In an excellent C-Net article titled "How to make Windows 8 look like Windows 7."

Author Nick Peers provides easy steps to get rid of that Windows8 front screen and return to a more palatable experience on the desktop computer.

If you want to try out some of the suggestions from Nick then we recommend this link: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and-web-apps/how-to-make-windows-8-lo...

Microsoft announced today they are releasing 12 Bulletins for over fifty issues and bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer, and Media Player.

These patches will fix security flaws and close holes that will allow hackers to deliver malicious links and software to computers.

It is recommended that you perform all Critical level updates to your Windows computer as soon as possible.

Details are located on this news story:
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/urgent-pc-update-microsoft-i...

And on this security bulletin page:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2013/02/12/assessing-risk-for-the...

Simply read the latest headlines to understand that accounts are being targeted, emails are being hacked and websites are being tampered with regularly now: YahooXtra email accounts hacked

It is far less costly to address IT security before your business data is hacked or your client files stolen.

Call our engineers for a security assessment today: 0800 777 771 option 2.

For those of our clients and readers interested in this new Smartphone issue, please see this article for details: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/samsung/9565395/Hidden-web-code-me...

Samsung is likely to release a patch to resolve this issue. In the mean time, there are a number of ways to keep your Samsung safe, and the most important is that if you plan to surf the internet, ONLY use websites that you KNOW are fully safe.

Moreover, if you are concerned about the security, there are a number of good security applications, some are free, on the Android store.

We recommend Lookout security for most Android phone users.

Otherwise, you can always go to Settings, find Wireless and Networks, select it and then scroll down until you see Mobile networks, and then DESELECT the 'use packet data' to stop Internet based traffic until you have a specific site to view or emails to check. You can then apply same process in reverse to restart your internet connection and get data from SAFE websites you visit.

There is no doubt that Samsung engineers are already working on a patch to resolve this issue, so please stay tuned for more details.

For many business owners (especially small business leaders) the question of whether social media such as Facebook are necessary keeps coming up.

The final answer is simple.

You need a Facebook account if only for the sole purpose of ensuring that the Brand and Name do not get used by someone else. Period.

A number of JAVA add-on versions for all main browser types including Firefox, Chrome, and Microsoft IE have been found to be vulnerable to hacking.

It is relatively easy to exploit these browsers with versions of JAVA that are not up-to-date or have the security patch included.

Our emergency computer services staff were receiving calls regarding the Telecom Xtra and some Vodafone email services failing.

We have isolated the majority of the issues/failures to Updates recently provided for Microsoft Outlook.  In some cases, with the security updates, Microsoft has negatively affected the Outlook email profile settings (account settings) and how POP3 and SMTP emails are handled.

It is our recommendation to contact your email provider first to identify whether the problem is specific to your Outlook (if you can use webmail but not Outlook this is likely).