Beware of phony tech-support phone calls

“Hello! It’s Microsoft Tech Support here. We’re calling as our systems have detected a virus present on your PC. No… don’t worry… we can fix it remotely. All you have to do is follow my instructions…”
 
Sound familiar? Hopefully not, but unfortunately this is the nature of several fraudulent phone calls received recently by a number of people that we know.
 
‘Phishing’ – the process whereby criminals send you emails purporting to be from your bank in an attempt to get you to enter your account details on a fraudulent website – is now a well known practice.
 
Most people have received phishing emails, and many receive them on a daily basis. The phone-based equivalent is not new, but has been less prevalent… until now.
 
A report published by Microsoft in June this year stated that 15% of the 7,000 computer users it surveyed had been targeted by a ‘tech support’ phone scam. On average, the scam cost victims over £500. Half of the victims reported subsequent computer problems, and almost one in five had suffered identity fraud.
 
As an IT support company that uses phone and internet-based support, we’re keen to ensure that none of our clients fall victim in the same way.
 
We therefore echo Microsoft’s own advice, and encourage you to:
 
• Be suspicious of unsolicited calls related to a security problem, even if they claim to represent Priority IT, Microsoft or any other respected company.

• Never provide personal information, such as credit card or bank details, to an unsolicited caller.

• Never go to a website, type anything into a computer, install software or follow any other instruction from someone who calls out of the blue.
 
If you ever need to verify that a call from Priority IT is genuine, simply call us back on our usual number, 01225 636000. We’ll never be offended… in fact, we’ll be pleased to see you taking your security seriously.
 
If you’ve already been targeted by a phone scam, we’d be interested to hear the details in order that we can alert our clients to the nature of the call. Simply email us with the details, or post a comment here on our blog.

Why hard drives are playing hard to get

For the last two weeks we have seen limited availability of hard drives, but since Friday stocks are now looking OK at our two main distributors.
 
The cause? Believe it or not, the reason for not just a local but a global hard-drive shortage is the floods in Thailand.
 
Thailand is the world’s second largest manufacturer of hard drives, and the recent floods have caused havoc. Many factories have closed and distribution networks become blocked.
 
Seagate, the maker of our often-recommended types of hard drive, has factories in Thailand, and while they’ve managed to keep their production lines running they’ve warned of parts shortages further down the line.
 
Another fear is that there may also be an impact on PC production, with hard drives still being a major component. Another manufacturer, Western Digital, says that its Thailand-based production facilities account for about 60% of its hard drive production.
 
Some analysts are predicting larger shortages in early 2012, but many people say that it’s hard to gauge the extent of the problem at this stage.
 
At Priority IT, we are making a number of recommendations:
 

• Ensure you have a robust backup system. If a hard drive in your IT system fails, you need to at least ensure your data is safe – and we can often supply temporary drives installed with your backed-up data should a replacement drive not be immediately available.
   
• If you’re considering upgrading to new or additional hard drive, order it sooner rather than later. Products will be made available from manufacturers to distributors and from distributors to suppliers such as ourselves on a first-come-first-served basis. Ordering now will also enable you to avoid any price rises that come as a result of product scarcity.

 
For more information, please email us or call us on 01225 636000.

How to avert IT disasters – and recover quickly when they do occur

Last week one of our clients’ servers suffered a major failure. We quickly ascertained that the server was well and truly dead. The company in question – just like many businesses over the last few years – had pushed the life of the server beyond normal recommendations. 
 
Unfortunately, as a server (or any item of IT equipment) gets older, the likelihood of failure increases. But fortunately for our client, we had recognised the risk and advised that if they intended to keep their old server running, they should at least invest in a good backup solution. 
 
We remotely monitor all our clients’ backups, so we knew that when the server in question gave up the ghost, the most recent backup was sound and could be used to get things up and running again with the minimum of fuss. 
 
We returned the backup to our workshop and virtualised it on to one of our loan servers.  Within just 45 minutes, this duplicate server was fully functional and, after initial tests, we were able to return to our client and install it on site.
 
By way of a modern and permanent replacement for the old server, we recommended a hybrid cloud solution comprising a cost-effective HP Micro Server and cloud-hosted email, with the existing backup system also being incorporated.
 
So, as they say, all’s well that ends well. But working with old servers and/or not employing an effective backup solution can cost your business dear.
 
For more information about our backup solutions, our recommendations on server life, or a FREE IT Review (which includes an IT risk assessment) simply email us or call us on 01225 636000.

Tweet this and post it on Facebook: SMEs are at risk from social media based security breaches

The IT security of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been called into question by an enlightening new survey.
 
Worryingly, the survey revealed that 40% of SMEs have been hit by a security breach due to employees surfing to infected websites.
 
At Priority IT, many clients tell us that they can now spot the tell-tale signs of phishing emails (such as poor spelling, poor grammar and requests to reset passwords) and can therefore avoid spoof websites.
 

Unfortunately, as fast as people get wise to such practices, new ones are developed.
 
Most notably, there’s been a rise in the use of social media to trick people into clicking a link that triggers the installation of a virus or malware. In particular, Twitter lends itself to this practice as the short messages that people write – often in ‘txt spk’ – are easier to fake than, say, longer more formal emails that purport to be from a bank.
 
Back to the survey, and another worrying statistic is that nearly one third of small businesses do not have a policy that governs employees’ use of social media.
 
While the survey was undertaken by a software company in the US and relates to businesses based there, there is absolutely no reason to assume that the situation should be any different here in the UK.
 
Hackers, virus programmers and malware producers are as happy to breach the security of small businesses in Wiltshire as ones in Wyoming; and install viruses on the computers of companies in Bristol and Bath just as much as those in Baltimore and Boston!
 
After testing and researching the products of the leading anti-virus vendors, we selected F-Secure as our preferred anti-virus product. Not only did F-Secure perform the best, but it also allows us to remotely monitor the status of all installations.
 
This means Priority IT can ensure your anti-virus protection is always up to date, and that security breaches are one less thing for you to be worrying (or tweeting or posting) about.
 
Email us or call 01225 636000 to find out more.

BT broadband customers hit by power (and customer service) failure

BT broadband customers across the country – including several Priority IT clients – were unable to get online further to a power failure at an important exchange in Birmingham last week.

As so often seems to be the case with BT, when something goes wrong with a service they provide there are numerous complaints that their customer service is less than adequate.

One person affected by the power failure at the Birmingham exchange reported that BT denied all knowledge of the issue, but instead made him go through a time-consuming series of tests, and ended up saying that they would send him a new broadband router to fix the problem. (The problem, of course, was fixed when the Birmingham exchange came back online.)

When you rely on a service, you need reliable service

Businesses and individuals alike now rely on broadband in much the same way as they rely on their electricity or water supply. When they can’t get online, many aspects of their business simply grind to a halt. This is frustrating enough, but it’s compounded by any confusion over the source of the problem or the actions needed to resolve it.

Our choice of Zen Internet as our recommended provider of broadband services is not because they would be immune to the sort of problem that hit BT – severe ’one-off’ problems like that could affect any broadband supplier – but because the overall standard of service, level of reliability and value for money they provide is simply so much better.

Email us or call 01225 636000 to find out more.

Zen Internet wins yet more awards from both PC Pro and Which?

Zen Internet has been awarded the PC Pro Best ISP for the eighth time at this year’s PC Pro Excellence Awards held on 29th September.   Zen Internet was also recently awarded "Which? Recommended Broadband Provider" for the fifth time in a row.

Zen’s Recommended Broadband Provider status revealed five stars for reliability, connection speed, customer service and technical support.  In March last year Zen was also the only ISP to receive the Which? endorsement, ‘Best Buy for Broadband’.

Priority IT selected Zen Internet for it's best of breed service and reliability. Prices for Business Broadband start at £21.27 plus VAT per month.  Call us on 01225 636000 for more information.