Antivirus is dead ?

 

Recently Symantec, one of the worlds largest security software houses, recently states that “antivirus is dead” and that they don’t really consider it to be a source of profit. Following Symantec’s statement a number of similar companies made the same statement in what sounds like media attention grabbing.

 

An Experiment

But, as a research firm, we decided to look at this from the point of view of an ordinary home user. Lets introduce Jayne. Jayne is an average home user, on a normal home ADSL line. Jayne hears Symantec say antivirus is dead so doesn’t bother with antivirus on his new laptop. Here is what happens:

 

Windows 7
Windows 7 installed from genuine CD with genuine key, built on Sunday 17th August. Connected to the ADSL line permanently. System fully compromised on the 19th of August.

 

Control

The system was also built identically on a second laptop but this time with Microsoft Security Essentials. This system was functioning correctly with no signs of compromise of the 19th of August.

 

Conclusion

At the end of the day, antivirus is not a perfect solution. In some cases it is not even close to perfect. As systems get more powerful and interactions become quicker, antivirus solutions will need more power. Real-time file scanning, constant updates and regular checks on the whole system only mean one thing – as long as antivirus is thorough, productivity while using a computer goes down severely.

 

This is not going to change in the foreseeable future, but the flip side of the argument is that it is needed. For a machine to operation disconnected from the internet is almost impossible now. It looks like for the moment, antivirus is here with us, for good and bad.

Author - Peter Bassill

How to Win the Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup takes place this year in Gleneagles, Perthshire, at the end of September, with players from Europe and the US competing in 28 matches over 18 holes across three days.

Golf is often associated with business. Is it that the sport requires a mindset involving risk-taking attitudes and strategic planning – present in the everyday life of the businessman – or maybe it’s the opportunity to network and build rapport and trust with peers? It certainly seems to be a metaphor for what the business world is all about, and it’s not unknown for a few of our Jumpstarters to be out and about on the golf course when time (and weather) permits.

The game of golf has long been played across the social classes as a popular leisure activity. From blunt wooden clubs in the early days of the nineteenth century, golf has been transformed through advances in clubs, balls and course design into today’s highly competitive game.

However, has golf performance improved only because of the emergence of newly developed technology, or has it also been helped by a combination of better psychology, better strategy and better teamwork?

At Jumpstart we positively relish getting to the bottom of a conundrum. While we can’t tell you who’s going to win the Cup this year, we thought we’d be best placed to do a little investigative work, to identify areas that are likely to play an important part in the winning of the Ryder Cup at the end of the month.

POTENTIAL MINUS INTERFERENCE

First and foremost, like all competitive sportspeople, golfers need to have the right mindset to participate with a positive attitude whatever happens, and the ability to make informed choices under pressure. A golfer can have all the equipment and technology at his or her fingertips, but if they lack the commitment to take personal responsibility for making the right choices under pressure in the heat of the competition, they’ll flounder. Timothy Galway said in his seminal book ‘The Inner Game of Golf’ that performance equals potential minus interference. The interference relates to a negative inner voice the golfer may listen to, which can sow seeds of self-doubt and a lack of confidence. To this end, professional golfers at the top of their game have a huge support network in the form of coaches, psychologists, dieticians and physiotherapists to build upon the confidence, commitment and self-belief the golfer intrinsically has, to allow them to unlock the resources within themselves to perform to the best of their ability, and win.

THE POWER OF THE TEAM

Of course, the idea of creating a team has reasons other than to focus the golfers. The goal of the whole team is for the golfers to win, with everyone in the whole team aligned towards the same goal and contributing individually to its achievement through their expertise, taking the team beyond what was ever thought to have been possible. If we think for a moment on the powerful force of a team environment, consider the scenario in which an individual decides to take up some exercise. How many people understand the concept that going to the gym is a good idea? 100%? How many people go beyond that and develop a fitness plan? 40%? And how many actually turn up regularly at the gym and fully implement that plan? 10% at best? Now think if you were to form a team to encourage and motivate the individual to gain an alignment to the common vision and greater focus around the fitness plan, how much greater would the likelihood be that the plan would be implemented? Exactly – the energy of a team helps to build confidence and commitment in the individual, unlocking potential difficult to access without the support.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

And how about the importance in ensuring the Captain and Vice-Captains create an atmosphere of openness and trust so players can share their views when under pressure? A good Captain will encourage the team to develop attributes including strategy, transparency, flexibility, collaboration, informality, openness, creativity and nimbleness. This in turn will encourage the golfers, who in other competitions regularly compete against one another, to collaborate and deploy their skills to benefit the whole Ryder Cup team.

THE LUCK FACTOR

Luck is another interesting area to investigate when focusing on the Ryder Cup, or any other individual sporting event. It would appear that the greater number of external influences, the greater the role luck plays. How do you quantify the element of luck? Professor Richard Wiseman, author of “The Luck Factor”, stated that luck is not an accident but an attitude, and Gary Player, world class golfer, has often said you must work hard to become a natural golfer, quoting “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”. By this, there is an argument that if you practice you will develop your capability to produce a particular shot more often than not, and by practicing you also develop your courage to play shots that others might avoid. Its worth noting that luck could be considered within a single event such as the Ryder Cup, but across a season it would be expected that luck would average out and the impact of talent would dominate.

ADVANCES IN GOLF TECHNOLOGY

And one further point we should really consider - the advances in the equipment used by golfers, and whether these noticeably impact the winning of a game. The wound balls used by Tiger Woods gave him, on average, a 17.4 yard shorter drive than the solid-core balls developed by Titleist which have innovative dimple design and specialist casing to help deliver higher ball speed with a lower spin. Hybrid clubs have also been introduced that combine a high launch angle with high spin, producing a favourably long trajectory, and wedges, although restricted by the Rules of Golf regulators (to avoid a “drive and pitch” farce), have increased the likelihood of scoring a birdie. Equipment does make a difference to the level of play, but it’s unlikely to help one team win over the other as this only becomes apparent when your opponent does not have the same equipment advantage open to them.

Hopefully this article has helped those golfing aficionados out there not to blame their golfing mishaps solely on poor equipment or a bad day, but to take time to contemplate their strategy a little more, as it takes a lot more than a golf club with a high moment of inertia to make a world-class golfer. 

All too often in business we blame the equipment when the reality is that the 17.4 yards is not significant, especially if you consistently miss the two-foot putts. All too often we wrongly reconcile failure with our opponent’s superior equipment whereas it’s more likely about the team strategy and performance and not the props.

And our prediction for the Ryder Cup? We believe the team with the greatest chance is the one that does not change their objective to suit their performance, but the one that changes their performance to suit the objective.

Author - Karen Wilson

Thanks to Mike West (Be Strategic), Mike Fitzpatrick and Fergus King

Online Portal Makes Life Easier for Duncan & Toplis Clients

 

Exchanging confidential information and files and storing sensitive financial information is now easier and even more secure for clients of East Midlands chartered accountants Duncan & Toplis.

 

The top 40 UK accountancy practice has introduced a new online client portal to enable more efficient communication with clients. Virtual Cabinet Document Portal is a secure, password-protected platform for exchanging and storing confidential documents and backing up files.

 

Duncan & Toplis commissioned Hulton Associates partner for Document and Content management, Cambridgeshire software specialists Lindenhouse to install the Virtual Cabinet document management system to its 350 staff.

 

Ian Phillips, Deputy Managing Partner at Duncan & Toplis, heads up the IT for the practice, which has ten offices across Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. “Developments in electronic communication continue at a fast pace and we are pleased to be able to introduce the portal to enhance the services we offer our clients,” he said. “Clients regularly ask us for electronic copies of their accounts and tax returns and we can now deliver these documents in a secure environment. “One of the added benefits of using the portal is that we can reduce our paper usage and postage costs for those clients who choose to receive their documents electronically rather than in paper form.”

 

Duncan & Toplis’ clients can access their confidential documents from anywhere in the world provided an internet connection is available, Ian added.

 

The portal also features a facility for electronically signing documents which fits with recent moves by Companies House and HMRC to use only online filing facilities. “We shortlisted three systems and chose the Virtual Cabinet system following detailed discussions with each provider,” said Ian. “We have worked with Lindenhouse before and we found the product simple to use and intuitive. It has a modern Windows feel, we like the functionality it provides and we can see the benefits it will bring to both our staff and our clients.”

 

Notes to editors

• Duncan & Toplis was established in 1925 and has since grown into one of the largest independent firms of chartered accountants in the Midlands.
 

• The firm was named ICAEW East Midlands Medium Accountancy Firm of the Year in March 2014.
 

• Duncan & Toplis appears in the top 40 UK accountancy practices list published by Accountancy magazine.
 

• The company has 10 offices throughout the East Midlands: in Grantham, Boston, Lincoln, Louth, Melton Mowbray, Newark, Skegness, Sleaford, Spalding and Stamford.
 

• Duncan & Toplis offers a wide range of services to small to large-sized family businesses, from accountancy, audit and tax to payroll, human resources and computer services.
 

• The business employs around 350 staff, of whom 85 are currently engaged in professional training.
 

• Combining in-depth expertise with innovative document management technology, Lindenhouse Software Ltd is one of the UK’s leading developers of electronic document management software for industry and commerce. The company has a particular speciality for providing seamless integrated solutions that save time and money for professional firms, including accountants, insurance brokers and financial advisers.
 

• Its Virtual Cabinet solution combines industry-strength document management with secure client communication and the electronic sign-off of documents through an integrated portal. This innovation represents a major step forward in the professional markets served by Lindenhouse.

Author - Jez Ashberry

What every accountant needs to know about secure information management

 

Document management specialists, Lindenhouse Software, announces the first definitive best practice guide to Electronic Document Management (EDM).

 

The Lindenhouse Best Practice Handbook has been produced in association with Accounting Web, the leading online community for accounting and finance professionals in the UK. It provides an invaluable update on the how firms can meet their responsibilities for quality assurance and abide by the key principles of data protection through the use of a new generation EDM system. 

 

A wealth of information in an easy to read format will save accountants hours of research time and bring them bang up-to-date on current legal requirements. The setting out of "appropriate technical and organisational measures" as required by the Information Commissioner's Office has posed a challenge since the Act was introduced. 

 

This Best Practice Handbook sets out the principles and techniques to provide an effective information backbone that meets ICO guidelines and deliver a better, more efficient service to clients.

 

The handbook includes:

• Information management basics

• European data protection proposals for 2014

• What to look for in an EDM system

• A glimpse of the future.

 

"New and emerging technology is changing the way accountants work and new capabilities are expanding the scope of what information management means," says Alison Jackson, Director, Lindenhouse Software. "The Lindenhouse Best Practice Handbook brings together for the first time how the key elements of EDM can help meet legal requirements and ensure the levels of accountability and traceability expected by practice assurance inspectors." With its Virtual Cabinet technology, Lindenhouse has supported hundreds of accountancy firms in their transition to EDM during the past five years. This guide draws directly from their experiences to support other practitioners who want to achieve similar efficiencies within their firms.

 

To obtain your copy of The Best Practice Handbook, contact Mark Lear on 07967 462704

Author - Lindenhouse

Onwards and Upwards for Innovation and Growth

HMRC has just released its latest annual Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics and they make encouraging reading, not just for the companies that have benefited directly, but for UK PLC as a whole.

 

By the end of 2012‐13, more than 28,500 companies had made claims under the SME scheme since its introduction in 2000, and over 7,000 under the Large Company scheme, which launched in 2002, making a grand total of more than £9.5bn in tax relief claimed to date.

What’s even better news is that uptake is on the increase, with 26% more R&D tax relief claims in 2012-13 compared to 2011-12 and a 30% hike in SME claims on the previous year.

R&D and innovation are both key enablers of economic growth, so it’s great to see businesses making the most of the programmes available to support their research and development, as Felicity Burch, Senior Economist at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, explains: "The continued strong uptake of the R&D tax credit is good news, as it supports companies seeking to bring new products and services to market. The credit is a strong feature of the UK innovation system and its position within the innovation landscape must be maintained."

At Jumpstart, we work tirelessly to promote awareness of the benefits of the UK R&D tax relief scheme. Why? Because they can make a real difference to the finances of dynamic and expanding companies. "Those companies who reap the benefits of successful R&D claims tend to go on to spend more on R&D, thus creating a virtuous circle and bringing substantial benefits to the wider UK economy," says Brian Williamson, MD at Jumpstart.

Of those companies capitalising on the scheme, those in the ‘Manufacturing’, ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical’, and ‘Information and Communication’ sectors accounted for the greatest volume of claims for 2012‐13, according to HMRC’s latest stats. We have to remember though, that R&D tax relief isn’t just confined to technology and manufacturing companies. Far from it! Lots of companies – in a variety of different sectors – are constantly striving to take their products and production methods above and beyond existing technology. This means that they’re doing R&D – sometimes without even realising it – and could be eligible for R&D tax relief, providing the funding for continuing advances.

Take a business like ACS Clothing for instance: “When Jumpstart advised us that even the processes used by bakeries had been eligible for R&D, then we thought about all the process projects we have in ACS. We realised then that R&D is not the preserve of high-end, high-tech, pharmaceutical businesses!” says Andrew Rough, Finance Director, ACS Clothing Ltd.

So why are so many more businesses now claiming R&D tax relief? The Government’s additional incentives to make the scheme even more attractive, especially for SMEs, are clearly paying off, according to Jumpstart’s Brian Williamson: "The number of new clients we are attracting every day would suggest that UK SMEs are becoming much more aware of the game-changing advantages which can be reaped from government schemes.”

But there’s still a long way to go... Of the 4.9 million SMEs in the UK, still only 0.3% have made a claim. The rewards for innovation and efficiency are there for all to see.

“My company has benefited enormously. Whether you’re £1.4m or £1.4bn, the principle is the same. If everyone made use of the services of Jumpstart, then the UK economy... would be so much healthier. I urge all to follow us, and get what is, after all, rightfully theirs.”

Jim McColl OBE, Chief Executive and Chairman, Clyde Blowers Capital

 

Author - Laeticia Guichard

Bacon and Egg Flavoured Ice-Cream. Sound Cool?

 

Well this is just one of the dishes created through the combination of science and cooking, or molecular gastronomy, which seeks to explore culinary possibilities and challenge the sensory properties of food, such as flavour, aroma and texture, through the investigation of physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking. This style of cuisine frequently involves liquid nitrogen, water baths and rotary evaporators, more commonly found in a science laboratory rather than a kitchen, to create unusual recipes like the aforementioned breakfast flavoured dessert or snail porridge.

Note-by-note cooking takes this approach to the next level.

Whereas molecular gastronomy uses scientific techniques to induce weird and wonderful chemical and physical transformations in traditional ingredients, note by note cuisine involves preparing food directly from the basic constituent chemicals themselves i.e. the individual flavour notes that comprise the dishes. The first ever note-by-note dish featured jelly pearls that tasted like apple, lemon sorbet and a wafer-thin caramel strip. However, no apple, lemon or caramel was used to flavour the dish.

To create such a dish, you first have to understand the chemicals that give foods their taste, structure and aroma, using laboratory techniques such as mass spectrometry to identify the constituent parts. For example, methional, a flavour compound that tastes like potato, and 2-methyl-3-furanthiol, which gives the taste of chicken, can be synthesised in the laboratory and then combined, along with any desired nutrients, and cooked to make an edible Sunday roast.

The concept goes beyond simply trying to create interesting flavoured and textured foods. With a rising global population and a food chain burdened by ethical, environmental and economic concerns, attempts to engineer alternative, sustainable foods that overcome the issue are currently being investigated, such as artificial eggs made from plant proteins to replicate the taste of real eggs, without a chicken ever coming close to the production process. Of course, this brings a new angle to the age-old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Author - Paul Clingan

Photo credits: Dom Davies

Hulton Associates partners with Lindenhouse Software for Virtual Cabinet

Hulton Associates is proud to announce a brand new partnership with Lindenhouse Software for the provision of its flagship document, image and content management solution Virtual Cabinet.

 

Virtual Cabinet is a fully integrated document management system with full version control and audit trail to provide peace of mind for those wishing to destroy their paperwork and create a paperless office while adhering to standards for legal admissibility.

Virtual Cabinet provides a secure document store with many additional search facilities enabling your document to be found more easily. It integrates fully with back office systems and has the ability to simply link all forms of electronic files back to the client record.

It provides routing facilities for scanned documents through user in trays, enabling distribution of scanned data around your organisation and has exclusive remote scanning facilities for those wishing to scan whilst using hosted or thin client solutions.

Virtual Cabinet enables your company to control all documents, share information, increase productivity and archive securely with an instant return on investment.

Author - Mark Lear

2020 16th Annual Conference - Turning Dreams into Reality

Hulton Associates will be assisting our R&D Tax Credit partners, Jumpstart at the 16th Annual 2020 Conference in October.

As a partner and sponsor of the 2020 Group, Jumpstart has been invited to take part to demonstrate how companies not usually associated with research and development, can benefit from the Government's R&D tax relief scheme. 

It is hoped that this expert knowledge share will encourage accountancy firms to look closely at their own client base and investigate further where opportunities may lie within the scheme as a secure way of funding for companies in their portfolio.

The Conference takes place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th October 2014 and has guest speakers on each of the days.

Keynote Speaker - Paul Dunn (Wednesday)

Paul Dunn is a Senior Fellow in one of the world’s leading think tanks and holds a lifetime service award to the accounting profession in the UK. Paul continues to push the boundaries and will show you the real key in Turning Dreams into Reality!

Guest Speaker - Martin Bissett (Thursday)

Martin has worked with several hundred accounting firms internationally to grow their gross recurring fee bases. He will outline how practices can develop a pipeline of qualified prospects and turn them into clients. Martin will also show you how to instigate strong cross-selling and referral systems in your firm.

After Dinner Speaker - Jimmy Greaves

Jimmy Greaves will be entertaining us with stories of an iconic career that spanned three glorious decades in which he scored goals with an unerring regularity for club and country. One of the most naturally gifted and prolific footballers of any era, Jimmy will forever be remembered as one of England’s greatest ever strikers.

Author - Mark Lear

Security Flaws in USB Devices

 

Security researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell called into question the safety and security of using USB to connect devices to computers during a session at Blackhat. They demonstrated how any USB device could be used to infect a computer without the user’s knowledge, something they there is no practical way to defend against.

Indeed, USB devices have been used for this purpose for many years now.  Some of the earliest examples included the infamous iPod Slurpie, which when plugged in to charge would index the host machine and any network shares it was connected to and copy all .doc and .xls files. Then there was the solid state drive in a USB mouse. Connecting the mouse performed the same as the Slurpie.

 

These devices were and still are used to evade good endpoint control technologies which only allowed white-listed devices to connect through the USB port. With a small development board, 20 minutes of reading docs and some simple code you can make your USB device look like anything and have it perform any task once connected.

 

So, are USB devices “critically flawed” ?

 

Well, not really. The issue lays within the way they are consumerised. Presently not many people actually want secure USB devices and as such the manufacturers of devices are not bothering with security. To highlight the point, a 16gb USB key from a supermarket is less than £10. A secure 16gb USB key from a firm like IronKey starts at £80. That is a massive difference in cost.

Author - Peter Bassill

Information Commissioner ‘sounds the alarm’ on data breaches within the legal profession

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published a warning today to barristers and solicitors to keep personal information secure, especially their paper files. This follows on from a number of data breaches reported to the ICO involving the legal profession.

 

During the previous three months there have been 15 incidents reported to the ICO involving law firms. This is rather disturbing as information handled by barristers and solicitors is often very sensitive and can contain significant quantities of personal or trade secret information. This means that the damage caused by the loss/breach could meet the statutory threshold for issuing a financial penalty.

 

Legal professionals will also often carry around folders/files when taking them to or from court, occasionally keeping them at home. This can increase the risk of a data breach, as has been seen in the US. A number of “hacking” collectives have been known to target legal professionals when they act on behalf of their adversary, seeing them as a soft target in order gain access to information.

 

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said:

“The number of breaches reported by barristers and solicitors may not seem that high, but given the sensitive information they handle, and the fact that it is often held in paper files rather than secured by any sort of encryption, that number is troubling. It is important that we sound the alarm at an early stage to make sure this problem is addressed before a barrister or solicitor is left counting the financial and reputational damage of a serious data breach.

 

“We have published some top tips to help barristers and solicitors look after the personal information they handle. These measures will set them on the road to compliance and help them get the basics right.”

 

The ICO has published the following top tips to help barristers and solicitors keep the personal information they handle secure: -

• Keep paper records secure. Do not leave files in your car overnight and do lock information away when it is not in use.        
• Consider data minimisation techniques in order to ensure that you are only carrying information that is essential to the task in hand.      
• Where possible, store personal information on an encrypted memory stick or portable device. If the information is properly encrypted it will be virtually impossible to access it, even if the device is lost or stolen.
• When sending personal information by email consider whether the information needs to be encrypted or password protected. Avoid the pitfalls of auto-complete by double checking to make sure the email address you are sending the information to is correct.
• Only keep information for as long as is necessary. You must delete or dispose of information securely if you no longer need it.
• If you are disposing of an old computer, or other device, make sure all of the information held on the device is permanently deleted before disposal.

The ICO is currently working with The Bar Council to update the Information Security Guidance provided to Barristers in England and Wales.

 

The ICO website includes further guidance on the security measures that should be in place when handling personal information. The ICO has also published a blog explaining the importance of encryption and the options available to barristers and solicitors who need to encrypt their data.

 

The ICO can serve a monetary penalty of up to £500,000 for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act provided the incident had the potential to cause substantial damage or substantial distress to affected individuals. In most cases these penalties are issued to companies or public authorities, but barristers and solicitors are generally classed as data controllers in their own right and are therefore legally responsible for the personal information they process.

Author - Peter Bassill