Adrian Briscoe

In the desire to capture digital data about people and their activities, technology is being embedded in a growing variety of consumer and industrial objects.

The idea that criminals can hijack your computer content and use encryption to hold your data to ransom is worrying, but there is another, positive side to the technology that rarely gets mentioned.

In the last couple of months discussion of the ransomware computer threat has catapulted out of the computer pages into mainstream news, and for good reasons.

It happens so fast – one moment of inattention on a business trip and someone makes off with your laptop or smartphone. Inconvenient to say the least, but also, who is going to pay for the loss? And what about the stored data that is gone – the RFP that was just completed, the lead information, your client list? 



The rise of Apple devices in the consumer world is now being mirrored in business, with employees increasingly likely to bring in their own devices to access corporate information. So how should organisations address the growing trends of self-selected access devices and the increasing preponderance of Apple in work?

Employees often only see the ease and advantages of BYOD, but underestimate the potential consequences. There are six important questions to be asked of the IT department, before you allow staff to use personal devices for corporate reasons.

For many employees, the line between work and personal life has grown increasingly murky. Many now use their own tech gadgets to do business as often as they use company property. On the one hand, that can save the company money on hardware and make employees more efficient – but it also presents serious security risks.

If you’re escaping the winter blues by heading overseas and plan to take your mobile phone, tablet PC or laptop along, there are few things you should watch out for. From sand and saltwater to pickpockets and poorly protected wireless networks, many dangers can befall your electronic companion.

Any business that loses customer records, financial data or even a day’s worth of orders will experience some degree of productivity loss and may also face potential non-compliance penalties, missed sales opportunities, damage to reputation, and weakened customer confidence. Here’s how to protect your business.

If you don’t want to risk having your sensitive business data leaked, you need to take a serious look at how your company disposes of old PC’s, hard drives, servers and other storage devices.