Are You Ready for an IT Failure?

A total 1,750 IT bosses were questioned in a report by IT group EMC that suggests almost three-quarters of firms and public sector organisations across nine European countries may not fully recover their computer systems or data after an IT failure.

The survey that covered Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Russia as well as the UK claimed 74% were "not very confident" they could fully restore their networks.  Furthermore, 54% admitted they had lost data or suffered systems downtime in the past 12 months.

Its report found that the most common cause of data loss and downtime was hardware failure, followed by power outage and software malfunction. 

EMC said firms needed to put more focus on backup and recovery systems.  Adodo wholeheartedly concurs!  Find out more about Adodo's Disaster Recovery Solutions.

Welsh ‘notspots’ Prevent Competitive Business

Tourism chiefs claim that a lack of fast broadband is preventing companies based in Wales from being able to compete.

The Wales Tourism Alliance said "tech-savvy" visitors expected make to bookings online and then to stay connected during their trip.  One Pembrokeshire hotelier even spent £8,000 putting in wireless broadband to solve the ‘notspot’ problem faced by so many in Wales. 

However, Bristol-based firm, Avonline believe they have a solution.  They claim that their service uses a powerful satellite over Europe launched earlier this year to bring a guaranteed minimum 6mbps service.  Avonline said it was starting its UK promotion in Wales due to Ofcom's assessment of the poor broadband provision.

A spokeswoman said the Welsh government did not promote or endorse any individual company, system or technology within the broadband support scheme.  According to the Welsh government said there were more than 100 active applications from Pembrokeshire for its broadband support scheme, including five community schemes.

Questions about connectivity or broadband speeds? It's easy, Ask Adodo...

84% of Businesses in UK have had Security Breach in last year

In our upcoming June podcast, we highlight the recent press focus surrounding major data security breaches.  The sort of news that has raised questions like; if a 19year old can hack the CIA’s network, what chance do the rest of us have?

It seems concerns are well founded, according to a report sponsored by networking firm Juniper Networks. 1,406 IT and IT security practitioners were surveyed by independent research firm Ponemon Institute.

From which, the research states, a considerable 84 % of businesses in the UK, France and Germany have suffered at least one security breach in the last year.

In addition:

31 % of respondents said that there had been a significant rise in the frequency of cyber attacks in the same period.

76 % added that the attacks themselves had become more severe, or harder to detect and prevent.

The survey also revealed that mobile devices like laptops and smartphones were most at risk.

34 % of respondents said that security breaches occurred as a result of insecure laptops.

29 % said that mobile devices were to blame.

Take advantage of our FREE 30 day trial – and comprehensively protect your smartphone from Spam, Virus and Theft. Call us now 0115 9701471 or click here for more information.

Cyber Criminals Target Business Secrets

Last week we reported on a collaborative move by the UK and US governments to train future generations in the fightback against cyber criminals.  This week a report by McAffe supports the fear that intellectual property and business secrets are fast becoming a target for cyber thieves.

Security has always been a key component to building a successful business data platform because, as we all know, there have always been net thieves attempting to compromise PCs using viruses and trojans in a search for logins or credit card details.

However, what has been highlighted in the report, is that there is now a market ready to do business for the data they are finding. In some cases, thieves are running campaigns to get at particular companies or certain types of information.

In the wake of the report and of a series of recent calculated attacks, we urge companies to know who looks after their data as it moves into the cloud or third-party hosting centres.

For support or advice on your voice and data security systems call us now 0115 970 1471

Related Stories: 

The Rising Threat of Telephone Fraud

Hackers Running Rampant

Slow Take Up on Super-Fast Broadband

Last month, Labour MP Ian Lucas told the government to "pull its finger out" because as yet, no firms or technologies have been chosen to pilot next-generation broadband in the earmarked remote test areas. 

The government has pledged to make the UK the best place for super-fast broadband in Europe by 2015, and as a result, they are pushing ahead with a second wave of funding.

There will be a further £50m made available to local authorities around the UK.  It is estimated that the extra funding will help a further 800,000 homes to benefit from next-generation broadband.

North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Herefordshire and the Highlands and Islands, were all listed as pilot areas for test in October, however no firm or technologies have yet been chosen to be used in the tests.  This is the third of UK homes that are not economically attractive to firms such as BT and Virgin Media because offering next-generation services there would cost too much money.

"This is very much a locally-driven process and we encourage bids from all local people with plans for improving broadband in their local area," said Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

For more information visit:  Broadband Delivery UK

Average Broadband Speeds, No Such Thing

Broadband ‘Up to’ 20Mbps is a familiar sight in ISP marketing, but according to Ofcom's latest research, very few consumers actually get these kind of headline speeds.  As a result, the industry regulator is seeking to stop providers from advertising unrealistic broadband speeds

The research suggested that just 14% of customers on 'up to' 20Mbps services received speeds of over 12Mbps, while 58% averaged speeds of 6Mbps or less.  For example;

• BT 'up to' 20Mbps - 6.9 to 8.7Mbps
• Sky 'up to' 20Mbps - 7.4 to 8.8Mbps
• TalkTalk 'up to' 24Mbps - 7.7 to 9.3Mbps

Ofcom that ISPs should use Typical Speed Rates (TSR) to avoid confusing consumers.  It has set guidelines for these speeds. It recommends that ADSL services currently advertised as 'up to' 20Mbps (megabits per second) be changed to a TSR of between 3 and 9Mbps.

The response from the industry has been less than positive.  With BT far from impressed, John Petter, managing director of BT Retail said "We have real concerns with their approach. Broadband speeds vary from line to line and so it is meaningless to use one speed for advertising.

Intel striking a Thunderbolt

Intel, the Chip manufacturer has announced it is to roll out a new high-speed technology that may cut down on cabling for peripherals.

Thunderbolt, formerly known as Light Peak, promises transfer speeds twice as fast as USB 3.0.  Initially, it won't reach its theoretical maximum because Intel has opted to use copper wires rather than fibre optic cables, but they have suggested that they will move to the higher speeds over time.

At launch, the technology that allows dual bi-directional transfer over copper cable, will be limited to 10 Gigabits per second - twice as fast as USB 3.0, but still well below the theoretical maximum using optical cables.  They claim, that future versions will be able to reach 100 Gb/sec.

Apple will become the first manufacturer to use Thunderbolt, on its Macbook Pro computers.

Who-are-We’s Gift to London

Huawei, (pronounced who-are-we), is a Chinese Telecoms giant who has hit the headlines this week because they have offered to install a mobile phone network on the London Underground in time for the 2012 Olympics:  Free of charge.

The gesture is said to be a gift from one Olympic nation to another according to the Sunday Times and is said to be worth about £50 million.  The company has offered to install transmitters along the ceilings of the tunnels, and will earn any future income from the maintenance of the equipment.  It has been confirmed by Transport for London that work has begun on wiring up the Underground with mobile phone transmitters, but there has been no confirmation of Huawei’s involvement.  

The Real Cost of Cyber Crime

Baroness Neville-Jones has likened cyber crime to terrorism “the more you know the more frightening it looks” she said, as figures are released, that estimate the cost of cyber crime to the UK economy.   

The Government has said that cyber crime costs the UK economy £27bn a year, but has also stated that the figures published are a mid-range estimate and the real cost could be much higher.

Martin Sutherland, chief executive of Detica, the consultancy which compiled the report with the Cabinet Office, said the perpetrators of cyber crime ranged from "state-sponsored" criminals to organised crime gangs down to "spotty teenagers sitting in their bedrooms".

The report divides the costs as follows, £21bn of costs to businesses, £2.2bn to government and £3.1bn to citizens.  Together with the Prime Minister, David Cameron and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Baroness Neville-Jones met with the leaders of some of Britain’s biggest businesses this week, to encourage them to take the issue more seriously. 

Whatever the size of your organisation, however real you consider the threat, are you prepared for a cyber attack?

Related Articles:  Hackers Running Rampant and The Rising Threat of Telephone Fraud

Bandwith Problems Solved by Space

A small spacecraft system manufacturer has announced that they plan to put 78 small satellites into orbit to carry the internet.

Microsat Systems Canada Inc (MSCI) have called the project "CommStellation", and plan to deploy the system from 2014-2015. It will require six rockets to take the platforms to an altitude of 1,000km.  From there, the network will act as backhaul, linking the traffic of local telecoms and internet service providers to the global fibre infrastructure.

It seems that there is a new wave of manufacturers recognising the fact that space may offer a simple solution to the bandwith problem facing the world. 

David Cooper, President and CEO of MSCI, said that “There are immense backhaul shortages now and it's going to get worse”

CommStellation is planning something very similar to O3b, which is planning a constellation of eight internet backhaul satellites in a medium-Earth orbit (8,000km) around the equator. This system is also expected to start to roll out in the middle of the decade.  However, CommStellation would be very much lower in the sky than O3b and would circle the Earth via the poles.

Read more on O3b:

http://adodolive.blogspot.com/2010/11/broadband-satellite-launches-in-5432.html

http://adodolive.blogspot.com/2010/11/satellite-broadband-update_30.html

Tablets go to war in Las Vegas

Between the Thursday and Sunday last week, innovators and industry leaders took to the battle at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it was the tablets that were making the headlines.

It has been estimated there were over 100 tablet computers on display at the annual gadget show.  Google boasted a number of devices powered by their Android operating system at the show, one of which has caused quite a stir.

Apple has sold 7.5m iPad’s since its release, marking Apple, quite clearly, as the one to beat.  However, Motorola's XOOM has been hailed by a number of bloggers and reviewers as a possible iPad killer, even though the Android 3.0 software which it will run on is not finalized yet. 

Motorola was only able to show a prototype of XOOM, with a final version ready to ship in the US in the next couple of months. There is no official advice as to when it will be available for sale in Europe at this stage or more importantly, the price of the device.

In order to wet your whistle though, it has a 10.1 capacitive screen with the ability to show full HD video playback. It will also feature the expected features like accelerometer, gyroscope and Adobe Flash and there will be a rear and a front facing camera for making video calls.

Of course it wouldn’t be much of a battle unless, in response to the gauntlet being laid, there was speculation from the other team about a soon to be released upgrade or better still the mouth watering prospect of a release from HP that will really throw the cat among the pigeons.  In other words, watch this space; the battle of the tablets is just heating up.

Adodo’s Guide to Keeping Your Password Safe

Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn are amongst the online organisations that are encouraging their users to reset passwords in the wake of the recent hacker attack to Gawker.com.  With that in mind here are some top tips on resetting your password.

1. Never use the same password across lots of different websites.
2. Do not use a word that you – or a hacker – could find in the dictionary: these are susceptible to so-called ‘brute force’ attacks.
3. Try to include some digits and special characters to add a layer of complexity that will make life difficult for a criminal.
4. Pick a phrase or mnemonic that helps you to remember your password.
5. You can avoid having to remember passwords altogether by using a password manager program.  

Hack Attacks Prompt Password Resets

Whilst the WikiLeaks revelations continue to ripple and its founders appeal is pending, massive hacker attacks feature high in the headlines as they shut down yet another website, this time Gawker.com.

When the breach first happened to the online blogging community, some reports stated that they were in response to the WikiLeaks attack campaigns. However, this was later proven untrue. In reality, the attacks happened simply because of the Gawker Media overall stance on hackers and because of ongoing taunts by Gawker media staff.

Regardless, the repercussions of the hack have been felt across the web, as millions of web users are being asked to reset their passwords as concerns spread.  Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn have all asked users to change their details, there have been few other reports of damage directly linked to the breach.

That said; many companies have taken steps to identify users at risk and warn them to take preventative action. A spokesman for LinkedIn said it necessary to take "proactive security measures" to screen users thought to be in danger.

All-you-can-eat Smartphone data tariff

As the nations appetite for the smartphone market grows, mobile operator Three has adopted an all-you-can-eat data plan to encourage sales. 

Living in the fast lane has certainly increased the demand for on the go data.  More and more people use their handsets to connect to the web as well as to make voice calls.  The all-you-can-eat data plan has been designed so that individuals can make the most of their devices.

Three, is one of the smaller mobile operators, but there is a feeling in the industry that this move could force other operators to rethink data limits.

Earlier this year, Mobile operators, including Three, introduced data caps over fears that some users were consuming so much data it was putting unacceptable strain on networks.   The reversal of this decision by Three could put a massive strain on the operators network.  

Google unveils OS for Notebooks

The world is ready for an OS for netbooks and notebooks that is built on cloud connectivity, Google has the product, but we will have to wait six or seven months to get our hands on it. 

Chrome OS is Google's boldest bid yet to challenge Microsoft's market dominance with Windows software.  The idea is that it will coordinate with cloud services, especially Google's, to minimise the amount of local storage required.  It also allows people to use any Chromium device to access the same cloud-saved data and synchronise locally-stored data to the cloud.

The operating system will power a new range of notebooks but will not be ready for Christmas as the system has too many bugs.  With this in mind, they have delayed the launch until “mid-2011” with no real indication of price. 

Whilst we all wait with baited breath for the launch of Chrome OS, a "pilot programme" has been launched "for people who live in the web" to keep us going.  Everyone who takes part will receive a Cr-48 notebook, a new piece of reference hardware for Chrome OS, and will be expected to tell Google how they progress. Unfortunately, you have to be 18 and based in the US!

The First Data Protection Fines have been issued

Commissioner Christopher Graham was granted the authority to serve financial penalties for data protection breaches in April of this year. Now, Hertfordshire County Council and a private company based in Sheffield are among the first to be issued with fines.



The Council have been fined £100,000 for mistakenly faxing details of a child sex abuse case to a member of the public. A4e was fined £60,000 for accidently losing an unencrypted laptop with the details of thousands of people.


Mr Graham admitted the theft of the laptop was "less shocking" than the council's security breaches but added: "These first monetary penalties send a strong message to all organisations handling personal information - get it wrong and you do substantial harm to individuals and the reputation of your business. You could also be fined up to half a million pounds."


Both organisations have issued statements apologising for their mistakes and offering explanations as to why they failings occurred.

4G Airwaves Auction set for 2012

Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards has laid out the new timetable for the rollout of next-generation mobile services in the UK, at the FT World Telecoms Conference.



The first half of 2012 will see the airwaves that enable 4G networks being auctioned off to mobile operators. The original auction was earmarked for 2009 but was delayed because of legal action by mobile firms such as O2 and Vodafone.


The auction will see two chunks of the spectrum sold off - the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands. Due to the digital TV switchover, the 800MHz slice has been freed up, which allows mobile signals to travel over greater distances, making it invaluable in the search to find ways of bringing broadband to rural areas.


Due to the litigation last year we are slightly behind other countries in offering services. Germany, for example, auctioned off its digital dividend spectrum and others are planning to do so very soon.

Britain’s Broadband Blackspots and BT’s response

Brigg, Ancaster, and Grantham are all listed as broadband blackspots in research conducted by broadband comparison website Top10. All three areas in Lincolnshire expect to receive less than 2Mbps. Farningham in Kent was labelled as the worst broadband blackspot in Britain.



For the last few months, BT has been running a project which expires at the end of December to identify the country’s demand for fast broadband. More than 200,000 votes have already been cast across the UK highlighting the areas of greatest demand as BT begins its roll-out of fibre-optic technology.


Caxton in Cambridgeshire and Malvern in Worcestershire will be among the first to benefit from a "vote for fibre" scheme launched by BT as they are the first to have registered more than 1,000 votes. Despite being first though, the two may not be upgraded until early 2012, BT has stated.


The list insinuates a north/south speed divide in broadband blackspots with Farningham and the market town of Holsworthy in Devon the only locations south of London that are on a list.


The government has pledged to offer every home a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps by 2015, three years later than the date promised by Labour.

The World's New Supercomputer

China's Tianhe-1A (Milky Way) has knocked America's XT5 Jaguar off the world’s Supercomputer top spot.

The Jaguar, based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee can only carry out a mere 1.75 petaflops per second. Each petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second. In comparison the Milky Way is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second, making it 47% faster.


To reach such high speeds the machine draws on more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips. The machine houses its processors in more than 100 fridge-sized cabinets and together these weigh more than 155 tonnes.


The claim to be the fastest machine on the planet has been ratified by the Top 500 Organisation which maintains a list of the most powerful machines.

Go Go Gadget Specs

Not so long ago it was the Bluetooth headset that made us all look like something out of a sci-fi film, but the advancement of wearable gadgets does not stop there, as a firm in Japan has been demonstrating.

 

 Last week, NTT Docomo introduced the world to a lightweight pair of augmented reality glasses, which overlay the lens with digital content such as directions or a travel guide. The AR Walker places a miniature screen at the periphery of your right eye, keeping your field of view clear whilst letting you glance down to see the information being displayed. It is a scaled-down version of the company's earlier head-mounted display made with Olympus, now reduced to a comfortable-to-wear weight.


A link to your smartphone keeps the display populated, showing you information on your surroundings. A virtual tour of Kyoto was used as the first demonstration of the technology. Plans as to how to introduce the AR Walker for sale are still being discussed.