The last twelve months have been quite a year but, thankfully, we continue to see the lockdown restrictions being eased and are starting to get out and about more. Many of you will have spent at least a bit more time back in the office but it seems increasingly likely that even when all restrictions are lifted, many of us will have a different balance of office/home/travel. With this in mind, this month we’re providing some helpful ideas as we all start spending more time outside our homes.
Staying Online – Outdoors
Whilst confined indoors, we might well have had to worry about the quality of our broadband, however, we didn’t need to worry about being able to get safely online away from home. As we now venture out, not only do we need to remember to charge our devices before we leave the house (take a portable battery!), but we also need to think about making sure any public Wi-Fi networks we access are safe. Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) when connecting to public Wi-Fi allows you to establish a secure connection between your device and the internet. A VPN can protect you from third parties trying to track your online activities and/or steal data. As we readjust our mindsets to the world outside, we need to adapt our cyber security tools as well so do get in touch if you would like some help with this.
Electric Cars
Many of you will be aware that COP26 is being hosted in the UK in November and whilst the pandemic has of course dominated headlines, we have seen shifts in the public and private sector towards sustainability. In 2020, global electric car sales surged by 41% in spite of the overall tough global market – details in this article from National Technology News. The growth isn’t just confined to cars with vans, buses and trucks (e.g. from Scania and Volvo) being developed as well. There are plenty of effective leasing options out there and even some government incentives for businesses. The charging infrastructure is also really starting to grow as this article from Auto Express demonstrates. Having recently leased an electric vehicle ourselves, what’s really interesting from a tech perspective is the range of apps available to help you charge your car efficiently, whether home charging “smart” apps to optimise your electricity supply contract, or those aimed at helping you find charging points when out and about. We are really happy with our electric car and would be delighted to share our experiences with you.
Electrical Recycling Safely
In previous newsletters we have discussed the importance of recycling your electricals to allow those resources to be reused and avoid going to landfill, for example via the “Hypnocat” campaign. However, if you plan to recycle any electricals that hold your personal or business data, it’s vital to ensure that you have securely deleted this data before doing so (simply deleting the data or reinstalling the operating system isn’t enough). This could seem a bit off-putting to some, leading to defunct devices being “hoarded” at the home or office – no use to you and no use to anyone else. We were recently introduced to a local company specialising in technology recycling. They collect and take care of disposing of both the materials and data safely. Do get in touch if you need some help with secure recycling of your tech.