Cruise Amour leads way in website security

Cruise Amour has shown its commitment to customer security by being the first UK agency to adopt site-wide security measures.

Barely a week goes by without a report that another "big-name" company has had its on-line security compromised or has failed to properly protect its customer's data. Although the travel industry has by chance managed to avoid such pitfalls, Cruise Amour has taken the pro-active step of introducing additional industry leading security measures.

MD Tim Hurrell, pointed out: "Our customers are everything to us and it's important we look after them. Not just by delivering an exceptional holiday experience, but by protecting their data and ensuring that when they interact with our website and book on-line, that their data is kept safe. We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously".

Cruise Amour has protected their website with 256bit SSL encryption and an extended validation security certificate. Not only do these measures ensure that all data send between its website and a customer's computer is fully protected but, should the security of a customer's data be compromised a 3rd party financial warrantee is in place.

Customers visiting the Cruise Amour website (it now starts with https instead of http) will be presented with the "green bar of trust" as featured on the websites of most on-line banking systems and large retailers such as e-Bay and PayPal. This should help customers feel secure about entering their personal and payment details into the site.

Hurrell added: "Customers expect the retailer to take the lead when it comes to things like card payment security. In our opinion, many of our competitors don't take their responsibilities seriously enough, often failing to address the issues - especially on-line. We wanted our customer's to be confident that whatever information they share with us whilst using our website is being kept safe and that they are fully protected. Our security covers everything from e-mail newsletter sign-up to call back requests to on-line booking."

FACT FILE:
Cruise Amour is part of the Freedom Travel Group a subsidiary of Co-operative Travel. It specialises in selling cruise holidays.

Secure Cloud computing for using personal IT devices at work

Cloud computing applications can provide employees with a secure and effective means to use their personal IT devices at work without compromising their organisation’s security levels. This is the claim of Advanced 365, a managed services and Cloud computing provider.

With smartphones, tablets and non-PC notebooks now everyday items in many homes, there's a growing reluctance amongst many employees to use outdated IT systems in the workplace.

Some firms and organisations have decided to allow authorised staff to use their own IT device to perform their role within the workplace or elsewhere.

Whilst this shift in attitude is being welcomed by the end users and their line managers, it has, understandably, raised concerns and questions amongst IT managers.

“Many organisations still insist employees only use recognised and secure IT devices on their company’s infrastructure. However as tech savvy office workers look to use the latest mobile IT devices in preference to using ageing company PCs and laptops, network security concerns are inevitably resurfacing,” says Neil Cross, who is the MD at Advanced 365.

Cross went on to say: “To address this challenge, it is essential organisations ensure their employees have authentication, identity verification and security applications installed on their IT devices before allowing them to access their corporate network.”

Developments in Cloud computing technology are now providing an opportunity for organisations to address these security fears without losing control of their desktop environment, even if they can’t directly control the device being used by the employee.

These Cloud services, such as Microsoft’s Office 365 (currently in beta testing), allow users to access their company network and applications like email over a secure internet connection as and when they require for a monthly fee. Or organisations can opt for a more integrated approach by utilising applications like VDI, Citrix or online portals like Microsoft SharePoint to deliver their business applications via a properly secured controlled environment.

Cross points out: “By choosing the Cloud computing platform best suited to their requirements, organisations can protect their data and ensure only secure devices are capable of accessing their network. Moving to the Cloud also allows organisations to address the challenge of meeting the rising demand from employees to access the latest devices without compromising the security of their network, which will ensure the best of both worlds.”

Cross ends by saying: “While Cloud computing technology can reduce the pressure that IT teams are under to maintain hardware, and potentially reduce costs, working with a trusted partner that has the breadth of skills to understand these new and more complex environments is now more important than ever.”

www.advanced365.com