But have you stopped to consider the downside to remote working? The negative elements for your business and your people? While many employees are happy to work from home using video calls and collaborative software to stay connected, there’s a small percentage who find the whole experience isolating.

As you push your business towards increased growth it means planning ahead more than ever before. Industry experts expect the shortage to last into next year… and it could be even longer.

Remote and hybrid working is now normal for a lot of people. But a recent survey has found that, despite it being more than two years since many of us were forced to work from home, too many businesses still don’t have the right cyber security measures in place for those away from the office.

Microsoft’s decided to retire and rework an AI tool that could not only recognize our facial features, but also identify our mood. Azure Face is an emotion recognition tool. These are highly criticized by experts who believe they violate human rights. Microsoft has just published the updated version of its Responsible AI Standard.

It’s no secret that some applications are a little too interested in us and what we’re doing. We’ve all had this experience. You might be talking to a friend about a new product that you’d like to try. Or perhaps you’ve discussed somewhere you’d like to visit. Then the next time you go online you see adverts for the exact things you were talking about.

A recent report found that each one of your employees could be losing up to 80 hours each year, thanks to filtering and deleting spam emails. That’s a LOT of lost productivity.

When you’re browsing it can feel like you’re being bombarded with things other people want you to see. Not only do we have to click on permissions for cookies and tracking, but now a lot of websites ask for our permission to send us notifications. And while many of these notifications are harmless – news updates, latest recipes, product releases – sometimes they can be outright spam.

It feels like every day we’re being warned about a new threat to our cybersecurity, doesn’t it? That’s for good reason. Last year, ransomware attacks alone affected 81% of US businesses. And the cost of cyber-crime is estimated to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025, according to the ‘2022 Cybersecurity Almanac’. But we’re still seeing far too many businesses that aren’t taking this threat seriously.

Ransomware is one of the fastest growing cyber-crimes in the world. Last year, 37% of businesses were victim to an attack. In case you didn’t know, a ransomware attack is where cyber criminals infiltrate your network (or device) and steal your data by encrypting it. The data is still there, but you can’t access it. Then they demand you pay a large ransom fee for the encryption key.

Early on in the first lockdowns in 2020, did you ever sit at your computer and think “I really like working from home”?

Some people are in the office. Some are at home. The days of having everyone together at the same time are gone. Maybe forever. Which means that video calls are here to stay. If you want to invest in your video call setup, here are three easy upgrades for you.

No-one likes passwords. Creating them. Remembering them. Typing them in. Your whole mood can change when an application you’re using suddenly logs you out, and you have to go through login all over again. It’s frustrating for everyone.

So, here’s some very welcome news, courtesy of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. The tech giants have joined forces to kill off the password for good.

The use of Microsoft Teams has just exploded in the last few years, and it now boasts 270 million people using it every month. Of course, it was the right tool at the right time when we all rushed to working from home at the start of the pandemic. But the growth of Teams has continued, even if some believe the growth has slowed down a little recently.

Microsoft is always introducing new features and services to keep your people safe online, and your data secure. As a business owner or manager, you should already know that weak or reused passwords are one of the biggest risks to data security.

As a business owner or manager, you know how important good IT is. Your business couldn’t function without it. Your IT isn’t just about computers and data. It’s everything from your phone system to your printers to where you access your documents.And that’s without going into the measures you must take to keep your data and infrastructure safe and secure from cyber criminals.

If you have people working remotely in your business, you’re probably used to emails flying around at all hours of the day or night. Working from home has been life-changing for some. Your people can be more flexible with their time during the day, fitting in time for school pick-ups and appointments where perhaps they couldn’t before.

And in return, it means that more work is being done in the evenings.

We all have different ways of working. Some of us prefer to have a minimal number of things displayed on our screens. Others thrive when everything is open and insight. But we can all agree that having 20 tabs open in your browser at any one time has a negative effect on productivity.

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in cyber attacks. While many of the attacks are between Russia and Ukraine, there is real potential for other countries to fall victim to cyber-attacks by Russia, thanks to the sanctions placed upon it.

The White House has issued a warning and some great cyber security advice to all businesses.

A new report has discovered that 67% of remote workers are using faulty tech when they work remotely. And often that’s because they’ve accidentally damaged the tech themselves and they don’t want to admit it to their boss in case they get into trouble. A company that sells refurbished technology surveyed 2,500 employees. It found that laptops were most likely to be broken, followed by keyboards, monitors, and PCs.

It seems like we’re talking about cyber scams a lot at the moment. Now there’s yet another new trick you need to be aware of. Cybercriminals are intelligent. They’re forever coming up with new ways to infiltrate your devices and networks to access your valuable data. Fortunately, the defense weapons continue to get stronger and stronger to help keep you protected.

While the cyber security of your business should always be a high priority, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means that businesses may be at an increased risk of cyber-attack. Although there is no direct threat at present, the West is placing a range of sanctions on Russia. There could be retaliation, and Russia has used cyber-attacks in the past.

But what does this mean for your business?