What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams?

What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams?

What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams?

The business world is always buzzing about which collaboration platform is the best. There certainly are quite a lot of options to choose from. But one particularly useful solution stands out: Microsoft Teams. And it’s included totally free with Microsoft365 or Office365.

Microsoft Teams is a persistent chat-based collaboration platform complete with document sharing, online meetings, and many more extremely useful features for business communications. Having an excellent team space is key to being able to make creative decisions and communicate with one another. Shared workspace software makes this much easier to achieve, especially if a particular team is based in a very large company, has many remote employees, or is made up of a significant amount of team members.

What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams?

Let’s look at some of the features

Teams and channels. Teams are made up of channels, which are conversation boards between teammates.

Conversations within channels and teams. All team members can view and add to different conversations in the General channel and can use an @ function to invite other members to different conversations.

A chat function. The basic chat function is commonly found within most collaboration apps and can take place between teams, groups, and individuals.

Document storage in SharePoint. Every team who uses Microsoft Teams will have a site in SharePoint Online, which will contain a default document library folder. All files shared across all conversations will automatically save to this folder. Permissions and security options can also be customised for sensitive information.

Online video calling and screen sharing. Enjoy seamless and fast video calls to employees within your business or clients outside your business. A good video call feature is great to have on a collaboration platform. One can also enjoy simple and fast desktop sharing for technical assistance and multi-user real-time collaboration.

Online meetings. This feature can help enhance your communications, company-wide meetings, and even training with an online meetings function that can host up to 10,000 users. Online meetings can include anyone outside or inside a business. This feature also includes a scheduling aid, a note-taking app, file uploading, and in-meeting chat messaging.

Audio conferencing. This is a feature you won’t find in many collaboration platforms. With audio conferencing, anyone can join an online meeting via phone. With a dial-in number that spans hundreds of cities, even users that are on the go can participate with no internet required. Note this requires additional licensing.

To Team or to Zoom?

With many businesses preparing for a transition to a hybrid working a big question being asked though is, which conferencing, and collaboration tool is better, Zoom or Microsoft Teams?

Choosing between the two is easier said than done with both Teams and Zoom offering similarly high levels of quality and a comparable suite of features. Choosing between Zoom and Microsoft Teams boils down to what your priorities are. Here’s the main difference, Zoom is purely a video conferencing tool and Teams is an all-in-one tool that combines video conferencing with team chat and other productivity features.

Zapier summed it as follows:

1.      Teams is better for maximising meeting productivity

2.      Teams has more advanced meeting collaboration features

3.      Zoom is better for external meetings and Teams for internal meetings

4.      Zoom copes better with larger meetings and slow internet

5.      Both apps play nice with other tools

Our final thoughts, what benefits does Teams have to offer?

1.      Teams streamlines work and saves time: As Microsoft’s “hub for teamwork”, Microsoft Teams brings together chat, calls, meetings, Microsoft 365 apps, and third-party tools in one centralised location.

2.      Teams hosts more effective video meetings: Videoconferencing has become a mainstay of life during the pandemic, and improved video meetings are one of the many benefits of Microsoft Teams for distributed work.

3.      Teams helps you collaborate seamlessly: Leveraging Microsoft Teams collaboration capabilities enables you to move beyond transactional messages and meetings and focus on the flow of work.

4.      Teams makes conversations and connections more meaningful: People in a distributed workforce still crave human connection. A host of new Microsoft Teams features make interactions more natural, engaging, and fun.

5.      Teams keeps everyone informed: Now more than ever, it’s vital for businesses to keep employees informed and on the same page—wherever they work. Integrated Teams apps help you communicate more effectively with employees.

Your first step to getting Teams

This first step you need to take to get Teams is to contact Rito-Technologies so they can assess your business needs and make a professional recommendation.

Be more productive in your workplace through Information Technology (IT) and grow your business. Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner that maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be SMART with their IT Strategic Planning and Microsoft and Office365, which is guaranteed to increase your business performance and ROI.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning, request a free assessment today or get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za or call us on 010 213 7016 and we will gladly assist you.

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How secure is your business?

How secure is your business?

How secure is your business?

With the most recent attack on Virgin Active, it is important to ask the question: How secure is your business?

In most instances, you think you are safer than you are, because cybercriminals are forever changing, but your technologies remain the same! Rather ask yourself, when last did you conduct a risk or cyber assessment on your business?

With cyber security, companies do not have to worry about unauthorised users accessing their network or data. It helps them protect both their employees and their customers. 

When it comes to your business security, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Most likely the trusty old firewall. In the event of a successful cyberattack, most victimised organisations will raise the question: “Why wasn’t our firewall able to protect us?”

Are firewalls enough?

Unfortunately, security threats are constantly evolving and are designed to circumvent common and basic security tools, such as firewalls. As a result of The Internet of Things (IoT) and increase in remote working as a result of the digital age and the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, nearly any smart device from phones, laptops, printers, tablets and televisions can be connected to the business network – creating an access point for cyber criminals.

Your firewall is pretty good at protecting your office network. After all, that’s what it was designed to do. But what happens when an employee accesses their email or files from their phone? What about when they connect to the WiFi at a restaurant? Your network security is only as strong as its weakest link. You could have the strongest, most expensive security system on your laptop, but it won’t do you any good if an attacker sets up a fake WiFi hotspot and intercepts all the data.

Firewalls are primarily used to prevent attacks originating from outside the system. What if a threat makes it past the firewall or originates from the network itself?

Firewalls are also extremely limited in their capacity to prevent phishing, scams, ransomware and much more in addition to just typical malware. Some of these rely on tricking a user into taking a desired action like surrendering confidential information or disabling a firewall or antivirus. Unfortunately, firewalls can’t stop human errors or fix poor administrative practices and security policies. Firewalls need to be consistently updated. New threats arise every day and if firewalls aren’t updated, they may not protect you from the latest threat.

Traditional network security, like firewalls doesn’t extend to the mobile-first, multi-device reality that we live in today. Massive hikes in web traffic, constantly evolving threats and other dangers are not easily detected. Firewalls are a reactive method as you can only protect devices after threats have been detected.

A multi-facet approach for your ultimate security

Now that multi-devices and IoT are complicating secure networks with added vulnerability, increased cyber security is a must-have for optimal protection. Organisations need a first line of defence to threats you can’t see or immediately repel with a firewall. A successful cyber security approach has multiple layers of protection across computers, networks, programs and data and accelerates key security operations which are prevention, detection, investigation and remediation. A multi-facet approach is one that uses several components to protect your operations with multiple levels of security measures in place. These layers work together to tighten security and have a better chance of stopping intruders from breaching your networks than using a single security solution.

Today you cannot run the risk of being hacked, rather request a free assessment with Rito-Technologies to see how safe you are, and how they can improve your internet and network security. Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be secure with their IT Strategic Planning, which is guaranteed to increase your accessibility, productivity, and levels of communication with the right level of technology for business and potential customers.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning or our cyber security planning, please get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za and we will gladly assist you.

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How important is hosting

How important is hosting

Why hosting is key to your business success

A good hosting partner is essential so your brand can offer a quality service to the public.

Hosting can be used for many applications, such as systems, virtual stores, blogs, and websites, with advantages ranging from better performance to greater security.

The advantages of good hosting include

Better site performance: With high-quality hosting, loading speeds will no longer be an issue which will also ensure a better customer experience (CX) in making a decision on your website.

Exceptional technical support: If you have been providing services or products from a website, you already know the importance of offering customer support. The hosting company also knows that. If you don’t have the technical skills, your provider will be like a member of your technical team.

Improved website security: A good host will take preventative measures in order to limit risk of privacy violations, provided through firewalls and other electronic barriers between your website and those attempting to access your website with malicious intent.

Customer Service: When your website goes down, it becomes an inevitability that you will be forced to get to know the customer service team of your hosting platform, but the difference between good and bad hosts becomes how quickly the issue is resolved.

Reliability: Your website is the first point of access to your customers, and in this sense, you want to provide a good first impression. People don’t notice when your website is good, but they surely recognize when it is bad. If your website is frequently down, has been hacked, or proves to be less than user-friendly, they will likely take their business to a competitor.

Search engine rankings & SEO: If your website is down often when search engines are trying to visit and analyse it, then your ranking will be badly affected. Alongside the downtime affects, it is believed that a slow site can also harm your rank on search engines. So, it is in your best interest to invest in professional website hosting platforms in order to ensure you get accurate and the best possible search engine rankings.

The more complex your websites, the more important it is to have a competent and reliable web host who can support your evolving online business. In many instances, the best web hosting solution is not the cheapest, but your small investment in a better web host can pay big dividends when you need immediate support. When shopping for the best web host for your websites, try contacting their support departments at odd hours and see what kinds of responses you get. 

So, what to look out for when choosing your website host:

High Reliability and Uptime: Reliability and server uptime refers to how often your website will be available online. Most hosts stick to the rule of 99.9% uptime. Before you decide on a web hosting service provider make sure to verify their uptime policy and if they offer any sort of uptime guarantee.

Bandwidth and Storage: Bandwidth translates to the amount of traffic and number of page views your website can handle every single month. It’s becoming common practice to offer unlimited bandwidth. However, there’s a chance this could get throttled down, or your site could go offline if you’re experiencing a massive traffic surge—such as during a holiday sale or if one of your blog posts just went viral.

Solid Customer Support: Customer support is something you really don’t think about until it’s too late. But when your website is down and you are launching a promotion you will the best support, so we suggest you test it!

Ability to grow: Your host should be equipped with tools, such as cPanel, which allow for easy domain management which should allow you to purchase additional domains as your business grows or the ability to upgrade packages as you need to.

Clear Pricing: Make sure you select a hosting company that has clear pricing terms, so you know if and when a price increase is going to happen.

Availability of site backups: The current wave of cyber threats like ransomware has seen an increased number of general websites being targeted by these online extortionists. Such acts often result in irreparable damages like the destruction or replacement of your site’s index.php file. Therefore, it becomes important that you only engage a host service provider that offers regular web data backup.

If you’re not familiar with it, web hosting can seem overwhelming, with a number of different companies seemingly offering the ‘same’ thing. But what it all really boils down to is simple: what you need from your website, and what the uptime looks like. If a web host can’t handle these basic requirements, you need to find one that can!

In today’s ‘instant-gratification’ world of the internet, clients don’t want to experience websites that are simply too slow for them or even worse, a website that is down, because you simply wont get another chance with that prospect client. Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be secure with their IT Strategic Planning, which is guaranteed to increase your accessibility, productivity, and levels of communication with the right level of technology for business and potential customers.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning or our website hosting packages, please get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za and we will gladly assist you.

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Are your details on the dark web – right now?

Are your details on the dark web – right now?

Did You Know…

…that once cybercriminals obtain hacked or leaked data such as credit card details, online banking credentials, and more, they sell this information to others who may use it to steal from victims’ bank accounts or steal their identities?

According to MyBroadband; “Personal data is a valuable commodity among hackers, and there is a lucrative market based on selling private data on the dark web.”

Here are 6 ways to keep your personal information away from hackers and off the dark web:

1.   Use a password manager: 
Password managers like Bitwarden, Keeper and many others generate complex, unique, and encrypted passwords for every site you need access to. But also remember to change your password every 30 to 90 days and using a different password for every account.

2.   Enable two-step authentication on all online accounts:
In addition to entering your password, you’ll also want the site to send a code to your phone or email verifying it’s you.

3.   Have a plan in place for when your information gets breached:
You should always assume that it could happen to you. Then, immediately execute your plan when it does happen. This might include freezing your accounts and alerting authorities.

4.   Always check permission settings on the apps you use: The idea is to minimise the likelihood of your data being shared or stored by third parties without your knowledge.

5.   Be careful what you do with your phone: While being cautious with what you do with your phone is always recommended, it can get tiresome. With the vast amount of malware, Trojans, and worms finding sneaky ways to get into your device, it is better to stay protected with a security system that does the work for you.

6.   Be aware of your digital footprint: Whatever you post online is there forever, even if you delete it from where it was originally posted. A digital footprint is somewhat of a digital paper trail. Forum registrations, videos, photos, just about anything you post will all leave traces of information about yourself online.

Why do we need to keep our data safe and off the dark web?

We all have things to hide. It could be how much money you make, your medical records or your bank account number. Hiding things is not bad. I don’t think these are the types of things you’d like broadcasted on your social network for the entire world to see. This is why we must strive to protect our data and in essence, protect ourselves too. Don’t be another victim of cybercrime, protect what is YOURS!

In partnership with Dark Web, the number one dark web monitoring platform, combines intelligence with search capabilities to identify, analyse and proactively monitor an organisation’s compromised or stolen employee and customer data. We protect our clients from a cybersecurity breach due to compromised employee credentials by monitoring the dark web in real time, and automatically alerting you when it is time to change passwords because their credentials are up for sale on the Dark Web.

Increased security measures are a must in today’s day as we need to safeguard our data as well as our employees. There’s a tremendous shift in the way we work, and, unsurprisingly, technology is playing a significant role in it and is gaining momentum quicker than we can imagine. Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be secure with their IT Strategic Planning, which is guaranteed to increase your employee’s accessibility, productivity, and levels of communication with the right level of technology for business and employees.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning or Secure Management Services, please get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za and we will gladly assist you.

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Are your employees phishing savvy?

Are your employees phishing savvy?

Are your employees phishing savvy?

Phishing scams are a common occurrence in so many organisations, but can we prevent them?

The question should rather be, how can we prevent them? One way we can try prevent them is empowering your employees to identify a potential phishing attack before it happens.  Otherwise, an employee can easily be tricked to give sensitive information leading to a potential threat and confidential information being leaked which could cost your company millions of Rands.

Here are 4 steps to set your employees up for success:

1.       Conduct cybersecurity training

By conducting mandatory company-wide security training you can equip your staff with the skillsets they need to recognise phishing before being caught. Offer training as your onboarding procedure with regular refresher courses to follow.

It also doesn’t have to be boring so make the training rather fun and interactive to get the best out of your employees and it will also allow you to gauge what their level of understanding is.

It is also important they know what actions they need to take if they identify a form of phishing and who to report this too.

2. Conduct simulated phishing attacks

Using simulated phishing attacks and security awareness programs, you can see how your Employee’s react to suspicious emails, because it is essential to identify phishing emails quickly. Because hackers use real company logos and add small details to make their emails seem legitimate, red flags can be difficult to spot if you don’t know what you’re looking for. 

Here are a few elements used to identify phishing emails:

  • Typos and poor formatting. Unlike legitimate companies, cybercriminals likely do not have writers on staff to create their emails. If you notice obvious typos or pieces of the text that aren’t clear, this is a tip-off.
  • No specific greeting. If the information seems generic (i.e., the email doesn’t reference your name or any identifying information), this could be a sign of a phishing email. Hackers will not usually take time to personalise emails. They will instead use the same one to cast a wide net and hope that someone bites.
  • No domain email. Check the sender email address to identify whether it originated from a legitimate source. A reputable company will own their domain email (e.g., example@linkedin.com), whereas an imposter will alter the address (e.g., example@linkedin123.com) if they even put in the effort to make the address look authentic.
  • Unsolicited attachments or information requests. Legitimate companies do not send attachments that you didn’t ask for, nor do they request sensitive information via email.

3. Share real life examples

To help employees understand what you’re up against, show real examples of companies that have suffered a breach of data a result of a phishing email. Your employees will learn the most powerful lessons through raw data: money lost, people affected, damage to the company, and other tangible facts.

It isn’t that your employees don’t care about the company’s security; however, without seeing what could actually happen, they may feel as though this training is more of a formality than a necessity.

4. Use trusted antivirus software that is well supported and maintained

Even with excellent security training, an employee could accidentally fall for a phishing email. If that happens, you’ll want a robust antivirus software installed on your devices.

But it is key to ensure that your software is well supported and regularly maintained to identify any loopholes or potential threats. Your IT department or service provider should keep an eye on antivirus for all your company’s devices; however, consider that if some employees use their personal devices, your IT team will need to ensure those devices are protected as well.

Increased security is a must

Increased security measures are a must in today’s day as we need to safeguard our data as well as our employees. There’s a tremendous shift in the way we work, and, unsurprisingly, technology is playing a significant role in it and is gaining momentum quicker than we can imagine. Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be secure with their IT Strategic Planning, which is guaranteed to increase your employee’s accessibility, productivity, and levels of communication with the right level of technology for business and employees.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning or Technology Management Services, please get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za and we will gladly assist you.

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Office Security

Office Security

Safeguard your business with Office 365

Did you know that physical servers are on the decline and cloud storage is on the up? Even though there is a common misconception about cloud, that it is not safe versus traditional servers, 43% of enterprises already use Office 365 and this number is growing.

Some of the biggest advantages of Office 365 include:

  • Users can work from anywhere
  • Provides robust security and reliability
  • Subscription-based payment is available
  • Teams and users can easily collaborate
  • You receive access to the latest programs
  • You can work with what you know
  • Office 365 features mix and match plans

Let’s pay attention to their robust security and reliability as this is a general concern for most business owners today with an increase of staff working at home. It will protect your business, and allow your employees to be productive from anywhere, on any device.

How does Office 365 keep you secure?

The top layer of security in Office 365 focuses on protecting your business from external threats by giving you access to enterprise-grade service and protection. These threat protection tools keep your business free of hazards such as spam, malware, viruses, phishing attempts, and malicious links while protecting you from sophisticated threats such as zero-day ransomware and other advanced threat techniques.

Here are some of its key security features:

Encrypted Email: Keeping anyone other than the intended recipient from reading your emails.

Data Loss Prevention: Microsoft’s Data Loss Prevention Policy allows you to identify, monitor and protect sensitive information from leaving your organisation.

Mobile Device Management: A feature allowing your IT team to control Office on your employees’ mobile devices to protect company information. If somebody loses their device or it gets stolen, you’re able to delete all of the data without needing to use the lost or stolen device to delete data.

Advanced Threat Analytics: This unique feature analyses systems to detect and alert users to suspicious behaviour on the network. It scans emails as they land into inboxes for malicious links and attachments and if there’s anything dangerous lurking in there, it prevents it from getting in. While the email will still appear, a message appears explaining why the attachment isn’t there. That’s one way to eliminate human error.

Exchange Online Protection: Provides advanced security and reliability against spam and malware to protect information and email access.

Threat Management: Security monitoring to prevent or detect any tampering of data. Dedicated threat management teams are in place to anticipate and prevent malicious access.

Multi-Factor Authentication: Multi-factor authentication protects access to sensitive data, such as using a phone to access data as a secondary device for added security.

Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology.

Increased security measures are a must in today’s day as we need to safeguard our data as well as our employees. There’s a tremendous shift in the way we work, and, unsurprisingly, technology is playing a significant role in it and is gaining momentum quicker than we can imagine.

Rito-Technologies is an IT business partner who maximises business output through technology. They enable their clients to be secure with their IT Strategic Planning, which is guaranteed to increase your employee’s accessibility, productivity, and levels of communication with the right level of technology for business and employees.

For more information about our IT Strategic Planning or Technology Management Services, please get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za and we will gladly assist you.