Rombus Computers

ICO – Name and Shame

2012-02-08T15:30:00.000Z

The Information Commissioners Office is now naming and shaming any one found in breach, or nearly in breach, of the data protection act, irrespective of if it was deemed severe enough to receive a fine.

How does this affect you? What impact would slack security policies, have on your image? If you can’t prove you keep information safe, can you fulfil your other duties to your customers?

If you discovered that an organisation that you use, and that holds your personal information, had been named and shamed for lacking in data protection procedures, how would you react? Would you take your custom else where, to a company that had not been named in such a way? As a business can you even take that chance?

In a time where the competition for business is stiff, it is imperative that you don’t stand out from the crowd for the wrong reasons.

The ICO has the ability to hand out crippling fines to a business or organisation that they deem to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, but it also names on their website, companies that are close to being in breach.

As far as the ICO is concerned personal data is categorised as:

“Data which relates to a living individual who can be identified –

(a) From those data, or
(b) From those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.”

It is your responsibility to ensure that all the information that you hold is properly handled and properly controlled. The ICO also has the right to use criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement and audit, as well as the monetary penalties against those that are found in breach.

“The Commissioner may impose a monetary penalty notice if a data controller has seriously contravened the data protection principles and the contravention was of a kind likely to cause substantial damage or substantial distress.”

The question remains, what procedure should you have in place to ensure that you are not found in breach?

Well as far as the ICO is concerned there are some very basic measures that you should have in place such as, Shredding all your confidential paper waste and training your staff, and checking the physical security of your premises.

But there are also other measures that need to be taken, for instance, encryption on your computer systems, taking regular back-ups of the information on your computer system and keeping it in a separate location so that if you lose your computers, you don’t lose the information. Allowing your staff access to only the information they need to do their job, and strict rules on sharing passwords. You should be downloading the latest patches or security updates firewall and virus-checking on to your computers. And when it comes to disposing of old equipment, you must securely remove all personal information before disposing of old computers (by using technology or destroying the hard disk).

Making sure that you have the correct policies in place is priceless when you consider the implications of not doing so. Its not just peace of mind, its good business practice.

Why being Green needn’t make you Blue

2011-10-17T15:54:00.000+01:00

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." - Brundtland Commission, 1987

Paying attention to sustainable development is not just important to the pocket, but it can be especially sensible when so many potential customers and clients are actively seeking greener products and services.

Making environmentally conscious decisions about your business operations can be good for the bottom line. There is a misconception that in order to make a company greener it requires a cash injection, when in actual fact a lot of the changes are small, have very low overheads but make a difference and lower outgoings - actually saving you money.

As predictions about the availability of energy, water and other natural resources are validated, going green may also enable companies to keep customers and investors happy, maintain market share, become more efficient, it may also help avoid liability for environmental damage. For small businesses to be actively involved in sustainable development, they need to adopt environmentally sound business principles and translate these into action.

High oil prices and global warming are driving the move towards going green, the knowledge that our natural resources won’t last forever is increasing the number of customers and shareholders that are demanding a move toward the corporate social responsibility of a companies actions.

As far as an organisation is concerned adopting environmental practices is all about money. Taking on board environmental practices could help save money and gain new business, however some ‘green moves’ can be very pricey, but the deciding factor is often that going green helps companies enhance their public relations, how the public perceive an organisation can have a strong impact on company profit.

There are certain things as an organisation that you can do to make your company greener:

Perform an energy audit: Some utilities offer businesses free on-site consultations on how they can reduce usage and save money. Most common suggestions can include: Insulation upgrades, timers to automatically turn off lights, and energy efficient light bulbs.

Go paperless: Encourage e-mailing. When paper is necessary, print on both sides and use old letterheads/non sensitive documents as scrap paper.

Recycle: Recycle glass, paper, plastic, metal and manufacturing waste, and reuse packaging for postage.

Include Green issues in the Staff Satisfaction survey: Dedicate a section to Green issues within the annual employee survey.

Reduce commuting: Encourage carpooling, offer passes to employees who take the bus or train, add bike racks for cyclists.

Reduce business travel: Teleconference instead of travelling. For must-go trips, keep track of the miles driven and flown and buy "carbon offsets" to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions.

Buy green: Tell suppliers that you're interested in sustainable products, set goals for buying recycled, refurbished, or used.

Detoxify: Talk to suppliers about alternatives to toxics, such as used batteries and copier toner, and make sure you properly dispose of the ones you can't avoid using.

Rethink transportation: Consider the fuel it takes to ship and receive products. Purchase or lease energy-efficient cars and trucks for business use.

Provide leadership and resources for going green: - Assign a respected person to head up Green initiatives. Include “green" in your company's mission statement and business plans.

Get employees involved: Create a team to lead the company's eco-efforts and determine where you can have the biggest impact for the least amount of money.

Communicate Green issues: Inform suppliers and customers about your efforts. And get in touch with local regulatory agencies, many offer financial incentives to businesses that implement green initiatives.

Save water: Monitor sinks and toilets for leaks that waste water.

Explore alternative energy sources: Consider using solar energy, bio-fuels, wind power and other alternative energy sources.

Implement green manufacturing: Use energy-efficient equipment, and streamline processes.

Implement green policies: Establish policies and standards.

Becoming a Green company doesn’t need to cost the earth, but it just might save it.

Microsoft turns up the heat on Internet scammers!

2011-09-29T10:51:00.000+01:00

Microsoft has stepped up its ongoing battle against Internet scammers, by once again using the power of the U.S. court to dealing a blow to an emerging ‘botnet’ and taking off-line a provider of free Internet domains.

Microsoft used the same method that had worked in previous battle against Rustock and Waledac botnets. They asked a U.S. court to order Verisign to shut down 21 Internet domains that were associated with the servers that formed the brains of the Kelihos botnet.

The Kelihos botnet infected between 42,000 and 45,000 computers, which is a relatively small botnet however it was still distributing just under 4 billion spam messages every day, the majority of which were junk email’s related to stock scams, pornography, illegal pharmaceuticals and malicious software. Technically, the botnet looked a lot like the previously tackled Waledac, and some security experts think it may have been built by the same criminals.

The concept of a highly disruptive botnet that Microsoft had previously shut down in 2010 resurfacing under a different name, was not something that sat well within Microsoft's digital crimes unit. They felt compelled to take it down quickly to minimize, damage, and to make a point to other criminals that once a botnet was eradicated, it stayed that way, a point they feel has been effectively made.

Microsoft went further in the fight against reoccurring botnet’s by naming one of the domain owners, Dominique Piatti owned cz.cc and ran out of The Czech Republic a domain that had multiple issues. Malicious sites on Piatti’s cz.cc domain had previously been used to trick Macintosh users into thinking they needed to buy a fake security program, called MacDefender.

The order came from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division on Sept. 22 but it was sealed until Monday 26, and Piatti was served with a court summons in the case by Microsoft lawyers in the Czech Republic.

Security experts say that many subdomain hosting companies, which usually offer free domain-name registration, have opened up a lawless frontier of flood gates on the Internet where nearly anything goes. Making the internet a very dangerous place for those that do no have their whit’s about them, however alot of time and effort goes into botnet’s making them look as genuine and safe as possible.

The only comment that Piatti was able to put on record was via email: " I would be glad to give you my side of the story, but I feel that I should hire a lawyer first,".

There is a bright side, and a positive message to come from this, the reassuring feeling that a leader such as Microsoft is taking a zeros tolerance approach, perhaps other companies will take heed and we can tackle internet crime together.

Lack of ‘cyber protection’ revealed in survey.

2011-09-26T12:23:00.000+01:00

The Ponemon Institute has done more research into how well prepared IT and security professionals are for attacks on their cyber systems, the results are in, and it is abundantly clear that they are simply not prepared, at all!

The results of the survey, commissioned by Juniper Networks showed, that 84% of more than 1,000 IT and security professionals asked in the UK, Germany and France admitted to suffering security breaches.

For a staggering 44% of these organisations, the breaches cost them more than £220,000.

Cyber threats are progressing in both how regularly they occur, and how sophisticated they are, it is imperative that companies know how to protect their networks and their hardware.

As far as the UK is concerned, UK organisations reported several breaches, 55% of respondents admitting to two or more breaches in the past 12 months alone, and 91% admitting to at least one breach, these results are shocking and hammer home how vital it is to have dependable ‘cyber protection’ and what is truly shocking is that 6% of the UK organisations said they did not know if they had even had an attack!

The light at the end of a very dark and dangerous tunnel is that Rombus can help you protect your business as a whole by increasing your network security and ultimately your business stability.

Digital Advertising, More Bang for your Buck

2011-09-23T10:59:00.000+01:00

The marketing and advertising industry has taken a particularly hard knock in recent economic downturn; however it appears that the online divisions are going from strength to strength.

Spending on internet advertising in the UK topped £3.5 billion in 2009, for the first time it beat television ad spending. This was a first for not only the UK, but internationally. The high in 2009 capped what can only be described as an extraordinary decade when, in 2000, internet ad spend topped £153m, a growth by 2,200 per cent.

What does this mean for the average businesses? The truth of the matters is: your money reaches more people and goes a lot further through online advertising than it would through the use of other more traditional means of advertising.

This is the first recession of the digital age, and know one truly knew the impact that it would have, but the increase in internet ad spending speaks volumes in showing that some areas of the media are more that merely getting by.

The transition for the more traditional marketing agencies has not been smooth or easy, which does not bode well for those businesses and clients who turn to those agencies to help them through the marketing landscape.

Those who were slow to respond to the changing technologies and subsequent consumer habits are being punished for slow reactions by loss of revenue and wasted money on what is now considered as dead marketing.

Internet ad spend is set to increase and those who have been reluctant to spend will now have to become much bolder in how they choose to not be left in the dark, this I believe will put traditional marketing agencies and media providers into very choppy water.

Traditional methods step aside, the internet has truly come of age.

OBM Vs TAPE – The advantage of Online Backup versus Tape Drives.

2011-09-22T14:58:00.000+01:00

Change is hard to deal with, especially when it comes to something as important as your system, should something go wrong it would put even the bigger companies in a very difficult position.

Could you afford to loose a week of work? How would you manage if you were hit by a flood, or if your buildings went up in flames? Would your information survive? Could you keep trading the next day?

Everyone in business knows that it is wise to backup your computer system regularly. Some people do and some wisely store their backup in premises away from their office for added security. Others simply never get round to backing up their system. Making the decision to back you systems up is the fist step, but deciding how to do so is the next, you could choose traditional tapes, or your could look to the future and use Online Backup Management (OBM)

Without 100% reliable backup, your business is vulnerable in the event of fire, flood, virus, theft, power cut etc. It is very easy to forget to backup your data on a daily basis, you may not even get back to the office at the end of a busy day of seeing customers and the risks to your business remain. The most up to the minute, affordable and reliable way to backup your data is with online backup from Rombus Computers.

But lets break it down and see which is really better: Tape Vs OBM

Level of Capital Expenditure:
Tape: High . Especially for larger data volumes, or complex backup requirements.
OBM: Low . An ongoing monthly operating fee, depending on how much data you want to backup.
Winner: OBM

Total cost of ownership:
Tape: Moderate . Together with hardware maintenance costs, there are often unseen human resource costs.
OBM: Low . Per GB monthly fees reduce as storage volumes grow.
Winner: OBM

Maintenance/Management:
Tape: High . Engineers are required to design, manage and maintain tape backup processes as well as recover data.
OBM: Low . Management of online data backup processes can be pushed to the user level.
Winner: OBM

Scalability (ability to handle growing amounts of data):
Tape: Low . Limited flexibility when storage volumes increase or backup strategies change.
OBM: High . The growth of the infrastructure can be managed enabling your data volumes to grow without concern.
Winner: OBM

Data Security:
Tape: Low . Tapes can be lost, stolen or damaged in even the most well managed tape backup procedures.
OBM: High . Copies of your data is stored in an encrypted format in a highly secure data centre.
Winner: OBM

Reliability:
Tape: Low . Tapes often suffer from reliability issues.
OBM: High . Data is stored in a highly secure data centre constantly monitored and engineers are on call. You can access your data via any computer with internet access.
Winner: OBM

Protection:
Tape: Low . Data is generally stored in an unencrypted format.
OBM: High . Data is encrypted when in transit and in storage, eradicating the risk of it being compromised.
Winner: OBM

Ease of Data Restoration:
Tape: Low . Time intensive processes are required in order for engineers to restore large data sets.
OBM: High . Individual or multiple files can be restored quickly and easily by the user.
Winner: OBM

Future Proof:
Tape: No . As storage technology evolves your tape backup investment can quickly become obsolete.
OBM: Yes. We continually invest in performance hardware to meet customers' storage requirements.
Winner: OBM

Required length of Backup window:
Tape: Long . Large data volumes and longer working hours are continually shortening tape backup windows.
OBM: Short . Backups take place instantly whilst users are working and incremental backups shorten the backup cycle.
Winner: OBM

Looks like OBM comes out on top. Tapes do work but the level of risk and cost is so high that it is destined to become a dinosaur of the technical age.

For more information on OBM go to: http://www.rombus.com/products/rombus-obm

Staff retention just went viral

2011-09-19T15:50:00.000+01:00

When brewing company MillerCoors realized it was struggling to retain female salespeople, the company turned to social tools to turn it around and retain their female staff.

Executives wanted to make female sales reps feel less isolated and more a part of a cohesive team. But the problems was how to go about this when their workers are spread across the country, frequently on the road, and working odd hours.

MillerCoors, a $7.5 billion company with roughly 8,500 employees, turned to Triple Creek, a company that makes enterprise mentoring and social learning software which gives the staff an opportunity to connect with each other more than they had, giving a personal connection.

Last summer a regional sales executive noticed that the company was losing women in sales positions at a much faster rate than it was losing their male counterparts. It was a problem the company wanted to quickly curb.

MillerCoors decided to provide mentors to some of its saleswomen, connecting them through the Mentoring software. It is designed to let mentors and workers connect one-on-one or in groups and enables people to share documents and post comments.

The wonders of social networking.

Age bias in IT

2011-09-01T14:42:00.000+01:00

Most high-tech employers, in fact most employers in general would most probably deny that age discrimination is an issue at their company. However in the IT industry, workers over the age of 50 beg to differ, saying they have experienced age bias or at least know someone who has.

This bias can take several forms, salaries might stagnate, they might have fewer or no opportunities for advancement, they might not be included in training and professional development programs. And they could be the first to be laid off and the last to be hired.

According to recent U.S. government data, unemployment rates for older IT professionals increased faster than they did for younger tech workers since the recession began three years ago.

Age bias is a simplistic label for what is a complicated set of factors and issues that influence job prospects for senior employees for every industry. When considering workers over the age of 50, employers have to take the following factors into consideration:

· Both the relevance and currency of skills.
· The level of wage expected, which is typically higher than the salaries younger people seek.
· Behaviours and attitudes, which could become narrow-minded with age.
· Energy level, which is presumed to be less than that of a 25-year-old.

While these are generalisations and are not necessarily true for any particular candidate or employer, they are still is a stereotypical assumptions.

The harsh reality is that when times are tight if you could have someone fresh out of education who is likely to by up to date with current technologies, and pay them half the wage that someone of 45 years would expect, who would you hire?

Hackers paid by Facebook

2011-08-31T10:47:00.000+01:00

The social networking site Facebook has paid out a massive $40,000 in the first three weeks of testing for security bugs and rouge apps.

‘The bug bounty program’ set up by Facebook aims to encourage security researchers to help harden the social networking site against attack. The programme gives monetary rewards to those that find security bugs, the minimum amount paid for the detection of a bug is $500, and it goes up to $5,000 depending on the severity of the bug.

In 2010 Facebook set up a system which promised not to take legal action against those that find bugs.

One security researcher has already been awarded the maximum amount for discovering bugs, and received $7,000 for finding six.

Many cyber criminals have infiltrated Facebook and have been using it as a way of gaining personal information, promoting spam, or selling counterfeit goods.

Many other international companies, including Google and Mozilla, run similar schemes to that of Facebook’s ‘bug bounty program’ and they have proved useful in sourcing out bugs. However hackers may find that they are paid more in the underground market for the information than the organisation is willing to pay, and if that did happen, where would that leave Facebook’s security?

When the going gets tough....make sure your backed up!

2011-08-30T11:09:00.000+01:00

With Hurricane Irene hitting the North East Coast of America business were implementing their disaster recovery plans thick and fast. Ensuring that everything was in place should she hit their businesses hard.

Seeing how very real the threat of disaster is, and how out of control those businesses owners felt, brings home the reality that anything can happen and we should be as prepared as we possibly can, for that just in case moment.

Hints and tips for planning for an emergency with your business:

Make sure all company data is backed up off site
Ensure off site access to your systems
Declare an emergency early to get a head start on working out kinks that will inevitably come
Know what's going on with your staff from a professional and personal standpoint
Focus on systems and work-flows that pull in revenue
Over-communicate with employees, customers and, for large corporations, stock holders about what you're doing
Be prepared for long-term impacts even if you're not directly hit; power and communications may be out for a while.

For more information on how to successfully back your business up click here.

How much 3G coverage are we really getting?

2011-08-26T12:10:00.000+01:00

A survey fronted by the BBC has probed into the state of mobile Britain, the finding suggests that 3G has a way to go before it offers what is promised: ‘comprehensive coverage across the UK’.

Operator’s claim 90% or more 3G coverage, however there are still many blind spots, including in major towns and cities, that were not covered.

Those that were involved in the survey revealed that they were only able to receive a 3G signal 75% of the time.

For nearly a quarter of the time they had to rely on older 2G technology, which characteristically only offers around one tenth of the speed of 3G.

Mobile coverage is a huge issue with people becoming increasingly dependent on their smartphones.

Is 4G the solution?

The government has offered a cash injection to boost the roll-out of next-generation fixed broadband in rural areas.

Ofcom's Communications Consumer Panel last month called for a similar strategy to tackle mobile blind spots.

Sophos ranked ahead of McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro!

2011-08-24T09:38:00.001+01:00

Sophos Endpoint Security software came up trumps in a recent independent product review by Cascadia Labs, the results found that Sophos outperformed and outshone rivals Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro.

Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection 9.0 was also found to be the only endpoint security software to provide integrated data loss prevention, an absolute must for serious businesses.

Cascadia Labs, compared the four leading endpoint security software packages designed for large businesses: McAfee Total Protection for Enterprise, Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection 9.0, Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Trend Micro Office Scan 10. They found that Sophos outperformed in data protection, performance, and technical support categories. It matched Symantec, and beat McAfee and Trend Micro in installation and configuration as well as in policies and management.

The independent review also timed each product on how long it took to scan files on-access, on-demand, and to open large PowerPoint files. Sophos was faster and excelled in low-memory situations. Cascadia Labs said: "Our testing demonstrated significant differences in the performance costs products impose on users, with Sophos being fastest overall."

Cascadia Labs then mystery shopped the software vendors and made several calls to each company to evaluate their ‘troubleshooting capabilities’. Sophos outperformed the others with much shorter hold times and being able to answer difficult questions on the spot.

Cascadia went on to say: "Sophos' technical support was very good—the best of any we experienced in this review. We encountered short wait times, had no problems with gatekeepers (as we did with other companies), and quickly got answers to our questions."

Data protection is not only topical at the moment but is regarded as a real top security concern for most businesses. In the review Cascadia also rated the integrated device control and data loss prevention capabilities of each. Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection was the only product to include data monitoring capabilities and device control.

With such a glowing report is begs belief as to why Sophos would not be the logical first choice for Endpoint Security and Data Protection software by every business.

For more information on how to purchase an implement Sophos today contact Rombus.

Veeam Backup and Replication software chosen by NHS Trust

2011-08-23T16:18:00.000+01:00

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has put into effect a new backup and disaster recovery system to support its growing virtualised IT infrastructure.

The trust has installed Veeam Backup and Replication software, which slashes data recovery times down from hours down to minutes.

Data centre manager at Oxford Health Informatics Service, Kevin Woodley, said the technology had proved its worth within the first week of operation. He said : “One of our live production servers had hung. The time-honoured solution to this problem would be to power off and power on again. However, this time the server failed to boot up,"

"Traditionally, a situation such as this would have required a full rebuild and potentially long downtime. With Veeam installed, we were simply able to boot the DR replica and have a live system operating again within three minutes.”

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals has three major sites, serving more than 600,000 patients. It was an early adopter of virtualisation and now has a "virtual first" policy that says any new IT infrastructure implementation has to be virtual.

At the moment, 25% of its infrastructure is judged to be "mission critical." This will increase as the trust plans on an increase in virtualisation from 50% to 75% by the end of the year.

Initially it was spending control and budgets that had driven Radcliffe’s move towards virtualisation with reduced hardware costs, pace for machines and power use.

Woodley went on to say: “However, as more than 50% of out estate became virtualised it became clear that our disaster recovery processes were not suited to the virtual environment. We needed a disaster recovery solution specifically tailored to that environment."

The chosen Veeam product allows for an expansion in the virtual infrastructure as it imposes no limit on the number of machines that can be replicated or backed up.

Oxford Radcliffe followed Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, which announced an installation of Veeam Backup and Replication earlier this year.

For information on disaster recovery and business continuity solutions clickhere.

Phreaking

2011-08-22T15:25:00.000+01:00

Phreaking or Dial-through-fraud is a type of illegal and unauthorised access into your telephone system, other wise known as phone hacking.

Unlike some phone hacking which attaches a listening device on to your system, Phreaking is the unauthorised use of your system to dial high toll numbers raking up a huge bill attached to your number and your company.

The process is frighteningly simple, Its usually originates overseas and starts with someone gaining access into your telephone system, they then sell their hacked access to other criminals who do the same thing, to avoid detection they route calls through the systems of other Phreaking victims , usually over several countries making it ridiculously hard to trace.

It is then the responsibility of each company to pick up their bill from their telecommunication provider, regardless of the origin of the calls, as far as the provider is concerned the call came from the companies line, and they are therefore responsible to pay the bill.

As the service providers get their money irrespective of where the charges came from it provides little incentive for them to investigate the charges, or to push for a crack down. This is why it is imperative to make sure your phone system is up to scratch and protected.

Phreakers usually strike after hours, at the weekend or on public holidays when detection is least likely, but your telecommunications carrier will still expect you to pay for all the illegal calls routed through your phone system.

Phone hackers can rack up a huge bill, but not only that, they have access to your voicemail and any information stored on the handset once they have gained access. If you hold any personal information concerning your staff or customers and this is stolen, you could also find your company receiving a fine from the ICO for not complying with the Data Protection Act on top of the fraudulent charges.

The UK is now one of the top five global hot spots for communication fraud with it costing companies £1.2Billion, globally the cost to companies is an astronomical £40Billion.

These cost’s alone indicate that it is imperative to have a strong, reliable, and safe telephone system, do you know how your telephone system would stand up against Phreakers? For more information on protecting your telephone system :click here

Cookies and You.

2011-07-04T17:03:00.001+01:00

Lets start at the beginning, what are cookies, and how do they effect me?

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on a user’s machine. They provide a huge selection of information to websites, such as your generic settings or a history of URLs you have visited, but most importantly it provides personal data, e.g. name, address, and what products are in a shopping basket at any time.

As it stands, internet browsers automatically accept these cookies, (based upon your privacy settings). However, the new cookie compliance law is looming ever closer, and it insists that all users should be notified whenever a website wishes to drop a cookie onto their machine.

One possible option would be to serve a pop up window each time a new cookie is dropped on to the user’s machine, but this would limit the user’s web experience. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has suggested the use of an icon on adverts which when clicked, reveals information about the data being gathered. These are all possible ways that websites will be informing you, the user when they wish to put a cookie on your machine.

But questions start rolling and one of the main ones is: ‘Is it really necessary for the user to accept every single cookie a website attempts to store on their computer?’ ‘Will this not just slow the internet experience down?’

If the cookie is crucial to the correct functioning of the website then the answer to how necessary it is for the user to accept every cookie, most certainly is yes. However, if that cookie is only used to store a preference such as the colour scheme or gadgets to show in a tool bar then it’s probably not essential.

A number of ‘officials’ have been working with the EU regulators to help provide a strict and clear definition as to how the legislation should be implemented, but to also consider what type of cookies should be subject to the legislation, as of yet, the exact criteria is unknown.

The law, which was scheduled to come into force on 26 May 2011, has since been delayed by one year, due to a lack of preparation in the UK, comes from an amendment to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. It will require UK businesses and organisations running websites in the UK to get ‘informed consent’ from visitors to their websites in order to store and retrieve information on users’ computers, and one of the most common techniques of storing information is known as a cookie.

The ICO has provided advice to help organisations start to think about ‘the practical steps’ they will need to take to remain compliant with the new law.

As far as you the user is concerned, you can choose to allow these cookies or not, however if you do decide to decline them there will be a few changes to your current internet usage, for instance, a website would be unable to remember what you had in your shopping cart, they would be unable to remember passwords and usernames for you, and if your browser was to close down, you would be unable to resume your session, and in some cases you will not be able to log in.

If these will be the only changes to your internet experience, that remains to be seen, and all will become clear once ‘The Cookie Compliance Law’ is enforced.

Could Online Back-up be your knight in shining armour?

2011-07-01T12:02:00.000+01:00

What price do you put on your reputation?

A wise man once said: “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it*” Though that was said many years ago, it speaks volumes in today’s electronic culture. We so heavily rely on our computer systems for every aspect of our business, yet a lot of us leave our vital systems wide open to threat.

If you had precious items in your car, you wouldn’t leave the roof down would you? The same can be said about your systems, if you don’t back up your system, and there was a fire or a flood, and all your hardware was destroyed, how would you manage?

According to new research from the ‘Ponemon Institute’, the damage to your reputation that comes with a ‘major data loss incident’ can cost more than the loss of the actual data itself.

The research found that with each record lost it costs businesses $214, which not only includes the costs of informing those involved, and of course ‘recreating’ the records, but it includes the customer and media backlash that comes from admitting that you lost data.

There is more at risk than sheer embarrassment, its becomes a game of damage limitation, which is why it’s more important than ever for businesses to ensure that they have forceful backup solutions in place. “A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.**”

Now ask yourself, how much does your reputation mean to you? And what should you do to protect it?

*Benjamin Franklin
** Ernest Bramah

A PC has gone to the Rombus cloud

2011-05-11T14:19:00.002+01:00

Rombus thought you might like to hear a story.

Like many businesses, Rombus has members of its staff who often work from home. We already make use of an IP Telephony solution so when members of Rombus call head office or vice versa it’s a free call; however it doesn’t mean they call in more though.

Even though we are an IT company we still suffer from hardware failure and one of our computers was on the brink of going to PC heaven so we thought why not virtualise the computer and give it an afterlife. Using VMware Convertor we converted the machine in a few hours and have moved it onto our virtualisation setup.

The machine is now accessible from anywhere with an internet connection using a remote desktop connection and is automatically backed up every night.

Our developers often need test environments for web development, diagnosing or testing of new software and so instead of the hassle of hardware and networks, we simply clone an existing machine suitable and have an environment setup for testing to help us diagnose or test systems faster.

We used to have 7 big physical servers in our office and now we have 1.

We are very proud of our datacentre setup which utilises virtualisation and the services it can offer our customers.

Why not check out our virtualisation page: http://www.rombus.com/solutions/virtualisation to see how it can benefit you now.

Increased Security

2011-05-04T14:04:00.001+01:00

In light of Sony events recently, perhaps more companies will consider hiring ethical hackers. Even universities are offering courses, see the Northumbria link below.

http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=UUSETH1

Maybe companies are now worried about their security more than they were before; make sure your sales guys don’t leave their laptops on any trains.

New Website Launched

2011-05-03T17:47:00.002+01:00

Hey guys,

check out our new website, we hope you like it as much as we do :)

Out with the old, in with the new

2011-05-03T09:43:00.002+01:00

Today we are excited, the new Rombus website is being launched.

With this weekend’s events, what history of your online presence will still be kept; check out the link below from New Scientist.

Digital legacy: The fate of your online soul legacy-the-fate-of-your-online-soul.html

Never mind the Royal Wedding

2011-04-27T15:31:00.000+01:00

We're more excited about whats happening in 5 days, watch this space.