The best way to explain this new feature is by example. So here are some searches you might do:

Photos of me

Photos I like

My friends who like ABCOM

My friends who work at ABCOM

You can also be much more specific. An example, given by Facebook themselves is “people named Chris who are friends of Lars and went to Stanford”

I hope that you can see how powerful this technique could be for your business. You can search for people in the town of your business who like certain products or maybe people who like certain products. Best of all it is available free via the facebook interface!

Graph Search is currently only available to a limited number of people. Although, we believe Facebook are rolling it out over coming months. If you would like to join the waiting list please visit https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch and click on the Join Waiting List button.

It is certainly worth thinking about the possibilities of this powerful tool. However, it must be used sparingly. If you would like advice on Social Media issues then please contact ABCOM and we will be happy to help as always.

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ABCOM can support employers in implementing Remote Working in a number of ways and help them overcome the challenges involved. In addition, we can support employees with any technical issues they may encounter.

Employees can rely on high quality support with a great number of issues being resolved either over the phone or via our secure remote support. With our remote support, an experienced technician can (with your permission) take control of a PC or Server and resolve the issue whilst you watch.

In addition, we can ensure that all your IT is protected by high quality anti-virus as well as providing servicing and maintenance of equipment. We are authorised resellers for a number of hardware and software solutions. For example, we can ensure that you are fully licensed and up-to-date with Microsoft Office software such as Word, Excel etc.

At ABCOM we are at the cutting edge of technology and evolving all the time. Exciting developments in ABCOM soon to be available data centre. We will soon be able to provide cloud based backup for both servers and PC’s.

This means that if your business server, work based pc or home based laptop should fail we can quickly install the previous backup onto the relevant hardware. You can then continue working whilst the original hardware is repaired or replaced. It is this commitment to great support and high quality service that makes us the first choice for businesses in the South East of England.

For a complete IT solutions for your Remote Working schemes please get in touch and we will be happy to discuss your requirements. Essential to minimise your costs, keep your IT running and ensure that you comply with all relevant legislation.

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It’s strange to think that as recently as 40 years ago, if you asked a company executive what kind of protection they had in place at their establishment, the words ‘padlock’, ‘night watchman’ and  ‘law enforcement’ would be the most prominent. Today’s age of computers and cloud networking means a much greater threat looms over businesses in a world where information is king, Cybercrime.

 Cybercrime is not as simple as bog standard ‘break in, break stuff, break out’ crime. In the days before computers, in order to protect your data all you needed was a safe. The formula was ‘the bigger your company became, the larger a safe was needed’. That’s not the case now; let me explain. In early 2012, one of Israel’s biggest banks was compromised. They had employed state of the art cyber protection: Seven concrete layers of security with a system that analysed every email sent through the bank’s servers. All this protection didn’t stop a clever hacking from wheedling his way in.

An email including a presentation, sent to an employee working at the bank, cleared the systems safety checks with no problem. When the employee opened the presentation a three part quiz appeared. Upon pushing one of the options, the exploits began working and infected his computer. The bank had no security on the inside of their seven ringed fortress, and thus was forced to completely lock down and cease trading for the day. That’s incredibly bad business.

Fortunately companies are beginning to look at online security in a different light. They’re breaking away from the old paradigm where they could lock down their entire infrastructure. They’re realizing that you cannot have a bullet proof system. The best way to nip cybercrime in the bud is to constantly monitor for changes in the system; criminals have to do something different to gain access. A skilled IT support team should be able to spot these anomalies and close the avenues the hacker is taking. If this is a growing concern to you contact us for an informal discussion.

An IT support team have to be hands on in preventing hackers from gaining entry.

Experts from all around the world have concluded that better programs, improved skills and the deployment of new technologies can help. Companies have to eliminate only focusing on the gate and look closely at inbound traffic. That’s where the trouble lies. Companies must pay more attention to whats leaving their networks; addressing the leakage of corporate information is vital to a companies integrity. Many analysts say the right security professionals – with the appropriate skill sets – have to be in place for a business to survive any hacker attacks. Ian Glover, president of the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) has stated that he expects an increase in the attacks on the web application side due to the “number of insecurely coded systems.” He added “You need to identify the right people to help you.”

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1) Ccleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) – is a free computer system and registry cleaner that is ultra efficient. It will delete all of the junk files on your computer which should leave to improved performance. Regular updates are made available for free via the website.

2) Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org)- Is a very effective and free software for anti-virus and anti-malware scanning and protection. Rarely have I found a virus that escapes its scan and recovery processes. You can purchase a professional version if you require which has real time system scanning but if you just want a free effective recovery tool when you get hit with a virus or some malware then head straight for Malwarebytes.

3) Paint.net (www.getpaint.net)- Just has a greater functionality that Microsoft’s Paint with amazing tools such as the magic wand tool which enables you to intelligently select items. This free software also supports transparent backgrounds and layers making it a must have tool for your basic art needs.

4) VLC Player (www.videolan.org/vlc) – provides much needed missing codecs (basically pieces of software required to view/play certain media) and there is very little video content that it does not have the ability to play. An amazingly versatile and surprisingly free piece of software that will give you (for example) DVD playback on your computer. Many other players simply do not have the ability to do this ; at least not without cost!

5) Microsoft Security Essential / MSE (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/security-essentials-download) – Microsoft Security Essentials is a free anti-virus program provided to registered users of its Windows Platform. It has real time protection, regular updates, it sits discreetly in the notification area of the start bar. In short, this free software is a Microsoft hit. If you are choosing not to purchase anti-virus software, I would recommend using MSE for real-time scanning protection and Malwarebytes when you really get into serious difficulties.

I hope you have found this insight into free software helpful. If you are aware of any other great freeware please share it with us in the comments section below

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When using IE10 with Windows 8, the browser copes very well with full touch screen input and has a higher level of compatibility with the some of the latest web programming technologies such as HTML5 & CSS3. Great news for users of websites that require such innovative technologies in order to function ; for example YouTube which has become increasingly problematic for those with older versions of Internet Explorer and other browsers.

Other good news for IE10 is that in tests conducted by PC Mag (www.pcmag.com) the high levels of security efficiency when web browsing outperformed all other browsers tested. However, and time will tell if we are correct or not, we are still unconvinced that IE10 is sufficiently stable to compete effectively with its competitors like Chrome & Firefox.

Certainly we have had experience of using Internet Explorer 10 on both Windows 7 & Windows 8 and have had issues accessing a variety of websites due to crashing. We are hopefully that with a few updates and fixes that IE10 will become a formidable opponent for its fellow web browsers.

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As per this policy, Microsoft Business and Developer products, including Windows and Office products, receive a minimum of 10 years of support.

Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 will go out of the support radar on April 8, 2014, if your business has not yet started the migration to a more modern PC platform, you could create problems for your organisation. The average enterprise deployment can take 18 to 32 months from business case through to full deployment.

You can ensure that your company remains on supported versions of Windows and Office by beginning planning and application testing ASAP. ABCOM can help with every step of the process.
Whether you are a business, a school or charity organisation.

After April 8, 2014, there will be no more; new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.

Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in your environment after their end of support date may expose your company to potential risks such as Security & Compliance Risks and Lack of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) & Hardware Manufacturers support.

Stay savvy..Get current with Windows 7 and Office 2010

• Stay supported
• More flexibility to empower employees to be more productive
• Increase operational efficiency through improved PC security and management
• Take advantage of the latest technology trends such as virtualization and the cloud.

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Christmas came early for our customer Grassroots Training. Grassroots are a charity based in the Brighton area dealing with Suicide prevention.They received a £10,000 lottery grant for new IT equipment.  We worked with them to  decide on how  best to make the most of the grant.  We undertook the installation providing full assistance and a lot of excitement from the Grassroots staff. They were really pleased with the shiny new kit they received through the Big lottery grant. Our IT support engineers work through out the day and night to get them up and running. Abcom always go the extra mile to help our customers.  Grassroots were a pleasure to work with and Abcom are pleased to bring them Christmas joy early.

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A marine transport company was trying to get access to the emails of a former chief executive, but the Judge ruled that the content of emails is not the firm’s property by default and so it can’t have them.

Wherever the emails are located, the judge said they were not the property of that company.

The only way that emails could belong to a firm is if they contained copyrighted material or confidential information or if the employee’s signed contract with the firm already said so.

Many companies are setting in stone an Internet Policy which has wider reaching implications on the retrospective activity by former staff. Companies concerned that emails or social media utilised within company time that may not be usfor the benefit of that business.

Where time really is money it’s important, that technology can stand guard and enable tools to stop any potential present or future damage.

Firstly ensure a decent backup to your email structure and preferably test the system regularly to ensure you can retrieve your email from your on premise or cloud based service. Content filtering is the automated system to limit the type of sites or activity an employee may want to use but may not be in line with company policy.

ABCOM offer Internet Policy documents to structure your business methodology from, whether confidentiality or security is the concern there are solutions available. Although with this ruling, there is now an added complication that although you may have the correct technical tools to ensure no data or information is lost by email, that you may not necessarily actually have rights over that email!

For a confidential discussion on email privacy, cloud security or designing an Internet Policy please email yann.davies@abcom.co.uk

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The super storm caused major power and Internet outages in a region that is home to more than 60 million people. Several major datacentres lost power or were flooded. The datacentres that were able to recover survived because of significant investment in backup generators, truly testing the resilience of the cloud. Making a promise to supply up-time and delivering on that.

What is interesting is that much of the Internet is actually running on diesel fuel and priority service contracts. Emergency backup generators powered by diesel helped many East Coast data center providers weather Superstorm Sandy. The importance of diesel in the post-Sandy economy is hard to overstate. In the wake of Sandy, diesel is the lifeblood of lower Manhattan, where generators are currently providing virtually all the area’s electricity. So as the adoption of cloud computing is growing more and more we see businesses more reliant on their hosted solutions. But interestingly the entire concept of cloud resilience, the actual fail-over aspect boils down to being reliant on a primary fuel source – diesel. This crude energy is fundamental to keeping your data in the cloud.

Depending on your circumstances the data in your business should be backed up not once but twice, or even three times. Location, location location. If you have a great DR plan and your vital company information is backed up to a London datacentre, that’s good. But what if London floods? Not ALL of London, just the part where your data is located ? What is the data center’s location? Near the Thames? Or in the suburbs? Where are the planned ‘Flood Storage Areas’?

Apart from the risk of floods inundating your data center, how will the power supply fare? And like New York, what of fuel for backup generators? What condition will communications be in? Part of the network could be knocked out, and that might put an unsustainable strain on the remaining functioning areas!

The message is clear. For true resilience in the face of natural or man-made catastrophe, planning for Disaster Recovery must take into account damage to infrastructure and the logistics necessary to circumvent such damage.

Your data backup strategy should include at least a second site backup, perhaps mirrored in another country, and a third site equally well removed, for even more robust data security and integrity.

Every cloud service provider should have detailed plans for  redundancy and managing disaster scenarios. While your own business may be tied to a specific location, many SaaS providers do maintain multiple server locations and back up data for their primary servers to protect again data loss.  It is important to know how the service provider would manage a server failure and verify that they have the infrastructure to get the service back online in a reasonable time-frame.

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Our certificate states, “Thank you for your commitment as a Microsoft Education Reseller. Your great work is helping students and teachers everywhere realize their full potential through creative ICT solutions. By achieving this certification you have demonstrated that you have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to deliver excellent service to your customers and stand out from the competition.”

Accredited suppliers enrolled in the Microsoft in Education are essentially specialists in advising Education organisations on licensing and helping with overall Academic savings.

We have been involved with the program to supply education sector for 12 years now! In that time we have seen many license changes and after having taken the exams year after year , have become pretty knowledgeable on these products!

Our role is to ensure your organization gets the most economic and advantageous deal. Under the program there are also great deals for students.

If you already buy your hardware from us you are already aware of the preinstalled images we can provide on your hardware at point of purchase. Making deployment for IT department a lot easier. Overall our service is geared to save your IT department more time and your organisation more academic savings.

For schools we can also help with many more services:  consultancy, servers, desktops, laptops, printers , security , wireless and firewall configurations.

The key change to the Microsoft in Education model recently is the addition of Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES). This is a new software subscription offering available for primary/ secondary and higher education customers with 5 full time employees (FTE) or more.

Benefits include:

• lower cost of ownership.
• legally comply with the licenses you use and need.
• Simplified Asset Management.
• Low administration for your IT department.

We can make available Windows 7 enterprise , Office 2010 and Core CAL (Client Access License). If you need any other products we can help illustrate the various options.

Alternately , School agreement is also available with 1 or 3 year enrollment terms. Price protection is available when opting for 3 years. This enables the establishment to run any software version including upgrades and downgrades.

Academic open is the program allowing for 2 year perpetual agreement and suits a more Pay as you go approach.

Also with the advent of Windows 8, Lync server and Office 365 there has never been a better time to connect with ABCOM for assistance.

Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller

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