If the rumors are true, Microsoft is stepping up considerably to join the fight against cyber crime. Allegedly, Microsoft is developing a real-time feed that records current cyber threats and gives necessary steps to safeguard against them.

Microsoft has already had success in taking down botnets. By doing this, the company collects plenty of useful data about the threats that these botnets pose. The procedure works like this: Microsoft basically swallows the botnets. This, in turn, sends botnet-infected hosts to addresses which are under Microsoft’s control. This captures the contaminated hosts and takes them offline.

Previously these details had not been shared, but now this info can be given to the government and private organizations, CERTs, & ISPs. Whilst the amount of attacks will not likely decrease thanks to this real-time feed, the impact of a feed like this will be amazing. The amount of damage from a cyber attack will probably be greatly lessened because IT security professionals will be able to more rapidly respond to a threat.

Even more importantly than a reduction in damage, a live threat feed could mean that the IT security industry overall will start to share more information.  It’s been a long-standing belief that sharing confirmed threat data could lead to copycat attacks. However, this isn’t a valid concern. Cyber criminals have already been sharing tips and tricks and ways to get around security systems. It only makes sense for the IT security industry to be sharing their expertise in how to fight these cyber criminals.

Let’s hope that security professionals soon discover that sharing information is more valuable than secrecy. And let’s hope that Microsoft’s move is a first step in this change of attitude.

The cloud has been a great thing for small business owners fighting through tough economic times. Instead of purchasing costly enterprise software, business owners can save their dollars by accessing powerful computing programs in the cloud, everything from high-end word processors and project-management tools to spreadsheets and Photoshop alternatives. But, the cloud isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to security issues. Entrepreneurs need to be aware that their documents, presentations, and marketing materials can be damaged when they are stored in the cloud.

Password issues

Password protection is a crucial issue when dealing with the cloud and personal computers also. Passwords are frequently easily guessed or they’re shared too freely.

Business owners must be careful to select passwords for their cloud projects that are difficult for others to guess. The best option is for owners to include a mix of letters and numbers in their passwords. Owners should also be cautious about sharing their passwords with a lot of people. The more individuals who have access to passwords, the more in danger important data and documents are.

Hacker alert

Hackers, malware, and spyware remain serious issues for cloud environments, just as they are issues that business owners face when logging onto their personal computers everyday. What makes this particularly scary is that individual business owners have little control over how secure cloud services are. The big names — companies like Microsoft and Google — must provide their own security for the data that business owners store in the cloud.

Common sense protection

As with all computing, business owners can safeguard themselves from the loss or theft of data with some common-sense practices.

First, owners should think about what type of information they are storing in the cloud. The most sensitive data, data that could damage a business if it is lost or stolen, might not be ideal for cloud storage. Instead, this data might be better stored on a business owner’s individual computing system and dependably backed up.

Secondly, business owners must remain cautious about who they grant access to their cloud-stored data, documents, and reports. Owners are careful about whom they allow to access the files on their desktops and laptops and they should be equally careful when it comes to granting others access to their cloud-hosted information.

There are numerous advantages to cloud computing. Backing up important data makes it readily available to everyone in your company and frees up space on your servers. You probably have many concerns about cloud security and might be wondering if cloud security will protect your client’s data and comply with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

Do cloud storage solutions follow these regulations? Are they required to? If they haven’t spelled it out in their privacy policies, it is safest to assume they are not compliant. We’ll explore this more below.

Compliance

Cloud security has become an important issue recently, as increasing numbers of companies turn to online storage solutions, seeking greater simplicity, scalability and affordability. However the cost in both money and reputation for poor handling of customer data can be extremely high indeed. If your business needs to comply to key regulations associated with patient privacy (HIPAA), credit card security (PCI) or the finance-sector strictures of Sarbanes-Oxley, it can be difficult to find out if a service complies with these important restrictions.

Who is responsible

Who’s shoulders does the responsibility fall on? There’s no law requiring that cloud service providers disclose the degree of security they maintain. While they probably do have a respectable amount of safety protocols set up, the safest option is to take their privacy policy at face value. In this case, if you wish to stay in compliance with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley, cloud computing may not be for you. That said, if your industry doesn’t require tight regulations, then you might take advantage of the benefits cloud-computing offers. 

In the end, as cloud computing service providers are not required by law to be transparent about their security, the responsibility rests in your hands. If you choose to use the cloud, it’s your responsibility to pick a service provider you trust. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages and make the best decision for your business.

Disasters can happen to any company and they come in many forms and severities. They can be everything from a natural disaster, to a well-meaning employee accidently downloading a dangerous virus, to something essential getting mistakenly deleted. These what-ifs can keep you up at night, so for your own reassurance develop a disaster recovery plan.

Decide What’s Important

First off, figure out what data is the most critical to get your company back up and running. What information has to be backed up and saved and what can you afford to lose? This should help you figure out what you need to back up. Choosing an online provider or storing your data in the cloud can be the best way to ensure you can retrieve your data quickly.

Make a Plan

Next, decide what steps need to be taken to restore that data that is lost in case a disaster strikes? What data and systems need to be up and running first? Begin with the worst possible scenario and decide what’s needed.

Know Your Workflows

I’m sure you have the overall picture of your company processes, but how about all the day-to-day processes that you don’t have memorized? Ask your employees to document their workflows and the exact tasks they preform. By doing this, if something does happen, anyone can pick up where they left off and nothing gets looked over.

Decide Who is in Charge

Many people panic when disaster strikes. To make sure the panic doesn’t make things even worse, put someone that has helped you build the plan in charge of executing your data recovery plan. This way you are free to reassure everyone and manage the company and you can be the strong leader your employees need in time of crisis.

Disaster can happen to anyone! So before it does, develop a good plan so that you know what to do. It will make both your employees and you feel more secure.

What do you think of when you hear the name Segway? If you’re like many out there, “tech failure” pops into your head. Dean Kamen’s invention of the Segway PT scooter was expected to revolutionize personal transportation. The Segway was meant to usher in a new era of errand running and puttering around town.

We are all aware that didn’t happen. The Segway is still around and it isn’t a totally unusual site to see someone taking a Segway out for a “drive” in the park.  For a “failed” technology, that is a pretty impressive feat!

But just how do these two-wheeled scooters work? Electric motors hold the key.

Powering the Segway

Electric motors fueled by phosphate-based lithium batteries power the Segway. The scooters are easily charged by simply plugging them into a common electrical socket. Thanks to a combination of two computers, special software, tilt sensors, and five gyroscopic sensors the Segway remains upright and doesn’t tip over.

Making the Segway Move

The user plays the largest role in making the Segway move. Simply by shifting your weight in the direction you wish to go and moving the handlebars a little, the Segway’s sensors identify the change in balance point and react accordingly. The latest version of the Segway has a top speed of 12.5 MPH. For obvious reason, it works best on flat surfaces.

Lowered Expectations

Experts touted that the Segway would be a bigger deal that Internet. Clearly the device didn’t live up to that level of hype!

However, once the Segway was released many thought it looked strange and you looked weird riding one. Others thought it looked dangerous. Regardless, the negatives were enough to prevent the Segway from reaching its promised potential.

As a small business, there is a good chance you have to manage projects and people that are not always located in one area.  So how do you manage these projects and off location employees while still having the capacity to share updates, documents, and delegate tasks?

Project management solutions

Conveniently enough, many project management tools can be found that make managing all of these things easier.  Using these tools will assist your small business in organizing projects and keeping employees and clients up to date. Here’s a few available options:

Basecamp

This well-known project management tool has become popular as it is just one tool which allows businesses to manage projects, assign responsibilities, communicate with employees, and more. It’s truly a one-stop shop! It even allows clients to observe and comment on their project. In addition to schedule meetings and calendar events, which ensures you keep everyone involved on the same page.

Quickbase

Quickbase has a lot to recommend it, not least of all the fact that the maker of Intuit business software is behind this program. Quickbase performs similar basic tasks as Basecamp. However, it offers a unique version of a simple interface and is equally helpful for both large and small small businesses.

Huddle

Some projects need more creativity than others. That’s where Huddle comes in. This project management tool was created precisely to handle the more creative marketing and advertising projects that small business owners must sometimes take on. Huddle features a power live-conferencing tool that can make holding impromptu meetings an easy task.

Deskaway

Deskaway permits you to keep clients and employees informed by using snapshots of a project’s development. It has the functionality to generate and post blogs determined by individual projects as well as keep in touch about important updates easily.

There are many other options for project management tools, each with their own benefits for individual businesses. Make sure you look for the one that will help your business manage your projects and personnel the best.

We’ve been hearing about the paperless office for what seems like years now, yet most workplaces today still depend on fax machines, copiers, and forests worth of paper documents. Is the paperless office just like the individual jet pack? Long promised but never delivered? The simple answer? No. The world is still moving toward paperless offices. It is just taking more time than some would like.

The advantages of paper

Digital copies of documents and communications are nice, but paper continues to be useful in many cases. Even people who work at the most eco-friendly offices, with reduced paper use policies, find a need for paper. Paper can be very portable and quick. You can quickly write down a phone number on a sticky note and slip it in your pocket or leave your cubicle neighbor a quick note saying the boss stopped by. If you’re responsible for going over important documents prior to release, hard copy editing can be much easier than editing on a computer screen. Sometimes it is easier to spot small typos on a physical copy.

Less paper than ever

Paper isn’t disappearing, it is becoming steadily less important. While we still need paper for certain tasks,  most offices are using less paper than ever before. Most writing is performed on a word-processor and communication is done via email or Skype instead of fax or letters. Meeting notes, company schedules, and whole marketing campaigns are stored digitally on our computers and smartphones.  So while paper is not yet obsolete, the sticky note is no longer king of the office.

The future

It’s obvious that offices of the future will rely on less paper than even we do now, but will paper ever really go the way of the milkman? Maybe. Some people still prefer having their milk delivered from a local dairy but most are content to pick it up from the store when they need it.

Paper will most likely go the same route and it will be a personal preference as to how much paper is consumed in the office. As many of our business processes rely on digital solutions, there will always be a select few who prefer good old-fashioned pen and paper.

Consumer spending heavily depends on digital currency and possibly someday paper money will be obsolete.  It might sound fantastic but consider how frequently you yourself use a credit card to purchase things, go online to shop, or receive gift cards preloaded with a specific amount of money.  Probably you pay your bills via internet banking, pay-at-the-pump with a credit card, as well as purchase movie tickets online.  Once you consider how frequently you actually use digital currency on a day-to-day basis, we aren’t really that far off from going totally digital with our currency.

The Bitcoin revolution?

Did you know there is an increasingly popular digital currency already in “circulation?” Bitcoin, first seen in 2009, is an “unhackable” peer-to-peer digital currency that’s recognized globally and can used to buy goods and services.

Bitcoin is not technically a legal tender and for that reason many, if not most, retailers outside the Bitcoin user database will not accept it.  It is quite possible another alternative digital currency may pop up and over take Bitcoin, becoming more mainstream compared to the revolutionary Bitcoin.

The digital currency model

There are many advantages to ditching paper money. You can’t lose it, you don’t have to worry about having exact change, and there is no need to replace damaged currency, which saves time, energy, and money.

Digital currency can be more secure than paper money, too. When you’re robbed as you are walking down the street, you have little chance of recouping the money. However, if someone steals your credit card, you can quickly cancel the card, protecting yourself financially. The same scenario could easily exist with your digital dollars.

Holdouts

Not everyone is sold on the idea of digital currency. Many people still don’t use credit cards or even have a computer. They prefer to use paper money, as it feels more real to them. We will just have to see how the world changes and if the luddites out there will change their minds.

It seems like touchscreen technology just came into our lives, yet we already take it for granted that after we touch an icon on our device a very specific action will be preformed. We expect the device to get it right, each time. A few years ago we wouldn’t have dreamed this was possible. Today, it’s a given that the latest and greatest gadgets will be equipped with a touchscreen.

How, exactly, does touchscreen technology work? How do so many of our screens know what to do if we touch the icons shown on them? The answer isn’t that straightforward. That is because there are many different types of touchscreen technologies, and each of them works in a different way.

Resistive touchscreens

Many touchscreens today operate on the resistive model. Resistive touchscreens are coated with a thin electrically conductive layer. Whenever you touch the screen, your fingertip causes the electrical current to change. This information is instantly sent to the device’s controller, which causes the device to react to your touch. Resistive touchscreen technology is less expensive, and is the most common form of touchscreen used in products today. However, such touchscreens are not the most sensitive.

Surface wave touchscreen

This form of touchscreen utilizes ultrasonic waves that pass across the screen. When your finger touches the screen, you absorb part of the wave. This information is sent to the device’s controller and an action is preformed. Simple right?

Capacitive touchscreens

This technology tends to produce the sharpest image quality. Much like the resistive technology these screens are coated with a material that sends an electrical current continuously across the screen. When you touch the screen you absorb some of the current, which in turn disrupts the flow. This information is then sent to the controller and the action that you requested is executed.

Fortunately, to enjoy touchscreen technology you don’t have to have a deep understanding of it. And you don’t have to be an engineer to realize this technology will become more popular, not less.

We all know what an iPhone can do. We can use this useful device to connect to the Web and view the latest movies and tv shows. We can use it to update our Facebook pages and send out tweets. We can listen to music, make phone calls, to get directions to the nearest Italian restaurant by using the iPhone. However, you may be amazed at what else your iPhone lets you do. Fortunately, there are plenty of smartphone experts out there willing to share their top iPhone tricks with you.

Saving Time

If you find it hard to type a Web address on the small on-screen keyboard, before clicking in the address bar on your browser, turn your iPhone to a horizontal position. The keyboard will now be larger, making it easier to type an “e” and not a “w”. This is a timesaving tip for making phone calls. When browsing the Web, if you locate phone number you need to call, simply tap the telephone number on the screen and your phone will dial it.

More Efficient Typing

This tip will help you type faster: When you tap the space bar twice at the end of a sentence, your phone will add a period and automatically capitalize the next word you type. If you are a person who uses a great deal of special characters, it’s simple to access the menu by touching and holding a letter on your screen until the special character options appear. Then simply select the character you want and insert it.

Quick Printing, Personalized Entertainment

This tip is for those of you that own an AirPrint-enabled printer. It is simple to print documents, emails, and Web pages from your iPhone with this device. To print a Web page merely tap the “Action” icon and choose “Print,” this will send the data to your printer. Printing an email is just as easy; tap “Reply” and select “Print.”

For you music lovers out there, you may create a music playlist on the run. Access the iPod app, tap the “Playlists” icon select the “Add Playlist” icon. Relabel your playlist and add any video or song on your phone by merely touching it.