Internal Social Networks: Ethics, Policies, and Use

Internal social networks help when you need to cascade and disseminate information within the company, but you also need the right policies and management to use these networks right. One of these purposes is the creation of internal social networks which, in a nutshell, improve communication and information sharing within the organization. While some may worry about how employees will behave when such a mechanism is put in place, the results have generally been positive – employees view internal social networks as an extension of the workplace, and as such are usually at their best (albeit informal) behaviour. Still, it is wise to have a policy in place that governs the use of your internal social network. Experts suggest drawing from existing IT / email / external social networking rules that are already in place, and simply extending and adjusting the policy to include points specific to the use of the internal social network. Also, it’s a good idea to consult a lawyer to avoid any legal obstacles or problems in the future. Experts also recommend that department heads be given administrative duties in the social network, since smaller companies can ill afford to hire a person to manage it full time. So in the same way that a marketing manager, for example, handles the marketing department, he/she can also moderate discussions and topics within the social network that pertain to marketing and related issues. Overall, internal social networks provide many benefits to companies that use them, but proper management and handling is needed. Always remember that unlike external social media platforms, internal ones are directly under your control and are a part of your organization – use them well in order to better and more efficiently achieve the goals you’ve set for them.

Tabnabbing Poses a New and Significant Security Threat

A new threat to computer security has been discovered in which tab browsing vulnerabilities are exploited to fool users into divulging passwords and other sensitive information. Dubbed as “tabnabbing”, the vulnerability was discovered by Aza Raskin, the creative lead for the Mozilla’s Firefox browser and co-founder of Songza, a music search engine and jukebox. Tabnabbing fools users into entering passwords and other sensitive information when an unselected tab in your browser appears to transform itself into a lookalike for a familiar website. You are then prompted you to re-enter a username and password, which in turn passes that information along to the hacker. Incidentally, Raskin’s blog post on the topic ( http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/a-new-type-of-phishing-attack/ ) demonstrates how the website can “change” into a lookalike. Both Mozilla Firefox and Google are vulnerable to this type of attack, which is classified as “phishing” – a scam where users are tricked into entering login information into fraudulent websites masquerading as legitimate ones. Fortunately, there have been no instances – yet – in which tabnabbing has been used in phishing attacks, but Raskin says that he is “aware of other researchers and toolkits extending and expanding tabnabbing”. However, it’s very likely that phishers will be looking for ways to exploit tabnabbing soon, and are currently no fixes or patches released. One way you can protect yourself from tabnabbing is to make sure that your browser has the proper anti-phishing features installed. It’s also important that your website is updated with the latest security features since many phishers like to exploit websites running old version web software, which they use to host phishing sites. If you want to know more about keeping your system secure from the latest malware and security threats, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to sit down and discuss security options that fit your needs and requirements.

Protection Racket Against DDoS Attacks Revealed

Security firm Symantec has uncovered a scheme to extort website owners for money or face the possibility of a DDoS attack. Security firm Symantec recently uncovered a scheme that purportedly attempts to extort money from website owners and operators in order to avoid the possibility of a DDoS attack. The capability of these extortionists to actually carry out the threat is still an open question, and it’s more likely that this may simply be an empty threat to try to get money. The best action against these types of messages is employing screens to block such email from reaching your mailboxes. However, it’s best to seek the services of an expert to determine the extent of risk, and also to employ safeguards and response measures should an attack take place. If you find such messages in your mail, let us know and we can help.

Three Cost-Effective Online Video Conferencing Services

Skype, Tokbox, and Oovoo are three online video conferencing services that have recently targeted business enterprises with business-friendly features. Many businesses these days are realizing the value of video conferencing and video chat. Not only do these tools eliminate transportation costs, they also drastically reduce unproductive time spent travelling. A simple phone call connects all parties instantly. Video chats in particular are the cheapest of the bunch, with services offering video chats for anywhere from free to a minimal monthly fee. However, until recently, many of these services weren’t up to speed with the requirements and demands of businesses. Lagging transmissions, slow connections, and jumpy video were just some of the issues that plagued online video chatting and conferencing. Recently, however, three online video conferencing services have put themselves at the top of the pack with new features such as group chat and improved performance that make them much more business-friendly. Let’s take a look at them. Skype Undoubtedly the best known of the three, Skype has long been a staple in online video calls and instant messaging, and now the beta version of Skype 5.0 offers video chats with up to 5 people at a time. It is also the most stable, with the least dropped calls, and is free to use. However, it is not without its cons – its interface takes some getting used to, and it is available for PC users only. Tokbox For $9.99 a month, you get crisp, clear video calls with up to 20 people, and basic chat free of charge. Tokbox’s user interface is very easy to use and understand, and allows you to send video e-mails, and share Tweet invites and your screen with other users. Oovoo Basic chats between two people are free, but with the paid version – the business plan is $39.95 a month per user – allows you to chat with up to six people at a time. Like Tokbox, it features screen sharing and Tweet invites, and also lets you record your video conferences. Like Skype, the interface can be a bit confusing to use at first, but the audio and video are high quality. Considering video conferencing for your business? Give us a call – we can help you sort through the options and implement the best solution for your needs.

Fake Antivirus Software Gaining Ground

Campaign to trick users into installing fake antivirus software gaining ground. Beware: a massive email campaign is underway to trick users into opening an HTML file attachment that redirects users to a hacked website containing links that further lure victims into launching a fake antivirus software package. According to security firm Sophos, the email messages are designed to trick people into paying to remove threats from their computer that may not really exist. Once a user’s system is infected with the fake antivirus software, it gives bogus warning messages encouraging them to pay for non-existent threats to be removed. Another danger involves users potentially revealing sensitive financial information such as credit card numbers to the hackers. To avoid such threats, users are advised to never open suspicious emails, and to only use legitimate, well-known security providers and consultants in case they suspect something wrong with their computer systems. Working with trust-worthy vendors gives you peace of mind knowing your systems are safe.

Why Backing Up Your Data is Important

Data is important to any business, and losing it can spell disaster, which is why it is important to always have backups of your files and information. Let’s begin with a simple question: How important your data is to you? Think of all the information you have in your computers – all your databases, spreadsheets, documents, files, projects, emails, software – and think of how valuable they are to your business. Now try to imagine it all disappearing in an instant. What would happen to your company? What would you say to your clients? You’d have to start from scratch – and would you even have the capability to do so right away? For most business – if not all – the result of a sudden and immediate loss of data would be devastating. Operations would be crippled, and productivity would grind to a halt. Many businesses rely on soft data and losing that data, simply put, prevents them from working on anything – at least until the data can be recovered or the system goes up again, and in some cases, they’d have to start from scratch again. The difficulty of starting with virtually nothing is obvious. Things look a little brighter when a company goes the data recovery route, but the effects are just as debilitating to daily operations. For one thing, data recovery is not an exact science. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, all the data can be recovered, but many just a few tidbits of it can be retrieved, and sometimes you might get nothing at all. To top that off, data recovery is a long and expensive procedure, especially if you have a lot of data. What is the solution then? Simple: back up your data. Data backup services are much cheaper than data recovery services, and if you lose your data, you have something solid and reliable to fall back on. Data backups are probably one of the most neglected aspects of data management for many businesses these days – but it is also one of the most essential ones. Some companies think that it’s a waste of time and resources. But in the long term not only do you pay a fraction of the cost of data recovery to have your information backed up, you also prevent your business from suffering if you lose everything. You never know what events might happen that compromise you data. Natural disasters, accidents, and simple hardware failure can occur when you least expect it to, so it is only prudent and it’s responsible to make sure that your data is safely backed up. Talk to us – we’ll help you find the backup solution that’s right for your business.

Survey Reveals Majority of Businesses Plan to Set up Websites Designed for Mobiles

Growth of mobile fueling increased interest in mobile sites. A new survey conducted by Adobe, a leader in software for the design and publishing industry, reveals great interest in emerging mobile channels among many businesses. Survey respondents from a wide variety of industries revealed an overwhelming preference for developing websites as their mobile commerce presence, compared with other types of mobile channels such as downloadable apps. It seems that mobile websites promise the broadest reach in terms of being able to provide information to customers, promoting products and services, and selling and interacting online. The majority of those surveyed revealed that promotions were at the core of their mobile strategy to drive sales through online or offline channels. Creating sites with rich, interactive experiences were highlighted as a means for businesses to possibly drive traffic to their sites. Among those who responded: More than 55 percent cited full-screen image zoom and videos as important factors in driving interest and sales. 96 percent asserted that the most effective merchandising features for mobile sites were catalogs and brochures, and the ability to zoom and pan images. The increased interest is believed to be driven by the widespread adoption of mobile devices. In fact, analysts predict that by 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units.

The Importance of Installing a UPS

A UPS, or uninterruptible power supply, is one of the essential components your IT system should have so you can continue working even during power interruptions. Keeping productivity going is important. The more productive your people are, the more work gets done and the more profit you make.  Every hour, and even every minute, of lost productivity costs you profit. It might seem inconsequential individually, but in the long term lost time adds up and you can lose a considerable sum. This is why companies have stringent rules regarding internet usage, deadlines, and other mechanisms to ensure that people are doing what they’re being paid to do – no more, no less. However, there are situations when things are simply out of your hands, and a perfect example is power interruptions. Power interruptions are usually unexpected and can cost workers hours of work. Just imagine your PC suddenly shutting off while you’re in the middle of an important project – either you fail to save part of it, or maybe you’re in the middle of a task you cannot save (like uploading or downloading a particularly large file or bunch of files). What can you do, except start all over again? The solution is installing a UPS – or uninterruptible power supply – for every unit in your IT infrastructure. A UPS acts as a temporary source of power for the CPU, a back-up battery of sorts that your CPU automatically switches power to in case of a power interruption. This gives you time, at the very least, to save important files and wrap up tasks before shutting down properly. UPSs also guards against power surges, prolonging the life of your computers, making them less prone to suffering from electrical damage. In the long term, it’s always better to be safe than sorry, and a UPS is a relatively inexpensive precaution against loss of data – especially considering its benefits.

Protect your Company from Social Engineering Attacks

Threats to the security of your organization can not only come from malware, hacks, and network attacks, but also in more subtle ways. One such method is called “social engineering”. Be aware that hackers have another tool in their toolset that employs a particularly subtle, insidious way of compromising the security of your systems and network. Called social engineering , it’s the use of psychological tricks to deceive targets into revealing potentially compromising information about the systems in their organization. In practice, it can be as simple as a hacker calling an employee and asking subtle questions to gain information, or posing as someone trusted, perhaps as building maintenance, walking in the doors of an organization to directly gain access to systems—or even searching through the trash and refuse left behind by employees. The popularity of social networking has also increased the danger with the ease and convenience of creating connections to potentially trusting members of your organization. However, there are some actions you can take to protect your business: Create a policy outlining the proper handling and sharing of information online as well as offline. Put systems and procedures in place to protect your systems if sensitive information does get out—such as the regular replacement of passwords. Educate your employees about the threat. You cannot solve a problem if your people do not know that a problem exists in the first place. Awareness can be your best defense.

Calculating Your IT’s Real Cost

Hidden IT costs can be stifling your company and you just don’t know it. It’s important to assess what those costs are and find a way to help your business perform better. In this day and age, few businesses (if any) can survive without an IT arm. Every business, big or small, needs someone, or preferably a group of people, on hand to fix computer problems, check networks, monitor software – to generally make sure that their operations are running smoothly. One question, though: have you ever stopped to consider whether the cost of maintaining your in-house IT system is worth it? For instance, consider your internet connection. Let’s say that a conservative estimate of the efficiency of your business without an internet connection is at 50%. And if your business makes a $1 million a year, then $500,000 depends on your internet connection. If your monthly bill for that connection is $500, or $6,000 annually, you earn $500,000 – $6,000 = $494,000. Now, if you decide to switch to a cheaper DSL connection, which is about $50 per month or $480 a year, you get a much higher figure: $499,520. You could argue that the DSL is the wiser option, but when you look at a deeper level, a slower internet connection may also hamper your company’s productivity – let’s say, by 10%. So with only a DSL connection, your business operates at 90% of its total possible productivity. Considering the previous figures, a loss of 10% in productivity means a loss of $100,000. Subtract that savings from the DSL connection, $5,520 – you get a whopping loss of $94,480. So when you think you’re saving by getting a cheaper internet connection, you are actually losing more money. Inversely, if you subscribe to an even better connection that costs you $10,000, productivity can increase by $15,000. The same principle applies when your IT infrastructure is not up to date, with slow computers, outdated software, and other problems. In a company with 10 employees who bring in an annual average of $65,000 each, even losing productivity for just 35 minutes a day due to IT handicaps can cost you $47,000. Hardly chump change! But hiring an IT provider who charges $20,000 a year can offset that lost productivity and even make your business run better, by as much as $27,000. It’s also noteworthy to mention that employing an IT firm can count as a legitimate business expense, thereby lowering your tax liability to about $8,000 if you peg corporate tax at 40%. IT is important to a business. If you doubt that, just try doing without it for a week – just shut the whole thing down. For most, that’s out of the question, but operating with old software and hardware is almost just as bad. However, many businesses cannot spare the resources to continually upgrade their IT systems. Enlisting the services of an IT firm changes all that. IT Service Providers are constantly on the lookout for better technologies – both hardware and software – that can make your business function much more efficiently and cost effectively. It’s what they do. And the costs are minimal. If you’re wondering how much better your company might operate with an IT Service Provider, we’ll be happy to sit down with you and run some numbers.

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