Author: Mike

Providing IT support and solution to small and medium businesses. Servicing Edinburgh, Livingston, Fife and surrounding areas. Responsive, Flexible, Professional and friendly local support.

Real-time Phishing Protection Now Available in Chrome

Google has announced real-time phishing protection with the help of improvements to ‘Safe Browsing’ which allow Chrome to check each new site you visit against a safe list stored on your computer and with Google so that Chrome can issue an instant warning if the site is thought to be suspicious or malicious. Phishing Problem…
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New Google ‘Interpreter’: Real-Time Translator For Your Mobile

Google has announced the rollout of its “interpreter mode” real-time translator on Assistant-enabled Android and iOS phones worldwide. A Back and Forth Conversation Google says that interpreter mode means that you can now use your mobile phone to have a “back and forth conversation with someone speaking a foreign language”. In fact, interpreter mode comes…
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Facebook’s New Tool Allows You To Port Your Photos & Videos To Google

Facebook has announced that it is releasing a data portability tool that will enable Facebook users to transfer their Facebook photos and videos directly to other services, starting with Google Photos. Why? Facebook acknowledged in its white paper (published back in September) that under GDPR currently, and under the California Consumer Privacy Act rules next…
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Record Levels Of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

The Global Carbon Project reports that carbon dioxide emissions, which are linked to climate change, extreme weather events and rising oceans haven reached record-breaking high levels this year. Emissions High But Rate of Growth Slowing New Papers published in “Earth System Science Data,” “Environmental Research Letters” and “Nature Climate Change” contain the predictions from Global…
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Over Half of Businesses Don’t Respond To GDPR Requests On Time

The results of a survey by Talend show that 58% of businesses worldwide fail to address requests from individuals for a copy of their personal data within the one-month time limit as required by GDPR. Bad, But Better Than Last Year The survey, which involved 103 GDPR-relevant companies across the globe (84% of which were…
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How Does Encryption Work?

Encryption comes from the age-old science of cryptography.  In the digital world of today, encryption refers to using electronic devices to generate unique encryption algorithms which essentially scramble messages and data, making them unintelligible to anyone who tries to intercept them, and also to provide an effective way to lock our electronic devices. Using Encryption…
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Amazon Announces Smart Office Supply Re-Ordering Device

Amazon has announced the introduction of a ‘smart’ office essentials re-ordering device called Dash Smart Shelf which uses a weight-sensing, Wi-Fi-enabled smart scale to re-order products when they’re running low. Why? According to Amazon, monitoring and reordering everyday business essentials (e.g. printer paper) can be unnecessarily time-consuming for the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that…
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The Battle Between ‘Slack’ and ‘Teams’

With Microsoft’s announcement that it’s Teams product has 20 million daily active users (and growing), sending Slack’s share price downwards (Slack has 12 million users), the battle is well underway in the $3.5 billion chat-based collaborative working software market. What Is Slack? Slack, launched in 2013, is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools…
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Hacker’s Website Closed Down In International Operation

A website (and its supporting infrastructure) which sold a variety of hacking tools to other would-be cybercriminals has been closed down after an investigation by agencies from multiple countries including the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). IM-RAT The main tool that the agencies were particularly interested in eradicating was the Imminent Monitor Remote Access Trojan…
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The Difference Between Backup and Disaster Recovery

We’re all familiar with the value of making a backup of business data, but how does this fit with ‘Disaster Recovery’ and ‘Business Continuity’ strategies?  This article takes a brief look at how these elements fit together to ensure that businesses can survive, function and get back up to speed when disastrous events (external or…
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