Author Archives: Ryan Tempest

Unlocking the Full Potential of your Microsoft 365 Subscription: The Comprehensive Guide

365

Here at Cirrus, we love two things: Great tech and great value. A Microsoft 365 subscription includes an incredibly powerful suite of tools that empowers businesses of all sizes to enhance productivity, collaboration, and efficiency. However, many customers are unaware of the full range of features and benefits they can leverage to maximize the value of their subscription. In this blog post, we’ll explore some valuable tips and strategies to help you get the most out of your existing Microsoft 365 subscription.

Stay Up to Date:

Microsoft continuously introduces new features, enhancements, and security updates to Office 365. To ensure you have access to all the latest improvements, it’s crucial to keep your applications up to date. Enable automatic updates or regularly check for updates to benefit from new functionalities and bug fixes, helping you work smarter and more efficiently. However, your IT team may advise not to apply automatic updates, as their monitoring software may do this for you.

Collaborate Seamlessly with SharePoint and OneDrive:

Office 365 provides SharePoint and OneDrive, two powerful tools for efficient file storage, sharing, and collaboration. Take advantage of SharePoint’s team sites to store and organize documents, enabling easy access for your team members. Use OneDrive for individual file storage and sharing. By leveraging these tools effectively, you’ll streamline collaboration, boost productivity, and ensure everyone is working on the most up-to-date version of a document.

Embrace Teams for Effective Communication:

Microsoft Teams is a robust communication and collaboration platform within Office 365. It allows teams to chat, make audio and video calls, schedule meetings, and share files all in one place. Encourage your team to embrace Teams as a central hub for communication, replacing scattered emails and reducing the need for multiple applications. Explore its various features, such as channels, document collaboration, and integration with other Office 365 apps, to enhance your team’s productivity and efficiency.

Automate with Power Automate:

Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) enables you to automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows across multiple applications. Spend less time on manual, mundane activities by creating automated workflows that trigger specific actions. For example, you can automatically save email attachments to OneDrive, create custom approval processes, or send notifications when specific conditions are met. By harnessing the power of Power Automate, you’ll free up valuable time for more critical tasks and increase overall productivity.

Explore Advanced Data Analysis with Excel:

While Excel is widely known for its basic spreadsheet functionality, it offers advanced tools for data analysis and visualization. Dive deeper into Excel’s capabilities by exploring features like PivotTables, Power Query, and Power Pivot. These tools can help you analyse large datasets, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. Excel’s advanced functionalities will enable you to uncover valuable insights and gain a competitive edge in your business operations.

Microsoft Office 365 offers a vast array of features and tools that can significantly enhance your organization’s productivity, collaboration, and security. By implementing the tips mentioned above, you’ll unlock the full potential of your Office 365 subscription, driving value and efficiency across your business. Stay up to date, explore the various applications, and encourage your team to embrace the power of Office 365. By doing so, you’ll pave the way for improved workflows, seamless collaboration, and a more productive work environment, because here at Cirrus, we offer a total business solution.

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Tips & Tricks: Identifying Malicious Emails

Photo by Torsten Dettlaff: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-gray-digital-device-193003/

In today’s business landscape, Cyber Security plays a pivotal role in safeguarding operations, which we know you value as much as we do. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Criminals are finding it easier and easier to produce convincing spam emails that could fool the best of us into replying, or paying money into an account we shouldn’t. That’s why we’ve put together our top five Tips & Tricks on identifying potentially malicious emails, and how you should deal with them.

 

Tip 1 – Check the Email Address

Most email apps will just show you the ‘Display Name’ (usually the first & last name) of the sender. This is great for convenience but doesn’t give the full picture. You should always check that the email address itself appears to be genuine by scrutinizing it for any spelling or grammar errors & out of place characters or numbers. For example, would you notice if one of our emails came from an address ending in the domain @cirrusit.co.uk, rather than our actual domain; cirrusits.co.uk?

Microsoft Outlook (Desktop app) usually shows the email address next to the sender’s name, when reading an email, in <> brackets, for example:

FROM: John Doe <john.doe@domain.com>

Alternatively, you may need to hover over the sender’s display name to see the full address.

 

Tip 2 – Look out for Urgent or Alarming Language

Most malicious emails will attempt to create a sense of urgency in the recipient to pressure them into doing something they shouldn’t. If you receive an email from your ‘boss’ asking for an immediate payment into an account, or a contract will collapse, consider whether this is a realistic situation before responding to the pressure of the message.

 

Tip 3 – Verify all Sensitive & Financial Requests via an Alternate Channel

Any requests for access to sensitive or personal information, or requests for the transfer of funds, should be verified by a secondary comms channel such as telephone. If you receive a request from your manager by email to make a payment, call them first to confirm – they’ll appreciate your awareness and care on these matters.

 

Tip 4 – Be Wary of Links & Attachments

Always be wary of any link or attachment from a sender that you haven’t verified the identify of. Hover over any links in an email to view the full URL and assess whether the embedded link ‘YouTube Video’ is sending you to YouTube.com, for example, or somewhere suspicious. Attachments should be treated with even greater caution, as even just previewing a document can infect your PC with malware. If the file name sounds suspicious or generic (i.e BUSINESS INVOICE.docx) – ignore & report it to your IT team. Don’t open or preview any attachment that doesn’t come from a sender you have verified & trust, even if it seems legitimate.

 

Tip 5 – Trust Your Instincts

If your gut is telling you that an email doesn’t seem genuine, then trust that feeling. Your IT department (us) are here to help with any issue you may be facing, and that includes identifying a potentially malicious email. We can never confirm or deny the authenticity of any email with 100% certainty but will be able to advise you on a course of action based on the available evidence. Even if the email turns out to be genuine, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Emergency Alerts System Test Announcement

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As an Ofcom registered Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Communications Provider, the UK Government have asked us to communicate the following important information to all our customer to raise awareness of the upcoming Emergency Alert System Tests.

What is the Emergency Alert System?

The system is like the one deployed in the United States which is used to warn of natural disasters and terrorist incidents. It is a message that can be broadcast to all the mobile devices within a specified area to make the public aware of vital, life-saving information in a time of crisis.

When will the test take place?

The test will occur on Sunday the 23rd of April at 3pm.

What will happen? Do I have to do anything?

At the time of the test’s occurrence, your mobile phone will display a message notifying you that the test is happening, while also playing a loud alarm sound that will last for approximately 10 seconds – even if the device is on silent. You will not be able to use your mobile device as normal until you acknowledge & dismiss the notification, which you can do in the same way you would normally clear any other notification – by swiping, for example.

If, for any reason, you have a mobile device that you may not want to play the emergency alert, then domestic violence support & awareness charity Refuge have created this instructional video about how to disable the alerts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2MBcHwmiy8

Is the Government tracking me with the system?

No – the system is extremely unlikely, if not impossible, to be used in this way. While the emergency alerts will normally be used on a local area, your location is not ‘known’ to the Government per se, rather, all the mobile phone signal towers in the immediate area will start broadcasting the message to any device nearby.

Are all phones supported to receive the Emergency Alert?

No – not all mobile phones are able to receive the alert. This is because the alert requires the latest, mainstream Operating System versions. Supported devices include:

  • iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later
  • Android phones and tablets running Android 11 or later

If your phone does not meet these requirements, then you may still be able to receive Emergency Alerts. To check, navigate to your phone settings and look for the ‘Emergency Alerts’ section.

To find out more, visit https://www.gov.uk/alerts