Posts Tagged ‘Business’

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Your Data and The Businesses and Organizations You Entrust With It

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

It always amazes me how willing people are to give out confidential information.  And I’m not talking about the younger generation who have grown up with computers.  Your data is yours; and the businesses and organizations you entrust with it may not really care for it as much as you do.

While some states have very strict guidelines, such as Massachusetts; imposing additional regulations only serves to increase the cost of doing business which typically gets passed on to consumers.  While regulations have their place, they are not a panacea.

Case in point: yesterday I visited a business establishment which falls under several federal laws regarding data security.  Their security measures consisted of one paper sign taped on a wall and a plastic sign on a door, they both read “Secure Room Authorized Personnel Only”.  If this works as well as the no gun signs on bank doors and drug free zone signs, the data must be secure!  The door was next to a sliding glass window and the lock on the door was cheap and had a twist button to unlock it.  A person reaching an arm through the window could unlock the door, but that would be unnecessary as the door was wide open and only one person in the building.

Earlier this month one of our lead application developers and I had a meeting with a fairly large business organization.  The organization kept very confidential records regarding its membership, which if it fell into the wrong hands could cost the business member thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, or perhaps even worse.  We drew up a proposal for the organization based upon the criteria we received from their staff.  During a phone call with the director of the organization, I was told that security really wasn’t that important to them; driving home my point.

Before giving control of your information to another person, company, or organization, you just might want to have them show you how they protect your information.  As with almost everything, it is our responsibility to take the proper precautions with our information, as we will be the ones cleaning up the mess.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Preparing for Disaster

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

There is an old saying, “Plan for the worst and expect the best”.  That is a good mantra to live by.  Many though never prepare for disasters thinking it will never happen to them or their company.  And many that do, don’t test their plans to make sure they will really work when needed.

How many different types of events do you plan for?  Are they for business or family? Between the time I started this article and the time I got back to writing it, we experienced a 5.8 earthquake on the east coast, hurricane and tropical storm rain and wind, flooding, tornado like wind and flash floods.  It was interesting to see how many people reacted with almost panic and waited until the last moment to get food and prepare.

For businesses; what would happen if you our your employees were unable to get to work?  Flooding, fire, trees down, snow and ice are some of the naturally occurring weather related events which could cause this to happen.  How about power outages?  This happens at our office several times a year.  Business must go on!

File deletion and damage to data is potential crisis for almost every every business, whether unintentional or not.  Not long ago we received a call from a client stating a senior staff member had accidentally overwritten critical files.  Fortunately we had a plan in place and were able to resolve the issue within a very short time span.

At home we could lose power or become home-bound.  Fire could break out in the middle of the night while at home or a hotel.  A gas leak could force you out of your home for an undetermined amount of time.  The possibilities are numerous and it is foolish to take the attitude “that can’t happen here or to me.”

While you may or may not have developed a specific plan to handle disasters such as an earthquake, it is possible to put one together quickly in the event of an emergency.  When the planes hit the buildings on 9/11, Mayor Giuliani didn’t have a specific plan for such a disaster, but he did have many other plans from which he and Police Commissioner Kerik pieced together to handle the terrorist attack.

Now is a good time for all of us to sit down with our families and co-workers to review possible events and what we can do to mitigate the issue. Make sure everyone knows the plans and review them on a periodic basis.  Most importantly test them before you need them.  As you find holes, make the proper adjustments.

Our personal safety, the safety of our family, and the continuity of our businesses is our responsibility, not the governments!

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.



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Cyber Security vs. EMP or Public vs. Private

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

For many years I have been attending the Cyber Security Conference put on by New York State.  The conference is attended by mostly state government workers.  The speakers for the most part are of a very high caliber and offer a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight.

One area where the cyber security conference could be enhanced is by eliminating a lot of down time.  On the first day the keynote and another speaker started at 9:00 and ended at 11:30; from then until 1:45 was just an empty time slot.  Additionally several speakers went over their allotted time, causing participants to either walk out or miss some of the other security and technical sessions.

A couple of years ago I also attended the EMP Summit which dealt with the potential ramifications in the event of either a terrorist causes or naturally occurring disaster from an electromagnetic pulse.  This event was sponsored by the owner of Steuben Foods in western New York.  At the EMP conference, not only were speakers kept to their given time slot, the people running the event planned for the time it took to get from the speaking location to where lunch was being held.  Not a moment of time was wasted.

The difference between these two events is dramatic and is an excellent example of how the private sector operates versus the public sector.  While both the EMP and Cyber Security conferences offered superb speakers, there was much more meat to the EMP conference as they made the most of everyone’s time.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Email Etiquette – Practicing What I Preached

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

In a prior blog I detailed a list of how email should be handled in: Email Etiquette, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  In the post, I neglected to discuss email and mobile devices.

This past week our company was fortunate in setting up a client with several hundred email and Exchange accounts.  Transferring a few email accounts takes planning and coordination, hundreds takes substantially more!  Quite a few of the users were not running Outlook in the past and many had BlackBerrys, iPhones and Android based smartphones which needed to be synced with the Exchange server.

To assist their staff learning how to use the new email systems, we created videos on several different aspects including setup, email, calendars and shared calendars, tasks and contacts.

It was a long and very rewarding day for our team as our client was very happy with the results.  After the work day ended I sent an email to the head of one of the departments making sure he was happy with the IT and computer services provided to him.  As I was writing this email on my Android based smartphone, the system decided that van should replace can, and I only noticed it when I pressed the send now button.

In a previous post reviewing proper email procedures, I discussed that it is a good idea to sit on an email rather than send it immediately.  Unfortunately I didn’t take my own advice when using my smartphone.  I will in the future.  The lesson is the policies established for computers should also be adhered to for portable devices.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Email Etiquette, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Just recently I received an email from a company who was representing a reputable business organization.  Unfortunately for the business organization, the company representative did not generate good will.  Apparently email etiquette is still not practiced by all.

Implemented properly, email can be a superb tool for businesses.  Incorrectly used, it can cause disastrous problems.  Let’s take a look at some ways email is good and bad; and how we can improve business and personal communication using email.

First, email is not a substitute for a phone call or personal meeting.  Email is impersonal and without careful attention to syntax, can cause ill-will.  All emails need to have a proper subject line; let the person know why you are sending them an email, it doesn’t have to be overly long.

Every email is not a high priority.  If each email you send is set to a high priority status, then it will be treated as if it came from the boy who cried wolf.  Save the use of high priority for those times when it is truly important the email be responded to promptly.

Write the email as if you are being graded, because you are.  While a person may not say what they are thinking, email with spelling errors, grammatical issues and other faux pas do register and are a representation of you.  Use upper and lower case letters where appropriate.  If the email is written in all lower case, it shows the person really doesn’t care.

Email is not instant messaging or texting.  In an email there is no 140 character restriction.  This seems to be a trait by those fairly new to the world of technology and communication.  Use of proper English is always apprectiated.

If it’s important, pick up the phone.  Many times a question can be answered or a resolution found by simply talking to the other person.  If emails keep going back and fourth like a tennis ball, be the adult in the room and call the other party.  Also if the discussion is of a sensitive nature, use the phone, it will be greatly enhance your image.

Stop before pressing the Send button.  Take some time to reflect on your message and make sure it will be interpreted in the manner you hope it to be.  If time is not of the essence, let the email sit in the draft folder overnight, as you may have a new perspective on it in the morning.

If you use Web based email in addition to a program like Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, there are some additional steps you should incorporate into your email process.  When sending an email from the Web, use the CC to send the email to yourself.  This provides you with the ability to store the email in the proper Outlook folder when you get back to your desk. You could also move the sent emails from the sent folder.

Remember, an email may last forever!  Don’t put something in an email which may embarrass you or your company.  If you wouldn’t say in on the 6:00 news, don’t put it in an email.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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SSL Certificate Held Hostage for $10,000.00

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Handling IT support for businesses in the Capital Region for many years, we often get requests to take over existing systems.  Most in the IT industry are respectable business, but once in a while we come upon a business which is not.  Case in point a recent client had their Microsoft Exchange SSL certificate held hostage.

Last year our company took over IT support for an state organization in Schenectady NY.  Everything seemed to be going well until we went to get a new SSL certificate issued for their Microsoft Exchange Server.

The registration information on the SSL certificate showed the old IT provider.  Both our client and us contacted the IT company and requested they renew the SSL.  Their response was they would be willing do that if our client had them handle all of their email and IT support and pay them $10,000.00 per year to do so.  As our client was not happy with their service this was not an option.

At this point you may be thinking we needed to get out the baseball bats to deal with the issue, but happily that was not the case.  We were able to get the SSL certificate issue resolved through creative thinking. Even in this age of high tech, the old adage, caveat emptor, still rings true.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Privacy on the Internet? Fuhgeddaboutdit!

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Privacy on the Internet?  Are you kidding me?  We know who you are.  We know where you live.  We know where you go.  In fact, we know everything about you; and there’s not much you can do abodit!

Most everyone has their shorts in a bunch over the latest security breach by Epsilon.  Epsilon is a marketing company focusing on Internet technologies such as social media and captures information such as email addresses.  Large corporations such as Disney, American Express, Target, Citibank, Chase, TD Ameritrade and hundreds of others are all clients of Epsilon.

Epsilon’s email system was breached and as a result, possibly millions of email addresses have been stolen.  While Epsilon states that no personally identifiable information has been given out, this opens up the very strong possibility of computers being compromised; and massive identity theft as unsuspecting people click embedded links in fraudulent emails they receive.

As hard as one might try to retain some form of anonymity or privacy, if you use Google or make any online purchases, you can fuhgeddaboutdit.  Google keeps from months to years of everything you search for and as has been shown by the latest security breach, companies such as Epsilon store millions of pieces of information from thousands of its corporate clients on what you buy.

Other than taking a baseball bat to your computer or moving to a secure family compound with no connection to the outside world, this is one of the unintended consequences of today’s technology.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Quicken Data: Saving vs. Backups

Monday, February 28th, 2011

The other day I spoke with a person who was having an issue with Quicken.  She had been using Quicken and computers for quite a while.

Before we proceeded, I asked her the when was the last time she did a backup.  Her response was,” just a few minutes ago as I just pressed the save button.”  When I explored this further, it became apparent she never did a backup, and she has a lot of financial data going back for many years on her computer.

I explained to her how she could backup her Quicken data and suggested she purchase some USB flash drives.  As Quicken doesn’t take up a lot of space, almost any current USB flash drive would work fine for her needs.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Working the Computer Repair Frontline

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

As one of our IT tech’s was unable to work yesterday in our Clifton Park computer repair office, I had the opportunity to work directly with many of our walk-in customers.  Normally I only see the numbers and computers in the repair area and get to only briefly say hello or thank you to our customers.

It was wonderful talking with so many of our residential customers.  While I typically don’t work on residential desktops, I did for several of our customers as it allowed them to use their computers without experiencing any downtime.  And being one of the owners, I provided their computer service free of charge.

Sometimes it’s good to get back into the trenches for a little while.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Who’s To Blame For Business Being Bad?

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Running a business I have the opportunity to interact with many other business owners, managers and professionals. Some complain about business being bad, but who’s to blame?

Recently I had intended to meet a business partner for lunch at a local restaurant which opened within the past year.  As they were closed for lunch I sent them an email inquiring if they still continued to serve during the lunch time.  That was over a week ago and as yet the restaurant has not responded.  As I was initially going to meet a friend there for lunch later this week, we will now dine at another restaurant.

Yesterday I brought my car in for service at the dealership where I purchased it.  The entire staff couldn’t have been more accommodating.  The service writer was superb, the salesman came over to talk with me, and the managers while on the phone, waved.  During my conversation with the salesman, we talked about business.  He said business was good last year and they had a great fourth quarter and they are waiting for the weather to break as they expect another good year.  This dealership is always communicating with their customers via Facebook and when I opened my email this morning, there was a nice note from the dealership regarding my service yesterday.

For years I would take my vehicles to a car wash which is down the road a bit.  As the owner knew there was a car wash right down the street from our Clifton Park office, he was always appreciative and each year would send me a couple of free car washes as a token of his thanks.  The business owner took on a partner in 2010 and the holiday season went by without any communication or thank you from the business.  Now I find myself using that car wash less.

While the economy may not be good, it makes it that much more important for businesses do everything in their power to properly take care of their customers.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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