A way simple to ensure information security: strong passwords!

I saw a post on Facebook about changing your password to prevent social media born viruses and hacks and it occured to me that most non-geeks don’t really understand the necessity of nor the risk presented by poor password choices.

First, understand that the risks are real and a hacker, in the guise of a friend on mine on Facebook, tried to get me to send money during a chat session. Her account was hacked and the theives assumed her identity to solicit her network of friends. Fortunately, I’m very skeptical and would have had a very hard time explaining to my georgeous, amazing and sainted wife why I sent money to a woman that I met on Facebook!

Below is a link to an article I wrote for the Cincinnati Business Courier several years ago about password security, I strongly encourge you to read it, share it and follow it’s advice, especially as it pertains to strong passwords!

Don’t give hackers key to your computer system -
Most passwords easy for thieves to crack

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2003/06/02/focus13.html

Hope it helps keep your data and systems secure!

Great Quote

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” -  Thomas Edision

I am a huge Edison fan, he was a truly amazing man!

Making IT security matter

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/it_security_matter/

Businesses of all sizes increasingly collect data on their customers and ensuring the security of that data is critical not only to protect the interests of your customers, but also ensure that you are complying with government regulations and staying out of the press due to data breaches.

If you are in business and want to stay that way, you need to make data security a priority for your business!

Hackers exploit unpatched Adobe Reader bug

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128278

Here’s the security advisory from Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-01.html

Apparently, this bug affects versions 7, 8 and 9 of both Adobe Reader and Acrobat.  The best defense is to disable JavaScript in the applications until Adobe issues a fix, and the advisory explains the steps to do so.

Short of doing that, be very careful when opening and PDF from an untrusted source.

Attackers exploit unpatched Excel vulnerability

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128538&source=NLT_SEC 

See the security advistory from Microsoft, it explains the attack vectors such as opening an Excel file from a Web site or as an e-mail attachment.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/968272.mspx

Apparently the following version of Excel 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007 on Windows, and Excel 2004 and 2008 on Mac OS X, are vunerable.

Bottom line, until Microsoft issues a fix (available at http://update.microsoft.com), be very careful when using Excel file from an untrusted source.

Press Release on KY HB 347 from KYITA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

KY State House Voting yet another Tax Increase during Recession

Frankfort, Kentucky – 2/23/09- In a time when Kentucky businesses and citizens are fighting to survive, the KY House wants to rush a vote on HB 347 which dramatically increases the reach of sales tax into digital media and related services. 

The addition of this new Sales Tax will

·         Make all Kentucky businesses less competitive by driving up costs which are passed onto consumers.

·         Double the tax burden on businesses during a recession

·         Burden small businesses with unknown compliance tracking requirements and costs.

·         Cut high paying Kentucky jobs as businesses leave for friendlier states.

·         Be a direct contradiction to the stated economic goals of Vision 2015 and the KY Dept of Economic Development

“An unnecessary tax increase during these tough economic times is not good for business,” says Chris Sturm, Board Member of the Kentucky Information Technology Alliance (KYITA) and a KY small business owner.   

HB347 extends 6% sales tax to new areas including digital property and related services.  HB 347 defines related services in vague terms that could reach virtually any industry that provides products or services over the Internet such as banking and accountants. 

Tier 1 Performance located in Covington, KY is recognized as the 2009 Connect Kentucky Small Technology Business of Year and has created over 40 high paying jobs.  Normand Desmarais, Chairman and Cofounder, commented that, “An increase in taxes definitely influences our ability to create new jobs.  Tier 1 wants to help Kentucky build a pro business community that invites and encourages business growth.  Tax increases create a barrier to growth and could act as a disincentive to bring other technology based companies to Kentucky.

The KY House of Representatives is considering a vote on HB347 as soon as Wednesday.  Many organizations such as the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce are in opposition of the tax increase in HB347.  Contact your KY representative by calling 1-800-372-7181 or visit http:///www.lrc.state.ky.us to find your legislators.
To read the proposed bill go to http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/09RS/HB347.htm.

 

Contact:
Chris Sturm

859-630-7038

csturm@capitalsoftwareinc.com

KY HB 347 is Bad for Kentucky Businesses… All Businesses

If you do business in Kentucky and conduct business over the Internet, even in a tertiary way, you need to understand the negative ramifications this bad bill could have on your business!

House Bill 347  dramatically redefines eligibility for sales and use tax and a review by Northern Kentucky business leaders of the byzantine language of this bogus bill has led many of us to conclude that if could increase taxes on any business that provides a product or service over the Internet.

Stop for a moment and imagine any or all of the following items subject to new taxes:

• Electronic media such as a  webinar you conduct for clients
• Service contracts your business offers to customers that involves service or products through the Internet
• Ongoing service provided for a digital product purchased or services through the Internet
• Downloading your bank account reconciliation information
• Uploading information to your accountant
• Exchanging contracts with your attorney
• Software as a Service (SaaS) applications
• Stock photography services
• Web services and EDI based services that exchange information between companies
• Information available for purchase from newspapers and magazine
• Who know what else greedy politicians who have an insatiable thirst for your money might try to tax under this bill!

Due to the vague, open-ended language of this bill, it seemingly could be construed to cover virtually anything provided through the Internet.  Even if the language is not as open-ended as is currently appears, your costs may go up substantially due to the need to have more accountants and attorneys review every single business transaction to ensure that they are not subject to this new tax! New costs that businesses simply don’t need and can’t afford!

Northern Kentucky Tech leaders are painfully aware of the chilling effect this bill will have on business and job creation, especially in light of the current recession. Chris Sturm, President of Capital Software (one of our business partners) said “Taxes if not kept in check tend to expand not contract.  This type of legislation seems to directly contradict all the incentives the state is putting in place to draw new businesses to Kentucky. ” I couldn’t agree more!

Apparently, the legislators on the A&R committee who voted this bill out of committee 19-3 last Tuesday do not understand that this bad legislation completely contradicts the efforts of other business and government leaders to bring new jobs to Kentucky and is in clear opposition to the stated goal of Vision2015 to create 50,000 new high paying jobs in Northern Kentucky. Many of these 50,000 new jobs would by necessity be tech jobs and this bill will help to ensure that goal is NEVER REACHED! 

This goal will not be reached because the paying jobs they hope to create are not bound by traditional geographic boundaries.  With web-based collaboration and communications, these jobs can exist anyplace.  And as such, these jobs will naturally gravitate toward business friendly environments with likeminded thinkers and talent.   Not only is this bill counter to the goals of Vision 2015, but it also runs counter to Kentucky’s own Department of Commercialization and Innovation, which is funded by tax dollars to enable high technology companies.

 In fact, any business owner who is already burdened with cumbersome, unnecessary regulations and punitive taxation knows that this bill and others like it, especially when our econony is already in tatters, will most likely produce the following results:

• Businesses that can will pass the new cost onto consumers, causing them to purchase less and resulting in a new loss in revenue and taxes.
• Jobs will be cut to offset the overhead of the new tax and the cost of complying with it.
• Kentucky will lose businesses that elect to move to a business friendly state to avoid taxes, and for tech businesses, the very kind that we claim we want more of, location is not important and moving is easy!

The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, seeing the potentially dire consequences of this bill, took emergency action at a board meeting last week and voted unanimously to oppose this bill (for the sake of disclosure, I am a Chamber Board member).

 Again if you do business in Kentucky, this bogus bill could significantly increase your costs.  I urge you to read House Bill 347 and immediately call your representative at 1-800-372-7181. You can leave a message for any Kentucky official expressing your concern for Kentucky businesses and jobs. Alternatively, you can find your legislators and read the text of any bill through the LRC web site at: http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/Legislators.htm.

***UPDATE***

This bad bill passed yesterday in the house along party lines with the final vote being 69 -25 and 6 not voting.

Yes votes 
 Royce Adams (D), Dry Ridge
Dennis Keene (D), Wilder
Tom McKee (D), Cynthiana
Rick Rand (D), Bedford
Arnold Simpson, Covington

No votes:
Joe Fischer (R), Ft. Thomas
Tom Kerr (R), Taylor Mill
Adam Koenig (R), Erlanger
Sal Santoro (R), Boone Co.
Alecia Webb-Edgington (R), Ft. Wright
Addia Wuchner (R), Burlington

Please thank the represenatives who votes against this bill! 

Now we need to turn our attention to the Senate!  It looks like the bill will head to the Senate A&R Committee, whose members are listed below:

APPROPRIATIONS & REVENUE (S)
Sen. Charlie Borders (R), Chair
Sen. Bob Leeper (I), Vice Chair
Sen. David E. Boswell (D)
Sen. Tom Buford (R)
Sen. Denise Harper Angel (D)
Sen. Ernie Harris (R)
Sen. Dan Kelly (R)
Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr (R)
Sen. Vernie McGaha (R)
Sen. R.J. Palmer II (D)
Sen. Joey Pendleton (D)
Sen. Tim Shaughnessy (D)
Sen. Brandon Smith (R)
Sen. Robert Stivers II (R)
Sen. Gary Tapp (R)
Sen. Elizabeth Tori (R)
Sen. Jack Westwood (R)

Please contact your senator and the members of the A&R committee and tell this to oppose this bad bill!

Finally, if you’d like to join our growing coalition of Northern Kentucky business and tech leaders who are working to stop this bill, please e-mail me at dhatter@lilbertastechnologies, or call me at 859-912-2399.

Study: Data breaches continue to get more costly for businesses

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127147&source=NLT_SEC

From the article: “Average cost of breaches hits $202 per stolen record, according to Ponemon report”

If you own a business or have P/L responsibility, this is a must read article! More businesses of all sizes, I’ll be yours included, collected more data than ever before and this trend will only increase in the future.  What are you doing to ensure that the customer information you are collecting, even if it’s only in a spreadsheet or e-mail to ensure that it is secure?

If your network is breached and your data is comprimised, can your company withstand the PR crisis?  Will you be sued?  Will your customers continue to do business with you?  Could you face prosecution by the government? In short, will your business survive? 

You need to understand the risks and take adequate precautions!

Internet Explorer 8 is pending: Is your web site compatible?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2067&tag=nl.e540

Internet Explorer 8 is imminent.  If you have a web site, you need to read this article and prepare your site.

WSJ: Business Solutions – Smart Ways to Cut Costs

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123447746452479451.html?mod=djemSB

This article is absolutely correct, technology when applied wisely and through the prism of return-on-investment, payback period, cost savings and revenue generation can have a huge impact on a the bottom line of a company.

I can attest to this from the first hand experience of helping dozens of companies save or make money through the smart application of technology and we have dozens of testimonial letters to that effect.

They key is to determine which business processes can be improved upon if necessary, then automated to help save money, make money and/or make it easier to do business with your customers, which in turn, makes it harder for them to replace you. all the while remaining focused the the business reason for the technology.

In other words, technology for business sake, not for the sake of technology.