Welcome to the METHOD IT Newsletter for January 2014
Designed and developed by METHOD IT, the new website for Apex KK marks our first launch of the new year.
Apex is an executive search firm specializing in the recruitment of bilingual professionals from mid to senior level management positions for the Japan market.
This year’s opening Patch Tuesday saw fixes for vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and Dynamics AX, with the surprise absence of any Internet Explorer patches for the first time in over a year.
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Will Agile methodologies gain more ground in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore this year?
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Let this report help you decide with some revealing stats on HD failure rate and average lifespan by manufacturer.
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If This Then That (IFTTT) is a powerful tool that lets you connect online services together and create automated ‘recipes’ for commonly repeated tasks – e.g. ‘If I make a new connection on LinkedIn, then add them to a spreadsheet on my Google Drive’.Here are some great tips for using IFTTT to make you more productive at work.
In addition, the latest version of the IFTTT iPhone app opens up new possibilities with location awareness such as ‘If I leave my house, then send a message to [person] telling them I’m gone’.
US retailer Target is still reeling from a security breach which saw the credit card and personal details of up to 110 million customers end up in the hands of hackers.
What appears to be the same malware was also used to hook into cash registers at Neiman Marcus stores and steal the credit card details of 1.1 million customers.
In a reminder that security threats are also present on the inside, an IT worker at a company which produces credit scores in South Korea stole the details of 20 million customers – almost half the country’s population.
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a major annual technology-related trade show that offers a preview of upcoming IT trends and new gear. CES 2014 was held from January 7-10 in Las Vegas, USA.
Some highlights of the show from around the Web:
Apparently reneging on its promise to end all Windows XP support by April of this year, Microsoft announced it will extend XP antivirus updates for Security Essentials until July 2015. However, the company is still eager to have all XP users migrate to a newer version of Windows, recently going so far as to to say a Windows XP computer not connected to the Internet can pose a security threat.
Is your organization still using Windows XP? For more details on the options available see our report on Windows XP end-of-life, security threats and migration.
On January 22 1984, Ridley Scott’s Orwellian commercial first introduced the Apple Macintosh during Superbowl in the US. Two days later Steve Jobs took to the stage and presented the Macintosh to the world. 30 years on the Mac has gone through many changes but is still going strong. To celebrate three decades of Mac history Apple have put together an interactive timeline on their website. In a Macworld report Apple executives chime in on why the Mac has such staying power.
Recent news shows the Mac continuing to increase its foothold in the enterprise and offer improved security with the latest Mavericks OS upgrade.
At METHOD IT we have over 10 years experience in using Apple hardware and software for business. Contact us for a free quote on deploying Macs in your organization.
SplashData has revealed its annual ranking of the worst passwords. In 2013, ‘password’ dropped to the number two slot and ‘123456’ claimed the honor of being the most popular least secure password in use. Just how strong are your passwords? Get ideas for improving password security in this METHOD IT bulletin.
We are always searching for highly-skilled, intelligent IT contractors who can handle responsibility and know how to take the initiative in a fast-paced multi-lingual environment. If you are based in Tokyo or Hong Kong and have excellent skills in any of our nine core solutions, send us your CV/resume using the links below: