Self Assessment – if you were late – prepare to be ‘judged’. In 1995, HMRC launched the ‘Hector the Taxman’ campaign to promote early completion of your Self Assessment tax return. On Saturday afternoon (31st January 2026), HMRC announced that of the 12,000,000 tax returns they were expecting, 2,000,000 were still outstanding. If Hector was […]
IT Security – Send a thief to catch a thief
I am sure you are familiar with the expression ‘Send a thief to catch a thief’. IT security is no different. This is a story about how someone tries to compromise the IT security of a bank by just walking into one of their branches. But the story could be about an office, a shop, […]
Ransomware – Thoughts of a victim
Recently the PSNI Cyber Crime Centre engaged with a Northern Ireland company that was the victim of a ransomware attack. To help raise awareness of cyber crime in general and ransomware in particular, the victim agreed to share their experience with others. As a company, how prepared did you feel your organisation was before this […]
Business Culture and Processes – Change is Coming
Over the last few weeks we have been forced to change the way that we work, but will this lead to a permanent change in business culture and processes? Many organisations have adopted technologies they thought only existed in Star Trek (am I giving away my age?). Suddenly, businesses of all shapes and sizes are […]
Covid-19 or Coronavirus – Working from home
Who would have thought that a naturally occurring virus, Covid-19 or Coronavirus, would be causing IT problems? If you are a small business or organisation, you might be trying to figure out what can be done to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 or Coronavirus. Most of us expect some negative consequences but are hoping for […]
Fraud – It started with a Tweet
Fraud – you can never be too careful Hardly a week goes by when we don’t hear another story about online or telephone banking fraud. In last weeks Guardian there was such a story, but this had a slightly different twist. Winning your trust For fraud to work, or so people tell me, you have […]
Safeguarding – Is technology the problem?
Technology has always been a vehicle for child exploitation, but now it can be part of the solution Police raided a photographic studio in Chelsea that belonged to Mr.Henry Hayler. In his studio they found over 130,000 obscene images, many of young children including his two young sons. Hayler had customers all over Europe and […]
Something to brighten your Tuesday
Something to brighten your Tuesday. Two fantastic sketches from “The Absolutely Radio Show” on BBC Sounds. If Facebook could talk……. The Alternative Customer Satisfaction Survey…….
Diversity and computing – we have a problem
Does IT have a diversity problem? Diversity is an issue that goes straight to the bottom line. The IT industry uniquely can do something about diversity, and turn it to it’s advantage. Most IT employers complain about a shortage of qualified staff and employers in Northern Ireland aren’t any different. A few weeks ago, I […]
GDPR – A Practical Guide
GDPR is coming and the simple fact is that most of us are ignoring it. Some hoped that BREXIT would save us or that it would just go away. Well I am sorry, but it won’t, and the deadline is the 25th of May 2018. It’s time to take GDPR seriously. This is the first […]