All posts by Mark Pattison

I thought you’d like to see what all this email compliance effort looks like in practice. The image is of stats for our outgoing email, as seen by our monitoring system. The green represent compliant (i.e. genuine) emails that we have sent – viewed as a percentage of our mail traffic. The red represents non-compliant (i.e. scam) emails that we didn’t send (mostly originating in Russia). There is a lot of them! These emails claim to be from us (i.e. someone @backofficeit.co.uk) – but, because they fail the compliance checks we have put in place, the receiving servers have blocked them. Which is what we want.

It’s to avoid this deluge of scam emails that servers around the world are tightening up on compliance. If your email is non-compliant one of two things are going to happen.

1. People are going to receive scam emails claiming to be from you. This is why many professional bodies are now insisting that email systems are made compliant, because you can see how much damage this could cause.
2. Well-behaved servers will receive your email and, because it isn’t compliant, delete it just to be safe.

I leave it to you to decide which is the worst option.

What amazes me is how many people we tell about this have still not done anything about it. Apart from an hour of someone’s time there is no cost*. And yet we point all of this out to people and, weeks later, nothing has improved. Why? It just needs to get done.
* For all the features & delivery stats there is a small annual fee. But the important basics are free.

Microsoft are starting their countdown to the end of Windows 10. If you have the very latest version (Windows 10 22H2) then that date is October 14th 2025. Older versions expire sooner! An yes, this is because Microsoft want you to move to Windows 11!

What does this mean to you, and what do you need to do about it? Let’s dive in.

1. What version have I got? To find out type winver into your computer’s search box on the taskbar & press return. You’ll get a box like the one in the illustration. You can see my PC is Windows 11 Version 23H2.
2. When does my version expire? Microsoft have published a guide here.
3. Can I update? If you go to the Windows Update task on your computer you’ll see what you can update on your current system. This page will tell you if you can update to Windows 11 – or not, as the case may be.
4. Should I update? In general, the answer is ‘yes’. Keeping your Windows (indeed, all your software) updated is a crucial part of maximising the security of your system.
5. My machine says I can’t upgrade to Windows 11 – what can I do? In general this means a new PC/laptop. This is because certain key security features in Windows 11 rely on bits of hardware that may not be present in older systems.
6. And if I don’t? Your PC will not stop working overnight! What will actually happen is that Microsoft will stop researching & developing fixes for problems within the Windows10 operating system. The concern is that should a hacker discover a flaw in Windows10 they can exploit it a will, as the flaw will not be discovered & remediated by Microsoft. If you are a domestic user then that might be a risk you are willing to run. For a business user, however, this is unacceptable. Your Cyber Essentials certification, and probably your business insurance, let alone your liabilities to your customers & suppliers would all be in a dire straight, should you be running an unsupported version of Windows.

As ever, if you need help or advice, give us a ring on 01905 426364