End of life simply means that Microsoft no longer support the operating system and strongly recommends that all users upgrade to Windows 10. In practical terms it means that Microsoft will no longer release security updates or patches for Windows 7. This means that any existing vulnerability or any discovered in the future will not be fixed. The end of … Read More

Phishing emails have existed as long as email itself. These types of cyber attacks carry a huge risk to businesses large and small. According to SCORE.org 43% of cyberattacks targeted small businesses last year. In this post we lay out the possible dangers to your company and then provide a step-by-step guide to what to look out for. How many … Read More

* These are known as ‘hot sites’ if you’re interested! This is all very well if you are a multi-million-pound company but for most businesses it’s a ludicrous idea. What everyone wants is something that enables them to get back up and running as quickly as possible, in the event of something happening to their current office setup (flood, fire … Read More

In this blog Josh Peacock, one of the network engineers here at Optima will compare 3 of the most popular VPNs on the market today. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, it essentially adds you onto another Network and all your traffic goes through that Network. You can connect to a network in Hong Kong and all your out-going traffic … Read More

Now we use the internet to such an extent we need to make sure our details and browsing history is safe and secure. Cookies are used to track our browsing history and are used by companies to target advertising based of our searches. In some instances, this is useful as it shows us alternatives to our original search, very handy … Read More

There is finally some hope for the thousands that have fallen victim to so called ‘push payment’ scams with the announcment of a new voluntary code for Banks. Push Payment scams are where a fraudster seems to highjack emails and ask people to pay an outstanding bill or invoice to a different Bank Account. The account in question is owned … Read More

Have you ever wondered if your gmail account has been hacked? Or your Amazon account details leaked somewhere on the dark web? A website called Hack Notice can help you find out. Hack Notice is a website that allows you to enter in your “identities” to be monitored. These can be particular email addresses or freetext strings. They will then … Read More

Scammers. The scourge of the internet! Always looking for new ways to make innocent people part with their hard-earned cash. A recent scam involves sending people an email claiming they visited adult websites. They pretend these websites downloaded malware that gave the scammer access to various aspects of the recipients computer. These include what they type and also access to … Read More

It’s not just cyber criminals that can bring down your network and compromise data; careless users or disgruntled staff can be just as bad. Your network security is made up of hardware and software, policies and procedures which work to defend against threats to your systems. Layers of hardware and software can prevent threats from damaging computer networks and stop … Read More

Many of the current generation of chips in our computers use what is called a cache to speed up processing. The vulnerability that has been announced in recent days is that under certain circumstances the content of this area can be read and over time passwords or encryption keys identified bit by bit by these exploits that have been named … Read More

Daylight robbery without the overheads of a horse or mask Ransomware is an ever-growing threat to businesses. In the last few months three of our clients have fallen victim. We’ve seen one strain of Cerber 4.0 and two Aleta infections. Both variants do not have a decryption tool available at the time of writing. In this blog we discuss just … Read More

Do you find yourself having to click the “Forgot Password” link often? The brain can only remember so much and each individual has different retention levels at which they can memorise and store information. If you use computers frequently it is likely you have a few passwords to remember. Assuming you use a different password for each service you use … Read More

Please be aware that there is a new variant of ransomware doing the rounds. This is called Locky and, as with other ransomware, it encrypts all the files not only on the PC but also on any mapped drives on servers. Once the files are encrypted the only way to get them back is to either pay the ransom or … Read More

Microsoft seem to be (finally) getting serious about providing antivirus and anti-spyware protection after a number of false starts. But is the new version of Windows Defender another of these or is it finally the software that will allow you to dump those costly subscriptions to premium third-party programs? Windows Defender, in name, has been around for a while. It … Read More

The nasty Ransom-ware virus know as CryptoWall / CryptoLocker has just updated to version 4.0. You can protect your PC from this destructive virus by following the steps below. We have advised all our clients to do this and have posted the guide below to help others. The first thing is to see if you already have CryptoProtect installed on … Read More