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IT, SECURITY & DIGITAL SECTOR NEWS

CityFibre gets to work on Whittlesey’s £3m digital transformation

Work to bring full fibre connectivity within reach of almost every home and business in Whittlesey has started as CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, breaks ground on a new infrastructure rollout that will future-proof the town’s digital needs for generations to come. Construction of the £3m town-wide full fibre network has begun in Whittlesey and is being delivered by Granemore Group on behalf of CityFibre. The team will use a range of construction methods while working in close partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, Fenland District Council and local communities to deliver a fast rollout while managing potential disruption. Each area will usually take a few weeks to complete, however, construction teams will typically only be outside each home for two to three days and CityFibre will be in touch by post ahead of any work starting. CityFibre has already invested £35m in nearby Peterborough, where more than 67,000 homes – about 85 per cent of the city’s residential properties - can access reliable full fibre internet services from a range of providers. The rollout is also underway in Yaxley and March. The overall project in Whittlesey is expected to reach completion next year but the first services will go live for people to take advantage of much sooner. As the network is completed in each neighbourhood, CityFibre will designate the homes ‘ready for service’, which means residents can choose to connect to full fibre-enabled broadband services when they go live in their area. In Whittlesey, services will be available from an increasing range of broadband providers. Across the UK, CityFibre is already working with launch partner Vodafone to supply full fibre infrastructure for customers on selected Vodafone Pro Broadband plans as well as TalkTalk, Giganet, IDNet, Zen and other providers. More are expected to join the network soon. Speaking of the project, Rebecca Stephens, CityFibre’s Regional Partnership Director, said: “We’re so excited to see work getting started on our £3m digital transformation project in Whittlesey. Our full fibre network will equip the town with the capabilities needed to thrive in the digital age – it will see residents enjoy unbeatable streaming at home and unlock ample productivity and innovation benefits for local businesses. “As our team of builders install the network in Whittlesey, we ask the local community to bear with us and we assure them that any short-term disruption will pay off tremendously in the long-term.” Full fibre networks, unlike many of the copper-based ‘fibre broadband’ services available today, use 100 per cent fibre optic cables to carry data at light speed all the way from the home to the point of connection. This gives users speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps for upload and download, near limitless bandwidth and connectivity users can depend on. A full fibre connection also goes far beyond simply enabling access to the latest entertainment at lightning speed. As an essential digital utility, full fibre boosts households and businesses alike, with experts saying it will drive a range of economic benefits. Cllr Chris Boden, Leader of Fenland District Council and Town, District and County Councillor for Whittlesey, said: “I’m delighted that CityFibre is investing £3million in Whittlesey, on the back of a successful £5million full fibre investment in March earlier this year. Access to high quality broadband is essential for residents and businesses in this digital age, and a crucial part of stimulating growth and innovation in Fenland, at a time when our district is benefitting from new developments as a result of government investment.” Steve Barclay, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, added: “I’m delighted that CityFibre is extending its footprint in Fenland and investing another £3million to bring its gigabit-speed full fibre network to Whittlesey. Access to good broadband connectivity plays a major role in boosting local economies, stimulating growth and supporting new services, and will give residents and businesses confidence in the town’s digital capabilities for decades to come.” CityFibre is bringing full fibre connectivity within reach of up to eight million homes in towns and cities across the UK as part of its nationwide full fibre rollout. Find out more at www.cityfibre.com Residents interested in giving their home broadband a boost can find out more about the build and register their interest at www.cityfibre.com/residential.

Bridging the recruitment gap – Cambridge Network’s latest research into the broken recruitment market

Cambridge Network’s Claire Angus, Head of Recruitment Gateway, in partnership with local Business Psychologist, Kelly Drewery, from Talent Glue and recruitment expert, Katherine Wiid, from Recrion, set out to explore what’s currently happening in the local Cambridge recruitment market. Latest research shows Talent Acquisition teams and candidates alike, are reporting of ghosting and gazumping by ‘the other side’. A break in human contact that hasn’t fully improved since the lows of the pandemic. Even after accepting a job offer, some employers report of a sudden loss of contact with the candidate. For an employment market where success comes easiest for those with relationships and connections, how did this happen? Key findings from the recently published report:

‘Keep it human’ by maintaining contact

with candidates: human contact matters at various points in the hiring and onboarding process.

‘Keep it social’ by involving colleagues

in the whole process: previous opportunities to involve a broader spectrum of colleagues may have been lost as many have shifted to hybrid recruitment.

‘Keep it lean’ by developing and maintaining an efficient hybrid process:

for those organisations that hadn’t taken the time to streamline and refine their online recruitment activities, they are missing out on candidates who are snapped up by other faster recruiters. To read the full report, visit www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/ bridging-recruitment-gap-our-latestresearch-local-employment-market

Restoring customer faith after a breach

3 IT Problems and how to solve them

Cyber security has quickly developed into one of the most essential parts of an organisation’s operations. According to a Software Advice report, 62 percent of UK businesses have experienced an increase in attacks since 2020. Organisations that cannot demonstrate adequate security controls run the risk of data breaches, reputational damage and customer churn, as well as regulatory action. For organisations at risk – with banks and financial services especially affected – how can trust be restored quickly and effectively? With both existing and prospective customers potentially impacted, this is a long-term issue that must be prioritised. The solution lies in the creation of a cyber incident response plan, which can help them plan for security incidents and react quickly. Here are our Five Top Tips to successfully restore customer faith using a cyber incident response plan. 1. Inform: Ensure that all relevant third parties have been informed and kept up to date about the cyber security incident. 2. Investigate: Act quickly to remediate any compromises by conducting a post-incident review. 3. Communicate: Be honest and responsive to customers – communication is key, and organisations should share their experiences and lessons learned rather than hiding them. 4. Reinforce: Develop or update existing security measures (physical, technical and procedural) to reduce the risk of a similar incident recurring. 5.Review: Conduct regular tests of your cyber incident response capabilities. You should ensure that key stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of a cyber security incident. It’s crucial that organisations receive prompt, expert advice in the initial stages of an incident so that they can respond to and recover from it. IT Governance’s sister company GRCI Law’s Emergency Cyber Incident Response Service provides 24/7 support every day of the year to help organisations throughout the incident response process. www.itgovernance.co.uk

IT has a strange way of just stopping, or sometimes breaking altogether. Here’s three common IT problems we see and what to do when it happens.

1 | THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

Has your screen ever turned blue, and you can’t access anything? This is called the blue screen of death. If the restart button doesn’t appear, then use the physical shut down button on your device. A reboot of the system is normally an effective fix of this issue. If you use Windows 11, the blue screen has been changed to black.

2 | LOGGING IN PROBLEMS

Not being able to login can be frustrating. But don’t worry it can be fixed. Here are some possible reasons for being unable to login. • Misspelling your username or password • Did you leave caps lock on? • If you have tried several attempts to logging in, you’ll be locked out for security purposes • Your password may have expired

• Your account may have been disabled or removed • Your authorization could have been removed If you still cannot regain access to your account, we would suggest contacting you IT support team or give Cambridge Support a call.

3 | UNEXPECTED COMPUTER SHUTDOWN

A sudden shutdown is normally because fan vents became blocked and caused the computer to overheat. It could alternatively be a virus. In any of the situations listed above, we suggest giving us a call on 01223 901 900, email us at ask@cambridgesupport.com or visit www.cambridgesupport.com