How on-demand cloud is contributing to the ransomware problem

“Attention! All your files have been encrypted.” More and more businesses are being greeted with messages such as this one, with ransomware attacks against businesses having increased threefold last year.

Advice for preventing ransomware – which is malicious software that encrypts devices or data until the owner pays a ransom in exchange for access to their data – is typically something to the effect of “back up your data off-site so you...

9 March 2017 | Applications

How to keep downtime to a minimum with the right cloud computing support

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The cloud has transformed the way we do business today, improving infrastructure scalability and cost models for everything from software to data storage to disaster recovery. As with any IT solution, however, cloud computing isn’t without its risks.

In 2012, the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR) claimed that cloud downtime had cost £45 million over five years. Although a new five-year report on cloud outage costs...

22 December 2016 | Best Practice

Is on-site or remote IT support best for you? A comparison guide

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A new digital era is here, and cloud-based technologies are colliding with traditional IT systems and hardware, driving rapid changes to infrastructure and business requirements. As organisations realise the challenges of staying apace of technological developments to meet customer demands, IT outsourcing is gaining traction. During the 2015-2019 period, Research and Markets estimates the global IT outsourcing market will grow at a CAGR of 5.84%.

The...

20 September 2016 | Data & Analytics

Can data transparency be the future of outsourcing?

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The benefits of storing data in the cloud are clear. However, as businesses are beginning to closely examine what having data in the cloud entails, they’re discovering that their relationships with cloud vendors are sometimes, well, cloudy.

In a 2015 Forrester Consulting survey, more than 60% of businesses said issues with transparency were stalling further expansion into the cloud. These organisations are justified in being wary, because knowing...

9 August 2016 | Data & Analytics

Why cloud security best practices mean engagement from vendors and employees

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Ransomware may be the hot topic in the news at the moment, but human error is a greater threat. Human error, in fact, is often the reason ransomware is able to infiltrate a network (by staff members clicking phishing links, for example). It’s also one of the greatest causes of data loss in the cloud. The first part of this series discussed how cloud vendors, shadow IT and lack of employee cybersecurity education can increase the risk of human error....

8 July 2016 | Data & Analytics

Ransomware may be a big culprit for data loss – but it’s the wrong fall guy

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With researchers seeing a 3500% increase in the use of net infrastructure which criminals use to run ransomware campaigns, it’s not surprising that ransomware has been making big headlines.

The media laments the growing rings of cyber criminals that launch ransomware threats, but there’s another culprit that tends to slip under the radar: people like you and me. Sure, we’re not instigating the campaign – that’s on the...

22 June 2016 | Data Loss

Opinion: How to achieve a solid business continuity strategy

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Over the last 12 months, the UK has seen floods and fires upend businesses of all sorts – from hospitals, to factories, to recycling centres. Commuters faced their own significant set of challenges, with incidents such as the closure of the Forth Road Bridge and the Heathrow Airport power cut, which diverted more than 130 flights. Meanwhile, the Met Office has plenty of opportunities to test the new convention of naming storms, with the likes of Katie,...

19 May 2016 | Data & Analytics

Dont let bad weather cloud your plans for recovery

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We all like to complain about services going down when bad weather strikes. The ‘wrong kind of snow’ can wreak havoc with trains and the road network can get snarled up fast, while power lines can come down in more remote areas. Where are the backup and recovery plans, we ask – but could our own customers or internal sponsors and colleagues be saying the same about us if we fail to deliver as we should?

The uncomfortable truth is...

12 February 2015 | Data & Analytics