LSM

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! If you do not currently receive LSM on a bi-monthly basis, you can easily do so totally free of charge by entering your email address in the box below and clicking the 'Subscribe' button.	Welcome Ed – Jonathan Burnside Welcome to the first ever issue of LSM and the best thing is, it’s totally FREE!! The aim of LSM is to inform its readership of issues relating to the world of IT and in doing so hopefully separate the fact from the fiction. All the articles that featured in LSM are written by IT Professionals with many years of experience so you can be assured that you are being reliably informed. Because we value our readership we would appreciate it if you would take time out to give us some feedback, by clicking on the ‘Feedback’ button at the top of the page. Whether there is an area you think we could improve in or there is an issue you would like us to cover we would love to hear from you. This magazine is sponsored by Lottbridge Systems Ltd - one of the top IT firms in the south of England. We may also feature links or advertisements from other companies. Please feel free to follow one of these if there is a service that you require and thus hopefully, we can keep LSM free.


OUTSOURCING - What’s the Story ? by Yuri Tang ©2004 The economic downturn has, or may cause, staff cutbacks and lower budgets for departments across the company. These cutbacks, may then cause people higher up the management chain, to be spending their time less productively covering areas where the cutbacks occurred. A major disadvantage, especially in the IT department, of having people ‘covering’ the job, is that they may not be technically skilled. This has many downsides; firstly, the amount of time spent solving a problem, may have taken a more skilled person less, half or even no time at all to solve. This is a cost to the company in that more time than needed is spent on solving a problem and the ‘covering’ person is spending less time on their own job causing the company to be less productive. Secondly, the department may become stagnated, due to the lack of knowledge about new technology and experience about how to plan the way forward for the department. Thirdly, because the ‘covering’ person is doing two jobs, this may result in an overload of work and neither job being performed properly or effectively. Some may perceive IT to be of less importance, to the company than other departments, such as, Sales that can be seen to be directly productive due to the number of sales made. This could be a dangerous perception, due to the fact that a number of people are unaware of what goes on in the ‘background’ to make the company network, database etc. stable. “What are the advantages of outsourcing?” This question has a number of answers. One of the main reasons many companies outsource is to reduce costs. There are a number of areas that companies can save on by outsourcing such as salary, time and money spent training staff, management, recruitment, administration, holiday, sickness and temporary cover. Not only could outsourcing reduce costs while maintaining the level of IT services, it is more than likely to improve these levels. Companies also turn to outsourcing, so that they can react to the changing market more quickly, or to have access to specialised knowledge or skills. Outsourcers will probably be able to buy equipment cheaper than their customers could, and also be able to advise on what would be most suitable for the company. Outsourcing is also very flexible. Companies can choose whether to outsource part or all of their IT functions. They can use the services on an ad-hoc basis, therefore saving money should the services not be needed. So what would have been a fixed cost could now be made into a variable cost. This saving could lead to capital being used elsewhere in the company, such as a revenue-producing activity, or to simply to be put down as increased profits.

VIRUSES by Yuri Tang ©2004 The first documented virus was created over 20 years ago as an experiment in computer security. These viruses have grown in numbers and it is believed that there are around 60,000 viruses in existence today, and are causing great concern. These are a few of the Frequently Asked Questions about viruses: “What is a Virus?” A computer virus can be described as a program that can be loaded onto your computer without your knowledge or consent, which is designed to alter the way a computer operates. Viruses will attach themselves to programs on your computer and each time the infected program is run the virus is activated. Most viruses are also designed to spread across the network to another computer, by making a copy of itself to another program. There are a number of different types of viruses, such as: Macro viruses use features within standard applications, which perform unknown tasks. These viruses are activated each time the file they are attached is opened. They spread very quickly due to the high number of people sharing data. File viruses attach themselves to programs and can be transferred by disc, file transfer or e-mail attachments. Boot Sector viruses infect the area of the hard disk that is used when the computer starts up. This means the virus will be activated just by turning on the computer. Worm viruses are designed to replicate themselves from one computer to another over a network or the internet. They usually drain computer resources, delete data and spread quickly via email. Trojan Horse viruses disguise themselves as a useful application, but in reality, when activated can cause harm to the computer, such as, loss, damage or theft of data. The main difference between a trojan horse and other viruses is that they do not replicate themselves. “How can I tell if I have a virus?” Visible symptoms of a virus include loss of files, displaying unwanted messages and sudden declines in computer performance, etc. One way to know whether your computer has a virus is to scan the machine with an up-to-date anti-virus program. If this program finds a virus, it will tell you the name of the virus and tell you how to remove it, if it does not remove it automatically. It is important to constantly keep anti-virus programs up-to-date; otherwise it will not know how to protect the computer from any viruses that have been developed since the last update. “What is a Virus Hoax?” Virus hoaxes are email warning about computer viruses. They are more than likely scare alerts and hold no value to them. Ways to identify a hoax is to check the sender’s address; if the sender is not a reliable source then it is probably a hoax. Virus hoaxes often encourage people to forward the email on. IN CONCLUSION Whether your computer is on a network that is connected to the internet, or you are just using a modem for internet or e-mail use, then you are at risk. It is even possible for a stand alone machine to get a virus via floppy disks or some other media. Some organizations may not even be aware that their machines are infected and the security of their personal information is jeopardised. Depending on the size and structure of your system(s) the solutions can be varied. To reduce the risk of getting a virus, it is highly recommended to have an anti-virus program on your machine(s); however not all threats can be removed this simply – some require expert attention. Recently, viruses have become a major concern to IT Managers worldwide. Do your best to make sure your systems are covered from such threats - If not, the damage could be costly and irreversible!

Vol 1, Issue 1: Thursday, 1st July 2004