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International Women's Day

Happy International Women’s Day from Hamblett Consultancy!

Stats For Women In Tech For International Women’s Day

 

International Women’s Day is a great time to recognise the progress made in the representation of women in technology firms. A recent report from India highlighted that women represent only 25% of the total employees in the country’s technology sector, which is below the global average for gender equality. In addition, a report from computer science services companies found that only 23% of their employees were female, according to previous interviews conducted last month. Overall, these reports show that there is still work to be done to increase women’s representation in the sector and promote gender equality within technology firms. By focusing on this issue and continuing to raise awareness of its importance, we can help ensure everyone has an equal opportunity for success.

 

International Women’s Day is the perfect time to take a look at the stats for women in tech. In many tech industry sectors, women are still lagging far behind men in terms of representation. For example, only 22% of computer science and biological science degrees are held by women; engineering degrees fare slightly better with 29%. Even for statistics degrees, which have seen tremendous job growth since the 2000s, the percentage of degree holders who are female hovers around 25%. The same is true of physical sciences degrees. The bottom line: women represent a small percentage of STEM fields.

On International Women’s Day, TeamLease Digital gathered some remarkable tech statistics to help raise awareness of the issue. According to their research, only 18% of all tech roles are occupied by women and that number is even lower in engineering-related industries. To address this imbalance, TeamLease has launched a consultancy service to promote gender diversity in the tech workforce and help candidates grow their professional network. Through this new initiative, they aim to hire more talented women into business-head level positions within technology companies.

 

International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to discuss the current lack of diversity in the tech industry. With many more job paths and tech career opportunities available, it is essential to encourage women to pursue these career paths. Studies have shown that having a diverse workforce can greatly improve an organization’s ability to innovate and succeed. The tech sector is one of the most rewarding areas in which to work, but women are often discouraged from pursuing this choice due to current lack of representation and support within the sector.

 

However, International Women’s Day is a great time to celebrate the incredible female tech leaders that have broken new ground in technology and paved the way for more women to enter the industry. Some of the most famous women in tech include computer scientist Grace Hopper, who developed an early compiler for a programming language; and Ada Lovelace, who is often credited as being one of the first computer programmers. With their pioneering work and trailblazing success stories, these remarkable women have encouraged many more students to pursue technology studies and aim for careers in the industry.

 

Happy International Women’s Day from everyone at Hamblett Consultancy!

Passwords

Document Usernames, Emails and Passwords

Emails and Passwords Documentation

 

Password document ideas are really useful for determining what kind of documents are needed for proper management and tracking of passwords. Looking at some of the shrewd password document ideas may help us to select a type that is ideal to manage and track our passwords. The best tools to organize and manage passwords/usernames primarily depends on your volume of passwords, your personal needs, and your users.

There are many services out there to help manage your passwords, like 1Password, LastPass, or Dashlane LastPass Dashlane, although you will need to pay a fee for certain features. The best password manager software solutions keep track of any changes made to usernames or passwords in a vault, and let users update stored credentials for a given site or application. For help on going through the options speak to our consultants

Password managers are designed for the storage and ease of access of single accounts; these managers should not be used for storing administrator credentials, shared accounts, or other enterprise accounts not assigned exclusively to one user. So, you are going to add every online account you have to the password manager, and you are going to use its tools to help you generate stronger, random passwords every time you sign up for a new account. In short, password managers are supposed to eliminate friction from your digital life, by keeping all of your sensitive information in a single, safe, easy-to-access place.

Consider how safe your login processes are: If you are using the same password to log in to your social media accounts as your password for your bank accounts, it only takes a single breach at a single site for access to far more valuable financial information. If you are still using plain old passwords that you can remember for your critical accounts, you are still vulnerable to being compromised and losing your digital life.

The fact that you are having a hard time keeping up with your passwords should not make you sacrifice account security. A password organizer of some kind is a necessity nowadays, helping you to track down the countless passwords that you set for websites, online accounts, and the like. Password managers are apps designed both to help keep your accounts safer and to help you easily remember the unique passwords for each site.

You can manage passwords on the phone, log in to online accounts, use iPhone Touch ID to unlock the 1Password database, and input passwords from Safari. Administrators can manage who has access to what passwords, and they even see the history of password usage on a dashboard.

Administrators can use the administration console to keep up with employee password management, update security policies, grant or revoke user access, implement authentication methods for employees who are in-house and out-of-house, and federate users KeePass logins. The admin console helps implement password or data security policies throughout your organization, monitor data security, conduct security audits, keep user logs and activity reports, and configure, disable, or delete user accounts. Administrators can also use a report dashboard to monitor password changes and capture password health scores, including breakdowns of secure, reused, compromised, and weak passwords.

LastPass is a password manager for teams that is focused on security, with every team member feeling confident using it for personal accounts, but also securely sharing team accounts. The password spreadsheet is also perfect for personal use, like keeping track of social media accounts, as well as gamertags and passwords of game accounts. The password inventory document is an excellent tool to track your Instagram accounts, Facebook accounts, email logins, game accounts, bank accounts, and other important accounts you use on a daily basis for both personal things and business.

If you are using a thumb drive on your computer (and you should), it is a great place to keep the spreadsheet with passwords and usernames, along with whatever other data you need for each account. To use this password-remembering technique, you might store that saved list of passwords in a spreadsheet on your computer, then email that list to this specific email account. To access your different passwords when surfing, you just click on the convenient button in the browser and select the accounts that need your info filled out.

All three of the web browsers that most of us use, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome, offer the ability to store passwords, which can automatically populate a page, so that you do not need to type in information every time. When users save accounts to a browser, browsers store that information in one place, which allows users to go back easily and manage their accounts and stored passwords.

Anyone with access to your computer theoretically has access to each stored password, should they know to look there, and although you have to know your password to a Google account signed into Chrome in order to see passwords, you still see the usernames and associated websites, significantly reducing the work required in order to compromise an account. Depending on your SAPM management product, shared account passwords are either given once the user signs in and reset upon logging out, or passwords are hidden from the user so that they can access the privileged account without ever knowing the password.

A password tool, however, will either be designed for shared accounts–a way for all of your team to access the Twitter account or the forms creator at work, any time they want–or for making sure that all of your team is using strong passwords all of the time. Rather than fall back on poor habits such as using the same password that is easiest to remember on multiple accounts, or keeping passwords stored on your computer, one safe, and strongly recommended, potential alternative is a password manager tool that allows you to store and manage encrypted passwords across multiple accounts, platforms, and devices that a business uses on a regular basis. The options range from keeping passwords on Excel, using password manager software, or scrawling them down on paper (but use extreme caution with the latter).

Backups

Why Backups are Important

Why Backups are Important

Data Backups are a crucial component to disaster recovery, which allows the company to return to its core operations and avoid interruptions. Saving a business’s data can be a competitive advantage as there are many businesses who do not back up critical information with data. The primary reason to data backup is to preserve critical files in case of a system failure or hard drive failure.
The goal of a backup is to make a copy of data that can be restored if a main data loss occurs. Creating a backup is a crucial step of maintaining a computer, and it can safeguard data if a system crashes or files corrupt. The purpose of any backup strategy is to guarantee data recovery and ensure your company’s continuity in case an accident occurs.
Maintaining backup and recovery solutions with robust security is paramount when looking to secure and preserve data. Keep in mind, these benefits only become reality when you have a backup and data recovery solution that works for your company. All of these damages could cause your company to shut down permanently, so having a backup and recovery solution is crucial, leveraging a Cloud Backup solution will help with your data security

Data losses due to threats or disasters cause customers to become frustrated, revenues to drop, and possibly even bankruptcies, for example, over 90% of companies that do not have a disaster recovery plan that experience a severe disaster are out of business within one year. Data loss can be an enormous cost for a company, and depending on how much information is lost, the business may not recover.While you cannot predict when data loss is going to occur, you can ensure that your business has the right solutions in place to restore your crucial data. In this article, we discuss various threats to your company’s data, and how an effective data disaster recovery plan can help you defend against them. Simply backing up data and having an effective backup and disaster recovery plan can help mitigate these types of threats.

With any good data recovery plan, keeping a local copy of your backups is critical. In addition to keeping current local backups of your files and data, you should always store at least one copy on-site, as required by the 3-2-1 rule (i.e. Best practices for data backups recommend making three copies of your data across two different media, with one stored offsite (or in the cloud).
Ideally, you will want to have an off-site backup, that you can store in the cloud, so in case a catastrophic disaster strikes your whole office space, you still have a copy of your data that will help you recover. It is one thing to have backups offsite, but another thing entirely to have a disaster recovery plan in place to help get you back up and running as quickly as possible. That is why it is essential that data backups are done on a regular basis, and stored at several locations beyond the equipment that holds the original data, which means having both on-site and off-site backups, these can also be set to automatic backups to prevent human error.

As we covered earlier, your company has a variety of ways you can make backups of your critical data, you should be using several methods to make sure that your files are always available if needed. As illustrated by the multiple threats described above, maintaining a backup of important company files and data is important for a few crucial reasons. In this blog, we will discuss 10 key reasons data backup is so essential, as well as challenges businesses have to ensure that their information is always retrievable. Fortunately, we are in the cloud technology age, and backing up data has gotten easier and more secure than ever. There are huge benefits to having backup software to back up your data, which can save time and help keep you in the drivers seat when facing data loss or complications. Cloud-based backup is a great option to offer extra redundancy and protection to businesses who want to make sure that their critical data is accessible should an on-site or physical data disaster occur.

Having a proactive data backup process can provide your company with added security and enable you to deal with any unexpected data loss situations, keeping your productivity and branding intact. When choosing Rewind, you can trust that you are backing up data securely and in compliance with regulations for your company.
Your enterprise data management procedures should incorporate software that creates backups automatically and makes it easy to restore from various versions of a backup. With data backups, it is possible to easily restore the most recently saved copies of data, so there is no need to stop operations to re-do the work that was lost. Data restores, meanwhile, entails returning fresh copies of data back to their source servers or some other place they can be used.

The best way to solve this problem is by performing the restore operation on previous data. In the event that something happens to data that is in use — restoring from the backup data may make it possible to recover quickly in a disaster. Since data loss can occur anytime, in many ways, simply making a backup is a great starting point.
Good backups will minimize downtime, both by keeping data safe and saving you the time spent recovering. Instead of depending solely on the hosting provider, you can make your own backups and avoid the potential fees associated with restoring. Automated online backup solutions make sure that you have what you need to keep business running smoothly, and that you can avoid the expensive downtime caused by data loss. Not every business has adopted cloud-based technologies, and most businesses that are using older, on-premises technologies are facing the challenge of storage capacity, so rotating your backup data frequently is essential. From a backup standpoint, with a distributed workforce, businesses must make sure that their backup policies continue to include routine backups regardless of where data comes from or is accessed. Cloud-based backups, in particular, will ensure sensitive data is stored on servers that are located offsite, protected by next-generation firewalls and sophisticated threat detection systems.

From an office file being deleted to an entire enterprise being hit by ransomware encrypting every file, having a backup solution that is both on-site and managed allows information and assets to recover quickly. Every company needs a robust data backup and systems recovery solution to help them survive — and even thrive — when faced with an unexpected event. With Acronis Cyber Backup, you can choose to back up your entire system, or restrict your backups to your critical data and files.

We provide a variety of backup options to suite your businesses needs. Please contact us to discuss your options

Cyber Security

What is Cyber Security

What is Cyber Security?

Cybersecurity can also be called Information Technology Security. Cyber security may be described as a collection of techniques, technologies, and processes that assist in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computing systems, networks, and data from cyberattacks or unauthorised access. Cyber security is the field which covers the ways in which devices and services are protected against electronic attacks from malicious actors, such as hackers.

An ever-evolving field, best practices in cyber security need to be developed in order to adapt to increasingly complex attacks carried out by malicious actors. The process of keeping pace with emerging technologies, security trends, and threat intelligence is a daunting challenge. The growing number and complexity of cyberattacks and attack technologies make it an even more difficult challenge.

Of growing concern is the cyber threat to critical infrastructure, which is increasingly susceptible to sophisticated cyber intrusions posing new risks. As the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks increase, companies and organisations–particularly those that are charged with protecting information related to national security, health, or financial records–must take steps to secure companies and organisations critical business and personnel information. Whether your organisation is a small or large company, a site with significant traffic, or a government agency or non-profit serving a societal purpose, preparation for and protection from cyber security threats should be among your top concerns.

A sound cyber security strategy can ensure that you have a good security posture against malicious attacks designed to gain access, modify, delete, destroy, or exfiltrate the systems and confidential data of your organisation or users. Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting critical systems and sensitive information against digital attacks. Cybercrime is any unauthorised activity that involves a computer, device, or network.

An organised group of cybercriminals may compromise data, including confidential customer data, steal funds, and destroy or damage key systems. Depending on the systems targeted, these could lead to malicious actors gaining access to critical systems, causing disruptions to services, and damaging confidential data. Many API endpoints can be manipulated by an attacker in order to misuse services behind an API, as well as being a gateway into the organisations key systems.

In recent years, specialised API security solutions have emerged that help organisations to secure API endpoints, secure them against malicious traffic, and protect them against DDoS attacks. Sophisticated cyber actors and nation-states are leveraging vulnerabilities to steal information and money, and are developing capabilities to disrupt, disrupt, or threaten the delivery of critical services. Great Britain faces persistent and increasingly sophisticated malign cyber campaigns threatening public, private, and ultimately, British public safety and personal privacy.

Traditionally, organisations and governments have focused the majority of cyber security resources on perimeter protection, protecting only the most critical components of a system, and protecting against known attacks. Because organisational assets are composed of a multitude of disconnected systems, effective and efficient cyber security postures require a coordinated effort on all its information systems. Without robust cyber security protections, modern-day necessities such as power grids and water purification plants, which enable smooth operations around the globe, could easily be destroyed.

Incremental improvements will not provide the necessary security; rather, the british government must undertake bold changes and substantial investments to protect vital institutions that are at the core of the British way of life. The private sector needs to adapt to the constantly changing threat environment, ensuring private-sector products are built and operated safely, and working collaboratively with the British Government to promote a safer cyberspace. HSG is encouraging private sector companies to follow the lead of the British government and adopt aggressive measures to enhance and align cyber security investments, aiming to minimise future incidents.

Ofcom’s role in cybersecurity is to enhance the protection of critical communications infrastructure, assist with maintaining network reliability during a disaster, assist in rapid post-disaster recovery, and ensure first responders have access to effective communications services. All government information systems must meet or exceed the standards and requirements for cybersecurity established by this Order and issued in accordance with it. This report should also recommend procedures for ensuring mission-critical systems are not breached, procedures for advising system owners about government systems being compromised, and the range of techniques that may be used in the examination of information systems.

Some provisions on cyber security were included in regulations established by the Information Technology Act 2000. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued guidelines within their Risk Assessment Framework, which recommended moving towards continuous monitoring and real-time assessments, a data-centric approach to security, in contrast with the traditional perimeter-based model. The organisation Open Security Architecture defines their security architecture as a design artifact describing how the security controls (security countermeasures) are placed, and how they are related to the overall IT architecture.

Many people apply heuristics and behaviour analysis to observe program and code behaviours in order to protect against viruses or trojan horses, which alter their form on every execution (polymorphic and metamorphic malware). Security programs may confine potentially harmful programs in a virtual bubble separated from a users network in order to analyse their behaviour and learn to better detect new infections.

Using devices and techniques like dongles, trusted platform modules, intrusion-aware enclosures, disk locks, disabled USB ports, and access enabled by cellular networks may be considered safer because of the physical access (or complex backdoor access) required for compromising. Of course, the threat for these electronic assets is hackers with malign intentions of stealing proprietary data and information through data breaches.

The extent of the protection offered to the assets can be determined only once the value is known. Perform a Compute Asset Inventory: Determine what applications and data an organisation has, as well as their implications should it be attacked or compromised. Putting processes in place not only guarantees that each of those buckets is being monitored on an ongoing basis, but should cybersecurity attacks occur, reference to the well-documented processes could save your business time, money, and the confidence of your most precious resource, your customers.

When it comes to your business information don’t leave it to chance. Contact us today.