As Robert Weideman of Business Computing World noted, distributed vs. centralized scanning has been “the debate that won’t go away.”

Weideman suggests we end the debate and let distributed and centralized scanning work together in harmony. And indeed, this is the consensus of most experts. The challenge is in deciding which scheme is best for each organization and business process.

The Case for Distributed Scanning

A major benefit of distributed scanning is enabling workers to immediately input documents into workflows. Distributed scanning eliminates the need to ship documents to a central scanning location, and can eliminate the need for more expensive production scanners.

A distributed scheme also can enable workers and equipment to be used more productively. By scanning documents locally, workers can share the burden of inputting documents and take ownership of the documents they need digitized.

AIIM’s “Document Scanning and Capture” study found that ownership of the process by the line-of-business owners was given as the main advantage for distributed scanning, as well as improved utilization of MFDs.

The AIIM study also found that the quality of indexing was a key consideration for organizations, and that when scanning was moved into the general or branch office, continuous training and persuasion were needed to ensure that knowledge workers indexed accurately over time.

As one user commented, “The main barrier is not the technology but the training and change management of staff and organizational processes.” Said another user, “It can be tough persuading staff to do their own scanning.”

The study also found that the best use of workers’ time was an important consideration.  With distributed scanning, potentially more expensive office staff and knowledge workers are expected to prepare documents for scanning, check the image quality, and index the images into the database. For many workers in distributed locations, scanning is only part of their jobs, and they may lack the expertise to operate scanning devices and get the best results consistently.

Banctec also notes that the economic benefits of distributed scanning may not be realized if the cost of training, administration, and deployment offsets any savings. In addition, economies of scale will likely favor centralized processing if the volume of documents being scanned is high.

The Case for Centralized Scanning

As Jim Bunn of ibml notes, many organizations that evaluate distributed scanning conclude that centralized scanning still delivers better performance and reliability and greater return on investment. And in many instances a hybrid approach works best, with some documents scanned locally and others centrally.

Centralized scanning may be the better solution for organizations that scan large volumes of documents, and for documents that require special attention in preparation and scanning. MFDs generally lack the speed, features, and functionality of production scanners that are dedicated to scanning (i.e., image enhancement, document transport, ease of use, reliability, flexibility), and thus may not be able to support mission-critical applications. (See “New-Gen Document Scanners Offer Big Bang for Businesses.”)

Dedicated workers and scanners that perform centralized scanning also are more adept at handling tasks such as removing staples, correcting skewed pages, repairing tears, and inserting separator pages.

The main business drivers for centralized scanning, AIIM found, were to improve document find-ability, automate the classification process, and improve productivity and compliance. In the AIIM study, 48% of respondents who have centralized in-house scanning cited better indexing and closer integration with the process as the main benefits of centralized scanning.

Concentrating the scanning and capture process into a centralized facility, AIIM noted, allows for a larger investment in the latest scanner and capture technology, improving the likely success rate of data recognition and automated classification.

Plan Wisely, Get Expert Help

Before moving to a distributed scanning environment, organizations should thoroughly investigate whether the approach is appropriate for the type and volume of documents being scanned, how local scanning would impact worker productivity, and whether data quality would be compromised.

As Jim Bunn notes, because scanning is the first step in converting paper documents to a more efficient digital format, it can have a profound impact on productivity, operations efficiency, and data accuracy. Thus, it is a task that should never be taken lightly.

Likewise, Robert Weideman contends that analyzing the business process, document volume, user needs, and budget, and then choosing the appropriate scanning scheme is one of the greatest challenges an organization faces when developing an ECM strategic technology plan. It is, he notes, “where the guidance and consultancy of an ECM expert becomes invaluable.”

To learn more about scanning solutions and how scan/capture and ECM can help your business, contact the experts at Imaging Solutions.

Your Salesforce packages are a lot like that.

When you install a new package it is usually built against a current Salesforce API. What does that mean? You see, the Force.com platform is currently updated three times a year. Each update has a new API version – that means that the features that can be accessed by developers changes every three months. If a package uses API version 28 (which is the summer 13 version about to come out), its software will continue to use that version even after 29 and 30 come out. That helps ensure that software continues to run correctly even as Salesforce updates the platform.

However, this process isn’t perfect. That’s because packages can interact with each other. If one package has a trigger, and another package creates an object, the first package’s trigger code will execute. API versioning doesn’t solve all possible problems that can occur due to changes in the platform over time.

In addition, while Salesforce is very good about maintaining backward compatibility when new versions come out, it’s not perfect. Sometimes bugs creep in. Sometimes changes in behavior are made to improve or maintain system security.

All too often I see orgs where a package is installed but never updated. I’ve seen orgs with packages that use API version 13 – that’s 15 releases back, or almost five year old software. In many cases, it’s no longer being used – but can still interfere with the test code or even operation of newer packages.

You can find out what API version your packages are using by looking at the version of the various APEX classes as shown here:

One of the best ways to keep your org customizations operating properly is to be sure to periodically update any packages you are using. You don’t need for them all to be on the latest API version – in fact, most package vendors prefer to stay one or two versions back, to allow plenty of time to validate their software on the newer API version, and time for Salesforce to identify and resolve any issues that may exist on the new version.

By the way, this problem will exist on your own code as well. I know it’s very tempting to leave well enough alone, and that it can be costly to update your integrations to a new API version. But in the long run, just like with regular auto maintenance, the investment is well worth it. It’s still cheaper than dealing with a sudden breakdown.

Deciding when to call in an IT professional or reseller depends on your knowledge level and the situation. Here are three situations when going it alone just isn’t worth it from a time and cost perspective.

1. When your critical data can be affected: Whether you’re moving your information to a different server, upgrading software that affects it or recovering lost data, don’t put your critical business assets at risk by trying to wing it.
2. When solving a technical problem takes longer than half an hour: Remember that your time is valuable. If you’re making no progress, it’s probably more cost-effective to call your IT consultant.
3. When you’re setting up a new computer or security tools: Make sure these processes are handled correctly from the start. One option is to set up a quarterly maintenance day, during which an IT consultant can make sure your system is current on all updates and that you’re not developing bad habits, such as disorganized archives or using weak passwords.

If a small business is concerned about the cost of IT support, the key is to make each issue a learning experience. Instead of having an IT technician simply solve the problem, have them show you what’s going on, so the next time you see the same problem you can manage it yourself. Computer problems tend to recur rather than happen just once, so learning from the problems is a great way to reduce costs in the future.

We’d appreciate your feedback. What are some other situations in which you should call an IT professional instead of trying to solve the problem on your own? Add your tips in the comments section below!

So which one should you get? The XBox One and PS4 are both great systems for Gaming and Entertainment. They are nearly 6 times more powerful that their predecessors and will have many great of Next Generation titles at launch. The hardware is very similar but the main differentiating characterstics will be price, exclusive titles and subscriptions services.

Here is a quick comparison video followed by detailed specs and full keynote presentations:

XBox One Vs. PS4: Quick Comparison

XBox One

XBox One Specs:

• 8-Core AMD 1.6GHz Jaguar X86 CPU
• Radeon 7790 GPU Equivalent
• Blu-ray/DVD optical drive
• 8 GB of DDR3 RAM
• 500 GB HDD
• USB 3.0 support
• HDMI in / out (4K)
• Wi-Fi Direct for Controllers and Periphreals
• optical output
• motion control via Kinect 2
• secondary screen support via SmartGlass
• No Backwards capatability

Release date

November 2013

Price

$499

XBox One Summary:

The Xbox One is marketed more as the ultimate entertainment platform, rather than the ultimate gaming machine. Despite this, the Xbox One should pack roughly just as much punch as the Playstation 4 in terms of Hardware capabilities. In fact, Microsoft touts 15 exclusive gaming titles for the Xbox One at launch.

With all that why wouldn’t they focus on Gaming. Well, they’re not putting gaming on the backburner, they are just trying to get an XBox in EVERY home. That includes your non-gaming granny, uncle and cousin. If they could, they’d replace your cable box completely…and they just might.

One of the biggest controversies has been the issue of used games. Microsoft is intending to have a very controlled approach to sharing used games on the XBox One. With the use of DRM (Digital Rights Management) they will limit the ability to share games and make you pay a certain fee.

The other limitation to the XBox One is that it will require you to connect via the internet atleast once every 24 hours to be able to use it.

XBox E3 Full Press conference

The Full Xbox One Reveal Keynote

Playstation 4

PS4 Specs:

• 8-Core AMD 1.6GHz Jaguar X86 CPU
• Radeon 7870 GPU Equivalent
• 8 GB of GDDR5 RAM
• Blue-Ray/DVD optical drive
• USB 3.0
• Bluetooth 2.1
• optical output
• HDMI (4K support)
• Ethernet and WiFi connectivity
• Secondary screen support (which will work with PlayStation Vita, smartphones and tablets)
• Remote Play (you’ll be able to play PS4 games on your PS Vita, over Wi-Fi)
• motion control (the “motion sensing” DualShock 4 controller in addition to the PlayStation Move – PlayStation 4 Eye combo).
• No Backwards compatability

Release date

December 31st 2013

Price

$399

PS4 Summary:

Unlike the Xbox One the PS4 is emphasizing the Gaming capabilities and treating any entertainment capabilities as additional features. Besides the beefed up hardware capable of handling any of the great Next Gen hits, the most controversial change has been the touchpad on the controller. Unlike the XBox One, PS4 says it will allow people to “freely” share their games as allowed in previous consoles.

A major disappointment for PS4 owners would have to be the release date and the fact that they will now need to pay to use multiplayer via a PS+ subscription.

PS4 Full E3 Press Conference

The Full PS4 Reveal Keynote

Which side are you on?

This is no good, since oversized and bloated PowerPoint files can be difficult to share and challenging to upload for others to see. The performance of your slides can even suffer at times too.

So here we are – as the great Jon Bender would say, your slides are “pushing maximum density.” (What, I can’t make a Breakfast Club reference? John Hughes FTW!) In these cases, the culprit is almost always too many large images or media files in your slides. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix to get them down to size quickly.

The easy way to compress your PowerPoint files

First, simply choose an image (any one will do) to edit with PowerPoint Picture Tools (all you have to do is double-click the image to open this view).

Next, select the Compress Pictures option to the left of the tool bar.

The resulting popup will give you the option to compress the size of the image you selected (with the Email option being the smallest). By unchecking the “Apply only to this picture” option, you can reduce the size of all the images in your desk. Just be sure to consider how your presentation will be used when making your selection.

That’s all there is to it! Resave your presentation and you’ll see your PowerPoint file has been shrunk down to a much more manageable level. It’s as simple as that.

Download Our Free PowerPoint Animation Templates

Odoyo.com

According to Credit Suisse (via Fortune), the “wearables” market is poised to increase ten-fold in the next three to five years to $30B-$50B.

What’s a wearable, you ask?

A wearable is a smart and/or connected computer that you wear on your body versus carrying in your bag or in your pocket.

Some recent examples of wearables include the Fitbit Flex, the Pebble Smartwatch and of course, Google Glass.

And you better believe that there are more on their way. Not to mention apps and other accessories to use with the wearables.

Pretty soon tech gadgets will even be able to read our emotions and people may be able to wear “smart textiles” which measure vital stats without the need for an additional physical device.

These devices are generally considered part of the “Quantified Self Movement” in which a technological device collects personal data about everything you do (eat, sleep, exercise, etc.) to help improve your life.

Most of the wearables interact with your mobile phone or computer in some way. So, you wear the device and upload the data it collects onto your phone for tracking purposes. This allows the technology to detect patterns and help you keep track of your consumption.

But a big question arises when we start to talk about privacy concerns.

One of the biggest questions raised about these products is how much information is the company behind them collecting about individuals?

Also, how appropriate is it to wear a device like Google Glass to the movies or a concert where content is being created and could be recorded and shared illegally?

And how uncomfortable is it to be dining with someone who is wearing one of these devices?

I personally have enough of a challenge when my boyfriend checks email during dinner. I am not sure how I will feel when he gets Google Glass and is constantly interacting with it instead of me!

Tell us your thoughts in the Comments below…

The Four Considerations

If you are an avid Google Reader user, here are four things to look out for as you decide which alternative is for you:

1. Mobile and Tablet Support

Google Reader was launched in 2005 before the age of smart phones and tablets. As a result, support for mobile and tablet devices, as well as responsive design, have been an afterthought for Google. While Google did have a usable mobile interface, the mobile experience was sub-optimal compared to the desktop experience.

Many users who actively are sampling different Google Reader alternatives tend to test only on the desktop. In your next Google Reader replacement, look for a reader application that renders in an optimized manner for all three types of screens (desktop, tablet, and mobile).

2. Simplicity

Some Google Reader alternatives have taken the call to develop a replacement reader as an opportunity to add new features beyond the core capabilities of the original Google Reader. While we have seen some pretty innovative additions to feed readers, such as support for social media aggregation, some alternatives have taken this too far.

Unless you are a power user, be wary of Reader alternatives that suffer from feature creep resulting in cluttered interfaces and configuration settings you will never touch. First and foremost, your next reader should have a solid reading experience and allow you to read easily. The rest is just details.

3. Filters

One feature that the original Google Reader lacked is the ability to filter your feed within the reader. Filtering is important for cutting down the noise in high volume feeds by specifying keywords that article should or should not include, ultimately allowing the individual a more clean reading experience.

In the past, some power users utilized Yahoo! Pipes to filter out content from their feeds based on keywords, and then subsequently fed those feeds into their reader. If you have noisy high volume feeds, be on the lookout for a reader that has filtering built into the reader itself.

4. Data Portability

As you migrate from Google Reader to an alternative, you may want to export your data from Google Reader. In the import process, ensure that your most important Google Reader data is ported over such as the categories and not just the feeds. If not, then you’ll be spending some time re-setting up all your content before you can begin reading.

Where to go from here…

As a next step, go forth and try different reader alternatives keeping these four considerations in mind. Keep in mind the clock is ticking with less than two weeks left before you have to say bye bye to Google Reader.

Disclaimer: I am deeply interested in the topic of Google Reader alternatives, because my company, Curata, recently launched a Google Reader alternative, Curata Reader.

Zeus began circulating the net about six years ago, but has seen resurgence in recent months according to Internet security firm Trend Micro. The New York Times’s Nicole Perlroth reports that millions of computers are already infected, most of which are in the United States.

Much of this malware’s recent rapid disbursement is via links posted on Facebook. Culprits set up fake profiles and post links on popular fan pages or hack user accounts to spam links to “Friends.” In many cases, links take the user to a website where they’re prompted to purchase knock-off designer goods. After entering credit card info to complete the purchase, the victim’s credit card number (along with name and address) is sold or used to place fraudulent charges. In other cases, the website link takes the user to an infected page that installs malicious code when accessed by the unsuspecting victim.

The virus is also spread from compromised email accounts: the Trojan accesses an infected user’s contact list and then sends emails with links to malware-infected pages. The sender address is spoofed to appear as though the email was sent by the infected account, so anyone in the infected user’s contact list receives a message that appears to have come from a known source. If you ever receive a suspicious-looking email with a link or attachment, even if you recognize the sender, do not click the link. Instead, contact the sender to confirm that the email was truly sent by them.

Once infected, the Trojan virus runs silently in the background, harvesting users’ private data. In some cases, compromised systems redirect victims to dummy websites made to appear like the user’s bank or credit card account login page so that more valuable personal information (such as social security number, date of birth, address, etc) can be collected.

Many of the fraudulent links used to spread Zeus via Facebook in recent months have ended in .tk (where you’d typically see .com or .org). This domain indicates that the website is hosted via Tokelau, a small territory part of New Zealand which is, according to Jerome Segura of the anti-malware software company Malwabytes, “a hotbed for all sorts of online fraud.” As infected webpages are identified and blocked by browsers and/or antivirus software, cyber criminals simply set up a new web address, so there’s no easy way to eradicate Zeus and its variants from the net.

While Facebook has partnered with web security specialists WebSense and Web Of Trust (WOT) to identify, flag and alert users of potentially fraudulent links, it’s ultimately up to the user to exercise caution when clicking links on Facebook, in emails, or anywhere on the net. Keep in mind that links to Zeus-infected pages are cropping up all over the Web, from comments on articles or blogs to sponsored ads, so users must remain diligent about avoiding weblinks from anywhere but a completely trusted source.

Computer expert, Jay Yaneza for Trend Micro’s “TrendLabs,”  recommends that you bookmark trusted websites so that you don’t inadvertently mis-type an address and end up re-directed to an impostor site. He cautions that users should avoid visiting unknown websites and keep their system’s anti-malware software up to date to reduce the risk of exposure.

There are many ways in which the SaaS revolution has helped developers and software development companies improve scalability, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. While most established companies still stick to the traditional development model, new entrants in the market are making SaaS an integral part of their IT infrastructure. Why is SaaS becoming so popular among software developers? Here’s why:

Proven Technology

SaaS has gained popularity in the last decade, but the idea has been around for a long time. Security, data control, data loss, accessibility, and several other problems pertaining to SaaS have been solved. As long as the software developer subscribes to SaaS services from a reputed vendor that has a state-of-the-at facility and a good reputation, there are no hassles with using SaaS.

Renting Vs. Buying

Buying all the components needed for setting up an IT department can break the bank for most start-ups and small businesses, but renting the same services is an extremely viable option. Not only is the cost of renting a lot lower than the cost of buying, but the cost of upgrading is also covered in many instances. Upgrading one’s own components can be an extremely costly affair. So, using SaaS is the only alternative for some companies.

Image Credit

Fast Deployment, Limitless Scalability

Setting up infrastructure for a software development department can take a lot of time. A web browser and Internet access is the only requirement for a company that opts for SaaS. Conventional software can take weeks or months to deploy; the deployment of SaaS is almost immediate. On top of it, when the IT department wants to upgrade the software or increase the scalability, it can be done within hours.

No Maintenance Costs

The cost of buying server infrastructure and software can be high, but the day-to-day cost of maintaining the hardware and software can be even higher. Maintenance is a labor-intensive process and non-IT companies have no motivation or reason to invest money in it. SaaS vendors benefit from what is called multi-tenancy – they are providing the same service to thousands of companies. So, it is affordable for them to invest enough money in maintenance and upgrades.

Infinite Points of Access

As work-from-home and BYOD become important terms in the IT industry, it becomes important to create a secure infrastructure that enables users to access the software from any location. It is not too difficult to integrate security safeguards with SaaS, and as this approach enables the users to access the services from anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection. SaaS is the future.

To Conclude…

For large enterprises, as well as startups, SaaS can be the next step towards improved scalability and streamlined work flow. This system also offers a level playing field to software developers who want to work independently. No wonder SaaS is seeing high adoption rates in IT department and software development.

Getting your blog deindexed from Google stinks! Deindexing is when Google just simply doesn’t bother to include you in the listings and feigns ignorance about your content.

While there is no easy solution to recover from any Google penalty based deindexing (examples here), sometimes we self-inflict deindexing on ourselves when we have server issues, outages, site crashes, and other such technical headaches.

If Google visits you a couple times and finds your site missing, it makes obvious sense that it will remove you from the search results.

But what happens when you fix the site and need to beg Google to come back?

WP Indexer Review To The Rescue!

Let me start out by saying that this problem would eventually fix itself for the most part. Google will eventually sniff you out and poke through the site again. But sometimes you want an honest quick fix to a mess you’ve made and the downtime is costing you money.

We’re going to use this plugin a little “off label”.

Why you ask?

Because this plugin is intended to help you increase bot traffic to your site. It’s a maintenance sort of thing.

Yet we just want Googlebot to come find us, index us, and return to normal behavior.

In fact, we actually don’t WANT a perpetual spike in bot traffic because over-crawling can lead to excessive server load and… get this… more site downtime!

We want the RIGHT amount of crawling but what we need is a whistle to use to page Googlebot to come visit!

That’s where WP Indexer comes in!

What Is WP Indexer

WP Indexer is a plugin that steadily “walks” through your current posts, pages, tags, etc and checks if they are indexed with Google. If they are not, it sends a ping out in order to result in the bots visiting and getting that item indexed.

There’s a little bit more to it than that, but that’s really all you need to know.

This plugin looks for items on your blog that are NOT indexed in the Google SERPs and pings them to improve the odds that they will GET indexed.

Doing this by hand would be tedious, time consuming, and aggravating. But this plugin makes it smooth.

Installing WP Indexer

This is a reasonably advanced plugin and requires more care in installation than some. You MAY (I did) need to set your log file to 777 using your CPanel file manager (or FTP) and you may also need to route your cron scheduler through the cronjob utility.

This kinda stuff can be overwhelming for a WordPress newbie but any intermediate user can probably handle the task using the included PDF guide.

Once it’s correctly installed though, it’s a piece of cake to use.

Using WP Indexer

Install and activate the plugin. Adjust the (few) settings to your needs per the guide. And kick back and let it run!

Initially you’ll probably want to let it run at full speed (9 items checked every 15 minutes), but later you can slow it down to reduce server load.

There’s a lot more useful screenshots on the main page if you want to have a closer look.

Initially most of your posts will be unchecked. Over the day or two it takes to check your site, the graphs will adjust to tell you where you are at.

Easy-peasey!

Developer Support

There are two similar plugins on the market. I chose this one due to feeling much more confident about the developer and plugin history than the alternative.

It turns out I made a wise choice. The developer, Sam Wood, is friendly, supportive, responsive and all in all has turned out to be a pretty cool dude. Definitely a “would do business again” quality transaction.

The Guarantee

You’ve got a 30 day guarantee that the developer can help you get it working. You also have a guarantee that within 6 days of using it, you’ll have an increased number of pages indexed. A solid, measurable promise, using the “Indexed” report in Google Webmaster Tools.

My Results/Review Using WP Indexer

This product appears to do what it says on the tin. It was stable, carefully throttled, easy to configure and as easy to install as is “feasible” at this time.

Did I see an increase in indexed pages? No… but…

It turns out, that Google had already done a very nice job re-indexing my site after my server down-time. Because my site is high-volume and updated frequently, Googlebot hangs out here a LOT. My posts are indexed MUCH more rapidly than the posts of those that do not blog often.

The plugin double-checking things gave me some peace of mind.

I did discover that I have many WordPress tags (and by many I mean too many) and that Google is selectively ignoring most of them. Not uncommon and no fault of the plugin. I need to do some housekeeping and merge those tags as I did for categories prior.

We ran the same test against an established blog of a business partner of mine who had also had the same server outrage I had had. She noticed that it picked up a few posts that had been overlooked and she was overall pleased with it’s performance and handling.

Affiliates?

This plugin has an affiliate program with Avangate. Unfortunately, there is a $100 sales threshold making this plugin out of reach for marketers with small lists. (6 sales would be required to reach the payout threshold)

The License

At the time of this review, a one time purchase provides use on unlimited blogs and (as far as I can tell) provides lifetime upgrades. The plugin carries a commercial NON-GPL license and an “as is” disclaimer on the plugin code itself.

Use As Directed?

For me, this is not a plugin that I will be leaving to run in the background. If you’re a regular reader you know how I feel about “daily use” plugins and you know that the WordPress core is not optimized to run a lot of them.

If I were running an affiliate niche site and doing things that Google might not like – leaving the plugin running might enable it to (after it gets an upgrade) send me an email if Google deindexes the site. That would provide me with an early-alert system for trouble. But that is not trouble that is likely here on this blog.

Review Score?

I’m going to give this a 4.0 star rating. Knocking it just slightly for the installation challenges, affiliate platform, and also for still needing certain updates (that I believe are coming). Most of the other deficiencies that one might cite are made up for by superior dev support.

I think you’re going to be happy with this plugin.

I will say however that I am reviewing this plugin as a re-index tool. Creating higher-than-usual bot traffic on a daily basis isn’t actually my definition of a good idea. It has it’s uses, such as this, but it can result in severe hosting headaches as well with no gain in ranking or real visitors if it is not controlled for.

Are Web Searches a Computer Security Threat?

If you have a Google account, you probably know that Google monitors all web searches you make through Google. It’s obvious because Google lets you review your search history.

Less obvious is the fact that Google records web searches you make even when you aren’t logged in. That’s how Google’s auto-complete works—it uses Google’s enormous database of previous searches to guess what you’re trying to search for.

Google does not currently release search histories to anyone unless they have a government warrant—but Google operates in dozens of nations, so even if your country has strong privacy protections, some unsavory character in a less strict country could still get a warrant for your search data and reveal to the world what you’ve been searching for.

Of course many people would not even care about this. I know that if they tracked my searching habits it would be very boring and useless data.

Are Advertisements A Computer Security Threat?

Google runs the Internet’s largest advertising network and they do a pretty good job of it. Advertisers are generally happy with the results and publishers are generally happy with the income—but what about you?

You’ve almost certainly seen the Google ads (unless you use an advertisement blocker), but what you don’t see directly is that the advertisements are almost all buried in an iframe—a part of one website which gets incorporated into another. There are many obvious threats from your internet connection but not many people think about what happens when they visit a normal website.

When you view a webpage which includes a Google ad, you load Google’s ad from Google’s server. That means Google knows that you visited that webpage. Also, because Google indexes most pages on the Web, it also knows the rough content of that page. So if you visit a site related to model trains, Google knows you’re interested in model trains.

Model trains isn’t too embarrassing of an interest, but have you ever (accidentally or on purpose) visited a page about something you’d find very embarrassing? If that page had Google ads, Google knows about that page visit of yours.

From a publishers point of view, the more targeted the ad can be, the better.

Are Analytical Webmasters A Computer Security Threat?

Blocking Google ads with Ad Block Pro or other software is easy, so you can circumvent Google’s ad-based tracking and improve your Internet experience at the same time, but Google can probably still track you thanks to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is Google’s website statistics tool. It helps webmasters monitor and analyze their traffic so they can build better websites and earn more money. Again, it’s a great tool and webmasters love it, but it works by embedding a bit of Google’s code onto independent webservers, giving Google complete access to visitors on that website.

When you visit a website with Google Analytics code installed, Google can track you on that site in almost the same way it can track you using Google Ads, so once again Google knows what webpages you visited and what the rough content of that page is.

Google will even know that I have written this article by tracking me through their authorship features.

Other Google Tracking

Of course, then there are the more obvious forms of Google tracking you, such as GMail and Google+, where you actively give Google your information. If you use these services and let Google track you using search, ads, and analytics, Google will probably know more about you than your own family. It will probably know things you were too embarrassed to tell them.

Only you can determine for yourself whether or not that’s a computer security threat.

Last December, Nike announced a visionary new program called the Nike Accelerator. The program gave 10 tech startups three months to breathe new life into the Nike+ and NikeFuel product lines. On June 10, all their hard work was put on display at the Nike WHQ Demo Day, where three companies offered particularly compelling mobile solutions.

GoRecess: find fitness classes anywhere

New York-based startup, GoRecess, grabbed Nike’s attention by combining their mobile booking system with Nike+ to make finding the perfect physical activity easy and convenient. Inspired by dining and shopping apps like Urbanspoon and Google+ Local, GoRecess directs users to fitness classes in their immediate area.

The app also contains powerful search tools that allow you to refine results by criteria like time, location and workout type. And with the help of the Nike Accelerator program, GoRecess has already started implementing NikeFuel integration and a slew of other updates that will make for a more social, spontaneous and enjoyable workout experience.

CoachBase: develop a mobile game plan

Also taking advantage of the increased prevalence of mobile devices is CoachBase, a mobile app that lets coaches ditch their clipboards and felt-tip markers for a dynamic tablet solution. With the CoachBase app, coaches can use intuitive templates to create, revise and share playbooks over the internet with their entire team. CoachBase also makes team sports a more social endeavor by providing tight integration with the NikeFuel product line, letting coaches, kids, and parents view and interact with team activities. The only challenge will be keeping rivals from hacking into your playbook.

GeoPalz: motivating kids to stay active

Those of you who find it difficult to lure the kids away from the TV and into the great outdoors will certainly appreciate GeoPalz. The brainchild of three Boulder, CO parents, GeoPalz are tiny pedometers and speedometers disguised as cute creatures that attach to kids’ shoes. The unit tracks basic activity throughout the day and rewards the pint-sized participants with virtual coins they can use to play games or trade for gift cards and prizes. By integrating GeoPalz with the Nike+ system, the whole family can track their physical activity on a unified platform.

The Nike+ Accelerator program serves as a reliable blueprint for other companies wishing to foster mobile innovation. In three months, the participating tech startups have polished their products and secured funding from generous backers and venture capitalists. With ubiquitous brands like Nike supporting and providing the framework for mobile entrepreneurs, it’s a clear signal that wearable tech and mobile solutions are the future.

Grammar Shirt
By Grammatical Art

Many of us have heard the term “grammar nerd”, and if your father is just that, then check out Grammatical Art’s quirky punctuation t-shirts! These t-shirts display various types of punctuation and their meanings. They also come in regular t-shirts or American Apparel style shirts along with various sizes. Grammar and science geekery is the center of Grammatical Art’s shop, so make sure to see what other nerdy awesomeness Grammatical Art has to offer!

“You Are Here In My Heart” Vintage Dictionary Realistic Heart Print
By Collage-O-Rama

Whether your dad is a doctor or a lover of anatomy, Collage-O-Rama’s realistic heart print is an excellent and ornamental present! Printed on a vintage dictionary page, this bright red, anatomical heart is an edgy and realistic alternative to the cutesy heart, making it a unique image. With the message “You Are Here” and an arrow pointing to the heart, this print will not only display your father’s love of anatomy or other related sciences, but also displays your love for him. Collage-O-Rama’s shop is full of various prints on vintage dictionary pages, which are also perfect for fathers who love to learn or study and read.

Circuit Board Patterned Gadget Wallet
By Rock It Bot

Most nerdy dads are always into the latest gadgets and technology, so get your dad a circuit board pattern gadget wallet from Rock It Bot! This geeky gadget wallet is from Rock It Bot’s Nerd Herder line and has several pockets to put phones, money, cards, and other nerdy belongings in. With an elastic band, this wallet is a secure place to put precious gadgets in. Whether hooking it on a belt loop or keys, the convenient lobster clasp on this wallet allows for easy clip-on. This wallet can be customized in classic or extra large sizes.

Vegan 8 GB USB Bracelet
By Oopsmark

USB flash drives can be very important containers of precious family photos, documents, and more, but they can also be very easy to lose. With Oopsmark’s USB cuff bracelet, your dad won’t ever lose his USB and can also accessorize with the modern-styled bracelet! A stainless steel, USB key is displayed in the cuff, which allows you to easily slip it out and secure it back into the bracelet. The bracelet cuff is also vegan-friendly, which is a major plus for the environment and animals! You can find other colors for Oopsmark’s bracelets in its main shop.

Circuit Board Tie
By Scatterbrain Ties

Add a touch of geekery to your dad’s suits with Scatterbrain Ties’ circuit board designed tie! This microfiber tie presents an intricate, metallic copper and silver design that resembles a real circuit board. You can choose tie widths and colors for this tie to match suits or simply get your dad his favorite color tie!

“You’re The Best Dad Ever” QR Code Print
By Colorelish

Although it may look like an abstract art print, don’t be fooled! It’s Colorelish’s QR code print! QR codes are barcodes that are similar to vertical line barcodes on store products. When you scan this on a free QR reader on your smartphone, you can see the message “You’re The Best Dad Ever” appear in this QR code print. Like a secret message in a bottle, you can give your loveable, nerdy dad this secret message print in QR code instead of a regular greeting card this Father’s Day!

Upcycled PlayStation Controller Desk Organizer
By Green Cub

If your dad is a gaming nerd at heart, then give his office desk a little more personality with Green Cub’s upcycled PlayStation controller desk organizer! This desk organizer can hold pens and has a USB port. The LED light of this controller has been replaced with a special magnet for paper clips. Not only are these nerdy, but they are also eco-friendly. Green Cub offers different colored controllers, so check out the rest of the shop to find the perfect controller for your father’s desk!

Glowing Test Tube USB Night Light
By Ninja Production

Maybe your dad has too many dull home decor items that don’t display his fun, nerdy side, so spice it up for him with this glowing test tube night light from Ninja Production! This night light includes a wooden base, four clear test tubes, and a USB A-B cable that is adaptable to most USB chargers. The test tubes light up when the USB cord is connected to USB port. You can place water and a bit of food coloring into each tube to create the colorful light effect you see in the picture.

Floppy Disk Coasters
By Techno Chic

Decorate your dad’s office desk or dining table with nerdy floppy disk coasters from Techno Chic! These coasters come in a set of five and are made with white floppy disks that are covered in vinyl and applied with a cork base. Techno Chic also offers a rainbow floppy disk coaster set in its main shop along with coaster sets of six. Wrapped in cellophane and tied off with a ribbon, Techno Chic makes it an easy gift to present to your dad right away!

Engraved Periodic Table Cutting Board
By Elysium Woodworks

Science and cooking are perfect partners, and this cutting board from Elysium Woodworks shows it! This cutting board is engraved with the entire periodic table, which is a lovely presentation connection between science and cooking. Even while your dad is making your favorite meal, he can still show off his nerdy love for science. Elysium Woodworks also allows personalization to the 118th element on the periodic table for an even more one-of-a-kind present for Father’s Day!

If you inherited your dad’s nerdy genes, make sure to thank him for them along with your present for him! If not, make sure you thank him, anyway, for being his awesome, nerdy self. Happy Father’s Day!

So gamers aren’t little kids anymore. Sure, there are a lot of young gamers out there, but that’s beside the point. What’s important now is that the big gaming companies are entering the 8th generation of console gaming (Nintendo has a head start, but isn’t exactly doing spectacular with it). The biggest competitors are Sony and Microsoft.

Sony and Microsoft are now locked into a marketing and bragging battle about whether Microsoft’s Xbox One or Sony’s Playstation 4 console is the best for a consumer to buy. This is a battle over hundreds of millions of gamers’ dollars, and one in which mistakes can cost these companies quite a chunk of business.

Microsoft’s Mistakes

Let’s get to the problems Microsoft has created for itself as it unleashed its marketing for Xbox One. The most serious ones are as follows:

1. The console has to connect once every 24 hours to the internet or you cannot play any games.
2. The Kinect sensor must be connected at all times.
3. Lending or renting games and selling and trading in these games comes with annoying stipulations and is harder than ever.

Number One: Microsoft has implemented a form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) which many gamers and internet enthusiasts generally despise. The once-in-24-hours check-in required by the console to play the games a consumer has purchased has people angry. Microsoft is making a big mistake taking power out of the consumer’s hands and pushing a design that could inconvenience their customers.

Number Two: If the recent privacy and data snooping scandal involving the NSA is any indication, people are worried about their privacy. The new Kinect that Microsoft has packaged with the Xbox One has to be connected to play the system, but Microsoft didn’t do a very good job marketing this. Stephen Totilo on Kotaku writes, “The new Kinect can see in the dark, pick out human voices in a noisy living room and read your heart rate just by looking at your face… The thing has to be plugged in for the console to work, and is in some way already checking out what’s going on in the room it’s in.”

Consumers were confused after initial information about the device made it seem like the Xbox One and the Kinect had to be always-on and always-aware. That’s creepy. Microsoft had to come out and clarify that the system can in fact be turned off completely, but the Kinect still has to be plugged in for the system to work. For Microsoft’s sake one can only hope the rumor of an always-on and always-watching Kinect goes away sooner rather than later.

Number Three: Microsoft has really irked consumers with this one. Gamers have gotten used to buying and selling used games – it’s as simple as that. Now Microsoft has made it so that publishers decide whether games can be bought or sold. It also prevents anyone from trading or sharing games unless they’ve been friends with them for over 30 days on the Xbox Live network. Re-selling your games is also much harder than it used to be.

Gamers and Customers Feel Insulted

I’m a PC gamer myself, so I have no fan-boy interest in Sony or Microsoft. What I don’t like to see and what many other consumers don’t like, is to be treated a certain way by someone selling us something. The biggest problem with Microsoft’s marketing is that it has failed to convince customers the benefit from these policy changes. They also shocked gamers during the unveiling by focusing on TV and movies, not games. See this mocking summary/edit of the event here (prepare to laugh):

Forcing an internet check, locking people out of their games if it fails, preventing the easy sale, re-sale, and lending of games that customers believe they have a right to (they bought it, after all) has gamers shocked and angry. An IGN poll of 76,000 people found 75% were disappointed with the Xbox One reveal. Just take a look at some of these reactions culled from Reddit and the internet:

And another from Sony CEO Kaz Hirai:

Sony Keeps it Simple and Puts the Pressure on Microsoft

With all of these mistakes by Microsoft (intentional or not) Sony reps must be sitting in their offices with giant grins on their faces. At E3 recently, Sony fully unveiled the PS4 and all of its features.

Guess what? Sony’s PS4 has no used game restrictions, no restrictions on game-sharing, has a degree of backward compatibility, has generally better hardware, is $100 cheaper, is region-free, and will be able to play online or offline, without any form of DRM whatsoever. Gamers on forums all over the internet are talking about how all of these seemingly common sense offerings mean they will probably buy a PS4, not an Xbox One.

It looks like Sony has made a point to give their customers, the gamers, what they really want out of the next Playstation. Sony isn’t trying to push boundaries or change things that are familiar to gamers. Sony understands and knows its customers. They know the brand. They aren’t deviating from that with features that people don’t want or that they don’t need. It’s a smart move given the fact that gamers are generally more involved in online marketing and buzz than traditional consumers.

From this PS4 vs Xbox One battle going on over the last few days, Sony managed to make a piece of marketing gold. Everyone involved in advertising and marketing should see what I think is one of the cleverest, grin-inducing YouTube marketing videos I have ever seen. It features Sony’s CEO and some other guy. It’s perfect, to me, and shows that Sony isn’t afraid to hit Microsoft where it’s hurting since all of these blunders. Check it out:

One headline about the PS4 says: “PS4: No used game restrictions, no DRM, no internet connection requirements, Xbox One Dead on Arrival?” It might not be dead, but the marketing done by Microsoft hasn’t helped their cause. Business isn’t a friendly endeavor at all times. Sony is taking it to Microsoft in ways we haven’t seen in quite some time.

Oh and one more entertaining image encompassing the reaction among gamers to the PS4 vs Xbox One battle:

What do you think of Sony’s capitalizing on Microsoft’s blunders?

Pepsi’s new “Like Machine” gives out beverages in exchange for Facebook endorsements. Smartphone users stand by the machine and “like” the Pepsi Facebook page, and then choose the soda flavor they wish to try. Those without a smartphone can take the same steps on the machine screen. Either way, the soda pops out of the vending machine after the “like,” quenching consumers thirst and leaving Pepsi with their information.

The first machine was unveiled at a Beyonce concert. They explain the benefits of this genius marketing strategy in the video below: “Thanks to this new way of sampling, we know exactly who liked, tried, and enjoyed an ice-cold Pepsi.”

Pepsi’s “Like Machine” is actually about much more than collecting “likes.” This Facebook metric is directly correlated to engagement – they typically increase in tandem. This not only improves their social network presence, but also drums up brand visibility and buzz across the digital sphere. This affects social signals for SEO and benefits future campaigns.

So here’s a digital HIGH 5, Pepsi! We admire your marketing creativity.

Contact ZOG Digital to learn more about digital marketing solutions and strategy.

They are:

1. Security – This extends beyond just hardware and software security but also includes the people and process elements as well
2. Cloud Services – These are developing rapidly and IT services providers need to be able to help their customers navigate through the range of cloud services to the ones they need the most
3. Business Continuity – The management of incidents and problems from prevention through to resolution
4. Virtualisation – The separation of software from the underlying hardware resources provides more operational flexibility and increases the utilization rate of the underlying physical hardware.
5. Management and Support Services – These are service requests such as maintenance, back-up and renewal.

(N.B. the consideration here is that Big Data is more of a focus for Larger Enterprises and not for SMEs.)

Many IT services companies still have a strong focus on support and maintenance. The most recent version of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT Services Support Management identified that tools for the management of this support function will evolve in the following ways:

1. Optimization for mobile device usage for incident update and resolution, authorization approvals, and access to reporting and metrics
2. End-to-end visualization of hierarchical and peer-to-peer relationships of configuration items that deliver IT services
3. Social IT management capabilities that enable improved collaboration, generate ideas and share best practices
4. Integrated in conjunction with a larger, integrated IT service management vision
5. Advanced analytics capabilities to correlate service support performance with business outcomes

Taking such a view of where this crucial support function sits (i.e. within a framework that interacts with Business Continuity, Security, Virtualisation and Cloud services) speaks directly to Gartner’s 4^th point above and lays down a marker for IT services companies that support the SME market.

Having this vision will enable our client and other IT services companies to take advantage of market opportunities such as BYOD.

If you you are interested in the opportunities BYOD presents for IT services companies, you can get a copy of the dedicated complementary whitepaper by clicking this link BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the Evolution of Tin

Static Electricity During Computer Maintenance

The easiest way to permanently damage your computer is to shock a sensitive component with a static electric charge. Household static electricity is powerful enough to make you jump back in pain, but for a tiny computer part, that same charge is enough to destroy it.

When your computer case is closed, your computer is designed to either prevent static electric buildup or to discharge excess electricity safely. But when you open your computer case for maintenance, that protection disappears and the sensitive components will only survive if you play it safe.

To transfer static electricity from your body to a sensitive part, you (or something you’re holding) have to nearly touch the part, so if you stay away from sensitive parts, you won’t damage your computer. But if you do need to touch a sensitive part, you need to establish a ground path for your body’s static electricity which does not go through the electronics.

The easiest way to establish a ground path is to touch a conductive part of the computer case. Conductive parts are any metal parts which connect to any other metal parts. As long as some part of your body (but not your clothes) are touching the conductive part of the case, static electricity from you will go there rather than into the sensitive computer parts.

The easy way to remember this is that you should always keep one hand on the metal computer case whenever working on the computer. If you need both hands, computer repair shops will sell you a technicians grounding wrist cuff for just a few dollars. You connect the cuff to your wrist and the cord from the cuff to the computer case and it does the same thing as holding the case with your hand.

Installing Strange Tools

There are hundreds of programs on the Web which claim to help you do computer maintenance, but some of them are a scam—and some of them contain viruses and other malware.

Whenever you install any software from the Web, you want to only install it from a reputable source and you want to make sure your anti-virus software scans it before you install it. Unfortunately some people are desperate to speed up their computer so they listen to any old computer maintenance tips and often install a rogue program.

Remember To Unplug The Computer

The last cause of computer maintenance gone wrong that we’ll describe may seem obvious, but it gets a lot of people in trouble every year. (Including me, once.) You absolutely should unplug the computer from the wall before you do any hardware maintenance, unless you’re an absolute pro and working on a server-grade computer.

If you’re working on a laptop or other portable device, you should also remove the battery. Do this even if you think the battery is empty.

Disconnecting the electricity will absolutely ensure that the computer is powered off, so there will be no residual power running through the parts to shock you or them. It also forces the computer to go through the boot up cycle when the computer restarts, so new or changed parts (even supposedly hotpluggable parts) will be detected.

The one time I left the computer power on while doing computer maintenance, I managed to short out my video card, destroying both the video card and my monitor. It was a very expensive mistake for me and one I vowed to never repeat again during computer maintenance.

The entertainment console market is getting set to welcome the new “Xbox One” by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ/MSFT) and the “PlayStation 4” (PS4) by Sony Corporation (NYSE/SNE).

I just received an e-mail from Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE/BBY) to pre-buy the Xbox One for $499.00. I was going to pull the trigger on that deal—until Sony announced it would be selling its PS4 for $399.00. So, while I like my current Xbox over the current PS3, the $100.00 price difference will make consumers, especially those who favor the Xbox, think hard about whether to switch or remain loyal to Microsoft.

Of course, Microsoft could decide to cut its price to make sure it can retain its spot as the top seller of entertainment consoles. Or what I think could happen is that Microsoft may offer some sort of bundling deal that will see the buyer of the Xbox One get some freebies, which is always a good idea when new consoles are launched.

In addition to the console market, the videogame developers will also see a huge boost in their sales, as is generally the case when new consoles are introduced.

What will be interesting are the sales of games online via the console, which have been picking up. The sales of downloaded content and digital games increased 33% year-over-year in the United States and Europe. The key regions for online sales are the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which, when combined, accounted for $10.0 billion in sales in 2012, according to the NPD Group. (Source: Garcia, L., “Digital Video Game Market Growing Across The World,” Gameinformer, April 1, 2013, last accessed June 12, 2013.)

The rise in online digital sales is why companies like Microsoft and Sony are developing advanced consoles that easily allow the buying of content via the Internet. The money is made more through the content purchased via the consoles, and less on the sale of the console. This is why Sony is coming in with a cheaper console, as the company realizes that the money is in the games, movies, music, and other content purchased. Once a company sells its console, there are then expectations of associated revenue streams coming down the line—with its smaller price tag, Sony is hoping to boost console sales.

Just take a look at the new consoles and note the expanding marketplace where you can spend your dollars. You can even buy cards in stores for monetary use on the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PS systems to purchase games in the online marketplace.

So it’s going to be interesting to see how Microsoft reacts to the lower price for the PS4. You know something will happen, as Microsoft doesn’t want to lose out to Sony. (Read “Has Microsoft Found Its Savior?”)

Is your WordPress blog or site over 2 years old?

WordPress database bloat may be the hidden cause of a number of issues your blog may be experiencing!

(And even if it’s not causing you trouble yet, heading off trouble is a good-hygiene plan for a healthy blog.)

Safety Notice: We’re going to discuss changes to the database. These are not minor things. Never even look at your database funny without a backup. When in doubt, hire a professional such as myself to assist you with this type of work.

Recently, I was servicing a blog that was having a number of odd and hard to place issues.

It was reaching “that age” where a blog is just more fussy than it was in the beginning and requires more TLC and limited use of plugins to keep it fast, stable, and within hosting guidelines.

As I was working on the database, I had a minor w.t.f. moment when I realized the database backup size was nearly 100 MB compressed! And was over 1.6 Gigs extracted! Wowsers!

This isn’t uncommon, or hard to resolve, but it’s not a good state for the blog to be in as it sets the blog up for a wide number of issues including failed backups.

This is a look at the phpMyAdmin screenshot:

I know that’s small so I’ve linked the image to itself if you want to have a closer look.

Make a database backup before implementing any tactic below.

How To Fix WordPress Database Bloat

First Cause of Database Bloat: Extraneous Unused Plugin Tables

On the left hand panel, you see the names of the database tables.

If you knew the blog, you’d quickly remark that many of the tables have names that indicate that they are from plugins that are no longer in use. This is sloppy housekeeping on the part of the plugin coder. Sometimes it’s important, but many times plugins just leave their stuff hanging around and have no actual way to get it removed.

It is okay to see a lot of tables but be sure that they either belong to WordPress core framework itself or that they belong to plugins you are actually using!

The solution is to manually “DROP” these tables from the database. This can be done using a plugin that can access the database (security risk) or manually using phpMyAdmin which is part of your CPanel.

Second Cause of Database Bloat: Large Log Files

It’s hard to see it in this image, but the very bottom line in the screenshot belongs to wp_redirection_logs and has a size of 130,773. Wowsers! That size is bigger than many blogs whole database!

As is the case with many plugins that create (important) logs, the Redirection plugin has a feature that lets you limit the size of the log and clean (expire) the log after a certain point (or did last time I checked). Most logging plugins give you some manner by which to control for this.

The solution for this is to go into the plugin and alter its settings so that it clears out its log. Then recheck that it actually did what it claimed to do. If it did not, then the plugin needs removed and the database table for the plugin may need removed manually (see above).

Third Cause of Database Bloat: Post Revisions

Post revisions, which are different than auto-saves, are a feature that helps WordPress enable you to not only survive a browser crash but also to recover from massive changes to a post.

In this screenshot, you will see that wp_posts is 214,792 (compare that to my site which wp_posts is 9,142) and you quickly see an issue!

WP_Posts will always grow some as your site increases in the number of posts and pages present.

However, unfortunately, Post Revisions are not deleted and hang around forever and create tons of bloat.

The solution has 2 parts. I’ll talk more about this in an upcoming post. First, delete all current post revisions. Then, tell WordPress that it’s allowed to make only a specified number of revisions per post. Both can be done via plugin but it’s always better to do this manually when possible.

Organizing The Database House

Once you have made manual adjustments on the database, it’s recommended to do a repair and optimize on the database for health and stability of the site.

This is something that can be done via plugin but still requires a manual change to the wp-config so remains preferable to do manually as it’s built into WordPress. (Post on that soon).

Optimizing your database is a “good hygiene” technique for any established blog that can be done as often as once a month and helps ensure that things stay in good working order. (Minor database corruption – with data loss sometimes occurring – is very common and an optimization helps to head that off.)

If your blog is more than 2 years old, all of these are factors that you need to consider even if your feel that your traffic is low or your site is not that busy. These are things things that come about as a product of age rather than a product of traffic.

I’ll talk more about all three of these more technical items in another post, so be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what questions you may have!

Have you ever optimized your blog’s database?

PS: Outsourcing this is about an hour of billable time for a USA/UK/Aussie based WordPress specialist team. That means it will run you anywhere from $75 to $150 on average to be done that way. If you’d like to discuss my services, and having my team taking care of this for you, simply open a support ticket at http://support.just-ask-kim.com

For example, Google may have a complete list of every web search you’ve ever made. Think about that for a moment. If you’ve ever searched for something you wouldn’t want other people to know about, then Google releasing your search data could harm your reputation.

Is Zero Privacy A Computer Security Threat?

Some people don’t think the decreasing amount of privacy available on the Internet is a computer security threat. They point out that the only people regularly hurt by the lack of privacy almost all failed to use the available privacy controls. For example, many people who have been fired (or not hired) based on their Facebook pages simply did not make their profiles private. There is no doubt these people could have used some computer security tips or even some simple online privacy lessons.

But this argument only works if we assume things will continue as they are now. The problem with big corporations monitoring our private information is that they have access to the same giant and cheap hard drives we do, so they can effectively store our data forever. If you search for an average of 100 five-word phrases on Google everyday, that’s about 200 kilobytes of data Google can save about you every year. A single one terabyte hard drive can thus hold the annual search histories for about half a million people. There are about one billion Google users, so all Google needs is a measly 2,000 hard drives (an investment of $200,000) to store every single one of their customer’s search data for a year.

Computer Security Threats From Zero Privacy

Several years ago TiVo released data about Janet Jackson’s famous Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction.” In a press release, they published the exact number of viewers who had re-watched the moment of the malfunction.

Although that made for a good press release, what it told me was that TiVo know exactly which customers re-watched the malfunction—and that they could release that information at any time.

That may not matter to you if you have a reputation for viewing pornography, but if you have a clean reputation, the fact that you re-watched the moment when Jackson’s breast was revealed could ruin you.

It’s true that, if you have a clean reputation, you should actual live a clean life, but that doesn’t eliminate the computer security threat. How many people would have re-watched the malfunction if they know TiVo was recording their every move? How many people, in that case, would even own a TiVo?

Mitigating The Computer Security Threat

Preventing companies from tracking your digital activity gets harder and harder every year as we use more and more digital devices. Your mobile phone pings the nearest cell tower every minute or so, giving companies a rough idea of your location. (And that assumes you don’t use a GPS-based tracking service.) Google ads and analytics run on nearly every website, telling Google almost everything you do on the Web. Facebook has some of the world’s best facial recognition software—software so good that it can find you even when you don’t want to be found.

Maintaining complete privacy is now practically impossible, unless you give up the digital life, but there are a number of tools and techniques you can use, such as Tor, HTTPS Everywhere, and simple browser settings such as No Third-Party Cookies. You should also be aware that humans are often their own personal cyber security terrorist as they are not educated about information privacy.

But whether or not you take action, be aware that big corporations are keeping secret one of the biggest computer security threats.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by CarbonNYC

Qualcomm.com

Watch What You Say

Be responsible for what you are doing and saying online. You are part of an online community and you need to take other people and their privacy into account. be respectful of someone and what they are looking to do. Also by sending out hate messages you are opening yourself up to a wide world of pain. Everything comes back to you in the end.

Use Anti-Virus Software

You must use anti-virsus software on all your computers, for your own protection. If you don’t have it, then you need to do some research and find some protection. Even basic protection will do- Microsoft Security Essentials is a free anti-virus software you can download for PCs.

Be Careful When Opening Emails

When you get an email,if it’s from a source that you are not sure of, then you should delete it. Many times you will have third party sources that get ahold of your email and send you phishing scams and other disastrous links that can lead to viruses on your computer. If you notice something not right or you have no idea who the sender is, just delete the email. Additionally, don’t go in and try to unsubscribe from the mailing list. That is what they want you to do. Just mark it as spam.

File Sharing

Do not share your computer or your files with people you do not know. If you must share files, be sure to use a secure file transfer service. This can help make sure that your confidential files don’t get into the wrong hands, causing a security breach in your company or identity theft in your personal life.

Being smart and using common sense can help ensure that you are staying safe online. The bottom line is: if it doesn’t look right, don’t click on anything. Mark it as spam if you are using a mail service that allows you to do so. If not, just delete the email Some mail services also let you block email addresses, which might be a good idea.

photo credit: Darwin Bell via photopin cc

featured photo credit: dzarro72 via photopin cc

ITAD Risk #1: Data Breach

When a company’s or its customers’ sensitive data reaches the outside world, a data breach has occurred. This is a serious concern because frequent data breaches—or even a single one—can erode customer and investor confidence and force a company to pay costly fines and legal fees. Companies can significantly reduce the risk of a data breach through their IT asset disposition process by partnering with an ITAD vendor that has received AAA certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), the most respected third-party certification in the U.S. for secure and documented data sanitization.

ITAD Risk #2: Non-Compliance with Industry Regulations

Regulatory standards come in a variety of different flavors, depending on the industry: HIPPA/HITECH, PCI, SOX, FACTA, and so on. The unifying factor is that they generally value the privacy of consumer (and employee) information and have strict requirements for data security. Without an ITAD procedure that results in detailed, auditable records, companies lack important tools for defending themselves if/when they face an audit.

ITAD Risk #3: Environmental Violation

Even those who know nothing else about IT asset disposition are familiar with the stories of obsolete, toxic equipment stockpiled in landfills and being disassembled overseas under deplorable working conditions. It can be very costly when companies are found violating environmental laws or responsible recycling practices; the risks include having to pay fines, paying for cleanup efforts, and harmful negative publicity. Even if your company partners with an IT asset disposition vendor, your company could still be liable if your ITAD partner doesn’t do the right thing. The risk-avoidance strategy here is to look for IT asset disposition providers that have achieved either (or both) of the two leading certifications for responsible and legal environmental practices: e-Stewards and R2/RIOS.

ITAD risk, in-depth

Here we gave a brief overview of each of the potential sources of risk from IT asset disposition. For an expanded discussion, including more risk-avoidance strategies, download our free guide, “Guide to Minimizing the Risk of IT Asset Disposition.”