htxt.africa's Business Made Easy - November 2015

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MADE EASY

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A Y U B O T W O H P O T P A L K R O W e office work? Don’t leave th r fo op pt la w ne a r Looking fo ide! without this handy gu

OFFICE SUITES Which is best?

Office, Google Apps for Work and LibreOffice fight for your budget

WHAT IS Windows Hello

Microsoft’s best effort yet to let you unlock your laptop with your face

Contents

www.htxt.co.za

ISSUE #1

November 2015

Need To kNow: News

NEW BEGINNINGS

W

elcome to the first edition of Business Made Easy, a magazine just for businesses stuffed with feature articles, news and How Tos that South African business people should find very interesting indeed!

For our inaugural issue, we’ve got a very handy guide on the differences between three popular office software packages, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office and Google Apps for Work. A continuallychanging Microsoft has some rather tempting offers in its Office 365 subscription-based line-up, but Google is hot on Redmond’s heels with its entirely Cloud-based (and slightly cheaper) Apps for Work.

It’s a compelling read, which you’ll find on pages 10 through 13.

We also delve into one of Windows 10’s least talked-about authentication features called Windows Hello. It’s a super-secure way to authenticate yourself to your Windows 10 business laptop, but there are a few things to know about it first before getting your IT people all over it. You’ll find out more about it on page 15.

And should you be mulling over new laptop purchases scheduled for early 2016, we have a handy special feature that’s all about what you Operator’s sub-r500 Steppa is firs should be looking for. t of its kind.

I trust you find a lot to like in this, ourobile first-ever operator MTN has important for South Africa. hed htxt.

Business Made Easy, and I and the rest launc of the South Africa’s first Android-powered smartphone Sadly, MTN has confir med that there africa team look forward to making business a bit ’s that’s available on pre-pay for less than no plans to upgrade the Steppa to a more It’s a milestone easier for you in the coming months!

R500. It certainly an African first, and recent version of Android, although local may even a world one: as far as we hackers are investigating the possib Enjoy the issue! know, ility wh ich put there’s no other smartphone in this s highof unlocking the phone and flashing class a Deon available for less custom firmw

MTN launches supercheap smartphone

M

15 19

than $50 anywhere.

That makes it quite a milestone in putting high-tech handsets within the PUBLISHER: Brett Haggard – brett@htxt.co.za reach of everyone. Which is awesome.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Adam Oxford – adam@htxt.co.za The phone itself isn’t, of course, hugel y MANAGING EDITOR: Nick Cowen - nick@htxt.co.za powerful. It’s based on a Qualcomm reference design, so it has a 1GHz single DEPUTY EDITOR: Deon du Plessis – deon@htxt.co.za core Snapdragon processor, a 3.5in TECH & NEWS: Charlie Fripp – charlie@htxt.co.za ch screen and a mere 2MP camera on STARTUPS & STUFF: Lungelo Shezi – lungelo@htxt.co.za board.

More limiting is the fact that there’s only SENIOR DESIGNER: Estelle Masana – estelle@htxt.co.za 512M B of memory and 1GB of storage ADVERTISING: Dorothy Haggard – dorothy@hypertext.co.za on-board.

Sengezo Jubane – sengezo@hypertext.co.za The screen is a decent enough multitouch affair, which takes up most

tech handsets within the reach of everyone…

of the front of the device. There’s no physical keyboard.

It also runs a positively ancient versio n of Google’s Android OS, Gingerbre ad.

Still, that does still mean it’s able to access BlackBerry Messenger, which is hugel y

are.

There’s an FM radio though, along with a microSD port for upgrading the storag e.

What you don’t get, however, is a fast HSPA radio for high speed internet access – you’ll have to settle for plain old 3G. All in all, though, it’s a heck of a phone for the price. Not even Nokia can come close with its Asha range of semismartphones, which start at about R799 and don’t have access to half the numb er of apps and services the Steppa has.

Like the sound of this super budget smartphone? See our full review at

4

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htxt.africa’s Business Made Easy is At the bottom of almost every produced by: Hypertext Media, 102 on 11th, article in will Business Made Easy Climate Cha nge Cause more Highlands North, 2192, Johannesburg storm dam agesee you’ll one of these strange in sa More news at Contact Us: sts from short codes.Two It’sscienti a Bit.ly adress Wits have published a paper which says Email: info@hypertext.co.za shortening link, which means that that South Africa may be at when you type it into web go to htxt.co.za Tel: (011) 023-8001/4 increas ed riskyour of tropical storm damag browser it will take e. you to a longer Fax: 08654 83304 Our content is licensed under a Creative 6 | tech made easy | March 2014 Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 International Licence. Other rights may apply for non-original materials.

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FaCebook buys whatsapp For r200bn Facebook has just dived into its war chest again to make another big purchase, this time it’s buying the popular messaging service WhatsApp. bit.ly/1npd8wj

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Contents ISSUE #1

4

4

NEWS

www.htxt.co.za

November 2015

Need to Know

10

Business News Solar rental, smart kiosks and more pitched at GSMA Mobile 360 Africa ICASA wants your opinions on TVWS and dynamic spectrumallocation in SA Bing is actually making money now Pretoria suburbs getting FTTH for Christmas

15

The important stuff in SA business

LibreOffice vs. Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs

The best indepth features for business

16

What is Windows Hello?

Want to authenticate with your face? Now you can

16

Business Laptop Buying Advice These are the features to look for when considering new work laptops

Car sharing network Locomute plans Durban expansion

Business Features

Office Software Showdown

How To

Business Know How

19

How to enable Windows 10 encryption Looking to keep your work files safe? Do it with Windows 10’s help

6

4 WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 3

NEWS

Solar rental, smart kiosks and more pitched at GSMA Mobile 360 Africa

S

olar rental, smart kiosks and more pitched at GSMA Mobile 360 Africa A solar rental system for African villages, an agricultural information app and a mobile service and solar electricity kiosk today got the chance to pitch to big players in the African mobile and telecoms industry for the chance to possibly secure investment, during the first GSMA JumpStart@Mobile 360 showcase.

The informal showcase was hosted on the closing day of the GSMA Mobile 360 Africa Conference in Cape Town.

Oolu Solar, Haller Farmers App and ARED were chosen from hundreds of applications from hundreds of African entrepreneurs to be part of the event.

Each startup had five minutes to make their pitch, a panel of experts were on hand to review the three startups’ pitches, ask them a number of questions from an investor’s perspective and give them advice on how to take their businesses further.

First up to pitch was Henry Nyakarundi, CEO of ARED. ARED manufactures 1.8 metre mobile kiosks with fitted solar panels. Each bicycleoperated kiosks allows customers in Rwanda and Burundi, particularly in rural areas where there’s little to no access to electricity to charge their phones, buy airtime, mobile money, data and prepaid electricity.

More stories at

ARED kiosks also provide advertising space on which companies can advertise.

The company franchises its smart kiosks to entrepreneur vendors for around R1 200 and offers free maintenance of each one.

Nyakarundi said his main hope for ARED is to build relationships with telecoms companies on the continent to help scale his business.

Next was Nomusa Taylor-Dube of the Haller Farmers App. Haller Farmers is an agri-info app that features 50 years worth of curated vital information from the Haller Foundation and is available as a once-off 1MB download for farmers in parts of East Africa.

Taylor-Dube said the app’s main purpose is to equip farmers with knowledge that will help boost productivity. Haller Farmer is currently also available as a portal on Internet.org.

Launched in 2014, info on Haller Farmers is available in the form of text, audio and images in English and Swahili. Farmers need only to download content onto their phones once, instead of having to go back to the app every time.

“Our future goal is to reach the rest of East Africa by 2017 and pan Africa by 2018,” Taylor-Dube said.

Last to pitch their business was Vincenzo Capogna, CTO of a company called Oolu Solar, launched in May this year.

Oolu Solar buys solar panel systems and rents them out in rural Senegal, providing

SA HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESSES WIN BIG

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4 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

Businesses that focus on environmental issues have done well at the latest My World of Tomorrow Innovations Awards, walking away with the majority of the awards.

Bit.ly/1W6rbmS

residents who have no access to electricity with a way to power up appliances and lighting.

Oolu Systems are rented out for a minimum monthly fee of $5, which can power residents’ lights and allow them to charge battery operated appliances and cell phones. If residents want a system that can be used for more appliances, they can request a bigger system for a slightly higher price.

According to Capogna, 1 5000 Oolu Systems have been installed so far.

Though the pitch wasn’t a competition and no winner was chosen to receive a prize, Jumpstart organisers said the aim was open up the platform for the startups to strike up conversations with key players in the mobile industry and possibly spark interest in an investment into their startups.

Bit.ly/1Ozdn3R

TELKOM SPLITS WHOLESALE BUSINESS OFF AS OPENSERVE Telkom has formally split its wholesale arm off as a separate business with a new name, Openserve, to be headed up by former CTO Alphonso Samuels.

Bit.ly/1LOM0ly

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NEWS

ICASA wants your opinions on TVWS and dynamic spectrum allocation in SA

T

he South African telecommunications regulator, ICASA, has put out a discussion document to the IT industry asking for feedback about dynamic spectrum allocation, better known as TV White Spaces (TVWS).

Dynamic spectrum allocation is the process whereby gaps in the regulated radio spectrum which aren’t being used are identified and opened up to wireless network operators to use for providing internet services. It’s most frequently cited as a mechanism for using bandwidth currently allocated to analogue TV broadcasts which aren’t carrying television signals – hence TV White Spaces.

This discussion paper is limited exclusively to TVWS. Industry is at loggerheads on this one. The GSMA and mobile operators aren’t keen because it gives new competitors a low cost way into the market (Microsoft

is looking at commercialising its trial in Limpopo, for example) while proponents argue that it’s a fast and effective way of getting broadband services out to the masses who don’t live in big cities.

The discussion document points out that dynamic spectrum allocation is mandated as part of SA Connect, the national broadband policy, and that a regulatory framework needs to be established. It’s a weighty read at 52 pages, but worth it. It includes research gathered by the people at CSIR and Google.

The full document can be read online here: Bit.ly/1LC220G. All responses must be submitted to ICASA by the eighteenth of December.

Bit.ly/1PQJJZM

Bing is actually making money now

B

ing is actually making money now We’ve long derided Bing as being the search engine nobody uses apart from Microsoft employees, but Microsoft has just announced that as of the first quarter of fiscal 2016, the search engine is actually profitable.

This has been helped along by Windows 10 to a large degree, which uses Cortana – Microsoft’s voice-activated AI – to perform searches using Bing. During its Q1 FY2016 earnings call yesterday, Microsoft said that 20% of its search revenue in September was “driven by Windows 10 devices” and that overall search revenue contributed $1 billion to the company’s bottom line, thanks to increased revenues per search and higher search volumes.

Execs over at the software giant have long been telling the press to expect Bing to be profitable sometime in 2016, so this development wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Clearly, the arrival of Windows 10 has had a significant impact on Bing’s fortunes, but by the sound of things it won’t stop there.

Microsoft has quietly been building Bing directly into more of its products – Office,

More stories at

for instance, makes extensive use of Bing’s analytics and data-mining capabilities behind the scenes, and Microsoft has even entered into partnerships with Yahoo and even Google to help grow its search revenues.

So while we’ve given Bing a hard time, and in the short term it has not exactly caught up with Google (or even begun to threaten it, really), it’s

PC SHIPMENTS TO EAST AFRICA PLUMMET BY ALMOST 25%

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6 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

turning out to be part of a longer-term search strategy by Microsoft. And as of right now, it’s begun to pay off.

The lesson here? Don’t count Microsoft out even when on the surface things appear quite dire – there’s always more going on than meets the eye.

Bit.ly/1kRMJbB

THIS BANKER WANTS TO MAKE LESS MONEY

The number of PCs shipped to East Africa in Q3 2015 dropped by almost 25% thanks to currency weakness, poor purchasing power and depressed consumer sentiment.

Barclays Africa’s CEO for investment banking has a surprising view of the future, and it’s not quite what you might think.

Bit.ly/20OiO4x

Bit.ly/1ihSrBK

NEWS

Pretoria suburbs getting FTTH for Christmas

T

he newly-separated Telkom wholesale division, OpenServe, has announced that 10 000 homes in Pretoria East will be eligible for fibre to the home installations before the end of December.

Suburbs in the east of Pretoria such as Faerie Glen and Garsfontein will soon add additional distance to the 147 000 kilometres of fibre that have already been installed by Telkom.

OpenServe managing director, Alphonzo Samuels said in a statement that “Openserve is committed to Telkom’s goal of reaching one million homes with fibre access by 2018, and already has the largest fibre network in the country”.

Since the end of last month, Telkom has been rolling out fibre connectivity to suburbs in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Durban, offering customers internet speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Samuels concluded by saying, “We want to significantly impact broadband in South Africa and fibre offers the best internet experience.”

To find out if your suburb will benefit from fibre to the home, you can visit Openserve’s coverage map and find your area using your Telkom landline number. Bit.ly/1jRiYHy

Car sharing network Locomute plans Durban expansion

L

ocomute is a car-sharing network which launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town five months ago, and has been so successful that its founder and CEO Tumi Marope says that he’s planning to begin operations in Durban by the end of the year too.

Just like international car-sharing networks like Zipcar and Autolib’, the

principle behind Locomute is simple. Register with the service via an app on your phone, and when you need a car it’ll tell you where there’s one you can drive parked nearby via an interactive map.

All you have to do is walk to the car, unlock it using the app and then punch in a one-time PIN to release the keys, which are handily hidden in the glove box. Drive the car to your destination, lock the keys away and walk off,

you’re done.

Unlike international apps that offer similar services, there’s no monthly subscription fee and you can leave the car anywhere you like when you log out.

Marope says that if the car is parked somewhere it’s unlikely to get used again, a driver will come and move it back to one of the base stations dotted around the city. In a uniquely South African spin which takes into account the lack of public parking in residential areas, you can also summon a spare Locomute car to be delivered to your home.

Charging is by the minute at R1.30 every 60 seconds up to 20kms distance, then priced by a mixture of time used and distance travelled. It’s a complex equation, but basically means you could drive from Fourways – say – to ORT airport for less than R40, depending on traffic. That beats parking at the airport or any form of public transport – including, we reckon, Uber.

Pricing is designed to make Locomute attractive for short trips and offer an alternative to car ownership if you live in a city And unlike traditional car hire firms, there’s no need to fill the car up with gas before you leave it – that’s included in the price.

According to Marope, the main concern at launch would be whether or not the cars would be stolen or vandalised when left waiting for customers, but he says that hasn’t happened to any of its fleet so far.

“Even if one did get broken into,” Marope says, “It can’t be driven away. We can disable the car remotely and you can’t start it without the online authentication from the app.”Bit.ly/1PUqWvM WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 9

FEATURE

LibreOffice vs. Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs Which of the big-name office suites is best? We investigate.

O

ffice suites have become an integral part of the business landscape. By Microsoft’s estimates 1.2 billion people make use of the Microsoft Office Suite every day.

While that is a number worth boasting about Microsoft’s Office suite doesn’t come cheap with a license for the whole set costing R171.90 per user per month, and even that limits you to 300 users.

That said you do need to consider what your requirements are as a business before opting for another option, and that’s where we come in.

We’ve taken a look at three different office suites and drawn the comparisons

10 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

for you so you can decide what is best for your business. We will be looking at Microsoft 365, the open source LibreOffice and a cloud solution in the form of Google Apps for Business.

MICROSOFT OFFICE

There is no doubt that Microsoft Office is the dominating force in the office software space. The software has been around since November 1990 and has been upgraded and updated as it’s been needed. The latest full desktop version is Office 2016, while the more popular option, a subscription-based offer, is called Office 365. The software works on Windows and Mac OSX and apps

for Android, Windows Mobile and iOS are available to keep you productive on the go.

Microsoft offers you three different types of Office 365 licenses that you can buy depending on your needs. Business Essentials offers online-only versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The Business and Business Premium options offer fully-installed versions of Outlook, Publisher and OneNote in addition to the products in the Essential version. You also get 1TB of cloud storage space, a mailbox with 50GB of storage capacity (not available as part of the Business license) and HD video conferencing.

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FEATURE

Pricing is based on a per-user, permonth basis with a promise to subscribe for a year. The Essential license comes in at R68.80pm, the Business license retails at R113.40pm and the Premium License comes in at R142.50pm. Depending on the size of your business, this number adds up and even though the Essential license appears to be good value for money, the absence of Microsoft’s mail client is a sore point.

Get it here: Bit.ly/1Sh54Z4

LIBREOFFICE

Open source solutions have gained traction in recent years as the amount of developers working on them has grown. LibreOffice is one such solution that gives users a free alternative to the otherwise expensive solutions offered by Microsoft. The platform is free for life but if you want to send a donation to the developers they are more than happy to accept it.

At only 200MB, the file is tiny and

12 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

contains applications for word processing, creating spreadsheets, creating presentations, database management and drawing images or flowcharts.

A very nice feature in LibreOffice is the ability to open most, if not all, file extensions including those created in Microsoft applications and Hybrid PDF (a PDF document with an editable file embedded into it for users to edit as they go) documents. The biggest missing component in LibreOffice is a mail client. While you could get by with an application like Mozilla’s Thunderbird it would have been nice to stay within the LibreOffice family.

Another point we must mention is that LibreOffice is a little buggy; this is thanks in part to the open source nature of the software. The source code is available to view online should you want to tinker with it yourself, but you should be fine for basic day-to-day operations. Should you require something designed for more intensive work

we would suggest using an older stable release rather than the fresh release.

LibreOffice works on Linux, Windows and Mac OSX and has support for 111 languages. If you need office software and you’re operating on a shoestring budget we do recommend giving LibreOffice a test, it is free and it is good.

Get it here: Bit.ly/QKgefO

APPS FOR WORK Previously known as Google Apps for Business, this is Google’s answer to business software. The biggest sticking point with this software is that it is all online, meaning that if you want to work you need a stable, preferably uncapped internet connection. The bonuses that come with this include never losing your documents, and if you purchase a premium license for $10 (R138.20) per user per month you get unlimited cloud storage.

There is also a base license that only costs

FEATURE

$5 (R69.11) but that limits you to 30GB of cloud storage.

With the license you get access to Google’s array of products including Calendar, Docs (word processing), Sheets (spreadsheet tool) , Slides (presentation creator) and Google’s Gmail email server which is customised to suit your business. So you get Google’s security, reliability and global access while still retaining your allimportant brand identity.

The best part about Google Apps for Work is the collaborative aspect built into the functionality: the same document can be accessed by multiple users at the same time. While this sounds like it could get confusing, you can track the changes that are made by users and revert any changes you don’t want.

Google Apps for Work integrates with documents created in both LibreOffice and Microsoft Office 365. Google also lets you export documents in a format

that is compatible with both suites.

This solution is very pricy as it contains the additional cost of being constantly connected to the internet to work. This also poses a problem when you consider that we have less than stable internet connectivity in South Africa and data costs can be quite exorbitant.

Get it here: Bit.ly/1P0T3sw

OUR SUGGESTIONS

While we do love the open source nature of LibreOffice, the fact that it is prone to bugs and only updated very rarely makes us apprehensive to recommend it to our readers. The lack of a native application for working on the go is also a bit of a letdown. However, if you’re looking at doing very basic functions such as typing up letters, organising your budget and doing the odd presentation, LibreOffice will suit your needs; just save often.

That Google Apps for Work constantly needs to be online puts us here at the Southern tip of Africa on the back foot a

Microsoft Office 365

LibreOffice

bit. The collaborative tools that Google has built into the system are really special and work very well, though.

We also need to mention that you will enjoy the interconnectivity of the apps and being able to work anywhere and everywhere. If you’re on the go and need to have all your documents reachable with the click of a button, Google Apps for Work is for you.

Microsoft Office 365 proves why it is the forerunner in the space. Its stability and evolution through the years means that it is designed to help you work.

Of course this comes at a price, but it’s very much worthwhile and we would suggest getting the Premium license that gives you access to all applications.

You will find that there is very little Office 365 cannot do in today’s business environment.

The price does mean that you need to work the software into your budget, but thankfully for those that can’t afford it, there are other options.

Google Apps for Business

Price

Essential: R68.80 user/ month Business: R113.40 user/ month Premium: R171.90

Open source. Donations are accepted by the developers

First 30 Days Free Basic: R65.59 user/month Premium: R131.18 user/month

Platforms

Windows, Mac OSX

Windows, Mac OSX, Linux

Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, iOS

Can I use it on the go?

Yes, Android, Windows and iOS apps available

Not yet. Libreviewer, a Standalone mobile app is in development

Yes, Android, Windows and iOS apps available.

Language

52 main languages, 60 available by downloading free Language Interface Packs

111 languages supported

28 although you should check that the apps you plan to use have language support for your language of choice

Can I import a .pdf

Yes

Yes

Viewable only

Can I edit a PDF

Yes, but limited to importing and editing as plain text.

Support for Hybrid PDFs, these are pdf documents with an embedded document that users are able to edit on the fly.

No. There are various workaround tactics you can employ but nothing simple and easy to use.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 13

WHAT IS...

What is… Windows Hello?

M

odern tech fans will surely agree that passwords are terrible security mechanisms for our digital lives, given how easy they are to forget and how vulnerable they are to being stolen, hacked or otherwise compromised.

And since compromised passwords can be used from anywhere, on any machine to get at your stuff, replacing passwords with biometric information like faces and fingerprints has long been an alternative method for protecting your important data.

Unfortunately, biometric identifiers have had their share of problems as well, not least of which is the required hardware being a bit on the expensive side, and insufficiently advanced to be fool proof.

But now Microsoft believes it has a solution that addresses all of the security concerns inherent to biometric identification: it’s called Windows Hello, and is one of the core features of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10.

LOG IN WITH YOUR FACE

When set up correctly, Windows Hello lets you log into Windows and various online services using nothing more than your face or finger, and takes less than a second. But more importantly, it’s been designed in such a way that authenticating with your physical self is far more secure than ever before.

That’s because it works in tandem with another feature called Windows Passport, which helps to verify your identity in a

14 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

super secure way that hackers can’t easily reproduce. The combination of Windows Hello and Windows Passport is so secure, Microsoft goes so far as to say it’s impossible to reverse-engineer.

How can that be, you ask? Well, Windows Hello uses advanced facial recognition techniques that can’t be fooled by anything that isn’t you. The only potential snag is that this requires modern camera hardware, as it makes use of the infrared light spectrum which the vast majority of webcams out there right now don’t support.

That may limit Hello’s usefulness and relevance initially, but as new laptops hit the market that have the necessary hardware and Hello-supported webcams hit the shops for people who don’t want or need to upgrade their existing computers, it should take off quite nicely.

Interestingly, not even the Kinect 2.0 sensor is advanced enough for use with Windows Hello, a surprise as that sensor was touted by Microsoft to be pretty advanced back when it debuted alongside the Xbox One in 2013.

HOW IT WORKS

Basically, here’s how it works: authenticating with Windows Hello is a two-part process: the first part “sees” your face, reads your fingerprint or verifies your PIN (or all three, if you like).

Once those biometrics have been recorded, that information is encrypted and stored locally on your PC as a “private key”, and it is never, ever transmitted over

the internet. That means there’s no information being transmitted for dodgy organisations to intercept, and as all local data relating to that key is encrypted, it’s locked up tight.

The second part of the process involves your Microsoft Account (your Passport), which is the credential that identifies you as a Windows user, and determines what online resources you have access to.

This is the “public key” part of the equation, and to successfully verify your identity, both public and private keys need to authenticate against one another, meaning attackers will need both to compromise your data. That means your identity can’t be stolen and used for nefarious purposes without you being physically present at the hacker’s real-world location, and that’s not likely to happen.

When you attempt to access something like a website that requires identification, your PC authenticates you with your face, fingerprint or PIN number, and Passport authenticates you to that site/service so you don’t have to put in a password.

And because the only thing a hacker could ever potentially steal is your public key, and because the private key is both encrypted and saved to your local machine, it’s not going to be very useful to them and you are therefore safer than you would be using just a password.

So when big hacks happen, and hackers get hold of huge databases of usernames and passwords, if you’re a Windows Hello user, you’ll have nothing to worry about.

HOW TO

How to buy a business laptop

Looking for a work laptop? This is what you should keep in mind when you hit the shops.

B

uying a business laptop can be a daunting task as there are a lot of different brands and hardware configurations to choose from. But once you’ve read this guide, you’ll know what questions to ask and what to look for, and more importantly, why you should ask them.

HARDWARE

The foundation of any good laptop is its hardware, and what you want from your chosen system is a balance of reasonable performance and cost. To get that, you’ll need the following:

16 | BUSINESS MADE EASY | NOVEMBER 2015

CPU

HARD DRIVE SPEED & CAPACITY

An Intel Core i5 processor. Core i3 is too slow for anything but the most basic of tasks, Core i7 is fast but very expensive. Don’t even bother with Pentium or Celeron processors – both are terribly slow compared to Intel’s Core i-range.

A solid-state hard drive of 128GB or greater is more important to have than a hard disk with a lot of capacity. Solid-state hard drives, or SSDs for short, are incredibly fast; having one means Windows will boot up in less than 15 seconds, and applications will load quickly. If more storage space is really essential, consider buying an external drive as well.

MEMORY A minimum of 4GB of system RAM, 8GB if you have the budget for it. Windows uses a lot of RAM, and the more you have, the better Windows and its applications will perform. You’ll get by on 4GB, but 8GB will provide a noticeable performance boost, especially when running multiple programs at once.

DISPLAY Here, a 1080p screen is best. 1080p means a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which gives you a lot of screen space and the ability

HOW TO

to comfortably run applications side by side.

If you intend to hook the laptop up to an external screen as its primary display, then resolution doesn’t matter as much, but for laptops that travel a lot, 1080p screens are best.

CONNECTING TO A SCREEN When it comes to getting your work laptop hooked up to external displays like TVs, projectors and monitors, you’ll want a laptop that makes it as easy as possible. In that case, what you should look for is an HDMI connector; HDMI carries both audio and video signals. Its acronym stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface.

WHICH WINDOWS? The answer to this question depends quite a lot on what work-specific applications your company uses, and whether or not they’re compatible with the latest version of Windows, Windows 10. You should find a mix of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 laptops on store shelves (both include downgrade rights to Windows 7); choose the operating system that suits your work environment best.

BUSINESS FEATURES TO LOOK OUT FOR

Not all laptops are alike, and there are some business-specific features that offer rock-solid protection to be aware of that will help keep your sensitive information safe and criminals locked out of your data.

A TRUSTED PLATFORM MODULE ) A TPM is a piece of hardware that enables encryption – the encoding of information in such a way that it must be decoded in order to be read – which in turn will keep your business data safe. Make sure to ask your sales person if the laptop you’re interested in features a TPM chip, as without it handy Windows security features like BitLocker won’t work.

BitLocker is a built-in function of Windows Vista/7/8.1/10 that lets you keep sensitive data safe by encrypting it with military-grade encryption protocols.

FINGERPRINT READERS Making it tough for anyone but the right person to access a business laptop is the first step toward securing its data, which is something a modern fingerprint reader can help with. Fingerprint readers require the correct finger to be swiped across their sensors, and are very hard to fool as they read not only the user’s fingerprint, but the layout of the underlying blood vessels too.

Other Hello-friendly options include the addition of a personal identification number (PIN) to your Windows Account as well as integration with fingerprint readers. Even if your laptop and your Windows logon details are stolen, BitLocker encryption and Windows Hello work together to ensure that criminals won’t be able to access the information stored on your laptop hard drive.

WRAPPING UP

Armed with this knowledge, business owners can confidently bombard sales people with the right questions that will ensure they end up with a business laptop that will do what they require of it. Happy hunting!

WINDOWS HELLO Windows 10 has a brand new feature Microsoft calls Windows Hello, which provides a host of authentication mechanisms that make sure it’s really you sitting down to use the laptop, including reading your face. Doing that is only possible on the most recent laptops, however, as not all webcams can read your facial features to the level of detail required by Windows Hello.

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HOW TO

How to encrypt your data

BitLocker is a feature built into certain versions of Windows Vista/7/8.1/10 that encrypts and protects your sensitive business data. Here’s a quick guide on how to make use of it.

S

ecuring your business’s sensitive data is hugely important in this age where desktop and laptop theft is sadly commonplace, and certain versions of Windows offer a free way to do this.

It’s called BitLocker, and it encrypts entire drives so that if your PC is stolen, the thieves can’t access your files. Encryption is a method of encoding data in such a way that it cannot be read without the proper decode key.

To make use of BitLocker, you will need Windows 7 Ultimate/8.1 Pro/ 8.1 Enterprise/Windows 10 Pro.

STEP 4

Choose how to store your recovery key; the options are to print it out, or save it to a text file. This step is highly recommended, as without a recovery key you will forever be locked out of your encrypted drive should you forget its BitLocker password.

STEP 1

Press the Windows Key on your keyboard and type “bitlocker”. Press Enter. This loads the BitLocker setup procedure.

STEP 2

Choose the drive you would like to encrypt from the list generated

by Windows by clicking “Turn on BitLocker” next to the appropriate drive letter.

STEP 5

Click Start Encryption. The time taken to encrypt depends on the size of the drive being encrypted. Our test drive, a 4GB memory stick, took around 40 minutes to encrypt.

STEP 3

Choose whether to unlock the drive with a password or Smart Card and enter the appropriate password or PIN number.

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STEP 6

Once encryption has completed, you’ll need to enter the password you chose or the PIN number once you’ve swiped your Smart Card every time you want to access your BitLocker-encrypted drive.

And you’re done. This simple technique is enough to provide some much-needed peace of mind and an affordable way to secure your sensitive data using a feature built right into Windows.

SHOOTS DOWN MORE THREATS TO YOUR FINANCES. Kaspersky Internet Security – multi-device 2016.

Taking the danger out of digital.

www.kaspersky.co.za