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Not all businesses have a formal IT policy, and it's something worth doing. The information shared here came from the cyber crime conference I attended last week in Cambridge, held by the county's PCC. A broader overview of cyber crime in Cambridgeshire can be found in the previous blog post.
 
What is an IT policy?


You probably already know – a document or collection of documents that set out best practice for staff regarding cyber security, online access, emails, etc.
 
The aim to to stay safer by educating staff. By having an IT policy, staff should be aware of preventable issues and be able to respond quickly if something is amiss.
 
How important is it?


We need to do more to protect company data, according to the experts: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge-companies-beware-cyber-attacks/story-28609175-detail/story.html


According to Cambridgeshire Police, one local medium-sized business went bust due to the extent of a cyber crime, and many companies are victims on a smaller scale (see more in this post).
 
What should be in an IT policy?


Below are some things to think about:
 
Movable storage


What is the policy on storage such as USBs? Can staff bring in personal USBs and use them on a work computer?
 
Procurement


Who and where are you buying hardware, software and services from?
 
Passwords
Are colleagues allowed to share passwords? Are all desktops and laptops password protected?

Network and remote access


Can you logon to the network externally?
 
Office access


Who can access your office? Employees, cleaners, visitors?
 
User privileges


Who has access to what?
 
Email links and attachments


Think about a policy on clicking links, or file extensions to be aware of. For example receiving a .exe file from an unexpected source should be a red flag.
 
Backups


Do you keep backups and who is responsible for them?
 
Locking devices


Are laptops or towers/monitors left logged in and unattended?
 
Two-step authentication


When I hear two-step authentication I think of banks or Google mail logins, where you have a password and a text, or password and security key.
 
It is also something else just as useful – literally getting a second authorisation before committing to a payment. A common way of scamming money relies on administrative staff not getting a second authorisation after receiving an email from the boss. This is called CEO spoofing (see more on CEO spoofing in previous blog post).
 
Action!

The policy should also include what to do in the event of a security breach (see previous article for advice on this).
 
Author:


Eastpoint Software Mobile, Web Apps, eCommerce and MCommerce Development Company Richmond, UK, London, Chelmsford and Cambridge. Get in touch with us about outsourcing that part of the project. We have experience working with partners and agencies on software products. Call us on 01223 690164 or Mail us: info@eastpoint.co.uk to discuss what you need and how we can help.
 
Visit us: http://www.eastpoint.co.uk/

 
Ecommerce via a mobile phone or tablet has overtaken ecommerce via desktops and laptops for number of visits, with two thirds of all online website visits being mobile.This is a higher overall percentage than the US, Germany and India. The stat of 65% of online ecommerce being via a mobile was taken from January of this year.
 
The report is by Similar Web, a website analytics company. We're looking at a snapshot of findings below, relating to mobile ecommerce.
 
Rise of Mobile ecommerce in London, UK, Cambridge and Richmond


Mobile ecommerce (sometimes referred to as mcommerce) has been growing steadily over the years, with mobile versions of websites being an increasing area of investment for businesses.
 
As an example, for Black Friday, Similar Web said that for 25 large retailers (including Amazon, Ebay and Argos), the daily average amount of visits per site was 761,000 for desktops and just under 1.4 million for mobile devices.
 
Desktops still popular
 
While more traffic was shown to go through mobiles, shoppers spend more time per visit on desktops. In turn, they also view more pages than those looking on their smartphones.
 
Mobile conversion rate lower
 
While mobiles have proven to be massively popular for online shopping, there is one significant aspect in which it is still catching up to desktop, and that's with purchasing.
 
In previous research by IMRG, it showed that conversation rates on mobile, while lower than desktop, had gone up significantly year on year. The IMRG study also showed that more sales themselves (rather than traffic/visits) are through a mobile device.
 
So while visits and sales are higher on mobiles, the conversion rate is still lower.
 
The report by Similar Web shows that smartphones are at a 1.16% conversion rate, while traditional computers are at 3.65%. Interestingly the tablet, in between sizes, fares pretty well, much closer to computers at 3.22%.
 
About Us
 
Eastpoint Software are a Cambridge-based software team who specialise in web and mobile app development, including ecommerce and mcommerce development.

Eastpoint Software Web, Mobile Apps, eCommerce and MCommerce Development Company UK, London, Cambridge and Richmond. Get in touch with us about outsourcing that part of the  project. We have experience working with partners and agencies on software products. Call us on 01223 690164 or Mail us: info@eastpoint.co.uk to discuss what you need and how we can help.

Visit us: http://www.eastpoint.co.uk/

A study has shown that using smartphones to go online and shop is becoming increasingly popular.One of the points made last year for Black Friday, and in general, was that people will often browse on their mobile but are more likely to make purchases on a desktop or laptop computer.

But according to developers Moovweb, this is changing. Not only do more people use their phones to browse, but more people are buying on their smartphones, too.

Ecommerce report source material


Moovweb carried out their research in the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday in the US. Data was taken from 13.5million shopping visits, although the websites themselves used for were not given.

We're not just browsing with any more:


The general consensus is that a lot of shoppers will browse on their mobile and buy on a desktop or laptop. According to Moovweb, the amount of smartphone traffic increased by 45% compared to last year, and one in three of their tracked transactions was taken via a mobile device (either smartphone or tablet).

While that is significant, there is something even more significant for those considering investment in mobile shops and app development – the extra traffic wasn't just browsing.

The study showed that smartphone revenue rose by a staggering 81%. So while traffic nearly doubled, revenue taken outweighed this increased when compared to last year.

That means browsers are converting to buyers, and consumers are much happier to buy on their smartphones.

Average order value increase:


Moovweb's findings were that the AOV (average order value) of smartphone purchases did have a small boost of 2%. If shoppers are going to buy on their desktop, this will often be for the higher priced items. This increase could show that this norm is shifting too.

About Us:


Eastpoint Software Web, Mobile Apps and eCommerce Development Company in Richmond, UK, Cambridge and London. We have experience with both iOS and android apps for a range of sectors, as well as bespoke software development. Give us a call on 01223 690164 to discuss app and software development. We are friendly! Speak to you soon.

Visit us: https://www.eastpoint.co.uk/

Since Black Friday is American, let's have a “pop quiz”. What year did Black Friday begin in the US?
 
It's 2010, only five years ago, but in the last couple of years it has really taken off the UK and already the phrases Black Friday and Cyber Monday are part of our vernacular.
 
According to statisticians at Experian and IMRG, a record £1.1billion was spent online in the UK on Black Friday, with the sale weekend estimated to have drummed up £3.5b in total.
 
On Black Friday, online sales were up an estimated 36% compared to last year, with Cyber Monday up by 31%.
Use of mobile phones to make an ecommerce purchase:
 
Our previous article on Black Friday mobile sales in the US showed this was a major growth area, with just over a third of sales taken via a mobile device (iOS proving more popular than Android, and smartphones winning over tablets).

Figures have not yet been released showing this breakdown, we will look at these once they are available. Knowing the popularity of shopping on smartphone, the blog at internetretailing. net did a snapshot of how mobile versions of website from the top 25 retailers were doing during the early stages of Black Friday. You can see the post here.
 
Shopping tracker company Springboard noted that retailers with reliable online shops would be the ones to benefit most from the sales. While we do not have the figures for mobile device sales, it is fair to say that shoppers will purchase through desktop, tablets and mobiles. Thinking about iOS and Android mobile development could help make sure you do not miss out on sales through these devices..
 
How did the websites and mobile apps cope with the traffic?
 
It seems mostly well, with a few of the large retailers leaving customers staring at a screen while it loaded, slowly and painfully.
 
According to consumers, Tesco's site was slow, although the company denied this was the case. John Lewis has a bit of a catastrophe ecommerce-wise, as their website was actually offline for an hour on Friday afternoon, although they said server capacity had been increased by a third in preparation.
 
Argos was also criticised. Consumers reported a slow website, with several crashes throughout the day. Argos also launched a new Fast Track delivery service prior to Black Friday, leaving them with a huge task, and some undelivered orders.
 
About Eastpoint Software:

We are a web and mobile development company based at the Hauser Forum, Cambridge. We also have an office in London. Our developers have decades of experience. We specialise in web and mobile apps, including iOS and Android mobile app development.
 
Eastpoint Software Web, Mobile App and eCommerce Development London, Cambridge and UK. We have experience working with partners and agencies  on software products. Call us on 01223 690164 to discuss what you need  and how we can help.
 
Visit us:  https://www.eastpoint.co.uk/