The need for strong cybersecurity has never been greater. No matter how big or small your business, cyber-attacks can be costly in both financial terms and in terms of the loss of trust that your customer base may have in your business. For this reason, it is essential that all organisations take steps to improve their security. Here are our top tips for how you can protect your organisation’s security posture: 

Regularly Backup Your Data 

Some data breaches are intentional, whilst others are accidental: if a piece of hardware containing confidential information is lost, wrong access permissions are given to an employee, for example, then this can result in a data breach that is not intentional. You can minimise this risk by understanding how your data is stored, who has access to essential data within your organisation, and most importantly, ensuring that you regularly back up your data. Cyber security is a rapidly changing field, so it is vital to regularly review information storage and access, even if you feel that you have a handle on data management within your organisation. 

Manage Physical and Environmental Risks

You can’t protect what you don’t understand. Therefore, one of the best ways to manage the physical and environmental risks of your business landscape is to be aware of what those risks might be. Some examples of physical security risks include inappropriate physical access to your assets, theft of physical assets (such as laptops or mobile phones), and vandalism. Some examples of environmental security risks include damage caused by accidental, intentional, and natural events. These could include fire and water damage or could be the result of power cuts. You can mitigate this by taking obvious precautions such as installing fire and smoke alarms, security systems to minimise the risks of theft and vandalism and ensuring that you have more than one power supply if necessary. 

Implement Two-Factor Authentication 

If you’re concerned about being exposed to cyber-attacks, then implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a great way to mitigate password guessing and theft. Two-factor authentication is easy to implement and will strengthen user authentication with ease. Easy Business IT can take control of your organisation’s security posture and implement this on your behalf, helping to protect your business whilst you focus on growing your business, and the other elements of running your organisation that you do best! 

Use Anti-Malware Software 

Finally, malicious software (also known as 'malware') is software or web content that can harm your organisation by infecting your computers, tablets and smartphones. Installing anti-malware software into all of your business hardware is the best way to prevent this from occurring. The primary way to prevent malware from damaging your organisation is to install antivirus software, ensure that it is turned on at all times, and update it regularly. You should also consider restricting the apps that your employees are able to download, controlling the USB drives and other external memory cards that are used within your organisation, and switching on your firewall. Your firewall will create a 'buffer zone' between your own network and external networks and is easy to both install and use. 

As a small business, one of the main questions you’re likely to ask is ‘could technology enhance my operation?’ In most cases, the answer to this question is yes. We live in an increasingly digital society. This means that unless you want to exclusively sell your product face-to-face and write all of your invoices, receipts and correspondence by hand, even the smallest of businesses need a web presence and robust IT support infrastructure in order to be successful. But we also understand that no small business wants to pay out for services that they simply won’t use or don’t need. So, with that in mind, here is a comprehensive look at the IT support that all small businesses are likely to need to succeed:

Antivirus Protection 

An antivirus product is a program that is specifically designed to detect and remove viruses and other kinds of malicious software (sometimes referred to as malware) from your computer or laptop. If you use a computer for any aspect of your business (whether you operate a website, or simply use your computer to check emails from clients) then it's important that your computer has antivirus protection installed. 

Businesses need to have antivirus protection because this is the main way in which you can protect yourself from viruses, spyware, and phishing scams. Many of these viruses and scams are designed to infiltrate your digital systems and can then steal, misuse or corrupt information, including personal or private information about your clients or customers. IT support can be used to install antivirus protection and ensure that it is regularly updated. 

Email Support 

Email marketing and promotional emails with enticing calls to action are the bread and butter of many small businesses: If this is true of your business, then you should consider utilising IT email support. Small businesses should use business-class email hosting services and ensure that they only work with reliable email servers to ensure that their customers are always able to reach them and that they never have to worry about emails that are slow, delayed or lost. 

Email is an essential form of business communication. Having a business email is a key way to ensure that your customers have access to dedicated customer service, security and support. A dedicated business email will elevate your business communication, and you should protect this by enveloping it in an IT support service. 

The Implications of Not Having IT Support 

Still not sure if IT support is right for your business? Perhaps you should consider the implication of losing your business's online assets. If your website or email networks collapse for even a short amount of time, then this could not only prevent customers from finding you, but it could also deter existing customers from returning to your website. Slow websites, Wi-Fi issues, viruses and email issues can all act as similar deterrents, leaving you open to cybersecurity issues and preventing loyal customers from returning. Is this a risk that you’re prepared to take? If not, your small business needs IT support, and Easy Business IT is perfectly placed to help. Why not contact us by emailing [email protected] for a quote today?

Are you just starting out in your business? Going solo after years in the corporate world? Then you might have wondered how you are going to manage your IT. With no IT department to go to anymore, the thought of doing it yourself might seem daunting.

This is where Easy Business IT comes in. Our target clients are start ups, micro companies, one man bands or sole traders. Whilst other IT companies support companies with at least 5-10 employees, we want to help the smaller businesses.

We can help you with your IT set up by sourcing all the equipment you will need or we can help you configure your existing hardware. Whether it’s a laptop, desktop, phone, printer or tablet, we will have you set up in no time. We will also be there to support you whilst you get your businesses off the ground and handle the day to day running. Let IT be one less thing to worry about.

So what is it going to cost you? That depends on your requirements. We have several plans available, to suit all needs and budgets.

• Full setup – this is a one off charge to get you set up and ready to go. We will set up your domain, migrate in data, set up Microsoft services, set up backups and configure your devices. All for £100 + VAT
• Email only plan – the first of our pay monthly options gives you enterprise grade email which is fully backed up and remote support for any IT issues. At £25 + VAT per month this is our most basic option to enable you to get started
• Basic plan – a step up from the email only plan, this includes everything above but also cloud storage and video conferencing. Making it easier to securely store your data and support your video conferencing needs, this plan is £45 + VAT per month.
• Standard plan – featuring everything from the email only and basic plan, the standard plan has the added bonus of office apps making your working life much easier and more like what you’re used to at £50 + VAT per month.
• Ultimate plan – this is the ‘whole package’ - including everything from the other plans plus a landline phone number through Teams, which can be accessed on your PC or mobile phone. This option is £65 + VAT per month.

Let’s explore a little more about what those terms mean, in order to help you make the right decision and select the package best suited to your business needs.

Enterprise grade email uses Microsoft Exchange with 50GB of storage, calendar, out of office replies and the option for additional inboxes to help you manage your business. Additional inboxes can be a great asset for your business, allowing you to keep areas of your business separate. For example, if you wanted a separate mailbox for [email protected], this is all included with the enterprise grade email.

Remote support ensures your business can function smoothly. Our UK based team are on hand to provide support for any issues you encounter, with our ability to remotely connect to your PC we are able to get you up and running in no time.

Video conferencing ensures you stay connected to your team, clients, and suppliers. Using Microsoft Teams, you can rely on high quality video calls.

In order to back up your data, we use CloudAlly. CloudAlly performs nightly back ups of your information, which means we are able to restore any of your data to the version it was on any specific date from the day your back ups start.

Cloud storage for your business uses Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint, affording you 1TB, with options to share large files and manage access amongst your team. Unless you are working on huge media files, this amount of storage is as much as you are likely to ever need. To put it into context, this amount of storage would comfortably house 250,000 photos taken with a 12MP camera; 250 films or 500 hours of HD video; or 6.5 million document pages, commonly stored as Office files, PDFs and presentations. It’s also equal to 1,300 physical filing cabinets of paper!

Office apps are self-explanatory for many, these are normally vital for a business to run and often using the web-based versions does not allow you the same versatility as the desktop.

One aspect that people are often concerned about, but don’t know the best solution, is cyber security. By using CloudAlly, which backs up your business critical information every night, you can be safe in the knowledge that your information is safe. We also encourage multi factor authentication on all of your sites, which is something we can talk through with you if you would like more information.

As you can see, the variety of options available to you will allow you to run your business safe in the knowledge that your IT is taken care of. One less thing to think about yet a vital area to ensure plain sailing in your new solo venture.