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1,000 Anti-spam Law Violations Reported by Canadians

In less than a week, CRTC has received more than 1,000 complaints regarding Canada’s new anti-spam law.  Hundreds of reports are being reported daily at fightspam.gc.ca  and investigators are already at work looking into whether companies have violated the new law.

 

There have been a number of complaints and the numbers continue to climb.  Canadians are seeing the importance of the legislation and they are reporting spam.

 

The federal legislation requires that businesses get written or oral consent before they send emails or other digital messages.  Companies must clearly identify themselves in each message and allow consumers to unsubscribe.  Businesses that violate the law could face financial penalties of up to $10 million per violation, while individuals could be fined up to $1 million per infraction.

 

CRTC cautions that the law will reduce the amount of spam Canadians receive but it will not eliminate all spam.  Consumers who wish to report unwanted spam emails can forward messages to spam@fightspam.gc.ca or fill out an online form to register a complaint.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Behind 365 iT SOLUTIONS with Razmig Sagharian

We would like to thank FS Local for their recent article on Razmig Sagharian, President and founder of 365 iT SOLUTIONS.

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

FS Local is a Canadian business directory, blog and social media Internet Web marketing company offering expert strategies & solutions for small business.

Please check out the article on 365 iT SOLUTIONS by clicking the link below:

365 IT Solutions – Behind the Business with Razmig Sagharian

Thank you FS Local!

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

 

 

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Industry Insights IT Solutions Managed IT Services

Why Should You Encrypt Emails?

In today’s fast paced business environment, many users have done the following situation.  While in a rush, you accidentally send a email to the wrong recipient only to realize that you accidentally pulled the wrong address from your contact list.  Many users do not understand the complications behind this however this is a very serious matter especially when you send confidential data.

 

Recently, a Goldman Sachs contractor was apparently testing changes to the bank’s internal processes when the email was sent. The company has not identified what data was in the message, but Goldman Sachs quickly contacted Google and asked that the message be deleted.

 

Instead of deleting the message from the Gmail account, Google instead blocked access to the message. They also confirmed that the message had yet to actually been read, but they refuse to actually delete the email without a court order, a process that Goldman Sachs is currently undergoing.

 

This is a prime example of the importance of email encryption.  Businesses need to protect confidential data before sending it out in email.  Even if the message was sent to the proper recipient, email is a non-encrypted protocol, meaning anyone on the Internet can theoretically read anything that’s sent out.  The surprising issue here is that a big bank is sending out emails with confidential data and taking advantage of encryption.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Industry Insights IT Security IT Solutions Managed IT Services

Microsoft adds robust encryption support to Outlook.com and OneDrive

Microsoft is making big changes in security by encrypting inbound and outbound emails as well as your data transfers with OneDrive.

In regards to emails, Microsoft is now using Transport Layer Security for inbound and outbound emails which means that when your email is traveling from server to server, it is now encrypted. This is not limited to internal Microsoft servers – any email provider that supports this feature will now be able to send and receive encrypted emails from Outlook.com.

With OneDrive, Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) encryption is supported so that means that when you are transferring data between OneDrive and your local client, it is now more secure and makes it much harder for attackers to decrypt connections between your client and Microsoft.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Industry Insights IT Solutions Managed IT Services

Why Managed IT Services and IT Support Services Makes Sense

Managed IT Services and IT Support Services is key to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the operations of your company.

 

  • Focus on Your Business, Not Your IT

Many companies have an internal IT employee to manage your IT needs.  Reality is that they are often too busy with tasks to focus on tactical issues and cannot be as proactive.  Managed IT Services will handle daily tasks and allow your internal IT to focus on strategic projects to help your business move forward.

Small business owner rely on private IT support to help with their computer related issues.  The problem here is that unethical IT consultants may also make issues seem larger and more difficult to fix than they are.  By using a Managed IT Services provider, you get charged a flat monthly fee as their business is built on uptime, not downtime.

 

  • Industry Leading Expertise and Experience

Companies cannot afford to fall behind with technology trends in today’s business world.  Technology is changes daily.  Your internal team or on man support IT professional may not be fully aware of all of the possibilities available to your business.  A Managed IT Services provider not only has more tools and skill sets at their disposal to be able to solve problems quicker or before they happen, but they have more IT-specific knowledge that can be helpful in critical areas such as Security and Backup and Disaster Recovery.

  • 24/7 Support and Monitoring

Different problems can occur when businesses rely on one or two individuals to take care of their business IT needs. This can include sick days, vacations and leaves of absence.  Managed IT Services providers are available to your business 24/7 so now you have the peace of mind that your business will remain running and be able to service your clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

 

  • Decrease Downtime

Did you know that 43% of companies go out of business following a catastrophic data loss with no backup in place? Downtime can be a death sentence for many businesses. Companies rely on technology in virtually all parts of their business operations, making IT Risk Management an important part of any business that hopes to survive and thrive. The benefit of a managed service provider is that they offer a proactive approach to IT support that can prevent problems before they happen, making sure that your business does not become one of these statistics.

 

  • Save Money

Technology is an important part of your business environment.  Unfortunately, many businesses are cutting corners and are also relying on traditional break/fix IT consultants.  When companies take into consideration the full extent of their IT needs and expenses, you may find that your business is spending a lot more money than you originally anticipated.  Managed IT Services offer flat-rate services also provide monthly reporting.  You can also discuss your current environment and helps you plan your future IT requirements and budgeting. Their proactive approach to IT is also beneficial since they will be able to prevent emergencies before they happen and make sure that your operations keep running smoothly.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Microsoft Looks at Public to Test Microsoft Office

Microsoft has always used their internal QA department to test software internally to look for bugs and to optimize its code to make sure it runs on a wide range of software.  Recently, Microsoft has announced that it will turn to the public to obtain a wider sample pool for its products.  Microsoft is looking for beta testers to try out new versions of Microsoft Office ahead of their release.

So why is Microsoft Looking at the Public to Test Microsoft Office?

Microsoft will be looking for assistance in testing with Office as well as Gemini which brings with it a suite of new applications for Windows that are touch friendly.  There will also be Android apps as their market share grows.

On Microsoft website, they state the following:

“The Office team at Microsoft is looking for participants to join us in pre-release beta programs!  Your feedback in these programs will be instrumental in building the best productivity software and services available. The programs will span across the full family of Microsoft Office client, server and cloud services.  The family of products include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Visio, Access, Publisher and Outlook applications, as well as the Exchange, SharePoint and Project server products and cloud services.

If you or the company you work for, or both, are interested in providing feedback to shape and enhance the latest and greatest technologies in the world, then we’d like to know more about you.”

You can sign up at the source link below to be considered and if chosen, you will see new bits ahead of the rest of the Office community.

For more details, please view sign up for the program at Microsoft Pre-Release Programs.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

 

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Microsoft Update is latest annoucement from Microsoft

Microsoft Update helps keep your systems safe and your software current.  It fetches the latest security and feature updates from Microsoft via the Internet.  Microsoft announces it is going to update Microsoft update and Windows update.  Microsoft stated that the improvements are intended to provide additional protection for clients as well as creating a more secure connection between client and service.

 

Microsoft update will be deployed to systems running the following:

  • Windows 7 Service Pack 1
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
  • Windows 8
  • Windows RT
  • Windows Server 2012

 

Microsoft will be push the update immediately starting today via Windows Update and Microsoft Update. Microsoft has stated that no existing settings will be changed.

 

Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are not on the list as they already include the improvements that the new version of the client will deliver to other systems.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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IT Security IT Solutions Managed IT Services

Managed IT Services and Virtualization

Managed IT Services Providers (MSP) are always looking for ways to have their client take advantage of the latest technology.  With virtualization businesses can now optimize their infrastructure which opens many more opportunities plus it allows the ability to centralize the control of their business IT infrastructure environment.   In the past, large businesses took advantage of virtualization however due to great technology innovations and commitment from large companies such as Microsoft and VMware, now small companies can take advantage of this cutting edge technology.

As most new technologies, there are companies that implement it immediately and some companies hold back implementing new technologies until the bugs get worked out.

To simplify virtualization, here are some points on why you need to virtualize your business IT infrastructure.

Corporate Servers – When you virtualize a server your have the ability to manage resources including RAM, hard drive space and processor.  This allows businesses to reduce their expenses and it gives them the ability to manage fewer physical servers because virtualization allows your IT team to virtualize physical servers into fewer servers.

 

Disaster Recovery – Businesses should be always be prepared for the unknown or emergency situation before disaster strikes. Virtualization allows you to plan your disaster recovery plan so you can get your business back on track quickly as virtualized servers are easier to fully back up than physical servers.

 

Business Continuity – Business continuity and disaster recovery go hand in hand. Business continuity are all about zero business operation interruptions.  Good news is that virtualization allows live migration that helps preserve the continuity of business operations by eliminating the need for downtime.  This system works by rapidly transferring systems from one virtual environment to another when the original is affected. This enables a business to continue operations, despite some system failures.

 

Time Management – Compared to setting up physical hardware, which can take months to establish, test, and maintain, setting up a virtualized system for your business can usually be achieved in a matter of minutes.

 

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Business Case Example: Add another business application or database without increasing the number of costly physical hardware servers.

Forecasting and projections are tools many businesses use to anticipate business needs in the future.  No matter how your plan, it is tough to anticipate when your company may need to accommodate an influx of new employees or new customer accounts that could put a strain on your IT infrastructure resources.

ABC Company is a 15 person company that is running two servers.  They are currently evaluating a new, dedicated system to run their (CRM) customer relationship management application.  The company consulted with their IT Support team and after a quick investigation, the IT team determined that by investing in slightly more robust multiprocessor hardware, the customer could replace one of its existing servers with a virtualized machine that ran both the new application along with the old ones.  The investment in their IT infrastructure also created the groundwork to address the five points above.

The server hardware now allows the business to focus on IT support maintenance costs for one physical servers compared to two.

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Virtualization is great benefit to companies for many reasons and the benefits gained by virtualizing are a real game changer for your business.

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

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Microsoft Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) Goes Offline

Yesterday Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange Online went offline and affected businesses that had shifted to the service.  Reports of problems accessing email via Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 began appearing around 10 a.m. EST as users signed in and realized that email was not appearing in their in-boxes.

So why did Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft 365 go offline?

Microsoft has confirmed the outage and also stated that some clients are experiencing email delays. The outage followed a similar Lync blackout yesterday. Lync is Microsoft’s instant messaging, Internet calling and videoconferencing services to enterprises.

 

In the future, your can check Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange online service health dashboards for reported issues. http://status.office365.com/

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com

 

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Microsoft offers 70% Discount on OneDrive

Microsoft’s OneDrive has become a lot more attractive as the company has announced prices are being cut by 70%.

 

If you subscribe to Microsoft Office service, you will now get 1 TB of storage included.  For those of you who are still content with your free space, Microsoft is tossing good news your way too. Starting today, all accounts now have 15 GB of free storage; this is double the previous free amount which was 7 GB, and matches Google Drive’s 15GB of free space.

 

The price cuts highlight that cloud storage prices are in a race to the bottom.  The fact that Microsoft will cut prices by 70% shows that storage is cheap and at this point, cloud providers want users, and are willing to do whatever it takes to bring them in, even if that means cutting revenues.

 

The business case works as once you chose a cloud provider for storage, you are highly unlikely to switch.  For Windows users, besides the additional free space, the added benefit of OneDrive is that it comes baked-in with Windows 8. Microsoft has made it available out of the box and when you tie it all in with your Microsoft account, setting up a new PC takes only a few seconds.

 

365 iT SOLUTIONS is a leading IT consulting firm in Toronto. We provide industry leading Managed IT ServicesIT Support ServicesIT Outsourcing ServicesTech Support Services and Cloud Services.

Take advantage of our Complimentary Network and Security Assessment by 365itSolutions.com