What is clear is that there is some confusion with regard to these attachments, particularly when it comes to standard Microsoft Office files such as Word and Excel.

It is generally well known that .zip and .exe files are potentially very dangerous and often viruses are spread in this manner. Viruses are effectively small software programs which are typically buried within a file and downloaded without you being aware.

Once the attachment is opened, the virus is activated and the damage is done. This could be to damage your system, infecting files which you then pass on to others, theft of personal details or sending itself to those email addresses in your email address book.

Emails are frequently blocked by antivirus software due to these types of attachments but what is not so well known if that other “standard” Office files – such as .doc / .docx, .xls / .xlsx and .pdf – are also frequently used to distribute viruses.

Microsoft Word files are particularly vulnerable due to the fact that they are commonly exchanged and there is a lack of awareness concerning the risks. Using macros (shortcuts that can automate tasks in applications such as Word and Excel), cyber criminals can write viruses which is then sent as part of a standard Office application. Once the attachment is opened, the virus then automatically activates.

As well as crude attempts to send viruses through mass mailings, more sophisticated methods are used such as spoofing the email address of an existing contact, purporting to be the sender of an important message (such as one from your bank, the HMRC, etc), or taking advantage of trending topics or news.

So when it comes to keeping yourself protected from potential spam and cybercrime, the advice is to treat attachments – whether from known or unknown senders – with extreme caution and only to open if they are expected. Of course, appropriate Internet Security software should also be in place but it is more important than ever to delete any suspect messages without opening them and to not click on any web links or downloaded files sent by someone unknown to you.

If in any doubt about the legitimacy of any emails or attachments, contact our helpdesk today on 01732 762675.

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Having enjoyed a fantastic Christmas party, we are looking forward to continuing to serve our clients with the highest standards of IT support and computer services in 2016.

The coming year promises to be another record-breaking one for the team, with more engineers, industry accreditations and new clients all coming on-board.

We have also invested a significant amount of time into our Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, which has streamlined our internal systems and improved many of our key processes.

As a result, CRM is now a solution which we are pleased to offer to clients who are looking to improve their sales and operational procedures, streamline customer communications and increasing sales.

For more details on this, please contact us on 01732 762675 or by email to sales@akita.co.uk.

Merry Christmas!

Akita

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Akita Systems, the IT specialist serving businesses in London and the South East of England, today announced it has achieved Silver Small and Mid Market Cloud Solutions competency, demonstrating its ability to meet Microsoft Corp. customers’ evolving needs in today’s dynamic business environment. To earn a Microsoft silver competency, partners must successfully demonstrate expertise through rigorous exams, culminating in Microsoft certifications. And to ensure the highest quality of services, Microsoft requires customer references for successful implementation and customer satisfaction.

Akita Systems, established in 1996, provide IT support, cloud computing solutions, and computer services to small and medium sized businesses with 10 to 250+ users. With a head office in Sevenoaks, Kent, and datacentre presences in Maidstone and Reading, Akita’s dedicated team of experienced IT engineers support hundreds of organisations with remote and on-site support services on a 24/7 basis.

“This Microsoft Silver Small and Mid Market Cloud Solutions competency showcases our expertise in today’s cloud-oriented market and demonstrates our knowledge of Microsoft and its products,” said Christophe Boudet, Managing Director. “Our plan is to make a tangible difference to our clients through delivering cost-effective, leading solutions and by serving as technology advisors for their current and future business demands. Achieving Microsoft certification plays an important part in this.”

“By achieving a silver competency, organizations have proven their expertise in specific technology areas, placing them among the top 5 percent of Microsoft partners worldwide,” said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “When customers look for an IT partner to meet their business challenges, choosing a company that has attained Microsoft competencies is a smart move. These are highly qualified professionals with access to Microsoft technical support and product teams.”

Earning the Microsoft Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions competency demonstrates partner expertise and commitment to delivering solutions tailored to small and midmarket customer requirements. Given the focus on adoption of cloud computing by SMBs to drive their business operations, partners that invest in this competency are ready to address the rising customer demand for Microsoft cloud solutions based on Office 365, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012.

The Microsoft Partner Network helps partners strengthen their capabilities to showcase leadership in the marketplace on the latest technology, to better serve customers and to easily connect with one of the most active, diverse networks in the world.

Since its inception in 1996, Akita Systems has seen consistent growth and is now one of the leading IT service providers to the London and South East England market. Originally formed to provide hardware installations and software support, Akita began offering hosted solutions in 2009 and soon established a significant datacentre presence in Maidstone, Kent. Akita now offer a range of leading hosted solutions, from off-the-shelf services such as Office 365 to bespoke cloud services for those with more exacting requirements.

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Summary
Akita, an expanding business to business IT services company based near M20/M25 in Kent, requires a permanent engineer with specific IT skills to join our highly dynamic and proactive team. Our engineers are client-focused and are expected to manage every aspect of customer accounts at both the granular and strategic levels. We specialise in hosted servers, virtual desktops, hosted email and hosted applications with particular regard to CRM and SharePoint. The right person will be presented with a challenging and dynamic role delivering high quality services to our customer base.

The successful candidate must have a full driving licence with their own car. Company vehicles will be provided wherever possible for travel to customer site. The right candidate must be located within a 20 mile radius of Junction 2 of the M20. This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a proactive, developing company.

Primary responsibilities
The successful candidate will be required to provide comprehensive IT support to our clients by telephone, remote access or on-site methods. The typical tasks may include, but are not limited to:
• Installing new software
• Installing new hardware (servers, printers, computer workstations, etc.)
• Setting up user accounts, permissions and passwords
• Overseeing security of all systems, especially the internet, and installing antivirus protection
• Fixing network faults
• Network maintenance
• Identification of new business opportunities
• Training staff on new systems
• Day to day admin and monitoring of network use
• Planning future improvements, suggesting IT solutions to business problems
• Making sure all IT meets industry standards

Required Skills and Industry Experience
As well as an in depth knowledge of technology, we would like the successful candidate to have the following attributes to become a successful engineer:

• An in-depth knowledge in Windows Server 2008/2012, Windows 7/8/10, Office 2010/2013/2016/365
• An understanding of the following technologies is desirable: Hyper V, VMWare, Active Directory, Exchange 2003/2007/2010/2013, VPN technologies, Cisco IOS
• Good at problem solving
• Able to explain technical problems in a simple terms
• A dedication to continually update knowledge

Personal Characteristics:
·    High level of professionalism
·    Excellent organisational  and multitasking skills
·    Excellent time management
·    Excellent attention to detail – accuracy is key
·    Excellent verbal and written communication skills
·    Ability to work on own initiative
·    Work well with people
·    Analytical, logical, tenacious and methodical approach
·    Ability to cope with pressure
·    Ability to resolve difficult situations
·    Confidential and trustworthy approach to work
·    Flexible and helpful attitude
·    Self-motivated
·    Excellent telephone manner
·    Enjoys working within a busy reactive environment

Opportunities:
With experience, there are opportunities for internal career development and progression.

Training:
As the IT industry develops and moves forward so quickly, it will be essential to continually update your knowledge. This will be particularly important when it comes to the specific programs, hardware and resources used. You will need to stay up to date with the latest changes in all equipment and software used. This will not necessarily involve external or internal courses. Instead, you may be asked to learn about new changes by reading the latest manuals or learning from the wealth of experience within our highly successful and dedicated team.

We will support and train the successful candidate to help develop your career.
If you are interested in applying for this position, please email your CV to jobs@akita.co.uk and covering letter before 8th December 2015 for consideration.

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With regard to internal IT staff, one option for SMEs is to pay higher salaries and increase the amount of training their in-house IT department benefit from. The major downside of this, aside from the costs, is that staff are likely to become more attractive to recruiters and the lure of the larger, more exciting project (with an even higher salary) may prove difficult to turn down.

So, what the options for SMEs who are either unwilling to employ a dedicated IT manager or for those who are face the daunting task of finding a suitable candidate?

Engaging in a specialist IT services provide capable of offering a outsourced IT department is the most popular alternative to having an in-house IT team. There are a number of key considerations when choosing who to partner with, but there is no doubt that the significant benefits offered by IT outsourcing are highly attractive.

One key advantage of IT outsourcing is becoming increasingly important is our increasingly online world…

Most business owners are aware of the prevalence of viruses and hacking attempts which are affecting not only multi-million pound organisations but also those more modestly sized. SMEs with a small IT department can find the issue of IT security daunting. They will likely have limited exposure to the challenges faced and without suitable training or peers to share knowledge with, can become exposed and isolated.

For any organisation, keeping on top of network security to ensure that systems and staff are protected can prove very costly. However, the costs of not implementing appropriate systems in place can be far more expensive. For example, in 2013 Kasperky produced a study which found that cyber attacks cost SMEs up to £60,000 per incident.

Akita, like other leading IT service providers, have had a great deal of direct experience with one of the most prevalent threats over the past couple of years. We have dealt with the the Cryptolocker ransomware numerous times over the past couple of years and, in every instance, we have contained the risk, ensured full recovery of our clients’ data and got them up and running in a few hours. A company network with limited safeguards and an IT manager with no experience of ransomware could face downtime of several days and the possibility of loses key data for good.

The bottom-line is that outsourcing to an established IT service provider gives organisations access to a multi-disciplined team of technical specialists and experienced consultants. Often the benefit of this wealth of resources is not realised until the pain has been felt, but clearly a greater depth of knowledge and experience across multiple industries is beneficial when discussing long-term IT strategy.

For the majority of SMEs, IT outsourcing can provide a cost saving compared to having an in-house IT manager. By taking this one stage further and incorporating a degree of hosted cloud solutions, this can be increased by the savings in ongoing support, hardware and software upgrades, electricity and also the only valuable freeing-up of office space.

To discuss how IT outsourcing can benefit your business, contact us today on 01732 762675 to arrange an obligation-free IT review.

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To give you an idea of how hard our mail filtering servers have to work, on a weekly basis we handle over 750,000 emails!

Of these, typically over half of these are cleansed by our real-time block list. This ensures that emails sent from compromised accounts and email servers do not end up overwhelming our clients’ inboxes.

A further 180,000 emails a week are sent to invalid recipients and these are also removed by our mail filtering service to ensure that our clients are protected from as many rogue emails are possible.

Only one in five of the emails we handle – around 30,000 a day – are clean and genuine messages, whilst around 8,000 emails are day are pure spam.

The number of viruses continues to increase and, on average, our email filtering detects and quarantines around 550 viruses every day!

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It seems that these attempts have become a significant issue with the mainstream media finally picking up on this. Both the Telegraph  and the BBC have both reported on these and hopefully the increased awareness with help to ensure that no other businesses are tricked in this way and that security is tightened up.

As far as cyber security is concerned, this is a good opportunity to remind you of a few simple ways to protect yourself and your loved ones. Here are five top tips for staying safe online…

As far as cyber security is concerned, this is a good opportunity to remind you of a few simple ways to protect yourself and your loved ones. Here are five top tips for staying safe online…

1. Use a robust password (ideally alphanumeric with special characters) – it protects against hacking software that churns out passwords until it discovers the correct one.

2. Change passwords regularly and use different ones for different applications/websites. This means if one gets hacked you are not open to attack across multiple sites and services. We know this can be a bind but it’s actually safer to physically write down your passwords and keep them in a drawer at home or work than use the same one on every site you visit.

3. Avoid clicking on embedded links in suspicious emails and certainly in emails from people/sources you do not recognise. They may contain malware to gain control of your computer and security details.

4. In NO circumstance give any personal details over the phone to people ringing you up. Recently there has been a spate of bogus calls from people pretending to be from Microsoft stating you have problems with your PC – they just want to gain control of your PC to get your personal/bank details for fraudulent purposes.

5. Carry out regular security updates on all software and devices (e.g. Internet Security, Anti-Virus, Windows Updates etc.)

Of course, Akita are always on hand to protect your network and answer any queries you may have so if you are in any doubt, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01732 762675.

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Following a competitive tender, we were delighted to be awarded a contract for the ongoing IT support, leased line and hosted desktops for Jardox. A savoury ingredient specialist based in Sevenoaks, Jardox have engaged Akita to support 70 users, initially on a 2-year contract.

Norriskips and Waste Management, based in Orpington, have selected Akita to support their 25 users – based over multiple sites – as well as taking advantage of our hosted desktop service. Having outgrown their previous support company, Norriskips choose Akita due to our ability to offer a speedy helpdesk service along with an large team of experienced engineers.

Fayair, based out of London’s Stansted Airport, provide luxury travel experience for their discerning clients. As a result of dissatisfaction with their previous IT supplier, Fayair appointed Akita to provide a fully-hosted cloud solution with 24/7 IT support for their 50 users.

Another client who recently selected Akita for their ongoing needs was Reidwood, a construction company in Dartford, Kent. Akita will be providing them with IT support and a flexible hosted desktop cloud solution to meet with their more sophisticated IT needs.

Based in Dover, Kearnesey Care Home invited Akita to tender for IT upgrades and ongoing IT support for their office staff. This involved replacement PCs, a new server, VoIP phone, CAT5 cabling, along with numerous wireless access points to improve the Wifi across the site. Akita were delighted to be awarded the contract after the received submissions were assessed in terms of quality and cost.

We would like to warmly welcome all of our new clients and remind old and new customers that we offer an attractive referral scheme for those who recommend people to Akita!

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“Starting from the end of primary school, when my household got our very first computer, I have been intrigued as to what it can do. Independently, I have been working on computers for quite a while now, dealing with any issues which arise with the computer, and making sure the software/hardware is kept up to date to make using the computer as smooth as possible.

I have always been a technical person; I originally had an interest in Law, and the technicalities which that area brings, but after studying it for a long time and gaining work experience with a prestigious law firm, I regrettably decided it wasn’t really for me.

Riding motorcycles is my biggest hobby, but unfortunately I had an accident 3 months ago caused by a brake malfunction on the bike, leading to me breaking my leg and the bike being a complete write off. While I was off my leg, I found a resurfaced hobby for working with computers.

I had been given the all-clear to go back to work from the GP, so I started applying for apprenticeships to gain more experience and knowledge in a different industry to Law.

I was approached by IT Skills Management about a IT company looking for an apprentice. It was ideal for me because working with computer is still an ever-expanding and changing area, with different learning sectors within the industry. It was a nerve-wracking process as I had to first complete a ‘research application form,’ which seemed quite daunting as it had asked a question which I knew relatively nothing about. I then had to participate in a telephone interview with firstly IT Skills Management, then Akita themselves.

I am now into my second week of the apprenticeship, and I am really enjoying myself here. Although I have been here for a very short while, I have already learned a lot and getting on with the engineers and admin team is really easy as they’re all approachable and if I have any questions, they’re mostly happy to answer them.”

The team at Akita are delighted to welcome Daniel into the company and we are sure that he will be a valuable asset, both now and in the future. His technical knowledge will grow over time, particular as he gains exposure to new technology, and his positive attitude and solid customer-service skills will stand him in great stead for his career with Akita.

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Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade in 190 countries, with millions of machines having already taken advantage of the upgrade (for information on whether you should upgrade, we wrote this article on the subject).

The huge awareness of the Windows 10 upgrade, in large part a result of the notifications Microsoft deployed to Windows 7 and 8 users, has led to cybercriminals trying to trick users into installing ransomware.

The spam campaign is delivered by fake emails titled “Windows 10 Free Upgrade”, these seem to come from a genuine Microsoft email account “update@microsoft.com”. However, although these may seem legitimate they are in fact spoofed email and to be handled with caution.

Attached to the email is a file called Win10Installer.zip. However, instead of being a Windows 10 installer, it is a variant of the CTB-Locker ransomware.

Those unfortunate enough to unzip and install the file will find their files encrypted with 96 hours given to pay a ransom (usually paid in Bitcoin) if they want to recover them.

A Cisco blog post stated: “Currently, Talos is detecting the ransomware being delivered to users at a high rate. Whether it is via spam messages or exploit kits, adversaries are dropping a huge amount of different variants of ransomware. The functionality is standard however, using asymmetric encryption that allows the adversaries to encrypt the user’s files without having the decryption key reside on the infected system. Also, by utilizing Tor and Bitcoin they are able to remain anonymous and quickly profit from their malware campaigns with minimal risk.”

As always users are encouraged to be cautious when opening any email attachments, particularly when they were unexpected and from an unknown sender.

For any further information on this network security risk, or indeed the Windows 10 upgrade, you can speak to our team of technical specialists on 01732 762675.

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