Category: Business Tools

Security Risks Social Networking Sites Pose To Businesses

Facebook, Google+ et al could further increase the risk factor associated with businesses, owing to their imprudence on the security front

Social networking sites are sort of like the hanging out hubs of hackers. For what seems like ages now, at least as far as the timeframe of the tech realm is concerned, hackers have penetrated social networks and while they have a nice chitchat with their chums who also belong to the hacking creed, they also stealthily wreaked havoc with the privacy and security of the users on these social networks. Computer and Internet monitoring have spread like fire over the past decade or so, with a regular barrage of spam messages ensuring that not only individuals, but also businesses succumb to the hackers; maneuvers.

Socializing With Spam

All of us have, at some point in time, come across spam messages on our news feed and even on our wall posts. And while you might not have been hacked by these spam messages, and it might seem like only a slight inconvenience, but as far as hackers are concerned it is something a lot bigger and a lot more brutal. For, you see, hackers have made a business out of these spam messages and extracting confidential business data through them. And it;s not as if they remotely install keylogger to extract invaluable business info, it;s something a lot more simplistic, and as far as social networking sites are concerned, something that illuminated their imprudence on the security front.

Okay, But How…?

The menace might be highlighted time and again, but one goes beg the question, how does a fake Facebook message lead to the capitulation of businesses? It all starts with a staff member liking a controversial page or video, which directs them to another phony login page, and when they enter their user names and passwords, the hackers steal them. After one staff member has been hacked, it is child;s play for hackers to hack into the whole network of the firm, especially with the prevailing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) exercise. So yes, no keylogger involved but the effect can be conjured up, and with multiple times the menace.

Extinguishing Trust

A successful spam maneuver can lead to around 200,000 people being trapped and when victims of different such hacking acts are added up it could add up to a massive database of infected users. This database can be used by the hacking groups to sell confidential business information or trade secrets to rival companies and get a hefty payday. This is precisely how hackers have been able to make a successful market out of their ;skills;; by exploiting user naivety, security lapses and the diminishing user-social network trust. Trust is one of the foremost factors that helps any social networking site muster users, and when that goes out of the window – thanks largely to the variably dangerous arrays of computer and Internet monitoring – the credibility and indeed the user-friendliness of the social networks comes into question.

Spamming Businesses

Granted individual privacy is also extremely significant, but when social networking follies lead to the destruction of businesses, the shortcomings of the securities of social networking sites become all the more fatal. Operations like ;stranded spam message; have resulted in many a business biting the dust. And even though tech savvy users are smart enough to ward off such operations, every office has its fair share of buffoons who are idiotic enough to let their accounts being hacked and in turn open up an inlet for the hackers to make their firms the practice playground of their hacking activities.

About the Author: This article is written by Natalia David. You can follow her on twitter @NataliaDavid4

Five More Apps Every Small Business Owner Should Have

Small business owners are some of the most hard-working people in the world. Not only do they have to market their products and keep customers happy, but they are often in charge of managing all the little details behind the scenes. The good news for my fellow entrepreneurs is that there are numerous tools available on the internet that can help get things done and keep a business running smoothly.

We put up a blog post back in March that listed five of the best apps for small business owners. Today, I’d like to add to that post with a list of five more apps every small business owner should have. These apps are all cheap and effective.

Box.com

Box.com is an online storage, file syncing and collaboration tool that I consider a must-have for every small business. The most useful feature of Box is its ability to sync your most important files across multiple computers and mobile devices. This eliminates the need to e-mail documents to yourself whenever you want to take them with you on your laptop or smartphone.

Additionally, Box.com can be used to back up important files. Every document that you save in your local Box folder is automatically backed up to the cloud for safekeeping. You can also invite collaborators to your shared folders for easy online collaboration.

Box.com offers a free plan with 2 GB of storage space. You do not need to give them your payment information; just sign up and download the software. Many people are able to get by with the free plan for a long time. If you decide to upgrade, paid plans are all reasonably priced.

Aweber

Aweber is an online newsletter management system. In short, Aweber.com helps you create a database of customer e-mails and send regular newsletters to your subscribers. This tool is useful for both web-based and brick-and-mortar businesses. Newsletters help you keep in touch with customers, build trust and upsell new services.

A subscription to Aweber costs $19 a month for up to 500 subscribers. After that, you can upgrade for an extra $10 a month for larger e-mail lists. Although small business owners may be reluctant to take on additional payments, I am fully convinced that Aweber pays for itself if used to its full potential.

A Virtual Office

A virtual office allows you to take advantage of a legitimate office space without spending money on expensive real estate. Virtual offices provide working space, conference rooms, internet access, a business mailing address, phone assistants and the opportunity to work alongside other small business owners.

The prices for virtual offices vary greatly depending on your needs. You can get a virtual phone line for a few dollars a month or spend a couple hundred a month for your own office space. Just run a Google search for virtual offices in your city to learn more.

The greatest benefit of a virtual office is that it lends additional credibility to your business. You can set up a professional mailing address, meet with clients in an office setting and host conferences in large meeting rooms. This is a must-have for the small business on a budget.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is similar to Microsoft Office except it is completely free. LibreOffice is 100% free to download and use. It supports Microsoft Office file extensions and comes with a word processor, spreadsheet tool, presentation tool, Photoshop-style image editor, database tool and an equation editor.

If you’re in dire need of an office suite similar to Microsoft Office but don’t have the funds to make the purchase, LibreOffice is the answer. You can learn more and download it at LibreOffice.org.

Monitter

Monitter is an awesome tool if your small business has a presence on Twitter. This free tool allows you to monitor specific keywords on Twitter related to your business. You can look for generic terms related to your business or for your business name specifically.

Best of all, Monitter.com can narrow down searches to a geographic location. This comes in handy if your business has a common name and you don’t want to see Twitter results from other companies located around the world. You can try it out at Monitter.com.

About the Author: Wes Burns is an internet marketer and online entrepreneur. He is currently working on an online file storage site that provides reviews, tech news and tips for the online storage industry.

Make Your Small Business Slimmer with Cloud Computing

With cloud computing, a small business can reduce the amount of overhead it shells out in file collaboration, online backup and capital expenses. When using traditional computing models, a company would have to provide quite a substantial capital outlay just to get started. Not only were physical servers required, but everything needed to get them going would also have to be paid for in advance, including hard disks, memory, operating system software and user applications. In addition to the servers and their required components, all of the items necessary to create a data center would also have to be purchased up front. Equipment such as server racks, cabinets, networking hardware, power cables, cooling systems, security systems and other data center-related components can quickly blow a project’s budget. The initial bill alone is enough to put off many start-ups from even starting up!

small business cloud

You Get What You Pay For

Cloud computing changes all of this, providing a “pay-as-you-go” model for computing services. When using cloud computing, a company only has to pay for the resources it actually consumes. There is no longer a need to purchase, install and deploy massive amounts of hardware and software just to get started, only to discover one’s project is either over-built or under-supplied. This pay-as-you-go model allows a project to shrink and grow its demand for both processor time and network bandwidth. A company no longer needs to constantly pay for running idle servers days on end. When a cloud-based server is not being used by one cloud computing customer, it can be allocated to another. This trait, known as scalability, is a fundamental characteristic that makes cloud computing what it is. Why spring for server hardware when you can better use that money for VoIP phones or LiveDrive’s online storage solutions?

What Scalability is All About

Scalability works by allowing a cloud provider to share all cloud resources amongst multiple clients. With cloud computing, computing and network resources are housed in a data center just as they are in traditional deployments. The biggest difference is that cloud computing servers are typically hosted by a cloud provider who rents them to multiple clients instead of just servicing one client. Cloud servers tend to make use of virtualization software that allows multiple systems, known as instances, to operate concurrently on the same hardware. This scheme allows multiple customers to each have the appearance of running on their own separate computing servers even though all instances actually share the same storage, memory, networking hardware and processors being used by a single cloud server.

Cloud Computing the Timeshare Way

The cloud computing model can be thought of as being analogous to a condo timeshare. All timeshare owners claim title to a given unit but don’t actually make use of it at the same time. Each is given full access to the unit’s bedrooms, appliances, utilities and recreational facilities, but only for a certain time. When that time is up, they vacate the unit and allow the next set of owners to occupy the unit. The same goes for cloud computing instances; each instance gets to “occupy” the cloud server for a given amount of time before it must vacate and give way to the next occupant. The biggest difference between switching cloud instances and timeshare occupants is that cloud instances switch within milliseconds instead of days or weeks.

About the Author: This article is written by Danny Cheston

Company House: a Key for your Small Business

A company can leak out unnecessary cash-flow in a multitude of ways: how you deal with your suppliers and what you know about them can surprisingly make a big difference in the great scheme of things.

Sound and Safe Suppliers

‘You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends’. A more appropriate business maxim would be ‘You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your suppliers’. All new suppliers to the business should be examined in detail, to ensure that they are technically sound and have the experience and reputation to deliver on their goods or services. A supplier should also be financially stable and have a reliable payment history with their other creditors.

company house

Companies House is an excellent place to start investigating potential suppliers. A database of two million limited companies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, it contains business documents that are up to date and is also an affordable way to ensure that the right supplier is selected. For £4 per month, the database of 260 million documents dating back 10 years is available here at the click of a mouse. There is also a free database that contains information about the company, such as the date of incorporation, insolvency history and previous business names. You can also source companies house information for free using sites such as Duedil.com

A credit check can also be an excellent way of getting an up close look at a supplier. Ask for references from previous creditors and follow up on them. Also, when you get a credit check you should always bear in mind that this information can be up to six months old. If the company is a part of a subsidiary, then consider asking the holding company for a formal guarantee.

Combining this process with a careful planning of the office and the workflow, checking up on competitors using Companies House are two ways that a business can avoid bleeding out money. So take control with these ongoing and vigilant processes.

Database Management for Small Businesses

Database management is defined as the maintenance of various types of records like employee details, vendors’ list, customer database etc. Anne Kerven, had mentioned in Colorado Business Magazine, that it simply entails the transference of the contents of file cabinets into an electronic format. That simplistic statement spawned a multimillion dollar industry dealing with database management and relevant solutions. This is a service that is required by virtually every company that has the need to maintain its records in a professional manner and leverage that database to maximize productivity and profit.

Databases can be of various sizes. They can range from a few hundred entries or lists stored on an individual hard-drive, to thousands of terabytes worth of data that is stored on large mainframe computers maintained by corporate giants. The primary benefit of using database management software is the ability that is afforded to each employee of an organization to locate and access stored data, however old and remote, in a matter of moments. Previously, the data based reports that took days, even weeks to be compiled by specialized technicians. Today, they are compiled by ordinary employees in minutes.

Choosing the Right Database Management System for a Small Business

As a small business owner, if you are thinking about buying database management software, you need to ask yourself two things before you actually make a decision. They are, the kind of reports that you would require from such a system and what you hope to get out of it. These questions being answered would help you in determining the type of database that you would need to maintain. Furthermore, you would also get an idea about the kind of information or data you would gather and what fields you need to create to do that. It is also a prudent decision to start small, for example a mailing list, to acclimatize yourself to the task of database management. Once you master it, it will be easy for you to move on to more complex tasks.

The moment when you have identified what you need out of a database management system, you can move on to selecting the right kind of software to get the job done. If, by any chance, you are proficient with computers and the database that you need to maintain is a simple one, you could easily choose from the software packages available to the market and identify the one that suits your needs the best. Otherwise, it is a good idea to involve professionals to help you to decide.

Types Of Database Management Software

Most databases serve two basic functions- warehousing and transactional. Databases that deal with transactional data are built with relative ease, and perform simple tasks such as keeping tabs on the availability of parts or product. Warehouse database, on the other hand, collect any data related to company matters, like sales history and hiring statistics.

Experts say that the simpler software you end up buying, the better, because by buying a ready-made and non customized software, you will be spending a lot less money. But that approach has its tradeoffs. Your business might have a unique model and hence unique requirements which can’t be met by ordinary generic database management software. This is where the expertise of a specialized data base service provider, in designing customized database software to meet your needs, can help you.

About the Author: Penny is an expert associated with Emergingpower2, which offers reliable and secure database management services for businesses. Visit the website to know more about how you can use the company’s services.