With holiday season upon us, the kids off from school, and the British weather changing its mind more times than a teenager browsing a pizza menu, I hope you personally are finding some time for relaxation and time away from the business ! It’s hard, I know.
So here’s edition (2) of my Monthly Mailer, with, I hope, something you’ll find interesting personally or business-wise… hopefully both.
Should You Replace Your Laptop With a Mini PC?
Compared to a laptop, a mini PC could save you money and provide a more productive environment.
You can’t beat a laptop for sheer utility so they remain the go to choice when buying a compact computer, even if they are never taken outside the office or home environment. A mini PC though, could offer you much better computing performance, increased functionality, at a much better price and with potential to upgrade in the future. All you’ll need to consider is how big a monitor you can get away with.
Like the name suggests – they are Tiny – or to give it the technical name “Micro Form Factor” (MFF) – the below taking up on 1 litre in size.
My favourite – the Lenovo tiny:
Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Browser’s Password Manager
We always would recommend a good password manager, but modern web browsers have them built in, so why issue a different one to your workforce..?
Firstly though, password managers are essential. Why..?
Two words – Password duplication.
Most people with have multiple systems secured under the same or similar passwords, because they just won’t remember enough otherwise. This leads to breaches being substantially larger than they would be otherwise, but are easily cured by having complicated and unique passwords – hence the need for a password manager.
Why not the built-in one then..?
- Browser managers are limited to one platform – you won’t share between Safari on your iPhone and Chrome on your PC for example.
- You can’t lock them down. They are usually personal Chrome accounts storing business and personal passwords in one. If someone leaves, they have everything still at their fingertips.
- Difficult to dish-out corporate passwords in a controlled manner.
- No central management or central control.
- Little encryption, meaning that if a machine is exposed, usually the passwords are exposed too.
- You can usually only store passwords, not wifi passphrases or building entry codes.
A corporate level password management system can therefore be the only answer to all the above. Expect more info on this coming your way in due course.
Cyber Accreditations
I have been putting together in the background a facility where we can take companies through the Cyber essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation schemes from scratch. These are becoming more and more important to have, with the majority of Cyber Insurance policies requiring some evidence of your outward Security posture now.
We can now offer this as a managed service, with one-off costs starting from £1,125 + VAT depending on the number of users, which will give you £25k worth of Cyber Insurance upon passing as a bonus.
I’ll fire out a separate mailer about this when I’m back from holidays at the end of the month, but for now there’s a bit more of a taster in our website: https://www.alchemysys.net/cyber-accreditations/
What’s the Deal with MultiFactor Authentication..?
Well, put quite simply, if you have MFA enabled for a particular service already protected by a user name & password, even if that password ends up in the hands of an unscrupulous agent, they will still need your MFA code to log into your account.
MFA is an additional layer of security, using an app on your phone usually, to generate a code number that identifies you as you at that specific point in time, and needs to be entered into the login mechanism of whatever service you are using to get yourself logged in. These code regenerate every 30 seconds or so for extra security.
With many passwords being re-used across multiple services, if one is stolen / leaked, many things can be at risk. As most unauthorised access requests come from somewhere distant from your current location, they are extremely unlikely to have also stolen your phone – meaning that they aren’t getting hold of the MFA code as well – meaning your services are still secured.
Read more here.
Don’t Forget Ergonomics in the Home Workplace
Something we all take for granted in the office, but when we’re at home, are we concerning ourselves with the environment in which our employees are working. Yep we’ll provide them with the right IT equipment, but are they using it slouched on the sofa, for example. The rise in Hybrid Working comes with an increase in physical risks, so with the market in ergonomic office chairs expected to grow by 7% CAGR between now and 2030, are you doing all you need to:
- Have a chair that offers good back support, is cushioned, and lets them rest your feet comfortably on the floor.
- Check the height of the home office desk so that elbows rest at 90-degrees and avoid wrists bending up.
- Keep eyes level with the top edge of display to avoid bending the neck and ensure that the display is an arm’s length away. At all times keep looking straight and avoid hunching over especially if using a laptop.
- Don’t let the mouse stray far from the keyboard to stop awkward shoulder movements.
5 Signs It’s Time To Upgrade Your PC
When your PC starts to
- lag on video calls
- prolongs mundane tasks
- loses software support
- consistently runs loud & hot
- or is always running out of storage space
it’s telling you something – it’s time for an upgrade.
IT equipment out of the box comes with a 12-month manufacturers warranty usually, but the kit is designed around a 3-year lifecycle. Beyond that and the chance of failure increases dramatically, and is represented by a graphic known at ‘the bathtub curve’:
This ‘early failure period’ is usually what the warranty is for, and why it’s always better to have someone check over and test a machine prior to shipping into a live environment. A machine that is Dead On Arrival (DOA) is more common than you think !
With software getting more an more intense, and with new Operating Systems (OS) like Windows 11 actively denying processors of a certain age from even running it, it starts to make a lot more sense to buy more often… or if you intending sweating assets longer, buy new and current.
Well, I hope there’s something there of interest for you. Always welcome feedback on items you’d like me to cover in the future- just ping me your suggestions.
Kind regards,
Richard.
