Author name: Jan O'Mahoney​

IT Support

Introducing Swift – Apple’s New Programming Language

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At a recent developers conference, Apple revealed its new iOS 8. This was met with mostly favourable responses and the current beta test is being used by a number of developers. The new iOS will be generally released sometime in Autumn this year.

That’s not all of the news to come from the Cupertino based company, and it seems that Apple is addressing its programming language. The Worldwide developers conference saw the introduction of Swift, which is widely regarded as an attempt to keep developers onside. Google’s Android OS is gaining market share and so Apple needs its own innovative approach to combat its rival’s success.

Gadgets

What’s New in iOS 8

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It doesn’t seem too long ago that Apple released iOS 7. This was perhaps the biggest overhaul to its mobile software design since 2007. The new OS came from a post-Jobs era and the design came from Jony Ive.

iOS 7 made the iPhone more up-to-date and it allowed it to be more competitive when it came to the likes of Android. Windows 8 mobile software has been struggling, so iOS 7 was a tempting (if expensive) alternative.

Now however, Apple has revealed its plans for iOS 8 and it looks to be much the same as iOS 7 – but with a better, and more rounded, design. There’s a beta version of this software for developers to play around with and the software will be generally released in the fall of 2014.

With this new OS (perhaps not quite revolutionary) there are a number of changes for users to look forward to. Let’s have a look then and see what we’ve got in store in the coming months. It’s not ground-breaking, but it is an OS update that betters the functionality of iOS 7.

Update to the App Store

The App Store is already fairly good; it doesn’t have the dross of Windows 8, and it’s less cluttered than Android’s offering. It has however had some slight functionality tweaks to make it even better. The Wish List function wasn’t something that many folks seemed to use, but iOS

Security

What you need to know about Cryptolocker and GOZeus

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Starting on May 30th a conglomerate of law enforcement agencies hailing from eleven different countries led by Europol and the FBI and with support from the private sector, have been working together to curb an online threat. Law enforcement, alongside Internet Service Providers and the Information Security industry, have been attempting to combat two specific malware groups – Cryptolocker and P2PZeuS (aka GameOverZeus).

Those malware groups however have been disrupted due to the efforts of law enforcement agencies. This isn’t to say the threat is negated however. Instead it marks a distinct shift in policing tactics and the number of countries working hand-in-hand shows just how seriously cyber crime is now considered.

Cryptolocker

This malware collective effectively holds your files hostage. An internet user will find those files inaccessible until they pay a ransom of one bitcoin, worth about $600 USD. This insidious threat is a pain and one that can be avoided – or at least that’s what the enforcement agencies believe.

Audio Visual

Why Audio/Visual Aids help In Business Communication

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Perhaps the single most important part of business is good, clear communication. Your point has to be made well and be understood by your audience, be they staff or potential clients. The clarity and succinctness that you convey your information with is important and if it’s lacking you could end up with staff doing completely the wrong job.

But simply telling your staff what’s required of them and what your plans for the business are may not give them the clarity they desire. That’s why there are tools to aid communication within your business and a number of them are simple enough to use.

Let’s look at some.

Audio/visual aids can help business communication in a number of ways. It’s important to remember that everyone is different and every individual processes information in their own unique way. As a business it’s not only a good idea, but a necessity, to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Hence why numerous businesses use multiple audio and visual tools during presentation sessions. This approach is often referred to as a “multimedia presentation” and can include a number of disparate mediums:

Business

2014 Internet Trends Report

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As the majority of those in the technology industry will know, it’s that time of year again when influential analyst Mary Meeker sets out the most important trends across the web for the year.

This year’s Internet Trends Report was presented at the Code Conference on Wednesday and takes a look at such things as tablet devices, media consumption, security, technology in certain sectors and much more. One of the most notable things about this report was the look at mobile devices and the proliferation of data that such devices are now generating.

The death of big data

As mobile and tablet shipments have risen, so too has the data generated risen in line with that. However, despite this just 1% of this data is currently being analysed, which is unsurprising given that Gartner has recently spoken about the death of big data.

Business

Obituary: Big Data

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Donald Feinberg, VP and analyst at Gartner’s Intelligence and Information Group, recently said that Big Data will die within the next couple of years, thanks largely to the confusion which surrounds the term.

Once upon a time, databases were relatively small; tiny by today’s standards. Businesses had records of their customers’ accounts, built up manually over time, originally with pen and paper and later with microprocessors. Bigger companies started to have whole floors dedicated to data processing departments, ensuring that purchase orders and invoices we all matched and accurate, and accountants knew who had paid and who owed money, what had been bought and what had been cancelled.

With cloud computing and processing technology getting so small that you could practically map out the life cycle of a grain of rice, data started to get recorded and collected at increasingly faster rates and much more of it. Processors in cars and other equipment meant that a whole boatload of parameters could be constantly measured.

More and more measurables

Social media sites, ecommerce sites and other communal online gatherings meant that individuals could be adding to the pile of data already stored about them as they filled in forms and registered for things online. Photos, likes, friends, birthdays, political leanings, sexual orientation, marriage status, hobbies and interests…the list of measurables became endless.

Business

[INFOGRAPHIC] The Future of Cloud

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Whilst cloud computing is nothing new, it is a technology that’s taken a little while to gain real traction in business environments. This was due to a lack of confidence in aspects of cloud models such as security and the assumption in many circles that it was yet another buzzword that the technology sector had dreamt up.

To some extent the issue has also been the huge job that is deployment to the cloud, when thinking about moving entire infrastructures, or even just applications from the traditional onsite network to data centres which power the cloud.

However, over the course of the past couple of years, cloud computing has really begun to take off and it’s safe to say that it’s now becoming a trusted technology. According to the infographic below, courtesy of NerdGraph, by 2016 it’s thought that a huge two-thirds of all workloads will be processed in the cloud.

The stats don’t stop there though, all of the major cloud ‘as a service’ offerings are set for steady growth, with infrastructure seeing the largest at 11% and it’s thought that the use of Hybrid cloud will start to see a bigger increase, with a growth rate of 27% expected to rise to 47%.

Quadratek People

Graduate IT Jobs: What’s the Best Fit for You?

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If you’re graduating this summer and looking to land the perfect job in IT, then it can be difficult to know which sector might be the best fit. This is because there are a very wide and varied range of industries that demand IT workers, far beyond the usual suspects such as vendors and big-name tech companies.

It’s likely that you’ll be attending a good few graduate fairs, where many companies are likely to be looking for the most talented candidates. So what can you do to ensure that you stand out from the crowd? It might be a fact that IT is one of those sectors that has been and still is suffering from a lack of incoming talent, but in the UK, with the curriculum changing to accommodate better IT learning, this is something that could very well change in the next five years or so.

Security

Is Your Business Security Good Enough

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Computer security is an important issue for any business and it seems that hardly a day goes by without us hearing about another botnet, hack or malware attack doing the rounds. The most notable of late was a vulnerability in SSL certificates, and whilst there’s little evidence to suggest that hackers have taken advantage of the Heartbleed bug, it still brings to the fore the ever-increasing problem that is network security.

For businesses, securing the company network isn’t a particularly difficult task, nor is staff training, but many still don’t have adequate enough protection to ensure that the company, or even customer, data is safe.

According to a recent survey carried out by the Poneman Institute, this is due to many enterprises lacking the tools to protect their information and “a disconnect in executives’ perceived value of data”. The study saw a huge 80% of IT professionals state that their company execs don’t seem to see the correlation between a cyber-attack and loss of revenue when it comes to stolen data.

Security is lacking all round

This is a worrying statistic, as security has to be a priority in this technological age that we live in. If customer data is stolen, firms stand to lose not only a loss in business due to the spectre of a system audit, but also possible fines and even the loss of customer confidence. Even if it’s not customer data that’s stolen, the loss of sensitive data from within a company can have serious ramifications for the future.

Networks

Implementing Cloud-Based BYOD Policies Safely

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BYOD adoption is on the rise in SMEs. Cloud based services have opened up businesses to the world of bring-your-own-device, allowing SME business managers to save internal spending by encouraging employees to use their own laptops, phones and tablets.

However, these devices are often only intended for personal use, not commercial. This means that they can be ill-suited to the security needs of your company and you may end up spending the money you thought you were saving on implementing new security for these phones. There are still plenty of benefits to a BYOD environment however, so the best thing we can suggest is that you familiarise yourself with the potential downfalls of a BYOD office and plan for it appropriately.

Increased Threats

Some SMEs have been struggling with the new threats presented by a BYOD environment, so it’s important to ensure that if you do adopt BYOD you have the security infrastructure to cope with it.

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