ADECS Chief entertains Royalty

ADECS Chief entertains Royalty

Amrik Bhabra, ADECS Chief Executive, was fortunate to be invited to a Flagship Community Engagement Event in Leicester last week. The invitation came from Major General Stanford to showcase the multi faith engagement activities across the communities. It soon became apparent that the strict security measures that were in place, were because the event was to be attended by His Royal Highness Prince Charles as well as a number of civic dignitaries.

Amrik was delighted to be able to attend and enjoyed the opportunity of meeting with senior officers over lunch and network with people from across the UK. The event was organised and looked after by various senior members of the army – who offered a rare insight to the variety of work they are involved in. Amrik not only had some fascinating conversations with various army representatives and other guests, but was also lucky enough to have a brief chat with Prince Charles too.

The Band of the Gurkhas provided a musical backdrop to the proceedings.

30th January 17

Father of Pac-Man dies

Father of Pac-Man dies

Masaya Nakamura, the founder of video game company Bandai Namco – which released cult game Pac-Man, has died at the age of 91. Mr Nakamura established Nakamura Manufacturing, which went on to become the Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company (Namco) in 1956. He started out installing two electric horses on the roof of a department store in Japan as amusement rides.

Pac-Man was released in 1980. The game was developed by Toru Iwatani and in 2016 was named the highest grossing arcade game of all time by US Garner. Masaya was known as the ‘father’ of Pac-Man due to the game being released by Namco.

Mr Nakamura was an honorary advisor at Bandai Namco until his death last week. In 2007 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, a Japanese government honour, and was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010.

www.bbc.co.uk/technews (30th January 17)

Internet Safety for Children lacking

Internet Safety for Children lacking

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has said in a report that children did not know how to deal with common problems they found online.

The report, Growing Up Digital, said that children were being left to learn about the internet on their own, with parents vainly hoping that they will benefit from its opportunities while avoiding its pitfalls. Ms Longfield said, ‘The internet is an incredible force for good, but it is wholly irresponsible to let them roam in a world for which they are ill-prepared, which is subject to limited regulation and which is controlled by a small number of powerful organisations.’ She called for new laws to protect children’s online privacy and data. Her report recommended that:

  • Children should study ‘digital citizenship’ to learn about their rights and responsibilities online, so they are prepared for online activities
  • Social media companies should rewrite their ‘impenetrable’ terms and conditions in far simpler language so children know what they are agreeing to
  • Ministers should create a ‘digital ombudsman’ to mediate for children seeking the removal of content

Ms Longfield said that it was critical that children were educated better so that they could enjoy the opportunities provided by the internet whilst minimising the well known risks.

www.bbc.co.uk/technews (5th January 2017)

US libraries hit by Ransomware

US libraries hit by Ransomware

Libraries across the city of St Louis are gradually regaining control of their computer systems, following a malware attack a few days ago. Criminals broke into the systems of 17 libraries, disabled them and demanded a ransom, which meant that people were unable to borrow books or use computers.

All services are slowly being restored, said Waller McGuire, the executive director of St Louis libraries. “An attempt to hold information and access to the world for ransom is deeply frightening and offensive to any public library, and we will make every effort to keep that world available to our patrons,” he said.  No ransom has been paid to the attackers, and they are working with the FBI to identify how criminals broke into the system.

According to Intel Security, ransomware attacks are rising in “alarming” numbers.

www.bbc.co.uk/technews (24th January 2017)

 

Protecting your Networks from threats and attacks from Malware

Protecting your Networks from threats and attacks from Malware

There are many malware products causing major problems and destruction to businesses every day. Being aware of the variety of corruptive software could save your business from harm. Here are just a few examples of the problematic programs.

Remote Access Trojan malware is usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program, for example, a game or as an e-mail attachment. This malware program includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer.

Botnet is where computers have been set up to forward transmissions (including spam or viruses) to other computers on the Internet.

Browsers based malware is a security attack where a Trojan horse is installed on the computer that is capable of modifying that user’s web transactions as they occur in real time.

Ransomware is a malware that restricts access to your computer or its information, while demanding you pay a ransom to access back.

POS malware is a particularly nasty piece of software designed to steal customer payment data – especially credit card data – from retail checkout.

If you are worried or concerned about protecting your business from such malware, or have been affected by any of the issues, please do give us a call on 024 7699 5930 and speak to the ADECS team who can advise you on how to stay safe from such software problems.

C&W in Business. Issue 57 (Jan/Feb 2017)