Tech Tips Blog

Are You Prepared For a Cyber-attack And Its Costs?

  

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Are you prepared for a cyber-attack and its costs?

I saw this article yesterday on how the US government is making it easier for small businesses to protect themselves against cyber criminals.  Here’s the link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45019786

Statistic from the article that should make you think a bit about your business:

1. 40% of all targeted attacks are directed at businesses with less than 500 employees
2. Only 52% of small businesses had a BASIC cyber security strategy or plan
3. 85% of owners said they were safe but 77% had no formal written internet security plan and 49% didn’t have an informal policy
4. Downtime can cost some firms $12,500/day
5. The average annual cost of a cyber attack is $188,242 for small & medium businesses

The Small Business Cyber planner will allow business owners to create a cyber security plan by answering basic questions about their company and its online presence.  It’s data that these criminals want and it’s not just credit card information.  According to the article, 25% of small businesses have their own intellectual property like patents and design documents.  “Not to consider cyber security is a little bit like leaving your money around on the table and thinking that that’s not going to be a problem,” said Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security Secretary.

Interestingly, the Senate is considering a bill that imitates Massachusetts’ own WISP law(Written Information Security Plan).  A bill being drafted by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would require companies to notify consumers when breaches put personal data at risk and ensure that minimum standards are met in monitoring for possible attacks.

Go to our WISP page for more information.

Are You Using IT As Part of Your Business Strategy?

  

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Are You Using IT As Part of Your Business Strategy?

IT and business strategy may not be part of how you operate your business but maybe it should.  It is not just a necessary cost of running your business.  What business wouldn’t want to expand into new markets, operate more efficiently or grow their business?  Your IT can make that happen.  Technology has rapidly changed the book publishing industry.  You can now self-publish, create your own website to promote it, and sell it using a PayPal account.  BOOM! You’re your own publishing company.  All because you used IT to create and expand your idea.  Music and entertainment have gone the same way.  If you look at the airline and banking industries you see the same thing.  The airlines have used it to control costs and deal with passengers directly.  Just search their site and buy your ticket.  No agent required.  Is banking any different?  Nope!  Online banking, ATM’s and even real-time payments using smartphones are great examples.

Think about all the information (the “I” in IT) that your company collects from its website, CRM and social media sites.  Once the “I”nformation is analyzed by you or your marketing/sales team, you can better serve your customers by giving them what they want.  Hmm, maybe expand into a new market or grow the business with a new product/service???  As you can see it’s not about the “T”echnology but the “I”nformation that “T”echnology gets you.  In this digital age or economy, what does your company have to offer?

5 IT Trends For The Next 5 years

  

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The article "The Big Five IT trends of the next half decade: mobile, social, cloud, consumerization, and big data".  I came across this article and thought it was fantastic.  I’d encourage you to read it.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe/the-big-five-it-trends-of-the-next-half-decade-mobile-social-cloud-consumerization-and-big-data/1811

The author talks about the big trends that IT faces over the next 5 years.  Here are his top 5:

Mobile:  smart devices and tablets—Using the sales projections from Gartner on tablets, by 2015 the tablet market will be 479 MILLION units shipped worldwide.  Basically they’ll be on a parity with the PC market.

Social Media: social business & Enterprise 2.0—Email was a workhorse but it’s been overtaken by social media and companies need to adopt this new medium.  Revenue growth is 24% higher for social savvy firms versus their less social competitors according to a report from McKinsey & Co.

Cloud Computing—our blog has talked about cloud computing over the last several months and there’s no doubt as to its relevance to business. “Business agility, vendor choice, and access to next-generation architectures are all benefits of employing the latest cloud computing architectures..”

Consumerization of IT—“the source of innovation for technology is coming largely from the consumer world…”  Think of third party apps that workers are using that are safe and secure for work.  Now adoption and usage are dictated from the user instead of from management.

Big data—Storage is the big word in IT now since many businesses are drowning in data.

I’ve briefly summarized his key points.  Here’s a great ending quote from the article: “…IT must either start leading the business models and evolution of the organization, or become a commoditized utility while the business figures out the moves on their own.”  Where does your business fit in?

Where's your Written Information Security Plan(WISP)?

  

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“Nearly 1 out of 3 Massachusetts residents, from names and addresses to medical histories, has been compromised through data theft or loss since the beginning of 2010” which was in a story on boston.com on September 21^st.  Do you have a Written Information Security Plan(WISP) in place?

There was a law enacted in Massachusetts in 2007 requiring all companies doing business in Massachusetts to inform consumers and state regulators about security breaches that might result in identity theft.  Is your business at risk?  Here are some troubling statistics that were released by the Attorney general’s office:

1 out of 3 residents have had their identities compromised!

1,166 data breach notices since January 2010!!

480 reported breaches from January to August 2011!!!

25% involved deliberate hacking of computer systems

23% involved accidental sharing of information with unauthorized people

ONLY 15% of cases where retailers reported theft of customer credit cards

Think about that last number and you realize that 85% of businesses that had data breaches were not retailer stores or online retailers.  That means your type of business has been affected.  According to the article, Attorney General Martha Coakley said, “There is going to be more room for employee error, for international hacking.” When you look at the firms that have been in the news in the last year(South Shore Hospital, the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Epsilon Data Management LLC), you have to wonder what precautions you should be taking.  Nearly 2 million people have been affected by data breaches since the beginning of 2010.  If you haven’t done so, create a WISP as soon as you can.

Keyboard shortcuts everyone can use

  

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Last week I found several keyboard shortcuts you can use with the Windows logo.  Below you'll find a whitepaper that lists a whole lot more shortcuts for your keyboard.  Here's a sample:

I was amazed by all the different shortcuts Microsoft has built in.  The whitepaper we've created is a copy of what you can find on Microsoft's website.

Are you Using the Windows Logo On Your Keyboard Effectively?

  

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There are all kinds of tools to make your life easier.  But did you know how to use your keyboard to make your computer easier to use?  Below are some simple ways to use the “Windows Logo” to your advantage:

You can go to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Keyboard-shortcuts for other easy to use shortcuts.  I’ll be posting others in the very near future.

So Was a Business Disaster Averted?

  

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So you’ve survived the wind and rain of Irene.  Maybe you didn’t have power at your home or business during Sunday or Monday.  How many productive hours of work did you lose?  Are you now finally thinking about disaster recovery and business continuity?  Wikipedia has defined disaster recovery as the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity. While business continuity involves planning for keeping all aspects of a business functioning in the midst of disruptive events, disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems that support business functions.  So were you prepared for this past weekend?

This hurricane hopefully got most owner’s/president’s thinking about what would’ve happened “if”.  Many IT managers have been trying to prepare for this type of scenario for years.  Just in New England on Monday over half a million people were without power.  You didn’t hear the news talk about businesses that had lost power.  They didn’t have access maybe to email, internet, or phones.  Some allowed employees to work from home but maybe they didn’t have power either.  Lost employee productivity, inability to talk with customers, lost sales are all serious problems to have in a struggling economy.  Did these businesses have off site backups of critical data?  Was there enough power for critical network devices?  Would a hosted email service make sense?  In a post by a former colleague he sites this frightening statistic, “It is estimated that most large companies spend between 2% and 4% of their IT budget on disaster recovery planning, with the aim of avoiding larger losses in the event that the business cannot continue to function due to loss of IT infrastructure and data. Of companies that had a major loss of business data, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term.”  Many of us were fine after Irene but there are those that will be the 94% that are gone within the next 2 years because they didn’t have a plan in place.  If you’re a small to medium size business, you’re working too hard to be one of the 6% survivors.  If you had a disaster recovery plan, did it work?

Is Your Business Going to Lose This Deduction?

  

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This is not an exciting topic but it is important to how you may want to end 2011.  With all the fuss in Washington over the country’s debt, it is highly probable that this tax deduction for business will disappear at the end of the year.  If you’re not familiar with Section 179 of the IRS tax code, it allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualified equipment and/or software purchased or financed during the tax year.  Here it is at a glance:

• Deduction limit--$500,000 (up from $250k previously), good on new and used equipment, including software.
• 2011 Limit on equipment purchases-- $2Million Dollars (up from $800k)
• “Bonus” Depreciation—100% (taken after the $500k deduction limit is reached).  Note, bonus depreciation is only for new equipment.  This can also be taken by businesses that exceed $2million in capital equipment purchases.

Check out http://www.section179.org/section_179_deduction.html  for additional information as well.  It is a great resource.

This is a valuable incentive for businesses to invest in themselves.  If you are a small business that hasn’t upgraded your machinery, computers, or software in recent years due to the economy, this may be the last year for you to take advantage of this deduction.  Here’s the link to the IRS interpretation as well:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p946/ch02.html

Or this article from the IRS: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=213666,00.html

Baesis is not an accounting firm so we can’t give tax advice.  Please consult with your accountant to see what purchases you’ve made so far this year qualify.  If you’re an accountant who’s stumbled upon this, please leave us with your thoughts.

Do Small Business Owners Need These 10 Tech Tools?

  

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I saw online recently an article titled “Ten Must-have Technology Tools for Small Business Owners” and thought it would be worth reviewing.  I’d also encourage you to check out the article here:

http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article2112994.html

I have to be honest it’s a nice wish list but I’m not sure it all qualifies as must haves. So let’s get started on the authors top ten list.

1. A secure IT infrastructure:  this is vital for any size business.
2. Access to the cloud: most businesses already have some access which has become just a part of life but I’m not sure I agree with his premise of using the cloud as an outsourced IT dept.
3. VoIP:  necessary, I don’t think so but it is a nice wish list and if you already have a legacy system that works fine for you and your customers why switch.
4. A solid web presence: I think this is reaching a bit.  It’s more of a necessary marketing tool than a technology tool.
5. Social media:  everybody’s gaga over FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc but is it a “must-have” technology tool, I don’t think so. They are necessary marketing tools and you have tto finds the right mix for your business, employees and customers.
6. Online or web conferencing: nice to have but most small business owners we meet do business locally or regionally so meeting face-to-face is not a big issue.
7. Managed Business Continuity Service:  with our reliance on our IT systems, this is critical but I’m biased since we are a managed service provider.
8. Managed services expertise:  I agree with his reasons but again I’m biased since we provide this service.
9. Business grade internet:  Connecting to the internet for a business is critical since so much of what we do comes through the internet.  With cable companies and telecom companies offering new and faster speeds for a fraction of a T1 line, not having it is a big mistake.  Plus the hardware to get you there has become less expensive over the years.
10. Mobile technology: with the advent of tablets and smartphones plus employers willing to let employees telecommute, this has become critical.

I do believe he makes some valid points and it does get a business owner thinking of what he/she should have to keep their business competitive.  Is he stretching the definition of technology tools a bit when he’s talking about the website and social media?  I think so.  For most local small businesses that we run into there is much of this that’s a nice wish list but they’re growing fine without it or need to make some minor adjustments to their IT network.  Again, I’d encourage you to read the original article and let me know what you think about it.

Should Your Business Use "the Cloud"?

  

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I’ve been writing frequently over the last several weeks about “the cloud”. For many business owners/executives they’re still not sure the cloud makes sense for their companies.  Should your whole business be “in the cloud”?  Probably not.  If you’re thinking about what business applications you should be using then consider how you currently are using “the cloud” to your benefit.

Many small businesses have a Gmail, Hotmail or some other service for email.  Basically, they’re cloud-based email applications, right?

You’re a small business owner and you have a LinkedIn profile with connections.  This is cloud-based business networking.

Your business has a website that uses a company like HubSpot for content management from anywhere in the world.

You have sales reps throughout the US that connect to your CRM called Salesforce.com.  Nothing more than a cloud-based CRM application.

Your marketing person has used ConstantContact or similar service for email marketing.  Isn’t it just a cloud-based email marketing application?

Your business believes in the benefits of social media so you have a FaceBook fanpage, a Twitter account and Youtube channel.  Cloud-base social networking tools that you’re using for marketing and connecting with your customers and prospects.

I understand I’ve simplified this a bit so you can see how you’re already using some cloud-based applications for your business.  Should your accounting or financial software be in the cloud?  Would it be more efficient to have your ERP package cloud-based?  Should everyone in the office be using MSOffice 365?  Personally, I think it comes down to do you need access to the business application anytime and anywhere. Plus is it more cost effective than an on-premise application in the long term?  In the end, it comes down to the application you need and how you need to use it.  I doubt any small or medium size business will ever be 100% in the cloud but you will be using it.