News

Microsoft has confirmed support for Windows 8.1 and Microsoft 365 Office apps installed on the Operating System has come to an end. This may have you jumping for joy, but it is bad news if you find yourself stuck with an unsupported operating system.

Any individual or organisation still running Windows 8.1 (including Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 8.1) will be affected. Support for Windows 8 ended on 12^th January 2016. The problem is Windows 8.1, which up until now has been supported, is now having it’s support canned as well. To make matters worse, the support was pulled on 10^th January 2023 and there will be no extensions. Continue reading →

Hopefully our recent post will help you avoid some of the Christmas cyber scams out there. Unfortunately, there are plenty of these.

Here are some more scams to be aware of and how to avoid them:

 

 

Continue reading →

It’s that time of year again – Christmas is around the corner and many of us will be looking forward to some down time with our families and friends.

There is one industry that never has time off – fraudsters and criminals. The Christmas break is actually a very busy time for them; lots of opportunity to part people from their money and data whilst our guards are down.

At Trichromic we take cybercrime very seriously and to help you out we spoke to our local bobby who kindly flagged up his ‘top 3’ frauds and how to avoid them: Continue reading →

In recent weeks, our team of friendly experts at Trichromic have been contacted by a several customers who have had difficulty connecting to their IT systems due to a new process. The cause of the problem is Outlook 2013 not being automatically configured to use Modern Authentication so, it loses the ability to connect to the 365 Exchange Online mailbox.  This is a very frustrating issue that wastes a lot of your valuable time.

Modern Authentication is an umbrella term for a combination of authentication and authorisation methods between a client (for example, your laptop or your phone) and a server. Basically, it is a method of identity management that offers more secure user authentication and authorisation.

Modern Authentication is a good thing – it improves security. The use of the current Basic Authentication process is being removed for Exchange Online mailboxes on Microsoft 365 and replaced with Modern Authentication across all Microsoft products.

But there is a fix for this…

Continue reading →

Microsoft is investigating user reports of issues with Remote Desktop on Windows 11 systems after installing the Windows 11 22H2 Update.

Affected administrators and home users have been sharing their experiences across several online platforms, including Microsoft’s Q&A community platform for IT professionals.

Installing the Windows 11 22H2 feature update will cause Remote Desktop clients not to connect, randomly disconnect, or freeze unexpectedly.

A Windows admin said on Microsoft’s Community site, “All of our Remote Desktop Users using Windows 11 are having problems connecting to Remote Desktop after installing this update. It just hangs at connecting,”.

It appears there is a bug in the Remote Desktop client which is affecting the connection to another device – basically, the Windows 11 client only seems try one protocol (UDP) but, if this cannot process the data traffic, the secondary protocol (TCP) isn’t used, and the connection fails. Continue reading →

If the Windows computers in the office are turned on 24/7, this method could help reduce electricity usage and create less heat, which could further reduce the energy consumed by air conditioning.

Most newer Windows computers are configured to use the ‘Balanced’ power plan by default, and this makes sense because the Central Processing Until (CPU) clocks down when not being heavily utilised and clocked up when more performance is required.   However, the ‘Balanced’ power plan does result in slower performing computers, so the ‘High Performance’ power plan is often preferred during working hours.  There’s also a ‘Power Saver’ plan which could potentially save more power.

One option to save energy and create less heat is to manually change the power plan just before finishing work, and when starting work, but most people will forget to do this.

A better solution is to schedule these changes to be made using the Windows Task Scheduler or the Managed Service Provider’s (MSPs) preferred Remote Management & Monitoring (RMM) system. Continue reading →

Trichromic has proudly renewed their Cyber Essentials certification.

The standard is part of the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy and demonstrates our commitment to cyber security, our ability to safeguard our own systems, the hosting services we deliver to clients, and it reinforces our capabilities as a managed services provider.

Launched in 2014, the Cyber Essentials scheme focuses on promoting the essential security controls that organisations need to have in place in order to reduce the risk posed by threats on the Internet. The scheme addresses five key controls that, when implemented correctly according to the government, could prevent around 80% of cyber attacks:

Continue reading →

Security researchers have recently warned that hackers are compromising Microsoft Teams accounts to access chats and spread malicious executable files and programmes to participants in the conversation.

Over a quarter of a million users rely on Microsoft Teams every month with many of these trusting the platform implicitly, despite the absence of protections against malicious files.

Simple but efficient method

Researchers found that hackers started to drop malicious executable files in conversations on Microsoft Teams communication platform. The attacks started in January and there has been thousands of them. From the data available, most attacks were recorded at organisations in the Great Lakes region in the U.S., with local media outlets being a particular target.

The perpetrator inserts an executable file called “User Centric” into the chat to trick the user into running it. Once executed, the malware writes data into the system registry installs Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) and establishes a presence on the Windows machine. Basically, it takes over the computer. Continue reading →

When your on-site server comes to the end of its life or it no longer suits your business needs, you face a choice.

1) Invest in an upgraded owned server

2) Migrate to the cloud with a server free solution

3) Take a ‘hybrid’ approach, with a mix of cloud and locally hosted systems or services.

In this guide we’ll walk you though the decision-making process and suggest key questions the management team should ask before making a decision.

Request our free eBook

Many businesses have been encouraging staff to work from home (at least some of the time) during the pandemic, and for many people this has become ‘the new norm’.

Can hybrid working (office and remote working) be ‘the new norm’ once Covid restrictions have been fully removed?

There are pros and cons with both office and home/remote working. (Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters)

 

Working from home has some benefits:

1. Studies have found that people can be more productive when working from home.
2. Less travel to work means cost savings, less congestion, and less air pollution.
3. Empty offices don’t need heating.

This needs to be balanced with some of the downsides: Continue reading →