Riverbank It management

Don’t jot thoughts down on notepads, scraps of paper, or Post-It notes. Get organised and become more efficient by using Microsoft OneNote.

 

With OneNote you can keep all your ideas, thoughts and must-do lists in one place. You can have as many different lists as you want. You can categorise them, arrange them and colour-code them.

Bumbling idiots. That’s how one IT manager described his computer users. They are the threat within. They sit next to the sort of internal threat you might imagine – the disgruntled employee who knows enough about IT to try to inflict real damage. Together these two groups of people pose the greatest risk to your IT security.

 

So how do you reduce the risks from the people on the inside?

ADSL broadband speeds are going up to 20Mb as BT rolls out new technology into its exchanges across the country. The new ADSL2+ connections provide download speeds of up to 20Mb and upload speeds of around 1Mb. But it's not quite as simple as that...

 

The BT roll-out is scheduled to be completed in 2011. For some exchanges (like Oxford) the new service is already available, while for others (like Swindon) there is a much longer wait.

Getting the new higher speeds depends on several factors. Your ISP might want to charge you more for the new service, so you might need to upgrade, whilst others are migrating all their customers to the new service automatically.

Riverbank is proud to be a sponsor of the Martin & Audrey Wood Enterprise Awards. They are a celebration of the achievements of companies, innovators and entrepreneurs located in Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley area.

The Awards were established in 2005 by Oxford Innovation in honour of Sir Martin and Lady Wood, who co-founded Oxford Instruments plc and continue to support start-up and growing companies in Oxfordshire and beyond.

More information is available from Oxford Innovation. The closing date for applications is Monday 28 September.

If you were on holiday in August you might have missed the news that a US man has been charged with the theft of 130 million credit card numbers from a variety of US-based companies.

This case highlights the need to take IT security seriously. If you aren't confident about the security of your IT systems ask for a copy of the new Riverbank guide to IT security.

And you will be interested to know that the man charged by police was already in custody - charged with the theft of 40 million credit card details.

We are running a series of IT briefings to help you make your business more successful.

 Key topics are:

• IT security
• Communications and team work
• Backup and business continuity
• Flexible working

 If you would like to learn more about these subjects we would be pleased to invite you to a one-hour briefing at our Oxfordshire or London office, or at your office if you prefer.

If you are thinking about outsourcing your IT, and you haven't yet signed up with Riverbank, I recommend you read this article from Fresh Business Thinking.

Find it here - http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/business_advice.php?CID=3&AID=3106&PGID=1

 

Topping the Fortune magazine list of the world's fastest-growing companies is Research in Motion, manufacturer of the BlackBerry phone. The BlackBerry is a hit with business users and consumers alike, and the BlackBerry Curve has become the top-selling handheld device in the US.

How long RIM can keep up this rate of growth is debatable, with serious  competiton from the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. But for now sales are powering along, due in large part to the great software that makes the BlackBerry a delight to use.

If you aren't already hooked on BlackBerry (or iPhone), speak to Riverbank. We'd be pleased to show you what you are missing out on.

Parcel delivery company UPS has given a formal undertaking to the UK Information Commissioner's Office to encrypt all laptops following the theft of a laptop last year.

The laptop was password-protected but not encrypted. It contained personal details of UPS employees.

Mick Gorrill, Assistant Information Commissioner, said "Password protected laptops are not secure. I urge all organisations to restrict the amount of personal information that is taken off secure sites. I am pleased that UPS has encrypted its laptops and smartphones, and I urge other organisations to follow suit."

Have you suffered that sinking feeling when you accidentally deleted a file on your network, or clicked Save when you meant to click Save As?  If Riverbank is managing your network, you should be able to recover lost files using a feature called Previous Versions.

With Previous Versions you can:
1. Recover a file or folder that was accidentally deleted. Recover it to its original location or open a previous version and copy it to another location.

2. Recover from accidentally overwriting a file. Just recover the previous version of the file.