administrator, Author at Kinetics

Sensing your office Vibe

01 Sep 2017 Comments off

As Kinetics had grown, our ability to understand what everyone in the team is feeling or thinking has diminished. The distance that growth brings between staff and managers creates doubts and misunderstandings that can be hard to see. More and more we have found ourselves surprised by the urban myths or beliefs that circulate teams without our [...]

BEWARE THE FAKE LOGIN

21 Jul 2017 Comments off

Most people will be familiar with the concept of linking something to your Facebook login. Many sites offer you the opportunity to login using your Facebook account. Scammers use this concept to farm credentials for other sites. One we have started seeing more often is a request to verify something using your Outlook or Office 365 details. [...]

Microsoft 2017 Country Partner of the year!

05 Jun 2017 Comments off

On top of our recent Cloud Productivity award, Microsoft have just announced Kinetics as their overall New Zealand 2017 Partner of the Year. We love doing what we do, but couldn't do it without fantastic clients who see IT the same way we do - a source of competitive advantage. The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners [...]

A simple but effective hack is back

01 Jun 2017 Comments off

A classic phishing technique has been updated and is reaping rewards for hackers. Delivery is by email or web popup. You are asked to take a survey (often for the chance to win something) or invited to sign in to download a file. Next you are prompted to enter a login or password to prove your identity. They ask you to enter your Facebook, [...]

Security Alert – WannaCry

14 May 2017 Comments off

There is currently a worldwide security alert associated with the latest ransomware attack - 'WannaCry'. Media coverage has been heightened as the exploit itself was originally discovered by the NSA in the US. Further newsworthiness was added when the first notified attack caused major issues with UK National Health computers. The issue affects servers as [...]

Microsoft Cloud Productivity Winner!

12 Apr 2017 Comments off

In the ‘Cloud Productivity’ category, we were finalists with Datacom and Provoke – two of the largest IT service providers in New Zealand. Datacom is a billion dollar business!!! While we aren’t exactly small, it is reassuring to know that the services and work we provide for NZ’s economic engine room (ie SME’s) is as [...]

We are moving!

06 Apr 2017 Comments off

Over Easter weekend we are moving to 1B, 3 Melrose Street, [...]

Microsoft Office competency testing

06 Apr 2017 Comments off

Measuring the productivity of chickens is easy … you just count the eggs. Measuring productivity of those using Microsoft Office is much trickier. Recently a number of clients have asked about benchmarking their users’ skill, so they can focus staff development and training on specific organisational needs. We have been looking at [...]

Reduce email clutter…

06 Apr 2017 Comments off

Microsoft have introduced ‘Teams’ into Office365. It is a new application that’s included in most commercial Office365 plans. The concept behind Teams is a chat-based workspace, the idea being that we have collaborative conversations. It’s about having a conversation (rather than an avalanche of emails) that flows with different people [...]

Six tips to stop your network being hacked

06 Apr 2017 Comments off

CryptoLocker changed the threat landscape by monetising what had essentially been an amateur pursuit. Professionals are now making serious money by hacking into businesses, encrypting their data their and holding them to ransom. This is happening right now, right here in New Zealand. There are a lot measures that can be taken to reduce the risk [...]