Mac Planet: Management on shuffle

New Zealand seems a very long way from California, where Apple is based, sometimes, but every now and again we get a first - this time around, we're the first country in the world to get iPad 4 and mini on sale.

Meanwhile, in distant Cupertino, Apple seems to be shuffling more decks than one: not just the iPad and Mac lines, but top management staff, too.

Apple explained all this by talking about new responsibilities for current top managers.

Apple's vice president of retail John Browett is gone. Previously, Browett was CEO of Dixons, a UK retail electronics company apparently regaled for substandard customer service. Browett was always considered a surprising choice: once at Apple he promptly ignored advice about staffing levels and started making cuts and other changes. When the word got out that he was effectively stripping Apple retail of its 'Apple-ness', the staffing order was rescinded.

Possibly this is one reason Apple's Annual Retail Conference was cancelled at short notice, but that's speculation.

Management changes echo the fact that Apple has to effectively recreate some products to correct a recent string of failures, most notably the iOS6 Maps debacle, but also difficulties with Siri (which I always considered a hugely ambitious enterprise).

So-called 'skeuomorphic design' has been roundly criticised. I would better characterise this as 'that horrible faux leather' look on Mac OS apps like Contacts and Calendar. Basically, it's making software look like real-world equivalents. Apparently, the impulse for this visual yetch was Jobs himself, but who knows?

Other examples abound - the Note apps looks like a yellow legal pad. In iOS, the Find Friends app is decorated with what's supposed to look like sewn leather. The new Podcasts app actually has a reel-to-reel tape playing as you listen (at least it looks like a Bauhaus-styled tape player). The Compass and Voice Memo apps appear as quasi-realistic compass and microphone. Game Center has a green felt texture with wood trim. The iBooks app looks like a wooden bookshelf ... not so bad in themselves, perhaps, but they all clash with the visual aesthetic of the minimalistic and clean-lined hardware that hosts them.

Of the staff to get the chop, the most significant is Scott Forstall. When Steve Jobs passed away, it was said that the main people at Apple each embodied significant aspects of Jobs: Cook was the details man, Schiller the engineer, Ive the designer - and Forstall was the evangelistic enthusiast.

Apparently he also had an ego to match not just the enthusiasm, but also the ego of the younger Jobs, at least. (The older Jobs did at least apologise for mistakes.) Cook apparently dismissed Forstall after he refused to sign a public letter to Apple customers apologising for the mapping software's flaws ... so Cook had to sign the letter himself. Ouch. Forstall oversaw the mapping software, not to mention Siri voice-recognition.

Those who worked for Forstall seemed to be loyal to him and certainly put in the hours; relationships with other management was a different matter. Several senior executives left Apple because they found working with Forstall difficult, according to former Apple employees. The mapping missteps were the final straw, people said.

As Bloomberg reported, "Forstall was effectively a component of friction in Apple's otherwise very collaborative senior management structure," said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co.

Apple shares dropped on the news,and dropped again once the New York Stock Exchange reopened after the storm, but concerns about Apple being able to maintain its competitive edge against Amazon, Google and Microsoft might be squashed once the iPad mini is on sale. If Apple reports strong initial sales of the iPad mini after the weekend launch, the stock price wil probably jump back up.

Executives Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Bob Mansfield and Craig Federighi now all have to take on added management responsibilities, according to Apple, which may be a a good thing. Or not, since we can only imagine the workloads they were already carrying.

As for Jony Ive, he gets more power over the whole of Apple's device look and feel, as he also now has the responsibility for 'human interface', aka the software that governs how customers interact with their Apple devices. Before he died last year, Jobs controlled that experience, melding input from disparate teams. Forstall ended up somewhat in this space, but in the latest structure, it's definitively Ive, making him the creative integration point for both hardware and software. This was one of the more important roles Jobs played himself.

Craig Federighi is one of the less familiar names in Apple's top team. He was only recently elevated to the company's executive team, but before that played a crucial role in OS X for many years. He has been running the Mac software division since the departure of Bertrand Serlet last year.

Siri and Maps have been assigned to senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, who previously assumed control of both MobileMe and iAd after those services' somewhat lacklustre performances.

He's most likely the right person for the job; the major complaints for both Siri and Maps seem to be more about the service aspect than the software itself, so we should expect to see both Siri and Maps improve their capabilities in future. CEO Tim Cook said in the company's financial results call last week that Apple has already spent time and effort to bolster Maps, and that it won't stop "until Maps lives up to our standards."

Bob Mansfield is to lead a new group called Technologies, which combines all of Apple's wireless teams across the company in one organisation, fostering innovation in this area at a higher level.

It's unclear exactly what falls under the purview of Mansfield's new Technologies group, but the broader implications are clear, since wireless technology is perhaps the most key component of current and forthcoming Apple devices.

What's missing from this team, you might ask? I hope it was as obvious to you as it is to me, and I think it's a serious issue: no women.

But for the rest, take heart, Apple fans - all the changes underline that Apple is at least focussed squarely on its products.

By Mark Webster

DDoS, SQL injection discussions trending in hacking forums, study finds

Hackers are continuously chatting on hacker forums about attack techniques, and one new study is attempting to shed light on the threats to enterprises that matter most.

Cybersecurity legislation mired as executive order looms

The 112th Congress is in a virtual state of paralysis after having balked at several opportunities to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed hope recently that progress could be made during the post-election lame duck session, but experts familiar with the legislative process believe the chances of that happening are slim at best.

"The only cybersecurity bill I can see possibly moving in the lame duck session is the Cyber Information Sharing & Protection Act (CISPA) passed by the House earlier this year," said Internet Security Alliance President (ISA) Larry Clinton, who frequently briefs Congress and the White House on cybersecurity policy issues.

ISA's mission is to integrate technology and business needs to promote public policy addressing cybersecurity at the national level. The organization represents organizations from the aviation, communications, defense, education, manufacturing, technology and financial sectors.

"CISPA is the only bill in the current Congress that enjoys true bipartisan support and addresses an issue the House, Senate and the Administration all agree needs to be addressed: information sharing," Clinton told SearchSecurity.com: "Moreover, this bill takes an approach broadly supported by industry of using incentives rather than government-centric and determined mandates to promote good security behavior."

CISPA is problematic though, having been spurned by a host of civil liberties groups for being too vague in its wording, for enabling the monitoring of private communications with no judicial oversight, and for allowing the private sector to hand over a multitude of information otherwise protected by privacy laws.

Clinton believes there is little chance of passing the bill during the lame duck session given how much work still needs to be done to gain enough support, noting that "it's almost impossible to see how a bill that big, complicated and controversial can get passed in a couple of weeks when it couldn't even get to the floor during the previous two years."

Realistically, the opportunity for the passage of legislation will come in the next session of Congress, probably in the form of a revamped Cybersecurity Act of 2012, Clinton said. He pointed to a bipartisan group of senators led by Democrats like Coons, Whitehouse and Blumenthal who worked with Republicans like Coats and Lugar to reform the original bill.

"This group did not really have enough time to transform the bill enough to make it politically practical to move forward this year, however the existence of a truly bipartisan group more in tune with their House colleagues does offer the prospect that Congress may seek a more progressive and pragmatic approach to cyber legislation," Clinton said. "Of course that rests on either the Obama administration moving toward an incentive model or there being a new administration both of which are at this time unknown."

Clinton believes the typical enterprise CISO should not be focused so much on the prospect of legislative action, but instead on the potential impact from an executive order President Obama is likely to issue sometime after the election in November, especially if the Senate bill fails again to pass.

While executive orders cannot create new authority, the most immediate impact will likely be for industries that are already subject to regulatory authority, such as public utilities, transportation and communications.

"In these areas I suspect the executive order will follow the path of the proposed Senate bill by calling on the existing regulatory authorities to develop best practices for cybersecurity in conjunction with Sector Coordinating Councils, as well as reviewing their current authorities to see how they can best enforce them," said Clinton, who is also chair of the IT Sector Coordinating Council.

Clinton also believes that non-regulated industries such as IT will be asked to come up with a set of industry best practices, and that CISOs in these sectors should be in active discussions with their respective Coordinating Councils to assist in developing effective policies, especially with respect to items like cost recovery, which will likely have to come through some form of enticements that have not yet been fully developed.

"ISA has been working on these economic incentives for years, but until now we have had only limited collaboration from our government partners. We think that will change when this Congress ends without passing the Senate bill and the president responds by issuing the Executive Order, which we hope will produce an incentive program for cybersecurity."

EMC to acquire security software provider Silver Tail Systems

EMC has signed an agreement to acquire California-based Silver Tail Systems.

Silver Tail Systems, a web fraud detection and security software provider, is to be incorporated into EMC's RSA security division at the close of the deal, expected to be the end of the year.

EMC said it will enhance both RSA's identity protection and verification solutions and its enterprise security portfolio.

"Customers need better intelligence, analytics and the ability to respond in real-time, which is a capability that Silver Tail's products do extraordinarily well to help foil web-based attacks,” said Art Coviello, RSA executive chairman. “Silver Tail offers proven anti-fraud solutions that complement RSA's portfolio of risk-based and adaptive products and services.”

According to EMC, Silver Tail's products will add a disruptive fraud fighting and its core transaction and behavioural analysis technologies to RSA's enterprise security solutions.

“Silver Tail pioneered an approach that uses web session intelligence to provide unmatched visibility and the behavioural analysis that detects these threats and protects web-based platforms around the world. Together with RSA, we have an incredible opportunity to extend these capabilities beyond what we do today to protect web-based platforms,” Tim Eades, CEO at Silver Tail Systems, said.

Police net suspected phishing gang

UK police have arrested three men suspected of being involved in thousands of phishing attacks on banking customers.

One Nigerian and two Romanian men were arrested at a central London hotel on Monday evening on conspiracy to defraud and money laundering charges. The men were taken to a central London police station for questioning.

The three men were allegedly involved in an operation that placed over 2,000 phishing pages on the internet, the Met Police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The phishing pages mimicked banking sites, and were designed to harvest credentials from unsuspecting users, said the police. Fraudsters then illegally accessed the accounts and stole money.

Police have seized computers for forensic examination, and searches are continuing in London and in the Midlands, said the statement.

The arrests were made as part of a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) cyber unit. The two units are to be folded into the upcoming National Crime Agency (NCA), which is due to become operational by December 2013.

The NCA cyber unit will start operations on 1 October 2013, PCeU head detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie said in the statement.

"This is the first joint operation between the PCeU and SOCA cyber as we move towards full integration and inception of the National Cyber Crime Unit on 1 October 2013," said McMurdie.

"The dynamic nature and successful outcome of this operation, which has prevented distress and financial loss to numerous UK victims, clearly demonstrates the benefit of brigading resources and expertise in this increasing and specialist area of criminality."

Splunk claims speedier reports with Enterprise 5

Splunk Enterprise 5, the latest version of the company's flagship big data indexing and analysis product, promises faster search and reporting capabilities than previous versions, the company has said.

Splunk could not offer any benchmarking evidence to back its claim to speedier reporting in Enterprise 5, but said on Wednesday that ad hoc report generation had shown that search for events over large-scale enterprise environments incorporating cloud could be up to a thousand times faster than Splunk Enterprise 4.x.

"An ad hoc report on 'Web Errors broken out by URL and WebServer over the Last Month' in a large multi-data centre web environment across multiple terabytes of data might take 30 minutes to run [in Splunk 4.x] ," Splunk's EMEA senior director of technical services DJ Skillman told SC Magazine UK on Wednesday. "With report acceleration in Splunk Enterprise 5, that same report would render in less than two seconds."

In Splunk Enterprise 4.x., skilled users could refine searches to save time, but "most users didn't have the skill set required", said Skillman.

"Now it's as simple as selecting the report acceleration button in the report builder to invoke the patent pending technology to get things back faster than previously possible, with or without the search skills," said Skillman.

PDFs of reports can be generated with a button in Splunk Enterprise 5, and PDFs can be scheduled to be shared with colleagues, said Skillman. Security professionals in large organisations may want to build reports that aggregate data such as firewall, IDS, authentication or anti-malware log events, to spot trends or deviations, said the company.

Splunk Enterprise 5 allows drill downs from one dashboard to another, without drilling down into raw data, said Skillman.

"Splunk Enterprise already provided the ability to search, analyse and visualise machine data on tablets, smartphones, laptops and non-flash browsers," said Skillman. "In Splunk Enterprise 5 we provide the ability to integrate simple workflows into dashboards, so users can click through to another dashboard, form, view or external website and carry forward any relevant context."

The product allows security professionals to control user drill downs from one dashboard to another, rather than a user drilling down from a dashboard into raw machine data, the company said in a blog post on Monday

Access to raw company data can be controlled for compliance purposes, said the company. For example, a user can click on a link that lists security events in progress, and be taken to a case management system for the detail behind a specific attack, without being able to access the raw data about the attack.

Splunk Enterprise 5, which was made generally available on Tuesday, has a feature called 'index replication' designed to make data more resilient and more available during search. Splunk indexers can be grouped to replicate each other's information, said the company.

Russian black e-market prices are falling, says Trend Micro

Russian e-crime tools and services are getting cheaper, and the black market that supports them is becoming more diverse, according to research by IT security company Trend Micro.

Overall, the range of Russian cyber tools and services on offer are becoming cheaper, Trend Micro senior threat researcher Max Goncharov told SC Magazine UK on Wednesday. For example, the average price of a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) has gone from US$50-80 per day in 2011 to $30-70 per day in 2012. Stolen credit card details are also cheaper.

Average prices are probably going down due to more efficient technologies in the hands of criminals, continuing insecurities in software, and lack of general consumer security, said Goncharov.

"Technologies are getting faster, software [security] is not really getting better, and consumers still rely on luck," said Goncharov.

Some services, such as malware programming and cryptography, have stayed at the same price, said Goncharov.

The Russian black cyber market is becoming more organised, and the ecosystem that supports it more diverse. Trend Micro is tracking more than 80 Russian-speaking e-crime forums, and increasingly communications are initiated on forums which then move to encrypted VPN (virtual private network).

More individualised, specialised services are emerging, such as file crypting services, which conceal infected files or malware from security software. Some groups specialise in preparing phishing and web scamming resources for sale, and others will prepare drop files for use in exploit kits, for example.

The range of Russian e-crime products and services includes dedicated servers, proxy servers, VPN services, social engineering services and hacking services, according to a Trend Micro report published on Tuesday.

Despite a trend towards specialisation, some groups still run several areas of a malware business to keep costs down and retain control of their products, Goncharov added.

Bucky Box software helps farmers deliver the goods

Kiwi software company Bucky Box today globally launched software aimed at helping to level the playing field between small farmers supplying directly to consumers and large supermarket chains.

The web-based application was launched with local vegetable box schemes in New Zealand, Australia and Mexico.

Food-box schemes act as a go-between for farmers, by delivering boxes of fruit, vegetables or meat directly to consumers' doors.

Bucky Box helps food-box delivery companies to take care of the IT, administration and the operational side of things, including subscriptions, packaging and delivery logistics, plus billing and invoicing.

Bucky Box founder Will Lau said the software was simple, easy to use and received great feedback from schemes within New Zealand and internationally.

"The local food movement is already in full flight around the world especially in the countries where food has become highly industrialised."

Lau said Bucky Box held private trials with food-box schemes in Wellington and a small town near Sydney.

He said 200 schemes worldwide, mainly in the United States and Britain, had shown an interest in the software.

"We've differentiated ourselves from other sites because we're providing this software worldwide. Other sites are country-specific, so only people in the UK can use a UK site."

The team is also interested in trialling the technology in India to see if it would work in a less technologically developed country.

"It's cost somewhere between half and three-quarters of a million dollars to develop this."

He said most of this investment was made during Bucky Box's time with Wellington incubator Enspiral.

The company would donate two-thirds of its profit to local-food movement organisations, educators and researchers.

Bucky Box charged $19 per month for small start-up schemes which had less than 100 customers. Larger ones in first-world countries were charged $69 per month.

However, Lau said schemes in Third World countries, including India, would pay one-eighth of this.

"We're trying to make pricing as low as possible, while still making enough to optimise our business."

Most of the advertising was carried out through social media in order to "connect with our customers".

By Siobhan Leathley

Hurricane Sandy Hammers Small Businesses: How to Prepare for The Next Disaster

Residents on the East Coast of the U.S. continue cleaning up following Hurricane Sandy, and small businesses have been especially hard hit. Entrepreneurs and small business owners are used to the unexpected, and it doesn't take a hurricane to disrupt your business operations. Here's an update of how small businesses have been affected by this particular disaster and more about how your business can stay prepared for the unexpected emergency.

Eye of the Hurricane

Businesses weather the storm. As seen by this sampling of experiences from up and down the eastern sea board, small businesses can be affected in many ways by huge weather emergencies like a hurricane. Weathering a widespread, unexpected event depends upon flexibility and preparing for the worst. Those businesses most affected by Monday's storm were those susceptible to storm damage or whose employees lived too far away to get to work. Businesses were also impacted by the degree weather forced customers to stay away. CBS Money Watch

Data drowns in deluge. Your business doesn't need to be exposed to the elements or even located anywhere near a natural disaster to feel its effects. If your small business depends on data centers, like these damaged by flooding as a result of Hurricane Sandy, it's important to be sure that backups are available. Data Center Knowledge

Resources offer road to recovery. Many small business were affected by Hurricane Sandy, as they can be by any natural disaster. Fortunately, there is help to get your business up and running again. Business mentor and angel investor Amy Rees Anderson shares this comprehensive list of resources that can help your company cope after disaster strikes. Forbes

State of Preparedness

Emergencies come in many forms. You don't need a Hurricane with 90 mile an hour winds to threaten your small business. Sometimes a faulty network node at your Internet provider will do. In this scenario, O2, a UK broadband provider, suffered an outage affecting 2 million users, 10 percent of its customers, with many small businesses claiming they were unable to operate as a result. Make sure your service provider doesn't leave you hanging. bOnline Blog

Prepare for your next disaster. Just like homeowners, small business owners must prepare for the worst. For many business owners in the wake of Hurricane Sandy may have found out first hand how important emergency preparedness is. For other small business owners, it's an important wake up call about steps everyone should take to protect their investments. SBA.gov

Better safe than sorry. As blogger Arthur Piccio observes, disasters that threaten your business can come in all shapes and sizes, from a gigantic hurricane to a computer outage or data loss affecting only your hosting or data storage company. In many cases this can be really bad news for your business, so why don't more businesses take it seriously? Here's a long list of suggestions that will help you get prepared. UPrinting

Another Day at the Office

Don't confuse urgency with emergency. If you don't know the difference between these two ideas, you might face a danger more insidious than any mother nature can throw your way. Martin Zwilling teaches us about the dangers of managers or leaders who can make every day and every situation an emergency and how this behavior can slowly sap any business of its strength. When you declare a state of emergency for your business, make sure the threat is real. Startup Professionals Musings

SMBs Moving Toward Digital, Diversified Marketing

Internet marketing as a small business owner sure has gotten more complex over the past few years. It used to be that direct mailers and newsletters were the way to go. Then you needed a website and an online presence. Now? Well, turns out it takes a bit of everything to be effective and small businesses owners are ready to take it on, changing their marketing efforts to not only be more digital-based, but more diversified, as well.

eMarketer reported on a survey of 300 SMBs in the US conducted by BIA/Kelsey which found that small businesses are adopting a multichannel approach to marketing, and that 40 percent of SMBs plan to increase their digital spending budgets within the next year. Not surprisingly, less than 4 percent said they were would decrease digital marketing. Small business owners know where their customers are and, increasingly, it's online.

They also recognize that channels are becoming more fragmented. The fact is, we're all using digital channels, but we're not using the same ones. That means small business owners now need to focus on building a presence on multiple sites to hit their customers. Marketing efforts must be spread out. This year the average small business owner is using 5.8 channels to reach their customers, almost double from five years ago.

Where are SMBs moving toward?

• Facebook â€" 52 percent
• Newspapers â€" 31 percent
• Community sponsorships â€" 27 percent
• Email Marketing â€" 25 percent
• Google Places â€" 21.3 percent
• Video (on website) â€" 17 percent
• Online banners â€" 14 percent

As small business owners trying to stay afloat in a more fragmented market, it's interesting to take notice of where they're moving. Facebook is an obvious standout with its low barrier to entry (Matt McGee recently shared 12.8 million local businesses now have business pages), and the promise of an already-existing user base. Newspapers, sponsorships, and email marketing are all areas familiar to many SMBs. And now eyes are turning to Google Places, video (on website) and online banners to engage and entice a potentially new audience, as well.

While it's arguably harder to be a small business owner right now, it's also incredibly exciting as the opportunities that exist are great. Personally, I love to see that SMBs are beginning to integrate a multi-channel marketing approach because it's through the integration of all these different services that you're really able to stand out and take advantage of the Web's benefits. It's also how many SMBs will be able to establish a level of credibility and brand awareness they haven't had before.

What's interestingly not on the list above is mobile. According to the survey, for as much talk as the idea of SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) has received since 2010, most SMBs don't yet understand how to link mobile to their local marketing efforts and may not even be aware of the benefits of doing so. This is definitely an area where business owners will want to pay more attention. There are an incredible amount of tools out there to help SMBs take advantage of mobile and use it attract consumers on the go, that to not leverage mobile really is doing your business a disservice.

How has your marketing adapted to a more digital, diversified audience?

72 Percent of Freelancers And Consultants Say They\'re Entrepreneurs

We train our children to be consultants. We don't call their careers by that name. We call it a reliable job, security and good pay (or at least we used to). According to Susan L. Reid in Freelancer, Consultant, Entrepreneur: Which Are You?:

“Fields where consultants are especially common include: Financial planning, strategic planning, marketing, research, training, business planning, business review, computing, and integration of new technology, medicine, psychology, and law.”

I remember my father being particularly happy if I had chosen to be a doctor or a lawyer, either one was fine. But I ended up in business just like him - well sort of. Which brings me to an ongoing question about the difference between freelancers, consultants and entrepreneurs.

In a nutshell, freelancers offer a specific service, consultants offer targeted advice, and entrepreneurs build a sellable and sustainable business. Susan says:

“Fields where freelancing is especially common include: Journalism, writing, copywriting, computer programming, software development, graphic design, film production, landscaping, architecture, translation, fine art, music, and acting.”

In findings from the 2012 Freelance Industry Report, Ed Gandia surveyed 1491 freelancers and 72% of those polled see themselves as entrepreneurs (note that majority of those surveyed fall into the writing, designing and technology skills that Susan mentioned above as well as some of the consulting skills in marketing, business planning to name a few).

At The Root, The Word Entrepreneur Means Undertaking

These are the people that dig into a risk and build out of it something that will last long after they're gone. When we think of entrepreneurs, traditionally our mind goes to all the physical, brick and mortar businesses that we walk in and out of daily. And that makes sense.

But there are consultants and freelancers who are developing the entrepreneurs mindset. Of course, there is a difference between the ones who think they are entrepreneurs and the ones whose actions back it up. If your business dies when you die, then according to Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, it wasn't really a business.

Businesses Are Sustainable. Period. 

You don't have to be brick and mortar and you don't have to be huge to be sustainable.

Dale Carniege's literature and training has become an empire. He was an author, a lecturer, and developed training programs. It was the type of business that could easily fall into the freelance or consultant categories.  But if it's sustainable and sellable, then it's a business.

In fact, Carnegie writes me every week and he's been gone since 1955 (long before I was born). His voice, his take on things, has become a training empire in it's own right.

So my question is not new, but I keep asking it because we do have to decide at some point about what we're building.

What Happens To The “Business” After You're Gone? 

A wise entrepreneur makes that decision now. He doesn't leave it to his widow to figure out.

And personally, I think the strategy work is tougher than the daily grind of running your business. Because you have to create something that others can help you deliver.

You have to establish a system, but I won't get on that soap box again. At least not today.

Child Businesswoman Photo via Shutterstock

When It Comes to Retirement, Small Business Owners Need a Reality Check

What are your retirement plans? Are you expecting to sell your business and retire on the proceeds? Do you dream of passing on your business to your kids?

A new global survey of small business owners' succession plans by Sellability Score found that small business owners' expectations for retirement have changed. Since 2008, almost half of business owners over age 50 have delayed their retirement due to economic conditions.

Says the study's lead author and Sellability Score founder, John Warrillow, who also wrote the book Built to Sell:

“The recession has had a profound impact on small business owners across the U.S.  Older business owners are delaying their retirement, desperately hoping for better market conditions ahead.”

Despite the delays in retirement, all is not doom and gloom. Some three-quarters of business owners surveyed say they expect to exit their company in the next 10 years, and 40 percent expect to exit in the next five years. More than half of the business owners had already owned their companies for at least eight years.

What do small business owners expect to happen to their businesses when they leave?

Passing a business down from one generation to the next is becoming less popular; just 1 in 10 surveyed say they expect to pass their business on to their kids. By comparison, 61 percent expect to sell it to an outside buyer, while 10 percent expect to sell the business to a partner or key employee.

Meanwhile, 14.5 percent plan to essentially work until they drop, and 8 percent plan to just shut the business down entirely when they retire.

When they do leave their businesses, one-third of respondents expect the sale of their businesses to fund at least half of their retirement. However, those dreams might well turn out to be pipe dreams, given that a whopping 90 percent of business owners don't have a formal exit plan in place.

The survey findings also suggest that small business owners may be underestimating the complexity of selling a business. Just one-third say they expect selling their business to be difficult. However, the majority of businesses in the study were in service industries-which often find it more difficult to sell since these businesses are more likely to be dependent on the owner's personal efforts to land and keep new business.

If you ask me, it's time for a reality check. First, whether or not you're planning to retire in the next few years, a succession plan is important for every small business to have. Not only will it make selling your business easier when the time comes, it can also protect your business should anything happen to you unexpectedly.

Second, if you're expecting the sale of your business to be easy, you're likely in for a rude awakening. If you haven't already done so, start now to work with your attorney and accountant and get advice on how to build value in your business.

That way, you'll be better positioned for a successful-and profitable-sale that will see you into a happy retirement (or a whole new venture, if that's what you choose to do).

Do you have a succession plan for your small business?

Business For Sale Photo via Shutterstock

5 Steps To Ensuring Your Services Add Value and Your Customers Stay Loyal

Offering and selling a service isn't quite the same thing as selling a tangible item because, although it's important,  the sale really isn't your endgame. Sure you need to ‘sell' yourself service to gain the customers, but where you really make your money is by retaining that customers for as long as possible. Like all products, service offerings need to be high quality and have a true value that exceeds the alternatives. But sometimes, regardless of the service you are offering, some customers run off to find another service. How do you keep that from happening? How do you get them back?

A lost customer could mean that you have to cut expenses, and that's never a great alternative, especially considering the current economic climate. Now, more than ever, it seems that retaining your customers is the one thing you must do to keep your head above the water. So, how do you do this? Here's some advice from Totango, a company that understands the need to retain your customers and helps you keep them:

• Cater your product to the customers. Run a survey to ask your customers whether your service is valuable to them. Ask them to answer honestly and ask for suggestions to improve. Ask them if the service delivers on its promise, if it's enjoyable to use, and if they feel they're getting help quickly and easily.
• If you've got the dough, hire someone who can be your “customer advocate.” You need someone to tell you what you should do to better cater to the customers. Someone who keeps their ear very close to what the customer is saying about your service.  If you can't afford to hire someone to specifically do this, then you can also assign one of your team members to do this.
• Use a scoring system in your surveys so that customers can rate your services. This helps you crunch the numbers and find an average customer health score. If the score drops, take action to correct the situation, depending on what respondents tell you about the service's problems.
• Once customers have bought into your service, don't treat them like ghosts. Keep marketing to them by continually reminding them that you exist and care. This can be done easily through newsletters. Follow up and try to cater as much as possible to customers who are reacting poorly to your services. Not all customers are the same, so don't treat them all the same. Lift the morale of those who could use a little spoiling.
• Take some extra steps to learn why customers stopped subscribing/calling upon you. You seriously need to learn where your company's failing if you don't want to fall down the slope. Consider it like driving a large vehicle uphill. Pumping the pedal a bit more helps you inch higher, but letting it go will just make it slide down the hill.  If you've lost a customers, simply reach out to them and ask ‘Why'.  Without the data, you cannot solve the problem.

When you combine all of these, you create a harmony that helps you learn from those who use your service. Customers are the center of every business, and if you don't cater to them, they will take their dollars elsewhere.

Using Apps? Why Your Password and User Name May Not be Safe

We enter everything into apps these days. Usernames, passwords, personal data… But what if you were told your smartphone may be giving information to third parties about you?

According to a recent study, that's exactly what's happening. Ten percent of mobile apps leak passwords, the study from Zscaler found. Additionally, the study revealed that 25% of apps reveal personally identifiable information and a full 40% communicate with third parties. This is dangerous news for a world where small business owners are beginning to use third-party apps for work duties.

Understanding how important protection of data is for businesses, Zscalar has released the Zscalar Application Profiler (ZAP). ZAP scans iOS and Android devices and analyzes security risks. In addition to workplaces moving toward mobile devices and bringing their own devices into the workplace, many businesses are outsourcing app development to third-party companies that may not be as careful about protecting data.

“While malicious apps grab headlines and have a greater impact on overall risk, vulnerable apps are far more prevalent,” said Michael Sutton, ZAP developer and VP, security research, Zscaler. “We understand the importance of finding out the security risk users face before they download an app. It is far better to proceed with caution and minimize any security threat by running a quick and simple report, than to have to deal with the aftermath of a security breach, whether on a personal or corporate device.”

One of the best things about ZAP is that it doesn't require a security expert to deploy. You'll merely need to download a SSL certificate to your phone, which is available here. You can download it by scanning a QR code with your phone or by navigating to the site with your phone's browser and downloading it through a link. This SSL certificate provides ZAP with the information they need about the apps you're accessing every day.

You don't have to download the SSL certificate to get information about an app, though. To access ZAP's database of apps that have been scanned before, simply go to your web browser and visit http://zap.zscaler.com/. Paste or type the URL into the box and ZAP will do its work, scanning for security leaks. Or you can type in the name of the app with the word iOS or Android (depending on your device's operating system). ZAP looks for the following issues in your favorite apps:

• Authentication flawsâ€"Apps that inadequately encode login information.
• Device identificationâ€"Apps that give away a user's device information, including the Unique Device Identifier (UDID).
• Personal information leakageâ€"Apps that leak an individual's personal information, including e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or street addresses.
• Analytics and advertisingâ€"Apps that expose information to analytics services and sites for advertising purposes.

ZAP works by first capturing HTTP traffic, then analyzing that traffic to find security and privacy holes. Once your app has been scanned, you can access detailed data about what that app was doing in the background while you were enjoying using it. This allows you to make the decision about whether this information leak is acceptable enough to keep using the app.

As small businesses make the decision about whether to allow employees to download apps onto work devices, ZAP can give you the concrete information you need to prohibit certain apps. With an interface that's easy to deploy, ZAP can be one of the best free tools your small business uses.

Hurricane Sandy Wrecks North East and Creates Business Relations and Technology Workarounds

I'm sitting in Above and Beyond Virtual Staff Offices with 8 other professionals.

One of them works for a large entrepreneur organization, the other works for a wireless street meter service and others have a variety of businesses and 6 degrees close to me personally and/or professionally. For example, my daughter's soft ball coach and a financial consultant is housed here.

Although Hurricane Sandy has brought destruction, annoyance, inconvenience for many of us n the North East, it's also brought us closer together.

I've talked more to my neighbors yesterday, than I have in the 8 years I've lived in New Jersey â€" I even lent them some tools.

My family sat in the darkened living room and my wife read us stories on her Kindle Fire.

It's not easy and a bit rough, but we're alive and for ME no harm to us or our property, unlike so many others.

Technology has also played a leading role. We sucked the juice out of a Black Berry provided PowerBag (from the Small Business Influencer Awards) to recharge some phones.

See my earlier article on 7 reasons why Hurricane Sandy won't harm your business operations.

Those with multiple technology solutions will have an easier time than others. My tech world: iPad, 3 notebooks (2 Dell's, 1 Acer), 2 phones (BlackBerry and Droid), broadband hotspot and a chargeable bag.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Can You Upgrade Your Current System To Windows 8 and What To Expect If You Can

Windows 8 is a whole new thing; presenting a new interface on top of the desktop called Metro, or as Microsoft decided to call it since August, the Modern interface. This presents a whole new world that fuses the mobile and desktop experience into one bundle. As Windows 8 was released near the end of October, everyone hankered down to see whether they can upgrade their current operating systems to it or not.

Not everyone was brave enough to install the consumer and release previews of the operating system to their current installations of Windows, as there was one very important looming question: “Does my current installation support an upgrade?” The answer could make or break someone's ambitions to immediately hop to the local store and get a copy. Here are some points made by CMIT Solutions about how the upgrade scheme is going to work with your current version:

• If you're upgrading from Windows 7 Professional, you need Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise to keep everything. Anything else and everything gets wiped out in a flurry. You won't even get the chance to gasp. If you upgrade from Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate/Enterprise to Windows 8 Professional/Enterprise, you won't lose everything and the upgrade should go through seamlessly.
• With Windows Vista, it gets a little complicated. You must install at least SP1 to get the upgrade to work. You'll get to keep personal files and settings, but application records on your registry will be eliminated, meaning that you will have to reinstall every application. It's not as bad as it sounds if you only have Office and a couple of other things installed.
• For Windows XP, you're out of luck. Not only do you have to install SP3, but you also have to reinstall all your applications and reconfigure the computer. Your personal files, like pictures and videos, will remain intact, though.

If an upgrade to Windows 8 presents a problem, you might want to purchase a newer version of the operating system than what you currently have as an extra step to upgrading. In other words, if you're upgrading from XP, first upgrade to Windows 7 and then get Windows 8 in there. That way, you don't really lose much.

While it may not be convenient, this is the unfortunate reality if you are looking to upgrade. As with any system upgrade, just make sure you have done your research to ensure you don't loose any valuable data that can't be retrieved.  Hopefully, with all this information, you'll know what you need to do and you won't have too much trouble!

RAT attack on Israeli police dissected by Trend Micro

A Trojan used in an attack that reportedly caused Israeli police to shut down headquarters computers last week has been examined by security company Trend Micro.

The Trojan, called 'Xtreme RAT' by Trend Micro, was spammed out in an email purporting to come from the head of the Israel Defense Forces, Benny Gatz,

The email contained a RAR attachment infected with the RAT (Remote Access Trojan), Trend Micro said in a blog post on Tuesday. The Trojan, which had data-stealing capabilities, appeared to have been used in attacks on Syrian anti-government activists, said the company.

The newest version of the Trojan had Windows 8 compatibility, improved Chrome and Firefox password grabbing, and free updates from the developer.

Israeli police computers were offline from Thursday last week and had not been fully restored on Sunday, the Times of Israel reported.

EmailSuccess Helps Businesses Avoid Costly Newsletter Errors

Email marketing is a widely used tool among all types of businesses, but these campaigns can only garner results if they appeal to consumers and don't contain critical errors. Now, companies have options to help ensure their customers don't receive emails littered with errors and sub-par content.

EmailSuccess is a free, automated tool for helping businesses test their email marketing campaigns to make sure they are error free and optimized for target audiences.

Felix Ngassa, Email Marketing Specialist for EmailSuccess says:

“We are convinced it will cause a change in the email marketing world both from the point of view of agencies who will be able to easily test and improve their emails, and also for client marketing professionals who will no longer judge an email campaign just from the attractiveness of the designs and content but will easily evaluate other critical aspects.”

Ngassa said that the company has helped companies avoid all kinds of costly errors, from sizing that looks off to not including unsubscribe links and other necessary aspects of email newsletters.

The tool points out errors and suggested changes ranging from critical importance to minor suggestions. The analysis goes over email content, design, and technical factors.

So emails that contain broken links, faulty code, missing images, or incorrect structure, would then have another layer of checks to go through before being sent out to customers. Ngassa said that the EmailSuccess tool includes over 250 automated tests to find these types of errors.

There are plenty of tools available to help companies create and distribute email newsletters quickly and easily, but relying one team members to go through all the necessary checks before sending out such an email could lead to errors that make a company look unorganized and unprofessional.

There are different plans and pricing available, ranging from a free basic plan to an agency plan costing $149 per month. Pricing depends on how many tests a company plans to run and if any extra features are necessary.

The company is based in Italy and is part of Diennea MagNews, a company that specializes in email marketing and digital communication services and technology.

App of the Week: DoubleDutch\'s Hive Automates your Sales Team

CRM software has made the process of logging sales and keeping up with contracts easy, but your sales team is still tasked with the tedious process of recording everything. For small businesses with limited time and resources, all of this manual tracking can take time away from the business of doing business, costing your organization money. If your small business would rather your sales team spend time selling rather than doing electronic paperwork, DoubleDutch has the software for you.

With Hive, DoubleDutch gives sales professionals mobile accessibility, allowing them to easily update the status of each deal as they go.For businesses that use SalesForce, Hive can automatically update Salesforce from the field or, if you prefer, you can operate Hive as its own separate CRM application. DoubleDutch also provides contextual updating, using a salesperson's location and the time to automatically log information on deals as they happen. The app also has the ability to learn a user's behavior, saving time-consuming steps with each piece of information entered.

Not only does Hive take some of the work out of inputting information, it also adds consistency to the entry process, which helps with accuracy on reports. With sophisticated analytics built in, Hive can give you the information you need to improve your sales activities.

“Today's sales professional operates in a mobile and collaborative workplace, but current CRM systems have not adapted quickly enough to this new environment,” said Tom Petrocelli, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Hive delivers an entirely different CRM experience that incorporates the lessons learned from mobile computing and the Social Enterprise. It provides a streamlined approach to CRM that allows sales professionals to capture necessary information and access resources in a way that is more natural to them.”

Hive contains built-in reminders that can be set to remind a salesperson to log information at specific times or when in a specific location, as detected by the salesperson's mobile device. The device can also log a user's calls as they are being made and e-mails as they are being sent. This provides a comprehensive history that can be very useful when determining whether a customer needs follow-up.

As DoubleDutch founder and CEO Lawrence Coburn points out, the company's customers use its products fifty times more often than CRM products without mobile interfaces. “With Hive, we're not re-inventing CRM, we're making it a pleasure to use on the device you work with most.”

By providing customers an easy-to-use interface, those customers have a more pleasurable experience, which keeps them coming back. More use means a greater ROI, Coburn adds, as your workers become more productive and your reports become more detailed and accurate. Because it's free for up to three users, Hive is ideal for small businesses. Mid-sized teams may benefit from Hive's premium package, which supports up to 25 users for only $20 per seat each month. Mid-sized packages also include 24/7 phone and web support.

To sign up for Hive, click here. Software is available for both iOS and Android.

South Carolina breach affects millions

South Carolina officials are trying to contain the damage associated with a massive data security breach at its state Department of Revenue that officials say was attacked by an international hacker.

State CISOs cite insufficient funding, lack of skilled IT professionals in survey

State CISOs say insufficient funding, increasing sophistication of threats and inadequate availability of cybersecurity professionals are the top three barriers in addressing cybersecurity.

The overarching surprise [of the survey] is the lack of sustained progress since the 2010 benchmark.

Doug Robinson, executive director, NASCIO

Eighty-six percent of CISOs said insufficient funding was the biggest barrier to addressing cybersecurity issues at the state level, according to the 2012 Deloitte-National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Cybersecurity Study (.pdf). Fifty U.S. state enterprise-level CISOs from 48 states and two U.S. territories participated in the survey. The increasing sophistication of threats was a barrier for 52% of respondents, and 46% said the inadequate availability of professionals in the field was a major barrier to addressing cybersecurity.

"Retaining talent is a challenge because of the market for cybersecurity professionals," said Srini Subramanian, principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP, who said it is also difficult for the state to attract IT talent to begin with.

Part of the problem, Subramanian said, is that the government is competing with the private sector for a limited number of qualified cybersecurity professionals.

Doug Robinson, executive director at NASCIO, echoed Subramanian when he said cybersecurity professionals that begin in government are trained up and move on to the private sector because the compensation is better. He also said location is an issue with government jobs, as some states are less desirable places to live than others.

Robinson said in some cases security budgets did not include funds for security professionals to get adequate certifications. The biannual Deloitte-NASCIO survey, which assessed the security of all state digital data and cyber assets administered by CISOs, supports Robinson's assertion that funding is an issue.

Despite the lack of funding, CISOs have to find a way to train their employees and address threats. The Deloitte-NASCIO survey found that 24% of CISOs believe their staff has large gaps in competency, up from 17% in 2010. Only 32% of CISOs said their staff has all of the required competencies, up from 25% in 2010. Half of those surveyed said they respond to these deficiencies through training. Others close the gaps through staff augmentation and outsourcing the affected areas.

Subramanian said organizations should practice "selective outsourcing of security services," being careful to only outsource in circumstances where the integrity of the security can be maintained.

Many issues presented in the report were similar to the information gathered in the 2010 survey.

"The overarching surprise [of the survey] is the lack of sustained progress since the 2010 benchmark," Robinson said. "The challenges are real."

The report also highlighted which threats CISOs believe will have the largest impact on state governments in 2013. The top four were phishing, pharming and other related variants; social engineering; increasing sophistication and proliferation of threats, such as viruses and worms; and mobile devices.

Deloitte & Touche LLP is a business firm that works in audit, financial advisory, tax and consulting. The company was founded in London and is currently headquartered in New York. NASCIO is a nonprofit organization that represents state CIOs and information technology executives and managers. It strives for government excellence through quality business practices, information management, and technology policy.

Howard Schmidt warns private sector of cyberwar impact

Earlier this month Internet and email giant Google warned thousands of users that attacks, potentially state-sponsored, had been underway against their Gmail accounts. Later this month news then broke of a significant cyberattack launched at the computer systems of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's largest oil company. Many are pointing fingers at Iran as being behind that attack.

UK cloud security savvy ahead of pack say auditors

UK companies have taken more steps to alleviate cloud security risks than firms globally, according to audit and consultancy firm Ernst & Young.

Just under 80 per cent of UK organisations now use cloud computing services, and 57 per cent have implemented cloud security measures, Ernst & Young said in a statement on Monday.

Nevertheless, a significant minority of UK companies â€" 20 per cent â€" have not put cloud security measures in place, according to a report by the auditors. Possible mitigations include stronger oversight of the contract management process for cloud service providers, use of encryption techniques, and stronger identity and access management controls, said Ernst & Young.

Globally, the UK is further along the road of cloud adoption and mitigation than other countries. Overall, 59 per cent of global respondents use or plan to use the cloud, and 38 per cent have not addressed cloud risks, according to Ernst & Young's Global Information Security Survey 2012.

However, UK organisations face a number of information security challenges - 88 per cent reported an increase in attacks over the past two years.

In addition, UK firms have concentrated on short-term fixes for security problems, rather than looking at overall threats, due to a lack of people with specialist security skills, said Ernst & Young.

"Since the late 1990's the number of UK-born graduates studying mathematics and science degrees has fallen by almost 70 per cent," said Ernst & Young director of information security Mark Brown.

"This has lead to an increasing shortage in relevant skills and has put the UK's efforts to tackle growing cyber security risks on the back foot. Encouraging the workforce of the future to seek a career in IT and information security is key to a sustainable solution."

Dr Guy Bunker joins infosec firm Clearswift

Clearswift has announced the appointment of former HP global security architect Dr Guy Bunker to its senior management team.

Bunker, an expert and recognised figure in the infosec industry, has joined the Reading-based cyber security company as senior vice president of products. He previously worked as chief scientist at both Veritas Software and Symantec and is a spokesperson for the Jericho Forum.

"Bunker's appointment further supports the new strategic direction in which Clearswift is moving. We are excited to have an industry leader of his calibre helping us drive our strategy and innovation. Working closely with our development team headed by Alf Pilgrim PhD, CTO, Bunker will be leading our product management team as we continue to develop and grow," said Clearswift's newly-appointed CEO Heath Davies.

US and Canada to launch joint cyber security plan

The US and Canada have announced a plan to increase information sharing on critical infrastructure threats.

The 'Cyber Security Action Plan' will see more cooperation on cyber incidents between the two countries, and more outreach to businesses and citizens, Public Safety Canada and the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday.

"Canada and the US have a mutual interest in partnering to protect our shared infrastructure," said Canada's public safety minister Vic Toews. "We are committed to working together to protect vital cyber systems, to respond to and recover from any cyber disruptions, and to make cyber space safer for all our citizens."

The countries aim to improve information sharing between their respective cyber security operations centres, with increased real-time collaboration between analysts. More data at all classification levels will be shared. The plan also aims for aligned incident management and escalation processes.

Information-sharing with and between businesses will be picked up, with coordination between public and private entities on defence, mitigation and remediation.

Critical infrastructure is shared between the US and Canada, and lies in both public and private sector hands. The plan will see the US and Canada jointly conduct private sector briefings, and share information with the private sector through standardised protocols.

"The Cyber Security Action Plan reinforces the robust relationship between DHS and Public Safety Canada," said US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano. "We look forward to continuing our work together to increase the resiliency of our networks, enhance public-private partnerships and build a culture of shared responsibility."

The two countries will also collaborate on information security public awareness campaigns.

Researchers develop \'thinking\' surveillance system

US-Army funded researchers have developed a video surveillance system that aims to use artificial intelligence to reason about human activity and flag anomalous behaviour.

The aim of the research is to interpret data from a video-feed, and eventually to predict the actions of people being observed, through semantic analysis and reasoning, Carnegie Mellon researchers said in a research paper presented last week.

"The goal is to approximate human visual intelligence in making effective and consistent detections," researchers Alessandro Oltramari and Christian Lebiere said in the paper.

The research builds on a Carnegie Mellon cognitive model  and software, both called 'ACT-R'. Oltramari and Lebiere developed a 'cognitive engine' to recognise activity using parts of the ACT-R  cognitive model.

"We devised the cognitive engine to work in a human-like fashion... trying to disambiguate the scene in terms of the most reliable conceptual structures," said the paper.

The cognitive engine uses 'partial matching' to, for example, recognise that an object such as a bag is more like a basket than a dog; and 'spreading of activation' to recognise that a bag can be associated with activities such as travel.

For example, with video footage of a person getting into a truck and driving away, the cognition engine can move from 'machine vision', which detects a truck, a person and the person and the truck disappearing from the picture, to 'a person gets into a truck and drives off'.

The cognitive engine is designed to be used as a module in the DARPA-funded Mind's Eye architecture. Mind's Eye is a project to develop a smart camera that uses machine-based visual intelligence.

The researchers have a working prototype of this technology, Oltramari told SC Magazine UK on Monday. The research is for both commercial and military use.

"Our study, which leverages on ACT-R cognitive architecture, is open source," said Oltramari.

The researchers presented the paper, 'Using Ontologies in a Cognitive-Grounded System: Automatic Action Recognition in Video Surveillance', at the Semantic Technology for Intelligence, Defense and Security 2012 conference on Wednesday.

Research into predictive video analysis is also being carried out In Europe. The EU-funded Indect project is developing algorithms for use with existing video monitoring systems. Indect is also developing technologies for threat detection, such as child pornography, in computer networks.

Hurricane Sandy could cause problems in cyber space

With Hurricane Sandy on a collision course with the north east coast of the USA, cyber crooks are likely to take advantage of the historic storm to make a quick buck or steal personal information from the unsuspecting.

Like with most major news events, users should be on the lookout for legitimate-looking scams that will use the hurricane's mainstream allure to dupe them.

"If the past repeats itself, Facebook postings, tweets, emails and websites claiming to have exclusive video or pleading for donations for disaster relief efforts will appear shortly after the storm hits," security company Avast warned in a blog post on Monday. "These messages often include malicious code that attempt to infect computers with viruses, spyware or Trojan horses."

Online vandals have also been known to bait users through a technique known as black-hat search engine optimisation (SEO), in which search results are poisoned so the attackers' sites appear near the top of rankings.

Natural disasters lend a particularly lucrative hand to cyber criminals because many users want to make donations to victims. As such, they can be easily tricked into giving their money away to bogus sites that appear to be charities, such as the American Red Cross. This was a common ruse following Hurricane Katrina and the Japan tsunami.

Experts advise people to check with the US Better Business Bureau to ensure they are contributing to a legitimate cause.

Anonymous claims Greek finance ministry hack

Hackers from the Anonymous group have claimed to have leaked Greek Ministry of Finance confidential documents, passwords and logins.

The purported hack was to protest the worsening economic conditions in Greece, which has seen tough austerity measures, according to a document posted on AnonPaste.

"We gained full access to the Greek Ministry of Finance," the group claimed in the document about #OpGreece.

Greece is in ongoing discussions with the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to agree a "13.5 billion package of cuts described by the Guardian as "draconian".

Anonymous claimed to be protesting about the fallout of austerity measures, including the increasing popularity and power of the far-right Golden Dawn party.

Anonymous posted a compressed file with documents, plus passwords and logins, that the group claimed were valid. Anonymous said it had accessed IBM servers, and that it possessed an SAP zero-day exploit.

The Greek Ministry of Finance said that it was investigating the validity of the Anonymous hack claims.

"There is an ongoing inquiry," a Ministry of Finance spokeswoman told SC Magazine UK on Tuesday. "We are searching to see if this [hack] happened."

Microsoft strikes Yammer e-discovery partnerships

Microsoft has targeted Yammer at businesses that need to keep tabs on employees for legal reasons by linking the enterprise social networking tool to e-discovery products from security vendors including Symantec.

Yammer can now be integrated with Symantec's Clearwell e-discovery tool, Microsoft announced on Monday. IT professionals that need to be able to turn over employees' electronic activity and communications for forensic examination can export employees' Yammer data directly into Clearwell, and aggregate data from other parts of the enterprise system, prior to e-discovery.

"Our mission is to maintain the safety of company information and to have advanced security controls in place over every user, application and system," Yammer director of security engineering Josha Bronson said in a Microsoft statement.

Further tabs can be kept on employees' use of Yammer through the Smarsh Software-as-a-Service product, which now captures virtually all Yammer communications, according to the Microsoft statement. These interactions can be stored and searched for e-discovery compliance purposes.

Yammer data files can now be exported in line with the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, an e-discovery standard.

In a move linked to e-discovery, Yammer has been integrated with identity and access management products from Okta, which can be used to provision and deprovision users from Yammer.

In addition, Microsoft announced on Monday the Yammer 'Enterprise Graph', a platform and app directory that offers standard components to build Yammer feeds, profiles, followers and likes into applications.

Mac Planet: iThink, therefore iMac?

We've been getting a little philosophical on the evolution of the Mac platform recently, so let's stick with it, at least until I see some of the new equipment in the flesh.

PC sales are still in general decline. Have been for years. Lately, against Apple's trend, even Apple's Mac sales dropped a little (in the last quarter).

Since this figure was from just before the release of new Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro 13-inch models, the new machines may well revive Apple's sales. Actually, as a percentage against the entire US PC market, Apple actually took more of the overall percentage of sales, underlining the fact that Apple has still managed to do very well while everyone else suffers from the recession.

A forecast issued by research firm IHS iSuppli projects that nearly 349 million PCs will be shipped this year, representing a one per cent decrease from last year. Over on the Dark Side, of course, Microsoft 8 might slow, halt or even reverse that decline. But so far, Macs retain the Number One desktop and laptop computer spots in the United States' market.

In some US figures (research firm Gartner), Apple Macs represented 13.6 per cent of the market for the third quarter of 2012. Apple's next best performance in was 12.5% of the US market in the third quarter of 2011.

But the figures actually show Apple experienced a year-over-year unit decline of 6.1% in the United States. Meanwhile, other top vendors (apart from Lenovo) posted even steeper declines. The overall US market showed an overall 13.8% decrease in computer shipments. Apple is in third position behind HP and Dell.

But note that IDC's figures differ: IDC places Apple's share of the US market at 12.5 per cent on a shipment decline of 7 per cent. According to IDC, the overall US market shrank by 12.4 per cent.

Of course, Apple's 'computer' sales do not include iPads. I am not about to enter the debate of whether an iPad is a 'computer' or not. Of course it is a computer, but is it equivalent to a desktop or laptop PC? No. So let's leave iPad out of the PC sales equation and leave that discussion for another day. Of course, if I factored iPad sales into Apple's Mac sales, Apple would utterly be wiping the floor with the other main PC brands. Apple has sold over 100 million iPads in the two-and-a-half years since the product launched.

Of course, there are now many tablets out there. And many smartphones. Some of these are 'better' in certain ways compared to Apple's products. Cheaper, bigger, faster etc.

Why couldn't I care? They don't work flawlessly with my other Apple products. Unfortunately for anyone making an Android-based competitor, or for that matter a Windows-based competitor, this is a deciding factor in purchases by Apple fans that's often not taken into account. As Apple fans, we'd either have to get seriously disenchanted with the standard or price of Apple products, or really, really impressed with a competitor's price/spec for us to consider alternatives.

And that, people, is partly why Microsoft is building an ecosystem of its own.

Just like that much criticised by the anti-Apple people. Buy a Windows phone, have an Xbox and a Windows 8-based PC, and they should all work well together. This is a rather delicious twist of Ballmer's 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, just don't ever admit it' philosophy.

He has even admitted recently, to the BBC, that Microsoft is intent on making more 'devices', but Windows 8 may be the make or break point for this, let's say 'interesting', CEO's tenure.

The closed ecosystem model is also something that may come to affect Android users more and more ... unless Google is planning on bringing out an Android OS for PCs.

And why not, actually? Well, for now Google has an ecosystem: it's the Gmail/Google Docs/Android merry-go-round.

But this all brings me back to another factor that is a bit like the elephant in the room. OK, it's not an invisible factor to Apple users, it's just an elephant to everyone else. For us, it's abundantly clear there would be no tablet and smartphone competitors to even speak of if Apple hadn't developed the iPhone, then iPad the way it did.

We know this. You hate admitting it. You will go back to citing one or two lame, virtually unused predecessors that hardly anyone ever heard of that were, nonetheless, around before Apple's. But hey, I never did say Apple invented the tablet and smartphone. I'd just like to reiterate that Apple made smartphones and tablets that were extremely desirable, usable and successful. That's 'all'. There simply would not be real markets for these devices as it now stands if it hadn't been for Apple showing how it should be done.

Lex Friedman on Macworld calls all this 'the circle game': "Apple faces increasing - and fascinating - competition from companies that aim to recreate and then build on Apple's own innovations. Apple's responses to those competitors and the products they create are even more interesting."

Over here in New Zealand, Windows has been continuing to dominate the desktop OS (note this for September, long before Windows 8) and OSX had been sitting around 12 per cent for the last 12 months, according to the stats for the NZ sell-site TradeMe (thanks to Andrew Hale for alerting me to this).

The browser stats, interestingly, show that some Windows users must be surfing with Apple's Safari, since the Apple OS is sitting around 12 per cent while hits from Safari are more like 15 per cent. Google's Chrome browser is also popular (like Safari, Chrome comes in both Mac and PC versions). These are both Webkit-based browsers, unlike Explorer and Firefox.

The NZ-developed online accounting stats from Xero are also interesting. These figures exclude iPad and other traffic to Xero's mobile domains, and cover three months to October this year.

Apple's share of Xero's desktop traffic here sits at 18.15 per cent. That's not indicative of the share of OS X in New Zealand, but of users of Xero, do note, who use Macs. Xero's figures also show a huge proportion of people still using Microsoft's increasingly venerable XP, which might be a pain for the Seattle firm.

If we can get figures like these in a few months time, it will be really interesting to see how Apple's new Macs panned out compared to the introduction of Windows 8.

By Mark Webster

Dig Into The Strategy Book

Attention all business owners and marketers!  It's planning season!  For some of you this is a glorious time of thinking about the future, creating new opportunities and looking for new possibilities to grow your business.  And for others, it's a time where you will do ANYTHING to avoid the process of thinking strategically about your business.

You will make doctors appointments, get root canals, go shopping for holiday presents and perhaps even decide to get a head start on your taxes â€" just so you don't have to think about next year's strategy.

Read The Strategy Book

Regardless of which group of business owner or marketer you fall into, you'll want to read Max McKeown's, The Strategy Book.  I received a review copy from Max after he read one of my reviews.  And I'm so glad I took him up on his offer to send it to me.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the book was the slew of smartly written accolades from a variety of folks that span a wide variety of industries and disciplines â€" one even came from a military strategist!  I'm not one to be swayed by the testimonials I see in a book because so many of them are rather general and just say that the book is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  But the testimonials and recommendations from The Strategy Book are very specific.  So much so, that they almost read like the menu at a gourmet restaurant.  I couldn't wait to see what these folks were talking about.

You'll Start Thinking Strategically From Page One

McKeown hits on the biggest issue that surrounds strategy â€" no one really knows what it is or how it works.  If we did â€" he probably wouldn't need to write such a comprehensive book that simplifies that topic in a way that is accessible and practical for readers at any level or business education and experience.

It's clear that the focus of The Strategy Book is on the reader and your ability to apply the principles.  McKeown accomplishes this in three practical and important ways;

1. The organization of the book.  There are six parts to the book.  The first five address specific challenges that leaders face when it's time to think strategically and create strategies and the last part is chock full of practical tools.
2. The language.  I always judge how much someone knows about a complex topic by the simplicity of the language they use to explain it.  I find that those who speak freely and easily using simple language and effortless analogies are far more knowledgeable and committed to transmitting the knowledge or information.  This is exactly what you'll find with McKeown.  His language is effortless and easy to understand without losing any of the critical substance that he's trying to get across.
3. The tools and actions.  Rather than just throw strategic frameworks at you, McKeown (dare I say lovingly?) takes great care to outline actions, examples and provide so many tools that if you don't find something in this book to get your strategy together you really ought to just hang it up and get a job.

So Who Is This Guy?

Max McKeown isn't new to strategies or writing books.  He may not be a business celebrity, but he's thought of as being a brilliant strategic thinker and works as a strategy and innovation coach for many of the most admired companies in the world.  He's also the author of The Truth About Innovation, Unshrink and Adaptability: The Art of Winning.  McKeown is also a frequent speaker and appears on several national and international radio and television shows.

The Five W's of The Strategy Book

1. Who should read this?  You.  If you're a small business owner, marketers or part of an organizational management or planning team.  This is a terrific book to pick up and ready TODAY while you are still in the stewing stages of next year's strategy.
2. Why you should read this book?  Because it will save you time and money and frustration.  And if that isn't good enough, you may just uncover, discover or recover a strategy that will set you apart from the competition, get you new customers, help you keep the ones you have and make you money.
3. How should you read this book?  Definitely read the very beginning , and then read the end.  Use the strategies.  Ooops.  I think that means read it all.  It's not that long you should be done over a weekend.  I'd also recommend that you use this book as a foundation for planning with your team.
4. When should you read this book?  I'd say that if your business runs on a calendar year that starts with January â€" now would be a good time.  I'd also recommend keeping it on your shelf as new opportunities arise for your business.
5. Where should you read this book?  Anywhere you like.  The first time, I kept it on my nightstand and got through it over a weekend.  I'm keeping it close at hand on a bookshelf.  The hard copy is great because I can flip around back and forth.

Max McKeown really hit the nail on the head with The Strategy Book.  You'll find it easy to read and fun to implement in your own business.  If you're part of a mastermind group or management team, you'll want to go through the process together and see what new strategies you take on for next year.

The Strategy Book is printed by Pearson Books and is part of a series that also includes The Management Book  and The Leadership Book.   For more information about Max McKeown, check out his web site and follow him on Twitter @MaxMcKeown.

TrendSpottr Joins With Salesforce to Offer Predictive Analytics

TrendSpottr, a predictive analytics service that curates and identifies relevant trends, announced a partnership with Salesforce this week, meaning that any businesses using Salesforce will now have access to the analytics tools of TrendSpottr.

Trendspottr's product can help businesses find content relevant to their company or business interests within the massive amounts of data available online. It uses this data to identify and even predict trends within different industries and topics.

Users can enter a search term, hashtag, or general topic of interest, and then Trendspottr's algorithm looks for the most relevant information by taking into account factors like how recent the topic has been discussed, the frequency of those discussions, velocity, and amplification.

Data can also be broken down into conversations from a particular city or geographical area, so local businesses or companies looking to break into a particular market can get information more tailored to their business interests. Users can also learn about the top influencers within a particular topic and the context behind each trend.

The partnership with Salesforce not only means that a large amount of businesses will now have access to the tool, but also that TrendSpottr may be looking to transition into a more specialized analytics provider, rather than one that deals mainly with data from public social media sources.

TrendSpottr will continue to offer its product separately from its Salesforce offering, and the two products will be sold individually. Prices are based on how much data is processed through the service.

The Toronto-based startup was launched at the spring 2011 DEMO conference. The company started off working with the open social APIs from sites like Facebook and Twitter, and then expanded to more real-time streams of online data.

Aside from the partnership with TrendSpottr, Salesforce has also added a number of other social analytics vendors to its Marketing Cloud.

Sequester and Fiscal Cliff: What\'s the Impact on Small Business?

Those of us here in the U.S. have been hearing a lot about “sequester” (variation “sequestration”) - and its cousin, “fiscal cliff.”  I'd be willing to bet that quite a few of my fellow small business owners have no idea what those terms mean.  Politicians bandy them about  as if they think we all know what they are talking about.  In fact, we are focused on our families, our businesses, our communities, our faith - not what happens in Washington.

So I set out to find out what the words sequester and fiscal cliff really mean.

What is sequester?

Sequester refers to mandatory government spending cuts that are looming.  On January 1, 2013, $109 billion in spending cuts will automatically kick in across the board, according to the Christian Science Monitor.  But that's just the first step.

Over time $600 billion in cuts are required in defense programs, and another $600 billion in domestic programs.

What is the fiscal cliff?

The term “fiscal cliff” is a shorthand term for the impact of those cuts.  A big deadline is looming on January 1, 2013 when the cuts start going into effect.

In addition, certain tax increases will also go into effect.

The resulting impact is so dramatic that it could throw the country back into a recession.  In other words, we're headed toward a financial precipice.

What will be the impact? 

The proposed changes are so sudden and deep that the Congressional Budget Office  estimates they would shave gross domestic product (GDP) by 4% in 2013, triggering another recession (i.e., negative growth). That could lead to higher unemployment, with a loss of 2 million jobs.

Even if you believe that government spending should be cut, as I do, the problem is that mandated cuts will be made across the board.  They may not be the right cuts.

The analogy I use is that one day in your business you decide to finally address your red ink.  You decide you need to  cut expenses.  But you do it by laying off your best sales people and not paying your  insurance premiums. Then the sales orders slow to a trickle.  Then you have a fire and lose all your inventory and equipment, with no insurance to replace it.   Hmmm, maybe you should have found have other expenses to cut.

How does sequester and the fiscal cliff affect small businesses?

Sooner or later with high spending, there has to be a reckoning.

However, when you cut spending across the board, you can cut the legs out from important programs that should not be cut.  Defense cuts, for example, could hamper the ability of our country to defend itself and stay as secure as Americans expect.

And when you raise taxes, are you raising the right taxes?  Or do the higher taxes strangle growth among the very groups you expect to create economic growth, such as jobs?

For small businesses specifically, the tax increases would impact those who make over $250,000 a year.  As Professor Scott Shane points out, with help from George Haynes of Montana State University, raising taxes on those making more than $250,000 would affect the business owners that employ a whopping 93 percent of employees in small businesses.  And since many business owners sacrifice for years to reinvest in the business - in anticipation of it paying off later on - the taxes will hit them just as those years of sacrifice start to pay off in higher earnings for the business owner.

A Tax Foundation report also suggests that tax increases on those with incomes over $250,000 would slow growth and have an impact on business owners, because so many businesses report pass-through income.

The American Enterprise Institute suggests the sequester defense cuts would hurt small businesses in the defense industry, in particular:

“As Aerospace Industries Association President Marion Blakey has put it, 70 cents of every defense dollar goes to small firms.   In 2011, 20 percent of Department of Defense contracts and 35 percent of subcontracts were awarded to small businesses specifically.  Small business' value to the defense industry goes beyond the raw percentages. Smaller, specialized firms are often the only producers of niche equipment, software or technology, and as such, play an indispensable role in the military's supply chain.”

As for the healthcare law (“Obamacare”) that is phasing in, it's hard to tell what impact that is going to have on small businesses.  The law is so complex and the discussion so politicizedâ€" it's hard to know what to believe.  What we do know is that when the U.S. Supreme Court declared it constitutional, they also declared it a tax.

 What can you do about the fiscal cliff?

Demand that our lawmakers address spending and our national debt, and pass a budget.  Shamefully, this country has not passed a real budget in years. If we ran our businesses that way, we'd end up in bankruptcy.

Deciding what to spend on - and not - and deciding  how to pay for that spending, require hard choices.  That's true in  your family budget or your business budget or the government's budget. No one says it is easy.  But the reason we pay elected officials is to sort through and make those judgments â€" not just default to across-the-board cuts that could hurt more than they help.

Supreme Court Decision Could Impact Small Biz Re-selling

An anticipated Supreme Court decision that pits a book publisher against a young entrepreneur could have widespread impact on many small business merchants including eBay re-sellers. We'll also look at the latest trends in small business selling, especially e-commerce. Share your thoughts about the fallout of the Wiley v. Kirtsaeng case and the future of e-commerce in the comment section below.

Just Around the Corner

Book smart. The Supreme Court case involving Supap Kirtsaeng, a student who came to the U.S. in 1997 and began importing less expensive text books from his native Thailand in 2007 and selling them on eBay, could have dramatic repercussions for all small business re-sellers. Some critics worry a decision in favor of publishers could significantly erode the rights of any business to re-sell anything. Ars Technica

I want, therefore I am. There are other trends stirring the e-commerce world beyond the big news of re-sale rights, however. Online marketing expert Anton McCarthy tells us about Facebook's new “want” button and the emergence of something he calls the “intention economy.” E-commerce is going social, and it is important for your business to be ready. Tweak Your Biz

Selling the Dream

Setting up your store. Unless you're selling via eBay or some other big e-commerce super site, you'll need an online store to offer your products to an eager customer base. Online stores are not as complicated to create as they once were. E-commerce expert Danny Pajevic gives you an overview of how to choose the best software to develop your online store. Creating a Webstore

A whole new world. E-commerce can be a whole new world for business owners entering it for the first time. The first challenge is understanding how online payments work. Michelle Latham takes e-commerce newcomers by the hand in this post and shows them what they need to know to succeed. The first steps may be the hardest, but the rewards are clear. Switch Commerce

Taking stock. Managing your inventory is another hugely important part of e-commerce that many small business owners must consider from the very beginning. Running out of products offered on your Website will disappoint customers, resulting in a poor experience that will do nothing for your business. Here are some tips that should help you keep your inventory straight. Open Forum

Marketplace Masters

A better letter. If your e-commerce newsletters aren't saying the right things, they could be losing you money right now. Don't worry, though. Guest blogger Chris Hexton has these suggestions that should double your newsletter's effectiveness, meaning more sales for you and your online business. Capture Commerce

The bold and the beautiful. As long as you're creating an e-commerce site, you should give some thought to what makes the best online marketplaces thrive. Guest blogger Stacey Thompson shares some of the qualities the best online marketplaces on the Earth have in common. Make sure your online store keeps pace with these industry leaders. Print Runner Blog

Individual Insurance Market Changes Affect Small Business Owners

Larry Levitt, Anthony Damico, and Gary Claxton of the Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote in a recent blog post:

“The biggest effects the [Affordable Care Act] ACA will have on small business owners may not be changes in the rules for the small business insurance market, but rather the changes in the individual insurance market. ”

That's because most owners of businesses with fewer than 25 employees are much more likely than other Americans to get their health insurance from the individual insurance market.

If they are insured, most Americans get their health insurance from one of four sources:

• their employers;
• a family member's employer;
• the government (through Medicare or Medicaid);
• or from other private insurance.

Small business owners differ from Americans who don't own businesses in terms of health insurance coverage, but not in the way most people think.

Roughly the same share of small business owners and non-elderly Americans has health insurance. According to unpublished analysis of the Survey of Income and Program Participation for the second quarter of 2011 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 25 percent of small business owners were uninsured, a similar fraction to the 22 percent of all non-elderly adults who have no health care coverage.

The Foundation's analysis also shows that 21 percent of small business owners and 18 percent of all non-elderly adults get their insurance from a family member's employer â€" numbers that are also not too different. Finally, a relatively similar 6 percent of small business owners and 10 percent of non-elderly adults get their insurance through either Medicare or Medicaid.

Where small business owners differ from other Americans lies in the share that gets insurance coverage from their employer and from “other private insurance,” most of which is insurance purchased in the individual market.

While 37 percent of all non-elderly Americans get health insurance from their employers, only 19 percent of small business owners with fewer than 25 employees do. The numbers are reversed for “other private insurance,” with 30 percent of the small business owners and only 13 percent of all non-elderly Americans getting their insurance from that source.

This difference leads the Kaiser Family Foundation analysts to conclude that the really important changes in the ACA for owners of small businesses lie in the individual insurance market, such as new coverage requirements, rules about pre-existing conditions, and the creation of insurance exchanges.

Health Insurance Photo via Shutterstock