra protection against dangerous Ransomware like WannaCry and Petya. News coming from technology website The Verge says that Microsoft will include a special tool in their next major update expected in September. The ‘Controlled Folder Access’ option which will be found in the Windows Defender Security Centre will offer users an option to ‘protect their files and folders from unauthorized changes by unfriendly…
Read MoreHave you noticed that your Wi-Fi connection at work is slow and lagging? Are you struggling to upload documents and download files? It could be that someone is piggybacking off your Wi-Fi to surf the internet, reducing the amount of service available to you and your colleagues. While you want your broadband signal to be strong and wide reaching so that everyone working in your offices can get adequate internet access, it’s important to have limitations in place. If you…
Read MoreLaunched in 2012, Google’s trio of services – Google Drive, Google Docs & Google Sheets – are a popular way for businesses to carry out their work online. Google Drive acts a cloud storage service, Google Docs as an alternative to Microsoft Word and Google Sheets as an alternative to Microsoft Excel. Among the perks of these services is the ability for multiple users to edit their work in real time. This means that from a business perspective you can…
Read MoreMicrosoft has released its biggest patch update ever including 18 patches, with 9 classed as ‘critical’ and a further 9 classed as ‘important’. Microsoft’s latest bumper package of patches comes after a quiet start to the year in terms of updates, with no patches released in February at all. However, this latest update includes fixes for a reported 135 different vulnerabilities across Windows operating systems from Vista to Windows 10. Patch updates are incredibly important in protecting your business. Hackers…
Read MoreIn terms of defending your business online, your password is one of your first lines of defence. Whether it’s for encrypted files on your computer, access to your company’s social media networks or for your online banking credentials, it’s incredibly important that you make your passwords as difficult and off-putting to hackers as possible. #1 – You’re password is too easy to guess This is the first and most common mistake that people tend to make with their passwords. While…
Read MoreRansomware attacks were a huge talking point in 2016 with many businesses and individuals forced to pay up after hackers compromised their data and locked them out of their computers with a digital ransom note. The advice from the majority of IT professionals encourages victims of Ransomware attacks to never pay up to hackers in the event of an attack. But it can be a very difficult decision to make to refuse payment when your entire business is on the…
Read MoreInternet giant Yahoo announced this week that it had discovered over 1bn of its users’ accounts had been compromised following a historical hack three years ago. Yahoo has announced that they have discovered a historical hack from August 2013 which surpasses their own previously set record of 500 million accounts, set only months earlier in September. This is an act that they claimed had been conducted by an ‘unnamed’ government. Security experts are warning that users of Yahoo should immediately…
Read MoreReports are coming in of dangerous Ransomware beginning to spread through social media networks. Users have reported receiving suspicious JPEG files in personal messages through social media networks like Facebook & LinkedIn which contain Ransomware. Sent via personal messages, these image files trigger an automatic download when clicked on. This downloaded file contains Ransomware. This particular strain of Ransomware known as ‘Locky’ is activated as soon as the unsuspecting victim clicks on the downloaded image. As soon as this happens…
Read MoreA report by security researchers MalwareBytes has identified a dangerous new form of Adware which masquerades as the Google Chrome Browser. The Google Chrome copycat named ‘eFast Browser’ is a form of Adware which replicates the look and feel of Chrome to trick users into thinking they are using the official thing. Upon installation, eFast attempts to delete Chrome, removing desktop and taskbar shortcuts and replacing them with its own, which look similar. The copycat browser then undertakes malicious activities…
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IT Support
ECL recognises that every client is different, and every client has a different IT support requirement. Whatever the size of your business, we can offer a support scenario to suit your needs.
Cloud Services
Whether your business already uses Cloud services or you’re considering the Cloud as a possible way forward, talk to us first. We can provide anything from fully hosted IT infrastructures on our own ECL Private Cloud, to simple on-line backups. We can also give expert advice on Office 365 and other Cloud platforms.
Disaster Recovery
How would losing access to your IT systems and data for days, or even weeks, affect your business? For many if not most companies this would be a nightmare scenario, with potentially very serious consequences.
Office 365
Cloud services could potentially lower your overall costs and gives your employees all the tools they need alongside the correct layers of security and compliance.