You know about Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but there are countless hidden gems included with your Microsoft 365 subscription that you might be missing out on. And they could provide a huge productivity boost for the whole team.
The Metaverse is a term that’s been buzzing around the tech world for some time now, and it could revolutionise the way we live, work, and play.
As a business owner, it’s important that you know what the Metaverse is so that you don’t fall behind your competition.
Our latest free guide explains:
• What the Metaverse is
• How it works
• How it could impact your business operations
• And how it could totally change the way you look after your customers
Remember 2012, when the analogue TV signal was switched off and we all went digital?
Well now it’s your phone’s turn, and in December 2025, the last old analogue phone service – the PSTN – is due to be switched off forever.
So if any devices in your business currently use the analogue phone system, you’re going to need to make some changes. That doesn’t just mean your landline phone – you may have alarms, lift emergency phones, some card machines (and you don’t still use a fax, do you?)
You have a bit of time to plan, but it’s important not to leave everything to the last minute on this. As we get nearer to the deadline, suppliers will be stretched and you’ll want to allow time to transition to a new system.
Airports, hotels, cafés, even shopping centres, offer public charging points where you can boost your phone or laptop battery on the go.
They’ve been in the news after the FBI recently tweeted advice to stop using them. Crooks have figured out how to hijack USB ports to install malware and monitoring software onto devices as they charge.
The security risk of “juice jacking” was long thought to be more theoretical than real, but the tech needed to carry out an attack has got smaller and cheaper and easier to use. This means less sophisticated criminals are now turning their hand to it.
So how does it work?
You might already have heard that the UK’s Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) is being switched off in December 2025.
This affects everyone.
The old, analogue PSTN can’t keep up with the demands of modern communication, so the switch to fully digital will mark a big step forward.
Put simply, everything will use the internet.
But it’s not just our phone lines that will be affected by the PSTN switch-off. Any equipment that also uses PSTN will stop working too. That could be your alarm systems, cameras, fax machines (yes some are still in use!), even door entry systems and EPOS machines.
You may also need to update your broadband and some of your other hardware.
LinkedIn is introducing new verification features over the coming months to help tackle fake accounts.
The business-focused social platform is a fantastic place to connect with like-minded businesspeople, and to find new employees, jobs and opportunities.
But thanks to this popularity, we’re seeing an increase in fake profiles, created by scammers for more sinister purposes.
Bot-like accounts have been cropping up all over the platform. They’ve been spamming people, tricking genuine profiles into downloading malware, and scamming them into giving away personal data.
LinkedIn holds a huge amount of information on each of its members, including their job history, contact details, professional interests and places of work – all valuable data that a determined criminal could put to use.
We’re fickle creatures.
Windows 11 still feels like a new toy, yet we’ve already heard (reliable) speculation about Windows 12 arriving as soon as next year. And now it’s all we can think about!
What will it look like?
What improvements will we see?
Will there be new features?
We can’t answer these questions with certainty just yet, but there are whispers of new features that could be big news for businesses.
Three in particular have got us excited.
One of the many cool things about the new wave of Artificial Intelligence tools is their ability to sound convincingly human.
AI chatbots can be prompted to generate text that you’d never know was written by a robot. And they can keep producing it – quickly, and with minimal human intervention.
So it’s no surprise that cyber criminals have been using AI chatbots to try to make their own lives easier.
Police have identified the three main ways crooks have found to use the chatbot for malicious reasons.
Your data is one of your most valuable business assets. Keeping it safe should be one of your main priorities. So if you don’t have much security in place, there’s a minimum standard you should be implementing, right now.
There are dozens of security solutions available that all perform different tasks – from preventing criminals gaining access, to recognising attacks in progress, and then limiting the damage that can be done. There’s no one-size-fits-all as every business has different priorities and different types of data to protect.
Here are three essentials that every business should put in place as a basic level of protection.
Microsoft is planning to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) directly in its Outlook app for many 365 business users.
MFA is a vital tool to help protect your online accounts from cyber criminals. It works by generating a second, single-use passcode every time you log into an account. It’s usually sent to an authenticator app on your phone that you have to download and set up first.
Security codes can also be sent via SMS text message, by a phone call, or you might be given a special USB key to plug into your computer.
The process is often made quicker by using a biometric login like your fingerprint or face ID. It’s a minor chore, but the protection it offers far outweighs the couple of extra seconds it takes to access your account.