Technology advice for small and medium sized businesses

On July 14, 2015, Microsoft is officially retiring Windows Server 2003 and will no longer be offering support, updates or security patches. That means any server with this operating system installed will be completely exposed to serious hacker attacks aimed at taking control of your network, stealing data, crashing your system and inflicting a host of other business-crippling problems you do NOT want to have to deal with.

This is a threat that should not be ignored; if you don’t want cybercriminals running rampant in your company’s server, you MUST upgrade before that deadline. To assist our clients and friends in this transition, we’re offering a Free Microsoft Risk Assessment And Migration Plan. At no cost, we’ll come to your office and conduct our proprietary [XX]-Point Risk Assessment — a process that’s taken us over [X] years to perfect — to not only determine what specific computers and servers will be affected by this announcement, but also to assess other security, backup and efficiency factors that could be costing you in productivity and hard dollars.

After performing this Assessment for [hundreds] of companies like yours, I’m confident that we will not only be able to expose a number of security risks and issues that you weren’t aware of, but also find ways to make your business FAR more efficient and productive. To request this Free Assessment, call us directly or send us an e-mail today. Due to staff and time limitations, we’ll only be able to offer this until the end of July or to the first 10 people who contact us. (Sorry, no exceptions.)

’Tis the season when you and your team will be taking a little time off to head to the beach or your favorite vacation spot, and while we know we should completely disconnect from work, most of us will still check e-mail and do a little work while away — and that could end up causing some issues if you’re not careful while working remotely.

So before you head off to have a little fun with your laptop tucked under your arm, keep this in mind: never automatically connect to “any available network.” Not all Internet connections are secure, so if you’re going to log in to the company’s network, e-mail or other critical cloud apps that are hosting sensitive information, ONLY do so on a trusted, secured WiFi and NEVER a public one. We recommend investing in a personal MiFi device that acts as a mobile WiFi hotspot if you’re going to be traveling a lot and accessing company info.

Second, turn off the ability to automatically connect for all of your mobile devices and laptops. You will still be able to connect manually, but it will prevent your laptop or device from connecting to a questionable network without your consent or knowledge.

Finally, disable all printer and file-sharing options on your mobile devices. This is another way hackers can gain access to your network. In an ideal world, you and your employees would take a true break from work, but if they aren’t able to completely detach themselves, then at least require them to stay safe using the above tips.

Many of us realize how dangerous it is to check e-mail or text messages while we’re driving, but we don’t feel like we can afford to ignore our phone. Brand-new product Navdy to the rescue!

Navdy is a transparent Head-Up Display (HUD) that projects information as if it’s floating six feet in front of you. It’s very similar to what commercial airline pilots use. Navdy works with any car, and with all iPhones and Androids.

Using the apps you already have on your phone, and with no service plans required, Navdy allows you to focus on the road and not on your phone.

As a phone call comes in, Navdy’s built-in camera allows you to simply swipe in midair to answer calls (or dismiss them), so you no longer have to fumble with buttons or touch screens. Plus, Navdy’s voice recognition uses the voice commands you’re already familiar with, whether you use Google Now or Siri.

Any notification on your phone (such as text messages or social media) can be played, read aloud or disabled, based on your preferences. Navdy even allows you to keep your teenagers safe by giving you parental controls.

The product is rumored to retail at $499, but is available now for pre-order for $299. Just visit their web site at: www.navdy.com

There’s nothing quite as devastating as losing a key employee, especially if they give you no warning or notice. Often they’ll give you subtle signs such as a lackadaisical approach to work, arriving and leaving on time, not a minute sooner or later, long lunches or suddenly having several appointments at the beginning or the end of the workday. But one of the biggest giveaways is their Internet behavior at work.

We already know that employees spend personal time at work on Facebook and other social media sites; but you know something’s going on if they’ve added monster.com, Craigslist, LinkedIn and other local job sites to the web pages they frequently visit.

That’s ONE of the reasons we recommend our clients install an Internet monitoring software for their network. Not only will it reveal when employees are looking for work somewhere else, it will also alert you to employees who are wasting HOURS on social media, gambling, shopping and other non-work-related web sites. It will also prevent employees from accessing porn and file-sharing sites that could bring on a BIG lawsuit or nasty hacker attack.

While some people fear this is too invasive, keep in mind that you are paying those employees to perform a job with company-owned devices and company-paid Internet. We’re not suggesting you monitor their personal devices or what they do after hours on their own time. But it’s perfectly reasonable to expect an employee to put in a full 8 hours if you’re paying them for their time.

Of course, you should provide notice that their computers are being monitored and set the expectation that you want them working during company hours; you should also detail what employees can and cannot do with company-owned devices in your Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). If you want to give them the ability to check personal e-mail and social media sites during work hours, you can limit it to 30 minutes a day during their lunch hour or break. Again, we don’t recommend this since this can be an easy gateway for viruses and hackers—but these options are available.

Need help designing an employee monitoring system on your network? Give us a call. We can help you put together an Acceptable Use Policy and put the right software in place to enforce your policy.

There’s an old joke about two men hiking in the woods when they come across a big, grumpy black bear. Scared silly, one of the guys starts to run but notices his buddy stopped, bent-over, changing his shoes. He shouts to him, “Dude! What are you doing?!?! Why aren’t you running?” to which his friend replies, “I’m changing my shoes because I don’t need to outrun the bear – I only need to outrun YOU.”

This is a perfect analogy for what’s going on in small businesses: the “slow,” easy targets are getting nailed by fast-growing cybercrime rings that are getting more sophisticated and aggressive in attacking small businesses. Last year, the average cyber-attack cost a small business $20,752, a substantial increase from 2013, when the average was $8,699. That’s because most small businesses don’t have the security protocols in place or the manpower and budget to implement sophisticated security systems. While there’s absolutely no way to completely protect yourself other than disconnecting entirely from the Internet, there are several things you can do to avoid being easy pickings. Here’s how:

1. Lock your network. While WIRED networks make you invisible to WiFi snoops because you have to access them by plugging into physical outlets or hacking modem ports, you can create a hidden or cloaked network on a wireless network. Simply disable the service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting function on the wireless router, and only users with the exact network name will have access. Small businesses like coffeehouses can also do this—just periodically change the network’s information and place a small sign near the register with the current network name and passcode.
2. Encrypt your data. On your desktops, turn on the full-disk encryption tools that come standard on most operating systems: BitLocker on Windows-based PCs and FileVault on Macs. There is no noticeable performance lag; however, the encryption only applies when users are logged out of the system. So setting computers to automatically log out after 15 minutes without use is a good idea. And for mobile devices, use a VPN (virtual private network) to encrypt data traveling to and from your mobile devices and limit your employees’ access to only the company data that they must have to do their jobs.
3. Install firewall and anti-malware applications on all of your equipment, including mobile devices.
4. Disable features that automatically connect your mobile devices to any available network.
5. Disable printer and file-sharing options on mobile devices before connecting to a hotspot.
6. Check before connecting to hotspots. If there is an unusual variation in the logo or name on the login page, beware…this could mean it’s a fake hotspot designed to steal your data.

Can you guarantee that the person across the hotel lobby isn’t looking at your data? Not really, but the chances of them being able to do that are greatly reduced if you take precautions to protect your business.

Are you using any cloud applications to store data? Then listen up! There are a few “gotchas” you need to know about 3^rd-party cloud apps that most sales reps will NEVER tell you.

1. They aren’t responsible for keeping a backup of your data. If you read the small print of your contract, you’ll see that in every way possible, your cloud provider is NOT responsible for data loss or backups – even if it’s their fault. In fact, Office 365 will only keep 3 days’ backup of your data; so if you delete or overwrite a file and don’t notice it until 4-5 days later, it’s GONE. If your data is important, you need to implement a backup solution that works with cloud applications.
2. What you see may NOT be what you get. There’s nothing more frustrating than an incredibly slow application when you’re trying to work; and the salesperson demo’ing the application or platform is going to make sure you only see the BEST-case scenarios for performance. But there are a lot of things that can determine how fast your cloud applications run, such as the file size you’re working on, CPUs and RAM and storage, time of day, day of the week, your Internet connection and the number of users accessing the application. Make sure you get some verification of the speed in YOUR specific environment before spending a lot of money, time and aggravation moving to a new cloud application.
3. What if they cancel you? Here’s a scary situation: what if your cloud provider decides to shut down your account because they go out of business or simply decide not to service you anymore? Or what if YOU want out? Make sure you have in writing what happens if YOU cancel your contract AND what your cloud provider can and cannot do if they go out of business, cancel your account or have any other issues that would cause service interruption. Moving a network from a cloud platform is NOT a simple task and you need to make sure you can get your data and that you’ll be given sufficient time to make the transition.

Need help interpreting any of these scenarios? Give us a call at XXX-XXX-XXXX and we’ll help you put in place a solid “Plan B” for any of the above issues.

As laptops grow thinner, USB ports become scarcer, forcing you to carry around a multiport hub to plug in various devices. But Jiange has created a USB plug that is based on a daisy chain, allowing you to plug multiple devices into one USB port.

The design won an IF Concept Award from one of the most prestigious design competitions in the world. Jiange has a lot more design inventions underway. InfiniteUSB cables start at $10, and will also come in varieties that support microUSB and Lightning connectors.

1. Your Team Needs To Learn Together

Rarely do teams learn together. Too often, increases in skill are confined to individuals. Sometimes that can become a barrier to teamwork: because there are dramatically different knowledge and skill levels, some team members aren’t able to keep up. When an individual attends a course or discovers a useful practice, he or she should be encouraged to share it with the team. And periodically putting the entire team into a learning environment is critical.

2. Peer Recognition Is Powerful

If you’re a team leader, understand that despite your best efforts, you will be incapable of adequately recognizing every team member’s efforts and contributions. Good work will slip by and go unrecognized. If this happens often, the team member may well become disillusioned. Relieve yourself of the burden to be the sole dispenser of recognition: ask team members to recognize each other. Make it a team expectation to thank other team members for their assistance and to look for opportunities to catch each other doing something praiseworthy.

3. To Win More Together, Think Together More

Have you ever held a team retreat? When was the last time your team came together for the express purpose of thinking about the work you do? Do you periodically pause as a group to reflect on what you’ve learned and internalize the lessons? Do you meet to consider opportunities, and not just to solve problems? The team that thinks more wins more.

4. You’ve Got To Expect It And Not Tolerate It If You Don’t Get It

Some managers, knowing how difficult it can be to create great teamwork, undermine their efforts by making teamwork “optional.” That is, they appreciate the people who are good team players but they tolerate those who aren’t. As the old adage goes, what you allow, you condone. Those on the same team should know that figuring out how to get along and work with other teammates is their responsibility. Those who refuse to be team players should at the very least not enjoy the same benefits, and at worst, should be removed. It might sound harsh, but it is necessary if you want teamwork to work.

The recent decision of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to stop telecommuting has cast a negative light on this practice. After checking the company’s VPN log to see how many remote employees were logging in, she didn’t like what she saw. Effective June 2015, telecommuting is no longer an acceptable practice at Yahoo. The media excitement added to fuel to the fire for those who think that employees working at home aren’t putting in an honest day’s work.

Mayer’s now public memo talked about communication and collaboration. She thought the best way to make that happen is for people to be in one place. But that’s just one opinion.

There are many companies who use telecommuting practices very successfully. They also believe in communication and collaboration and use tools such as: Google Hangout video chat service, GoToMeeting, Skype, Webex, Campfire shat by 37 Signals to do just that. They support these tools with products such as Google’s Gmail and Calendar apps for business and Asana’s task management software to name a few.

Telecommuters often are employees who live in other parts of the country or even in other countries, and other time zones. After trying several techniques to work with a remote team member, David Bloom, the CEO of tech startup Ordr.in, now uses Google Hangout for daily virtual meetings. He says, “We have five employees, and four of us are in the same place, but we all log on separately. This allows us to have a face-to-face meeting where everyone’s equal. It’s not the four of us sitting in one place, with our colleague sitting somewhere else.” He finds this arrangement keeps everyone accountable for their work.

Josh Siler, CTO of HiringThing, a virtual company, says it’s all about your company culture. Siler says. “We’re trust-based, and we don’t micromanage our employees. We judge everyone based on their output. Anyone can make their schedule flexible, as long as they meet their commitments to their coworkers,” he says. “Our employees know that their performance is what matters, and we talk about it on a regular basis.”

Bloom and Siler would tell you that telecommuting is successful when you have a culture of accountability and trust.

If you’ve ever seen a Star Trek episode, you’ll know that “computer” always knew the answer to whatever the commander needed to know to run the starship, do battles with aliens and it even made tea…Earl Grey…hot. In business today, Google has taken on the role of answering questions and providing information. In fact, the company name has become a verb in our language and you can google just about anything on this easy-to-use search engine.

“Computer” gave you one answer, Google gives you many. But there’s an easy way to limit the responses and that’s by the way you search. If you only want to see responses on exactly what you’re searching for, then type the minus sign at the end of your search. Another way to limit your responses is to take advantage of Google’s specialized search sites, for example Google’s Public Data Explorer. This site allows you to search specifically on public statistics.

The Star Trek computer spoke every language. Google speaks 80. You can ask Google to translate a single word by typing “translate (word) to (language)” into the search bar and you’ll get the translated word. There’s also a Google application called Google Translate where you can type, speak or handwrite the phrase into your device – you can even take a picture of a sign or other text. Then it’s your choice to have Google speak the translated phrase or display it for you. Need an easy-to-use price-comparison site for business travel? Try Google Flight Search. Pick your start point and destination – or destinations – on the map, and then pick your dates. When you pick the dates, be sure to pay attention to the prices on each date and Google’s graph of days with the cheapest tickets. Then, you can filter the results by flight length, airline, price, stops and more. When you find a flight you like, you can book it directly on the airline’s site.

Like the Star Trek computer, Google provides definitions and conversions. In the search bar, type define (word) or convert (unit of measure) and you can even compare nutritional values of one food item to another, just type compare.

So is Google the computer from Star Trek? With all these features, what do you think?