Cybersecurity expert, Kevin Beaumont, has warned Microsoft Office users about a scam that uses a hole in a Microsoft Word. The scam, dubbed “Follina”, involves cybercriminals leveraging a Windows utility called msdt.exe to cause victims to download a malware-loaded Word file. The malware could allow attackers to run arbitrary code, install programs, change or delete data, or create new accounts. Microsoft has issued workaround guidance here.
All posts by Paul Stradling
Tech Tip – Share Your Location With A Friend On WhatsApp
If you’re meeting up with someone, or you want a friend to know exactly where you are (which can be a useful safety feature) WhatsApp has a fast and easy way to share your location with someone at the tap of a button. Here’s how to use it:
– Tap on the + sign or the paperclip next to the message box.
– Tap ‘location’.
– Agree to continue and tap ‘Share Live Location’.
– WhatsApp will share your exact location with the other person.
Sustainability-In-Tech : Swappable Batteries
Rather than EV drivers waiting for 40 minutes to re-charge the car battery at a charging station, could the solution be stations where drivers can quickly swap their battery for a fully charged one?
Swap Battery Rather Than Wait To Re-Charge
Chinese electric carmaker, Nio recently made the news with exactly this idea, which is already widely used in China, and has now been introduced to Norway (the first in Europe). Drivers of Nio EVs near Oslo can now, for example, book a slot using Nio’s app, at the battery-swapping station. On arrival, drivers are instructed to park on designated markings and wait in the car. Their EV’s battery is then removed automatically from underneath the vehicle (by a machine, not a human) and replaced with a fully- charged one. The whole operation takes around 5 minutes (the company says on its website that it takes around 3 minutes, according to their tests).
Checks At The Same Time
Nio says that at the same time the battery is being swapped at the battery-swapping station, automatic battery and electric system checks are performed to keep both the vehicle and battery in the best shape.
Advantages
The company says that in addition to saving time and being more convenient than using re-charging stations, the process means that there’s no battery degradation (the in the car is always a healthy one) so drivers can keep their cars longer.
Also, the use of the battery swapping stations is free for the first owner (up to six times per month), and second owners only pay for the power they use. This makes Nio’s battery-swapping inexpensive for owners.
It’s been reported that Nio’s battery-swapping stations, which it plans to build 1000 of across Europe in by 2025 (in partnership with Shell) can carry out 240 swaps a day. This means that Nio owners, certainly in Norway, can be very confident that they’re going to be able to find a station and swap their battery when they need to.
Send A Mobile Charging Van
Another option that Nio offers, which is likely to require a little more waiting but could be really valuable to drivers who’ve simply run out of, are low on battery power, or are not near one of the many charging stations is to send a Power Mobile van. This, Nio says, is like sending a “flexible and convenient portable power bank to your car”. Offering lifetime free battery swap and out-of-town power services are likely to be very attractive to those looking seriously at EV ownership but are feeling unsure about charging availability and costs, and may be important reasons why Nio sales have grown so quickly.
Renting The Battery – Cheaper
Nio owners can choose to buy a car with the battery included or buy the car but rent/lease the battery. This makes the car £7,000+ cheaper to buy than the cheapest Tesla Y.
Nio
Nio is Shanghai-based EV start-up, founded in 2014, which delivered 91,429 vehicles in 2021 making it a major and growing new EV player.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
The availability of charging stations, the cost and time taken to charge, and battery life are all key deciding factors in advancing the sales of EVs. Customers pay enough for the EV itself but also want to know that it will be easy and cost effective to charge the vehicle and that they won’t be left by the roadside somewhere with a flat battery. The battery swap and battery rental ideas could address these issues and could be a greener solution by requiring less production of EV batteries which are lithium-ion batteries and, therefore, contribute to the damage and greenhouse gasses caused by lithium-mining operations. For other popular EV makers with fixed batteries e.g., Tesla, the battery swap idea and the rapid growth of Nio are likely to be a threat for the near future but could also be an opportunity if the other EV companies choose to change their models to adopt a similar approach. Swapping stations may also be a threat to those companies in the EV charging industry but could also be a possible source of strategic alliances in future. Petrol companies, such as Shell has done with Nio, may also benefit from strategic alliances with companies like Nio that need to expand their network of charging or battery stations rapidly across many countries.
Tech News : Finally! Google Drive Gets Copy, Cut And Paste Shortcuts
Google has announced that users of Google Drive can now use the familiar keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + C (or ⌘ + C on Mac), Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V to copy, cut and paste Google Drive files via the Chrome browser.
Timesaving And About Time
By (finally) introducing what is now a decades-old feature to Drive, Google says it will save users time by allowing them to copy one or more files and move them to new locations in Drive, and across multiple tabs, with fewer clicks.
Easily Paste Into Document Or Email
Google also says that a link to the file and its title will be captured when copying a file, which allows the user to easily paste them into a document or an email.
Shortcuts
To help users more easily organise files in multiple locations without necessarily creating duplicate files, Ctrl + C, Ctrl + Shift + V will create shortcuts.
Tabs Too
Google also says that, with the update to Drive, users can open files or folders in a new tab using Ctrl+Enter. This will allow users to easily view multiple files at once or use different tabs to organise files more easily between two different folder locations.
OneDrive and Dropbox
Introducing the shortcuts to Google Drive adds a little more flexibility than rival cloud file storage platform Microsoft’s OneDrive, which doesn’t support the cut, copy and paste shortcuts. It does, however, offer ‘copy to’ locations on right-mouse click. Dropbox offers some keyboard shortcuts by clicking ‘Files’ and pressing the question mark key to access the keyboard shortcut menu. However, this is still unlikely to be a convenient and familiar to many as offering straightforward cut, copy and paste keyboard shortcuts.
Copy and Paste From The 70s
The cut/copy-and-paste commands to move and copy text first came into use with text editors at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1974. “Larry” Tesler was credited with proposing the terms ‘cut’, ‘copy’, and ‘paste’ for these actions.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Using cloud-based platforms for collaborative work as well as secure and convenient storage has become much more popular since the lockdown and with the advent of hybrid working. Any time-saving, straightforward features are likely to be valued by businesses, and it may be a surprise to many that it has taken so long for Google to introduce such an old and widely used set of commands. However, it is better late than never, and the introduction of these keyboard shortcuts are one of a constant stream of updates and improvements that Google is making to try and retain users and compete against rival platforms like Dropbox and OneDrive.
Featured Article : Macs in Business
With Macs getting a huge boost in popularity over the pandemic and a new report showing Mac shipments growing almost twice as fast as the PC market as a whole in 2021, we look at why more businesses are embracing Macs, and also what challenges Macs can bring.
The Pandemic And Digital Transformation
Digital transformation in many businesses was dramatically accelerated by the need to work remotely, which has now become hybrid working. With this came a surge of device-buying. It appeared to be the case that Apple products became more popular than ever with business and individuals. For example, Apple finished 2020 with its most profitable quarter ever, and Apple’s sales of laptops and phones rose to a record-breaking £65bn in the first quarter of 2021 (revenue up 54 per cent on the same period of 2020). Although this was driven partly by the effects of having to stay at and work from home, plus a surge in demand in China, IDC reported that Macs reached 23 per cent share in US enterprises, showing that businesses are now more likely to be choosing Macs.
Other Drivers
That said, it should be noted that some of the other drivers for the growth in Mac sales last year included the launch of the Apple iPhone 12, the publicity about and the launch of the M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro models (October 2021), and surge in demand in China at the end of 2021.
Old Perceptions and Growth
The business computer market has always been (and still is) dominated by PCs (almost half are PCs). Operating system figures confirm the gulf between PCs and macs with OS shares for desktop and laptop computers, showing Windows as the most used at 75 per cent, followed by Apple’s macOS at 15 per cent. In the smartphone world, Android leads with 72 per cent market share, and Apple’s iOS has 28 per cent.
Older perceptions of the computer market depict Apple Macs as being more suited to (and more the domain of) those in the artistic and creative world, e.g. creative professionals, graphic designers, app developers, web developers, video editors, and audio engineers. This may be because of the more intuitive OS of macs, the aesthetic appeal of the hardware, and Apple’s marketing.
Strengths For Businesses
Macs offer a number of strengths to businesses (compared to PCs). These include:
– Assisting with improved productivity and job satisfaction. For example, a Forrester report (2021) showed that employees using Macs were 20 per cent more likely to stay with their companies.
– Macs are generally thought to offer a more positive user experience than PCs due to their intuitive OS, and perhaps an enhanced feeling of security and the feeling that Macs are more of a luxury/high-end tool (feeling more valued by the company by being given Macs to use).
– Despite having a reputation for being much more expensive, Macs have a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) when taking into account factors like increased productivity, fewer support calls, and greater job satisfaction.
– The build quality of Macs is high, and they are reliable and durable. This can save repair and business disruption costs.
– Macs are seamlessly compatible with other Apple devices used by employees, e.g. Apple phones. This can help with productivity and minimise disruptions and problems.
– Macs tend to be more secure than PCs because the macOS is based on Unix, which is challenging to exploit, given Apple has full control over the hardware and software. This means that Apple can very quickly implement new security features and patches. Better security is especially important to businesses today and can help with compliance and protect against costly and potentially disastrous breaches.
Challenges
Macs, however, also have challenges that businesses need to consider. These include:
– A degree of uncertainty about when security updates will be released, thereby making it more difficult to plan. Also, responsibility for when security updates are installed is in the hands of the user (rather than the admin) and while this sounds convenient, workers can forget or put off updates. This could have an impact on security and productivity. Also, unsaved work could be destroyed by an update, thereby wasting resources.
– Uncertainty about how long updates for different version of the OS will be produced, and uncertainty about what will be supported (apps and services) by older versions.
– The added costs and complexity of businesses having to manage Macs and PCs together.
– The incompatibility of proprietary business software with MacOS.
– Complexity with licenses – a Windows license application might not apply to the Mac version.
– The added cost of needing an Apple technician to repair or upgrade a Mac.
– Fewer hardware configuration options compared to PCs.
– Many apps and tools for Macs (antivirus) may not be as robust as their PC counterparts, though of course this could be mooted either way.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
More Macs in business may bring benefits such as security (arguably) and a better user experience but it can mean that IT admins will have a different workload. It also means the need to re-evaluate traditional IT operations and figure out ways to accommodate new devices (no more ‘one size-fits all’), re-consider usability, productivity and device management strategies, and find ways to effectively plan for and deal with the potential weaknesses of Macs, e.g. making sure updates happen and patches are installed by users. Some admins find that reducing the versions of MacOS that are in place can be one way of making support easier and reducing potential security risks. That said, although having Macs and PCs together can increase IT management complexity, the Mac benefits of security, productivity, lower TCO, and happier users (who stay with the company) do appear to be valued by more and more businesses.
Tech Insight : Mobile Calls Better Than Ever
A recent ‘Mobile Phone Trends’ report has highlighted how the quality and reliability of mobile phone calls in the UK are improving. So, what’s helping to bring about this change and why is it so important now?
The Figures
Some of the key figures highlighted in the report (by testing company RootMetrics) that show an improvement in mobile phone call quality include:
– Only 1per cent of calls dropping during UK-wide testing in 2H 2021. RootMetrics hails this as an excellent result when compared to its 2 per cent benchmark.
– Dropped calls are rare, especially in major cities (well below 1 per cent).
– Blocked call rates fell from over 4 per cent in 2017 to 1.7 per cent in 2021
– Call setup times (the time it takes to establish a virtual circuit across a telecoms network) have improved from 4.9 seconds in 2017 to 2.2 seconds in 2021.
Why The Improvements?
Some of the main reasons for the improvement in mobile phone calls in recent years include:
– Most UK mobile phone calls (85 per cent) are now transmitted using the more reliable VoLTE. Launched by all four major UK mobile operators in 2015, VoLTE is a kind of VoIP that uses 4G LTE technology to transmit calls over the data network instead of using the older, less reliable circuit-switched connections. As well a clearer calls and fewer blocked and dropped calls, VoLTE enables the transition from Wi-Fi to 4G LTE during calls, plus the simultaneous usage of the internet while making a phone call. VoLTE also uses a Quality of Service (QoS) strategy to improve its calls.
– The use of fibre networks for digital voice services rather than networks of physical lines producing higher quality voice calls, lower volumes of scam calls, and lowering cost, complexity, and energy consumption.
– The introduction of 4G and now 5G.
– Wider, improved networks and a shift to small-cell networks (dense networks of small, high-capacity cells).
– Improved analytics for mobile operators, helping to channel investment for greatest value.
– Software improvements for operators, e.g. software-defined networking (SDN) and network-functions virtualisation (NFV).
– Improvements to smart phones.
Challenges
There are still, of course, challenges to overcome to keep mobile phone call reliability levels going in the right direction. These include, for example:
– Power outages in some areas stopping IP phones from making calls, e.g. to the emergency services. However, all mobile operators claim to give the highest priority to emergency service calls, and modern smartphones now roam to the operator with the best coverage to make emergency calls.
– Coverage challenges.
Why So Important?
The reliability of mobile phones is particularly important now because :
– Most of us use mobile phones for more aspects of work life and there is now a greater reliance on apps, e.g. WhatsApp, and collaborative working and group comms platforms, e.g. Zoom, and Slack.
– The big analogue switch-off in 2025, replacing the public switched telephone network (PSTN) with a digital, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network will make us more reliant than ever on our mobile phones for calls. Levels of quality and reliability, therefore, will need to be high.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The big analogue switch-off is only 3 years down the line and most people are already hugely reliant on mobile phones for many aspects of work, social interaction via social media, plus many useful apps. Voice calls, however, remain a particularly important primary function of mobile phones and improvements such as operators using VoLTE have helped improve the quality and reliability of mobile phone calls in recent years. Coverage challenges in some more remote areas is still an issue but as the RootMetrics report showed, reliability, which is highly valued by mobile phone users, is better than ever.
Tech News : Zoom Updates For Collaboration (And Fun)
Zoom has announced that its new apps, updates, and features will improve collaboration and creativity, thereby increasing engagement and interaction among attendees of hybrid-working meetings.
Collaborate Mode
Zoom says that its new ‘Collaborate Mode’ will improve engagement by elevating the screen-sharing model to be interactive, with participants seeing the host’s app view (similar to a shared screen view), along with an invite so they can preview the app experience before joining. Zoom says this mode will enable hosts to start collaborative experiences for any app during all-hands meetings, brainstorming sessions, and more.
Examples
Collaborative Mode works across all browsers, and examples of Collaborate Mode for apps (using apps together within Zoom) include:
– Using Miro‘s online whiteboard in Zoom so meeting participants can launch a collaborative workspace for everyone to interact, co-create, and capture ideas in real time.
– Having fun and breaking the ice in meetings by using Playco’s #AskAway social game designed to help co-workers get to know one another in the minutes before meetings.
– Using MURAL’s digital whiteboard and collaboration features to help teams innovate.
– Using the CODA app in Zoom for taking a vote, prioritising Q&A topics, and uncovering how the team are feeling about a meeting.
– Getting the team involved in fun activities by using Funtivity by Hermis, which also works well for new staff-member onboarding, plus customer advice.
Breakout Rooms
The other new addition to Zoom to improve collaboration and involvement is Breakout Rooms. This is where meeting participants can break into smaller groups for focused discussions or tight-knit collaboration. With Breakout Rooms, the meeting host can split participants into separate groups automatically or manually, allow participants to select and enter Breakout Rooms as they please, and switch between rooms at any time.
Breakout Room Incorporating Zoom Apps
Zoom says that Breakout Rooms can also incorporate Zoom Apps to help make sessions more engaging, productive, and fun. Examples include:
– Using Welo’s visual workspace to recreate collaborative physical spaces and create a more human experience.
– Simplifying the whole process of Breakout Rooms by using twine for Zoom, an all-in-one Breakout Room management app.
– Increasing Breakout Room engagement by using Funtivity by Hermis.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The pandemic launched a major battle between collaborative working platforms such as Zoom, Teams and Slack, all of which received a rapid and vast increase in user numbers. Now, in the post-pandemic environment where hybrid working has become popular, the battle is on to keep adding value, retaining customers, and tempting users to switch. Allowing customers to collaboratively use a range of engaging, fun, and teamwork-enhancing apps within Zoom, along with the addition of Breakout Rooms allows Zoom to add value, complete with Teams (which also has breakout rooms and allows 3rd party apps), and hopefully retain its huge post-pandemic customer base. Also, by allowing apps like Welo within Zoom (which features a digital house with users represented by an avatars and able to go to individual rooms for a private meeting), Zoom can compete with platforms like Meta (Facebook) and show itself to be forward-thinking and in touch with the new direction of comms platforms.
Security Stop-Press : QuickBooks Customers Targeted By Phishing Attacks
Tax software vendor Intuit has warned that QuickBooks customers are being targeted with phishing attacks that are impersonating the company and are designed to lure targets with fake account suspension warnings. The phishing emails ask targets to click on a “Complete Verification” button which re-directs them to a phishing site designed to harvest personal information or infect their system with malware. The advice to QuickBooks customers is not to click any embedded links or open attachments, and to delete the messages from the inbox.
Tech Tip – How To Make A Group Voice Call Using WhatsApp
If you need to hold a group, you’ll be pleased to know that WhatsApp allows users to make a group voice call for up to 32 participants for free! Here’s how:
– Open the group chat you want to voice call.
– Tap ‘Voice call’ and confirm your decision. The first seven people who answer can join the call, and only group members can participate.
– Find the contacts you want to add to the call, then tap ‘Voice call’.
To make a group voice call from the ‘CALLS’ tab:
– Open WhatsApp and tap the ‘CALLS’ tab.
– Tap ‘New call > New group call’.
– Find the contacts you want to add to the call, then tap ‘Voice call’.
To make a group voice call from an individual chat:
– Open the individual chat with one of the contacts you want to voice call.
– Tap ‘Voice call’.
– When the contact accepts the call, tap ‘Open > Add participant’.
– Look up the next contact you want to add to the call and tap ‘ADD’.
– Tap Add participant to add more contacts.
Sustainability : Carbon Capture For Ships
With container ships being bigger greenhouse gas producers that aeroplanes, London-based company ‘Seabound’ has developed technology that reduces up to 95 per cent of CO2 emissions per ship.
The Problem
The shipping industry is responsible for producing around 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually, which equates to at least 2.5 per cent of the world’s total CO2 emissions. This is the reason why the International Maritime Organisation is introducing new regulations from 2023 and setting a target to cut these emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.
Seabound’s Carbon Capture System
Seabound, founded and led by Alisha Fredriksson and Roujia Wen, has developed a prototype system that uses lime to capture the CO2 emissions from ships. The system uses an onboard device filled with porous, calcium oxide pebbles to trap emissions from a ship’s exhaust. These bind with the CO2 to form calcium carbonate (limestone). The Captured CO2 in the limestone can then be unloaded when the ship docks and sold for utilisation or can undergo a process to separate the carbon using heat. In this case, the calcium oxide could be re-used and the carbon sold for use or sequestration (the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide).
Not The Only One
Although Seabound have made the news recently, they are not the only company working on different types of tech solutions to reduce the CO2 emissions of ships. Others include:
– UK company, Smart Green Shipping (SGS) which has developed a wind-assist power solution (based on America’s Cup wing sails). This system uses ‘smart’ vertical aerofoils mounted on ships which are paired with an analysis system that accurately calculates the available wind to any ship, with the initial goal of reducing fuel consumption by at least a fifth.
– In August 2020, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding announced that it had started work on developing a carbon-capture system for ships that could reduce their carbon emissions by up to 90 per cent and produce raw materials for new fuels to be produced.
– Dutch company Value Maritime has developed the ‘Filtree System’ for small and medium-sized ships based on new unique technology which, in addition to sulphur, also filters ultra-fine particulates and CO2 from the air. The ‘plug and play’ system tackles the problems of ships polluting the air and acidifying seawater.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
The shipping industry produces a large amount of CO2 and other pollutants. With strict targets to meet and regulations from the International Maritime Organisation to comply with, it is important that practical and affordable tech solutions are found and rolled out soon. At the moment, the complexity of the problem and the expense and time needed in R&D mean that many of the different proposed solutions are still at the prototype stage. On the plus side, several seem workable and as technologies continue to evolve and combine and industries around are all now focusing on tackling the same issue, reducing greenhouse gasses, other ideas and solutions may also come to the fore, thereby increasing the likelihood of developing systems that will work well and meet the targets.