Counting down to the next Zero Day Attacks. What businesses need to know!
This free e-book helps you understand what a zero day attack is, and most importantly what you can do to prevent it.
Click here to download the free e-book
Missed the event? Listen to the recording here.
If you have any trouble downloading the recording please contact us here and we will send it through to you.
Many businesses in Northland use Microsoft Planner. Planner is a tool within the Office 365 suite. Planner is an easy way to organize teamwork with intuitive, collaborative, and visual task management. Planner is simple, easy to use for new users, and included in the licensing for Office 365 users.
Planner improves teamwork by organizing an Office 365 group or team’s tasks, files, and conversations.
Planner helps to organize your tasks by adding one or more Planner tabs to a team channel. You can then work on your plan from within Teams, remove or delete your plan, and get notified in Teams when a task is assigned to you in Planner.
All tasks are easily accessible in one place: Plans comprise content-rich tasks that contain expected details, such as due dates, and extra elements like color-coded labels and files.
Automatic chart report: Planner automatically visualizes task status into pie and bar charts for you with no setup required.
Work where you want: Use Planner wherever you’re working. At your desk? Open Planner from tasks.office.com. On the go? Update tasks from your mobile device. In Microsoft Teams? Select the Tasks app powered by Planner and Microsoft To Do.
Connect across Microsoft 365: Planner is part of Microsoft 365, so it’s highly secure like your other Microsoft 365 apps. Microsoft 365 also connects Planner with Microsoft To Do, SharePoint, Power Automate, and other apps for efficient task management.
Manage all your tasks in Microsoft Teams: Planner and Microsoft Teams work well together. The Tasks app in Microsoft Teams combines all your team tasks from Planner and individual tasks from Microsoft To Do with advanced collaboration tools.
Use the buckets:
Microsoft Planner lets you create buckets for various tasks. Within each bucket, you can create specific assignments.
The calendar feature:
The calendar is very important for keeping everyone on task. Items in the calendar can be assigned both due dates and a specific task owner. This helps individuals know who is responsible for what and also whether or not they are on schedule.
Checklist:
You can create a checklist to keep on top of tasks. This checklist can be a list of necessary actions for this project. As the assigned user works their way through the project, they can check off individual items on the list. This creates an effortlessly easy visual to be able to track progress.
Categorise tasks easily
You can create easy visual categories for tasks by color-coded labels and priority. For example, you might split things up into “low-priority,” “medium-priority,” and “high-priority” based on deadlines. This is visually easy for your team to follow as they can see what is coming up on their calendar and what is a priority.
Easily integrates with 365
With Microsoft Planner, you can integrate easily with 365. This means that you can take advantage of Office 365’s own calendar and reminder features. This helps keep your employees focused and on track every time they open up their e-mail.
Connects to the Cloud
Members of the team can upload various files as attachments to different projects and cards. Once the file is attached to Office 365 Planner, everyone has access to it via the cloud. You no longer have to worry about vital information being unavailable to the rest of the group.
In Conclusion:
Planner is a wonderfully simple, yet effective way to manage projects across a team and to improve communication and efficiencies.
For further information, please feel free to reach out to us here to discuss how planner can be used by your team.
More then just that flashing box, lighting up like a disco in the corner of the room, routers play a particularly vital role in keeping your business safe, and your data secure, as well as creating efficient, and safe remote working conditions.
Here we look at the role of the router, and what you can do to ensure you have the right one for your business.
Think of your router like an important Traffic Officer only allowing approved content in and out of your business.
The difference between an entry level router and a higher quality router, that we can provide is a lot. Sometimes it pays to think outside the box, and not just take the router provided for free in the box.
When it comes to security, it is a good idea to take preventative measures. This is where the best secure routers come in, and where we can help you a lot with the right IT hardware. A router with built-in security controls and services that monitor your network around the clock is going to save you a lot of potential headaches. With your router protecting your area of coverage, your devices and your network safe.
“You must always change the factory default password for the router and ensure that the firewall and other security features are in fact enabled”.
Ever been confused by the codes that come up when you go to log in to your network?
WPA2 and AES are the best settings to secure your Wi-Fi from hackers. Remember that if a hacker is able to breach your network, they could steal important information, like bank details, or even your identity.
We strongly suggest against using an open network. An open network means you won’t have a password, so anyone can have access to your Wi-Fi and all of your devices.
Make sure to apply WPA2 to your router for improved protection of your online information.
Routers can be complex and can create harmony or havoc depending on the route you choose to follow. Buying a router with the highest security is crucial to protect your network.
Remote working conditions are the new normal, which means that many of us may need to upgrade our home routers too.
By speaking to our team, you could find quick connectivity and security gains with an upgraded router. In the end this can save a lot of time and money, as well as keeping your business safe.
One of the first things we all do is business owners is ponder our business name and what our domain name will be.
As our business evolves, sometimes we upgrade our business name, and our website. However, before you abandon your old website there are a few things that you need to know.
When you set up your Web presence, you select a domain name, and it’s part of all your URLs (FYI: URL stands for uniform resource locator).
For example, you are an accountant who specialises in small businesses in Whangarei, so you pick the domain name beancounter.co.nz for your business. Your emails come from Chiefbeancounter@beancounter.co.nz. From there you start building web traffic for your thriving accountancy firm.
You may even think ahead and purchase some similar domain names such as beancounter.com, or some similar names to redirect traffic and avoid losing customers to misspellings or typos.
The domain name is the basis of your business and is the foundation from where you grow. As you build the business, you may expand to new offerings and provide additional services that are beyond the scope of what you started with. For example, maybe you now also offer business counsulting so you need a more generic and umbrella type of term.
Before you abandon your old domain name – WAIT!
After you stop paying for your domain name and after a certain grace period, anyone can buy that abandoned domain name.
Whilst on the face of it that doesn’t sound that bad, I mean you’ve moved on from just being a bean counter and you want to expand. You didn’t want that old domain anymore…right?
Heres the problem, you just don’t know who might snatch up your old online calling card. Bad actors buy up abandoned domain names and re-register them with catch-all emails.
What’s a catch-all email? Well, remember Cheifbeancounter@beancounter.co.nz? That was you. But maybe you also had distinct emails for accounts, sales, support, office, Mary and James. All of these were going through Beancounter.co.nz. If someone emails someone at the previous domain owner’s business, it goes instead to the new owner. Having seized control of your old site, they gain access to all incoming emails, and they could see information you don’t want them to see.
The bad actor could also access online services once used by mary@beancounter.co.nz. All they would need to do is reset the password to hijack that account.
Security researchers have seen criminals claim abandoned domains to:
Especially if you use a domain name for email, don’t let the renewal expire. We didn’t even mention pirates who look for business websites that have lapsed so they can charge exorbitant ransoms to return that domain.
When you move to a new domain address, communicate the change with all your clients and vendors. Close any cloud-based user accounts registered with the old domain email address. Also, unsubscribe from email notifications that might share sensitive data.
Not sure about your domain name registrations, renewals, and what’s set to expire? We can help you with this. We will make sure you don’t abandon domain names, and ensure you close any associated accounts properly to protect your security. Contact our team here.