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JT’s sustainable credentials proves a draw at Chamber lunchtime series

JT has been explaining to an audience of Guernsey businesses how it has embarked on an ambitious programme to boost sustainability and increase the welfare of its people at the latest Chamber of Commerce Lunch and Learn event.

Since April, the Channel Island telecommunications company has been proudly sponsoring the series which have also included important topics such as cybersecurity and wellbeing in the workplace.

The session on JT’s Sustainable Journey, which was presented by Gill Knights, JT Group’s General Counsel and Head of Sustainability, was the highest attended of the series with a very engaged and keen audience.

Kate Marshall, JT’s Head of Guernsey Enterprise, said: “We were really delighted to support this programme of fascinating speakers which made the lunchtime events so interesting, leaving us all with so much to think about.  JT is already deeply involved in the business community in Guernsey and these sessions highlight how well businesses, including JT, continue to work together to share best practice and support each other at different stages of similar paths. We are very grateful to the Chamber of Commerce for allowing us to share what we have learnt since we embarked on our 10-year Sustainability Strategy and hope that the lessons we learnt  prove beneficial to others.”

Laura McKerrel, from the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, added: “We have really enjoyed this series of ‘Lunch & Learn’ and are very grateful for the help and knowledge that all the speakers have passed onto us and those attending the events. JT’s session on sustainability highlighted a genuine interest from our members to learn more about where to start, what to avoid and how to implement a strategy. What was really useful was hearing how JT had planned and launched its strategy and how it has measured progress since. What was clear was that JT has learned to adapt to meet new challenges, proving that having an agile plan is often the best way to ensure success.”



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Local music celebrated in Guernsey’s largest street festival

Talented musicians and performers are being celebrated in St Peter Port as the Guernsey Street Festival returns to celebrate local music, art, theatre, dance and food.

The two-week celebration of the arts returns on 23rd July to 6th August to promote Guernsey’s community spirit with local talent, visiting performers and street entertainers with JT at the heart of the action sponsoring the Green Area, the Grand Opening Procession and the harbour flags.

Tamara O Brien, Deputy Managing Director, JT Guernsey JT said: “We have always been a huge supporter of the arts, and for many years have helped musically talented young locals by giving them a regular platform to perform with JT Musical Moments. This festival will open up our streets to performers and artists of all genres, skills and ages and I can’t wait to see them in action and watch the town get into the festival spirit. JT is sponsoring the Green Zone which is in prime position on the High Street in St Peter Port and one of eight zones where islanders and visitors will be able to see the performances. Come and join us there and take part in some fabulous summer fun in Guernsey.”

The festival kicks off in style with the Grand Opening Procession and there is a chance to get tickets to be on Le Petit Train as it makes its way along the High Street for the first time.

Dominique Ogier, Creative Officer of the Guernsey Street Festival, added: “The grand parade through the centre of town will be a fantastic event with the Boys Brigade, Fidgety Feet, the Guernsey Majorettes and lots of other performers. There will be prizes for the best performances and the best newcomer. The winners will be presented with their prizes at a black-tie awards dinner on the last night of the festival where they will also get to perform in front the guests. This really is an event to enjoy the fantastic talent we have in Guernsey and show off the fabulous backdrop of St Peter Port. I would like to thank JT and all our sponsors for supporting this event.”



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JT helps empower and mentor the next generation of female leaders

JT leaders will join other business figures in guiding students from JCG and around the world as they take part in a global female leadership programme this week. LEAP, which stands for Leadership and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme, is open to all girls aged 14 to 18 and develops business and leadership skills with the participants launching social enterprise projects which are pitched to a group of business dragons.

JT’s Group Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Sustainability, Gill Knights, and JT International’s Head of Solution Design and Innovation, Marcus Irwin, will join local and international experts from across the business spectrum to act as coaches and mentors during the ten-day programme.

Local students will be joined by students from China, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Austria, Rwanda and the USA. They will be split into teams to come up with business ideas that they will pitch to a ‘Dragons Den’ at the end of the programme. There is real money at stake with up to £2,000 going to the winning team out of a total prize fund of £4,000. Previous projects have been based on social inclusion and waste management.

JT International’s Marcus Irwin will be on the panel of eight dragons, and he said: “This is an amazing opportunity for the young women who will be the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. As a father, I understand the importance of nurturing talent from an early age and LEAP does a huge amount to bring that out of all those that take part.

As with our own recently launched JT Venture, a platform for ambitious start-ups and entrepreneurs to partner with JT and take their business to the next level, I will be looking closely at each proposition to see whether they have thought about supply chains, customer journeys, the digital outlook and just how they’ll fund their business ideas. This presents a real chance of investment and I have no doubt these girls will deliver business ideas that we’ll all see in the not too distant future.”

Throughout the week the students will take part in team building exercises and workshops and will hear inspirational talks from business leaders across all sectors, one of which is JT’s Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Sustainability, Gill knights, who will share how she came from an engineering and legal background to reach her current position.

JT will be donating SIM packs to all all of the visiting students for the duration of the programme.

Peter Le Masurier, from JCG, added: “This is the third year we have hosted LEAP and we are incredibly lucky to have so many prominent businesses involved along with successful business leaders who are prepared to give up their time to guide our students. I am looking forward to seeing how our students and the visiting students interact with each other, taking onboard, sharing knowledge and making the most of the invaluable advice and help they will be getting.”



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5 best back-up practices to keep your software safe from Ransomware attacks

Author:
Sunny Ajanaku
Design & Innovation Manager, JT Enterprise

From a hackers’ perspective, back-ups are bad news. They provide you with a lifeline and a means of recovery, which makes them a key target during an attack. Why? Because the harder it is, or the longer it takes, for you to recover, the more likely a hacker is to get their ransom. If your back-up is encryped or deleted during an attack your business will have no safety net of data to refer to, and the more effective the attack becomes.

For the purpose of this blog, we’ll assume that a hacker already has access to your network. Let’s say they got in through a highly targeted phishing campaign and, over a few weeks, have worked their way towards your data centre environment. At each step, they’ve covered their tracks to avoid detection, gathering more insight into your technical landscape along the way.

Before they alert you to the attack by installing ransomware on every endpoint and server connected to your network, they will look for your back-ups. Here are the five vulnerabilities that hackers love to exploit to encrypt or delete your back-ups.

Back-up best practices for ransomware

1. Don’t back up data to the same environment

Since a hacker already has access to your data centre environment, storing a copy in the same
place as the data is created makes it easy for hackers to delete your back-ups.

2. Ensure separation between your back-up server and the rest of your network  

The more that your back-up server can communicate with, the easier it is to find from a network scan. For example, if you’re backing up to your hypervisor, there’s no need for your back-up server to talk to your domain controller. With proper network separation in place, you’re making life much more difficult for hackers, slowing them down and increasing the chance of detection

3. Make sure back-up servers don’t share the same Active Directory (AD)  

If your back-up servers are set on the same AD, hackers can use this shared authentication to access multiple back-up servers and delete the data.

4. Don’t use the same storage area network (SAN) for storing back-up and production data

We’ve seen cases where a SAN that’s used for replication and disaster recovery (DR) is also storing back-up data. Once the SAN’s been found, it’s light work for the hackers to remove your safety net.

5. How long does it take you to recover your network?

Recovering from an attack isn’t pretty or easy. While the recovery takes place, there’s forensics work happening on top of your ops team frantically checking logs. It’s a stressful and extremely busy time, so recovery can be slower than usual. Ensure you understand how long this takes you, and ensure you’ve got sufficient bandwidth between your back-up environment and your hypervisor platform so that you’re not slowed down unnecessarily.

There’s constant chatter in our industry about ransomware, and rightly so. It’s real and it’s affecting businesses of all sizes day in, day out. Last year, our security specialists and incident responders spent over 300 days assisting businesses with ransomware recovery.

How can we help you backup your business-critical data?

JT Cloud Backup, delivered in partnership with Ekco, offers integration with a range of DR and back-up solution providers – including Zerto, Veeam, StorageCraft, Ahsay and Asigra – so we can mix and match technologies to build a bespoke solution that fits requirements across your entire business.

By carefully analysing your current infrastructure, we will identify and resolve problems with your business continuity provisions before disaster strikes. We can also audit your needs to deliver a plan that aligns compliance, risk, user experience and cost. To ensure your DR plans remain fit for purpose we’ll help you test them regularly.

To learn more about our services and how JT Cloud Backup can help your business maintain operations in any situation, get in touch with the team today: 



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Mitel rewards JT’s continued commitment to business excellence

JT is excited to announce that it has retained the highest level of accreditation from a global leader in business communications. JT was first awarded Mitel Platinum status in 2020 and is still the only telecoms company in the Channel Islands to have reached that level.

Platinum status is the highest accreditation available, making JT one of Mitel’s key partners and one of only 14 businesses across the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands to have ever received the accolade. Earlier this year JT was chosen as Mitel’s Innovation Partner of the Year after not only setting up its own state-of-the-art Mitel Contact centre but also for completing a world-class, multi-dimensional and complex migration process of IT systems for the Government of Guernsey.

James Singleton, Strategic Partnership Manager said: “We are really thrilled that Mitel continues to recognise  JT as one of its key partners, rewarding our commitment and the team’s genuine hard work. It means that once again our teams have met the highest level of expertise in delivering exceptional service to our customers. Together we have deployed, managed and supported many complex Mitel solutions across the Channel Islands. It’s thanks to the dedication of an exceptional team that not only are our customer’s communication needs in good hands but that world leaders such as Mitel distinguish us as an elite partner.”

Mitel services are found in businesses and organisations all over the world, providing a wide array of solutions, from simple business communications to sophisticated unified and collaborative communications, whether on-site or in the cloud.

Nick Riggott, UKISA Sales Director at Mitel, added: “We demand high standards from the channel partners we work with in our partnership programme and JT has shown its continued commitment to providing a service that surpasses most. They reached the Gold level in 2019 and then Platinum a year later. This achievement demonstrates that JT is a reliable highly-skilled partner with whom we built a strong and fruitful relationship to address current and future UC needs of businesses in the Channel Islands and beyond.”