IT Services Updates That May Affect Your Sydney Business

A huge percentage of small to medium enterprises choose to outsource their IT services needs in Sydney nowadays for many practical and cost efficient reasons.

Cyber criminals have been targeting small and medium sized enterprises because they are aware of the lack of IT infrastructure and security and this has resulted to almost a billion dollars of loss due to scams and security breaches in the past year. It is quite beneficial for small business owners who do not have sufficient capital to purchase equipment and hire IT personnel, to still be able to get assistance for an outsourced IT services team in Sydney for a reasonable monthly fee.

Before the advent of outsourced IT services groups in Sydney, local SMEs like corner mom and pop shops which cannot afford establishing their own IT systems were veritable sitting ducks for cyber criminals to prey on. More and more SME owners are now realizing the urgent need for not just IT maintenance, but more importantly, security and defense against digital thugs.

If you are a small to medium sized business owner who has not retained the services of a an IT services team for your Sydney yet but has somehow evaded cyber attacks, then consider you and your business very lucky. But do not wait until you have been robbed of your business information and for your business bank accounts to be drained before contacting an MSP for IT services to support and protect your Sydney business. Here are the latest on the goings on in the techworld that may directly or indirectly affect your enterprise:

 

Facebook Chat Vulnerability

Roman Zaikin of Check Point, a cyber security company, recently discovered a vulnerability in the Messenger application of Facebook which opens a doorway for hackers to spread malicious software and other fraudulent activities. The bug can be exploited so that hackers can edit or delete files, photos, text history, and even links. Two parties could have been discussing business dealings over the app and if a malicious party edits the information then it could be used to change the terms or agreement or worse, be used for a false claim.

Similarly, an edited link could lead to a malicious website that is capable of downloading malware onto your machine or gadgets and this could lead to a host of hacking problems. Having an outsourced IT services team in Sydney to update, maintain, and secure your business IT systems couldn’t necessarily solve the Facebook Messenger bug (that’s up to Zuckerberg and his team to fix), but it would mean having an extra line of defense. A dependable Sydney IT services group will have filters set for known and possibly malicious websites, and they would be able to quickly detect any anomalies in your machines and systems and network.

 

Watson Is On The Hunt For Hackers

The first time I heard about IBM’s computer called Watson, my immediate thought was to wonder about the history of how they come to choose that name. Did it have anything to do with Sherlock and his trusty mate since the computer has impeccable investigatory expertise? Well, it has nothing to do with detective Holmes.

Watson was named after the very first CEO of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. It should bring IT services teams in Sydney and other IT workers around the globe some comfort that the Watson Computer is being taught to hunt down cyber criminals. The creator of the cloud based new technology has partnered up with eight universities in getting Watson up to date with security related data and reports.

Watson will be processing up to fifteen thousand digital security related documents (including videos, blog posts, etc.) each month so it can quickly learn about security and start its hunt for cyber criminals. The big data approach will enable Watson to scour and sift through security research at a very fast pace that it will make it very efficient  in investigate if and when something fishy occurs on hacked victim’s computers.

It would be performing similar tasks of an enterprise’s IT services team in Sydney when it comes to security investigations but at almost lightning speed. A report from the Ponemon Institute last 2015 stated that security staff or IT services teams in Sydney and around the world spend more than half the time on investigations of malware alerts which are often false positives, costing institutions around $30,000 – 35,000 a week. Watson can help in this area and Sydney IT services team members can better focus on other functions that will enhance their core business processes.