Why Office 365?

Many of our customers have come to us with the question “Should we be adopting a hosted email solution?”

The answer is rather simple, yes. With Office 365 from Sleepless it has never been easier to make the move to the cloud. There are many reasons why this is the case, we’ve highlighted the key ones below:

Work from anywhere from any device:

Being cloud based, it is now possible for employees to work on the go. Office 365 can connect with your mobile, tablet and laptop on the go securely using Microsoft’s comprehensive security measures.

Flexibility:

As a monthly subscription, Office 365 is easily expandable. As your business grows, you can simply add any additional services that you require to your subscription. This means you will only be paying for services that you require.

Information Protection:

For a small monthly fee, you can control and secure emails, documents and sensitive data that is being shared outside of your business. Using a detailed tracking and reporting, it is very easy to revoke access to any threats to your files

Rights Management:

Azure Rights Management allows you and your employees protect information from unauthorized access, both internally and externally. Capabilities include “Do Not Forward”, “Company Confidential” and “Email Encryption”, which allows you to send encrypted emails to anyone easily.

Data Loss Prevention:

As Office 365 is a cloud based solution, data protection and backup give you peace of mind that you will never lose the data and documents essential to running your business.

To see how Sleepless and Office 365 can help your business, please call us con 1890 511 444.

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What is GDPR?

 

The upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (herein, GDPR) will come into effect on the 25th May 2018 and Sleepless has had a lot of inquiries from businesses concerned about what it means for them. In this article, we will explain what the GDPR is and how companies can ensure that they stay on the right side of the regulations.

Scope

The GDPR applies if the data controller (the organisation which collects data), the data processor (an organization which processes data on behalf of the data controller) or the data subject (the person who the data is about) is based in the European Union. This affects all Irish companies who hold personal data and companies worldwide who hold personal data about EU citizens. According to the commision in charge of the GDPR:

“personal data is any information relating to an individual, whether it relates to his or her private, professional or public life. It can be anything from a name, a home address, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer’s IP address.”

Consent

All data collected must be accompanied with explicit consent for the data and the purposes the data is to be used for. Data controllers must be able to provide proof of consent and consent may be withdrawn.

Data Protection Officer

All public authorities and those private companies whose core activities consist of data processing must designate a ‘data protection officer’. The data protection officer (or DPO) must be proficient at managing IT processes, data security (including dealing with ransomware and other cyber-attacks) and other data-related business continuity issues. The DPO must be effectively independent of the organisations which employ them, acting as an ‘internal regulator’.

Pseudonymisation

All personal data must be ‘pseudonymised’, meaning that any identifiable data must be encrypted, or otherwise rendered useless in pairing the data to an individual person. Any encryption keys must be stored separately to the personal data itself. The GDPR does not concern the processing of data that is already anonymous, for example, data used for research or statistical purposes.

Data Breaches

Any data breaches must be reported to the Supervisory Authority within 72 hours of any breach. If the breach is determined to have an adverse effect on individuals, those affected individuals must be informed. Individuals need not be informed, however, if the breached data has been anonymised or pseudonymised.

Sanctions

Sanctions can be imposed on those companies who do not follow the GDPR. Examples of these sanctions include regular data protection audits and a fine of up to €20 million, or up to 4% of the annual worldwide turnover, whichever is greater.

Records of Processing Activities

Records of processing activities must be kept. Upon request, these records must be made available to the Supervisory Authority.

 

For more information about the GDPR and what you can do to ensure compliance, contact Sleepless using the button below or call us on 1890 511 444.

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1 month free Office 365 courtesy of Sleepless & Microsoft

Sleepless and Microsoft are delighted to announce an outstanding promotion for all existing Office 365 customers. Any business currently using Office 365, who wishes to easily move their Microsoft account over to Sleepless before the end of the promotion, can avail of a number of perks such as Office 365 Free for One Month, a Discovery Session, Workshops and much more.

Easy to Switch:

Switching could not be easier. Simply click on the link provided by Sleepless, accept the change, and your account is now moved to Sleepless without any of your files/services being affected. You will receive a welcome email from your new account manager who will arrange your first free month’s service.

Discovery Session:

Over 80% of businesses do not avail of all the services provided in their Microsoft package. Our Microsoft experts will analyse your business and tailor make your package to ensure you only pay for the services you require. This service is typically €3,000 but comes free with our promotion.

Workshops:

Want to get more out of your Microsoft Package but need help? Have one of our Microsoft experts come to you and show your business how it can become more efficient with the help of Sleepless and Microsoft. This service is hugely popular in all industries and has the capacity to potentially increase productivity and efficiencies by over 50%.

Cost Effective:

Working with Sleepless is very cost effective. If you are currently being billed by Microsoft directly, the price won’t change when you move over to Sleepless! Instead, Microsoft pay Sleepless to manage your service, ensuring that your enquiries and helpdesk tickets are dealt with in a professional and timely manner at no additional cost.

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Sleepless gives you access to over 95 engineers that will help ensure your business is always-on and maximising it’s potential.

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Increased Productivity for Small Business with Cloud Technology

A recent study revealed that within 5 years almost 80% of small businesses will have fully adapted to the cloud.

Currently, a lot of small businesses only use the cloud for email, online banking & social media. However, this is changing and many in the small business community are beginning to utilise the diverse range of cloud applications & tools now available to them.

Why is The Cloud the way forward for Small Business?

The cloud is flexible and offers scalability, this greatly improves a business’s ability to control, manage & secure its data. A cost-effective and agile solution, the cloud caters to the changing requirements that most small businesses encounter.

The top 4 reasons the cloud is improving Small Business Productivity:

Security (Online Backup)

The security provided by the cloud decreases vulnerability to hacking and gives you almost real-time data backups so your business is protected from the latest cybersecurity threats. Having this security infrastructure in place allows you to keep your their data safe and streamline your operations while providing 24-hour operational safety.

Collaboration (IaaS)

Collaboration is key, it drives business results. Properly deployed cloud technologies improve everything from daily operational efficiency to quality customer service. Simplicity is paramount when it comes to collaboration and the advances in cloud technology have made it easier than ever for employees to collaborate and drive better business performance. With the correct cloud solution in place, small businesses can schedule, track and manage tasks 24 hours a day, just as easily as the multi-nationals can.

Data Control (SecureFile)

With all data stored in a central location and accessible by authorised employees at any time, businesses can analyse ongoing tasks and projects with ease and if necessary streamline the process. This allows employers and managers the ability to coordinate everything in order to better meet their goals. Meaning small businesses will no longer have projects unexpectedly halted by important documents being forgotten on desks or in other locations as all data can be accessed at any time from any location.

Disaster Recovery (DR)

If disaster strikes, be it natural or otherwise, it causes massive disruption and financial burden for businesses. In fact, it’s widely claimed that 70% of small companies that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year. With a well-designed disaster recovery plan in place companies can reduce much of this, in fact, some disaster recovery solutions offer a near-zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

 

For more information on how the cloud can improve your business productivity call 091 511 444 or email info@sleepless.ie

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Make sure the latest viral threat doesn’t mean ‘Game Over’ for your business

Almost 250,000 computers worldwide have been infected with CryptoLocker since it emerged in April and it has so far been used to extort payments of more than €27m, according to the FBI. Industry experts have been quick to back up the stern message from the National Crime Agency, whose advice to visit internet awareness group Get Safe Online’s website led to the site going down for 15 hours.

Below are some methods experts recommend to protect yourself from GameOver Zeus and CryptoLocker, and remove it if you suspect your computer is infected:

Update your computer programmes – especially anti-virus software

The NCA has advised that people ensure their security software is installed and updated, and that they run scans. Users should also check that their computer operating systems and applications, in general, are up to date.

Microsoft users can do this by using the ‘Check for Updates’ function on Windows Update, while Mac users can choose ‘Software Update’ on the System Preferences menu.

Beware of suspicious emails

Do not open email attachments unless you are certain they are authentic. Potentially harmful emails generally have some or all of the following characteristics according to Get Safe Online:

  • You don’t know the sender.
  • The message contains misspellings (for example using a zero instead of an ‘o’) designed to fool spam filters.
  • It makes an offer that seems too good to be true.
  • The subject line and contents do not match.
  • Contains an urgent offer end date (for example “Buy now and get 50% off”).
  • Contains a request to forward an email to multiple people, and may offer money for doing so.
  • Contains a virus warning.
  • Contains attachments, which could include .exe files.
  • Contains a request from a Bank to fill out forms or provide information.

Change your passwords

If your computer gets hacked, your original passwords may have been compromised by GameOver Zeus and CryptoLocker, and could be used to harvest any important information you store or access on your computer.

Back up your files

All of your files, including photos and documents, should be regularly saved to an online backup provider such as www.sleepless.ie and not stored on a connected external piece of hardware, such as a USB stick or an external hard drive. This means it will not be lost if your computer is attacked, or if it breaks. Any devices connected to your computer during an attack will also be compromised.

Remove Viruses

The US Government has recommended a number of remediation tools which can be used to remove GameOver Zeus.  These include F-Secure (for Windows Vista, 7 and 8 or Windows XP), Heimdal (for Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1), and Kaspersky if you fear your computer is infected.

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‘Heartbleed’ OpenSSL Vulnerability

Heartbleed

Heartbleed – Causing heartache

The Heartbleed Vulnerability has been a hot topic in tech news in the last week, with many websites in the top 10,000 of the web having been affected. Of particular note is the wide reach of OpenSSL, being used by almost every Fortune 500 company out there.

Sleepless have investigated our backup solutions and websites and can confirm that none are subject to this vulnerability, and we see no risk to our customer data. We will do everything possible to ensure the continued safety of our customer data, applications and systems.

It is important to note that the Sleepless backup solutions use proprietary means for securing channels for data transfer, and are therefore unaffected by ‘Heartbleed’. None of our ‘Sleepless Cloud Backup’ applications and systems use the libraries in which the vulnerabilities were discovered.

Our email delivery systems, which use the version of OpenSSL which was found to be vulnerable, were remediated on Thursday 10th April 2014.

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Sleepless are now Veeam Silver Pro Partners

Always trying to enhance, and provide the latest solutions available on the market to Irish companies, Sleepless has become a Silver Pro Partner with Veeam Software. This partnership enables Sleepless to deliver the robust backup and recovery capabilities your organisation needs to meet the visibility, scalability and disaster recovery requirements for VMware or Hyper-V environments. Organisations can now affordably and confidently scale their data protection strategy with the enterprise-level architecture offered by Sleepless.

Managed Backup as a Service provided by Sleepless and powered by Veeam Software, can help organisations modernise their data protection strategy. Sleepless have the best tools available to ensure that organisations protect their investment in virtualisation, increase administrator productivity and mitigate daily management risks while making cloud-based backup options a simple reality.

Veeam Cloud Connect makes it easy for Veeam customers to extend their backup infrastructure to the cloud. When you are running Veeam v8 in your local private on-premises cloud you can now select Sleepless.ie as a target for your offsite backups.

With Veeam, we have made Cloud Connect for Veeam as simple as possible. Our fees are based on how much storage you require.

Within minutes of signing up with Sleepless, you will be able to use your service. Just start backing-up. No waiting. We don’t broker the service through any third party.

Just another step taken, to ensure your company’s data is kept safe with the latest innovations the market has to offer.

 

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