Securing applications – an expert perspective

The need for securing applications hits the headlines every day. New cybersecurity breaches, ransom attacks and hackers breaching organisations’ critical systems are all commonplace. Applications are a common weakness that malicious actors exploit to gain access into IT infrastructure, and access sensitive data.

Protecting against attacks

To successfully protect against attacks, IT professionals need to be on top of recent data breaches, the main application security vulnerabilities, and how other businesses are dealing with them. They also need to understand the most important product capabilities needed to defend against multi-vector application attacks. From there, plans can be formulated for securing applications and protecting against those top threats.

As part of its recent report entitled “The state of application security in 2021”,  Barracuda Networks surveyed a group of IT professionals worldwide to find out their challenges, opinions, and priorities associated with application security and compiled the results into an insightful market report.

In this insightful webinar, an expert team from Barracuda and Christian Jackson, Platform Manager at the Natural History Museum discuss the report and delve further into its findings.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Cloud-to-cloud backup – why you should backup Microsoft 365 data

What is the use case for cloud-to-cloud backup? Despite the misconception to the contrary, Microsoft 365 is not a backup tool. Instead, it should be thought of as providing availability for users to conveniently access documents – but not a secure backup archive.

Microsoft’s own user agreement confirms that it actually provides extremely limited data protection by retaining deleted items in site collection bins. These are very similar to the recycle bin on Windows Desktops. However, files are only retained for a maximum of 93 days. The retention of files in Microsoft Teams can be even more limited, with Teams channels only protected for 21 days.

The implications for IT

Restoring entire users’ folders or mailboxes can be a tedious, manual process. If the data is mission-critical, this will inevitably mean that widespread disruption can be caused.

Because of this, Microsoft itself recommends that you its customers use third-party backup for data hosted in Office 365.

What is the solution?

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup provides comprehensive, cost-effective, scalable protection for your organisation’s 365 data.

Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup offers fast backups, highly granular restore capabilities, and unmatched ease of use. It automatically backs up all data from email, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Groups, and Teams data to the Barracuda Cloud.

The service is provided as a complete Software as a Service (SaaS) offering so no hardware or software to deploy or manage, and when time is of the essence, restoring what you need takes just a few clicks.

Find out how to go from signing up to running your first backup within 5 minutes in this short video!

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

 

Is “paperless” a reality in the age of digital transformation?

In a recent article by Brother UK, the concept of “paperless” was discussed at length in relation to the NHS.

But although digital transformations are gathering momentum in the NHS, public sector and private sectors, how much does it really involve going paperless?

Brother’s findings showed that although the aspiration of a paperless NHS was first introduced in 2013, the reality since then has been somewhat different. As recently as 2019, research by OpenText found that only just over 10% of NHS trusts had gone fully digital.

Working on the goal of paperless

Despite the delta between aspiration and reality, there is still a lot of focus on digitalisation. Whether to save costs, improve communication efficiency or reduce carbon footprint, there are many justifications for going digital.

Brother’s research found that “alongside the National Health Executive revealed that 89% of respondents worked in hospitals that are striving towards a ‘paperlite’ policy”. As a result, those trusts will reduce wastage, improve efficiency and make themselves more sustainable.

Even still, the concept of “paperless” is very different to going ‘paperlite’. Reducing print and paper usage as opposed to eliminating it is proving to be more achievable for resilient organisations, certainly in the short term.

Managing the transition to ‘paperlite’

Agile businesses need an all-round resilient print solution that works at home, in the office and on the move, to ensure employees can operate efficiently and effectively from anywhere.

Brother ticks all the boxes with its bespoke solutions that are flexible, reliable and secure, futureproofing your business’ ability to perform.

Ensure your business is designed for resilience

With Brother print solutions, you can futureproof your business. Create your all-round solution to suit every need with:

  • Comprehensive device options including industry-leading SMB laser printers for the office and compact multifunction desktop devices for home to enable simple and secure printing and scanning in any environment.
  • Touch-free de-centralised printing with Secure print+, enabling social distancing and reducing the risk of infection in office, while improving productivity by making print processes quick and easy.
  • Managed Print Services giving users access to Brother’s remote IT support desk, with a team of experts who can resolve any issues remotely, wherever they are.

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

Futureproofing business with Brother

In what is likely to be one of the most enduring side effects of the pandemic, employees and organisations across the UK have felt the benefit of less commuting and more work-life balance.

With this, the more flexible employers can be, there is a realisation that they can be more effective. That means equipping people with solutions to remain productive, wherever they may be.

That includes an all-round resilient, flexible print solution that works at home, in a co-working hub, or in the office.

How Brother and Complete IT Systems help

Brother can tick all the boxes. For home users, Brother users can benefit from compact multifunction desktop devices that enable simple and secure printing and scanning.

In the office, touch-free decentralised printing means staff can reduce the risk of infection, respect social distancing and improve productivity at the same time.

In the hub, Brother’s print and scan devices mean you can create documents for meetings in serviced offices, for
example, without having to send them to shared printers using unfamiliar networks.

Remote IT support desk services, with a team of experts who can resolve any issues remotely, wherever they are.

Brother are working to design bespoke print solutions that are making businesses more resilient and ready to take on whatever challenges and opportunities the future might bring.

See how other organisations are adapting

To understand its importance, Brother UK recruited an expert panel of IT decision-makers, academics, and advisors to look at how firms are introducing new technology to build business resilience. Those businesses with robustness and agility will be best placed to survive both short-term shocks and longer periods of uncertainty.

The report helps in highlighting the role technology must play and help IT decision-makers with the choices they make in enabling their organisations to futureproof.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

What is Zero Trust, and how to build your roadmap

Zero trust is an architectural approach where inherent trust in the network is removed. This means network is assumed hostile and each request is verified based on an access policy. It is a multi-layered approach to fending off modern cybersecurity threats. The National Cyber Security Centre provides a comprehensive Introduction to Zero Trust.

Now that remote work is the rule rather than the exception, it’s time to protect your assets and resources using modern Zero Trust protocols and solutions.

Implementing your Zero Trust strategy

Implementing a Zero Trust Network Access strategy is not overly complex or difficult. The key is to follow best practices and avoid the pitfalls that can leave digital resources exposed to threat actors.

Get the info you need to make it happen. Watch this on-demand webinar from Forrester to see what the experts from Forrester Research are saying about Zero Trust. The webinar summarises, unpacks, and presents the key findings in the report.

Click the image below to watch the webinar (you will be asked to enter your email address).

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand. They can demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

How to secure web applications against malicious files

Modern web applications have evolved into a primary form of data communication as well as a platform where end users can easily collaborate, upload documents, images, or other files. However, this has led to applications being able to accept file uploads with any extension or type, giving attackers the opportunity to upload malicious files into applications that exploit both the organisation and its clients. Therefore, filtering uploads by validating for file types or extensions is no longer an effective way of defending against such attacks.

In the recent past, in-house sandboxing techniques have been used in company networks to detect malware in files. However, deploying an appliance for sandboxing and analysing local network files is not scalable, and it also adds severe latency and administrative overhead, which results in badly implemented security.

Additionally, enhanced inspection techniques that send notifications and adequate logging are required to defend against today’s file injections. By immediately notifying the administrator when an attack occurs, they have a better chance of combating threats.

Why anti-virus scanning isn’t enough

Running a business is becoming more dynamic, yet more complex. Unfortunately, this also applies to the business of malware and ransomware. Popular types of malware are being used to target websites, and are rarely detected by traditional anti-virus services.

The origin of these infections is typically through simple actions like file uploads in web applications. Today’s threats spread at a high velocity, making it difficult to detect a threat, isolate the signature, add the signature to databases, and make it publicly and continually available in a very short time. By the time the database update is available, the threat has already compromised a network’s systems and has successfully covered up its tracks.

While these signature-based legacy systems are still important as a first line of defense for prefiltering network traffic, organisations still need an additional security layer to protect against targeted malware.

Read this whitepaper from Barracuda to find out how to secure web applications against malicious file injections.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Barracuda specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation.

To get in touch or request a demo please contact us.

Using print to deliver built-in flexibility to your business

Software as a service (SaaS) brings a range of benefits over installed applications, including flexibility and scalability. And the service provider can update their software centrally without any downtime for users, so the latest updates and security patches are in place, bringing peace of mind that systems are as secure as possible.

Research from IDC found that, by 2021, over half of software revenue will come from software sold as subscription and software as a service.

Adrian Bradley, of KPMG, said: “With COVID-19, firms that were already using cloud-based solutions at a sufficient scale experienced no great problems as they were able to easily scale up their operations online.

“But organisations that didn’t have the basic infrastructure in place and were heavily dependent on their premises found they had more bottlenecks to resolve.

Using the cloud also narrows the sphere of responsibility. It plays into reliability, compliance, safety and business continuity so leaders can devote their energy to other issues.

“But, understandably, many firms have focused on continuity, not resilience, so they will need to transform further.”

Automated technologies can also help to build in flexibility and business resilience. Joanna Swash of Moneypenny said: “Our clients faced an unprecedented volume of calls at the onset of lockdown, as people wanted to know about refunds, bookings and orders amid the chaos.

Our digital products including live chat and switchboard technologies helped them to effectively keep on top of enquiries where there wasn’t the physical manpower, preventing customer relationships from being damaged.”

Find out

To understand its importance, Brother UK recruited an expert panel of IT decision-makers, academics, and advisors to look at how firms are introducing new technology to build business resilience. Those businesses with robustness and agility will be best placed to survive both short-term shocks and longer periods of uncertainty.

The report helps in highlighting the role technology must play and help IT decision-makers with the choices they make in enabling their organisations to become more resilient.

Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.

 

2021 Data Protection Report

The last year has affected IT, Digital Transformation, and data protection strategy … in ways never seen before.

In December 2020, an independent research firm completed a survey of 3,000 enterprises across 28 countries
on what their data protection challenges and goals were, regardless of what their current or future data protection
vendor choices were.

The research project was commissioned by Veeam and helmed by two former industry analysts with a combined
60-years of experience in the data protection industry. The results and insights from the survey, as well as Veeam’s
perspective, are both offered in this report.

Find out more

As Veeam Silver partners, Complete IT Systems have the skills and resources to help your business. For more information on how Complete IT Systems and Veeam can help, call 01274 396 213 or email .

 

Recorded webinar: Datto RMM live demo

Complete IT Systems and Datto hosted a deep dive session on 4 November, 2021 about driving automation and efficiency with the Datto RMM solution.

During the session, Greg Jones and Mat Smith of Datto gave an overview of the next generation of software for modern businesses and show how RMM Automation can improve compliance and the security of your network.

How to protect & take your business to the next level with Datto RMM

The session covered:

  • What is an RMM tool?
  • Why do you need one?
  • Asset Management & Security
  • Compliance & Governance
  • Device security & Ransomware Detection/AV monitoring

Business & learning outcomes of this session:

  • How to Increase operational productivity
  • How to drive automation
Watch the recording now!

If you like what you see, you can request a 14-day FREE trial.

Find out more

As Datto Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back.

Datto

Three ways to create a resilient print solution

Futureproofing your business has become all the more important with the changes forced upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic and digitisation trends.

Every business is different, but there are also commonalities.

With Complete IT Systems and Brother, you can create your all-round solution to suit every need with three simple steps:
  1. Comprehensive device options including industry-leading SMB laser printers for the office and compact multifunction desktop devices for home to enable simple and secure printing and scanning in any environment.
  2. Touch-free de-centralised printing with Secure print+, enabling social distancing and reducing the risk of infection in office, while improving productivity by making print processes quick and easy.
  3. Ensure users have access to remote IT support, with a team of experts who can resolve any issues remotely, wherever they are.
Find out more

Get in touch to find out how Brother solutions can help you improve your business’s resilience.