BodeTree Turns Your Business Financial Data Into Profitable Intelligence

Like millions of you I use an accounting program to manage my finances. I use Intuit Quickbooks others use Sage Peachtree, Xero, Wave Accounting, Outright, or some other tool.

The challenge with most all of these programs (online or software) is that they don't provide deep intelligence into how your business is really doing.

Sure â€" you know that you have $70,000 in the bank, and that you have $150,000 of expenses to pay, but you don't know much else.

Enter BodeTree which takes your financial information (I assume it imports your financial data) and helps you understand what it means:

  • You can see how your numbers compare to your competition â€" very useful to know how you are doing compared to other similar businesses.
  • What if you could take your banker a professional looking report, instead of a spreadsheet full of numbers? Maybe you would get that loan. BodeTree helps you prepare professional notes.
  • Norm Brodsky (serial entrepreneur and Inc Magazine writer)  has taught us all a lot about business buying and selling. With BodTree you can better see the value of your business.

BodeTree is $250 a year or $25 a month.

You use Google Analytics to measure the performance of your web site. BodeTree is your financial analytics to turn raw financial data into actionable financial insight.



Research Tool to Help Your Small Business Succeed: Review of QuestionPro

Most business owners have heard the statistic that 80% of new businesses fail within the first three years.  One of the biggest reasons they reportedly fail is because they lack the information and related analysis to make a good decision. You can prevent this by using free and low cost online survey tools. If you are looking collect useful customer data without hiring a professional market research firm, this review of QuestionPro is for you.

QuestionPro

I heard about QuestionPro from a marketing consultant colleague.  She explained that it had all the power and capability of high-end enterprise software but at a much lower price point that a small business could afford.  She liked that it was easy to use, had mobile survey capabilities (that few low-cost platforms provided) and offered  ”killer reports” that impressed her clients and made her look good in front of those clients.

So I took a closer look myself. Here's some of what I found:

When I got on to the QuestionPro site, I have to admit it was a tad intimidating.  The site looked more like something a big company would use.  Of course, they offer a free trial so I signed up.

Once inside the application, I have to admit that it wasn't the sexiest consumer site â€" like what you'd find on other web survey tools. This is obviously a no-nonsense site.  The first thing you see is a screen where you can start a survey.  I'm not sure if I like that or not.  It might depend on what work style you have.  If you're the kind of person who likes to read directions before you start something, then you might be disappointed.  But if you're the type of person who clicks first and reads directions later, then you will love it.

As I started to create a survey, I realized that QuestionPro actually guides you through the process as you go.  The interface is fairly intuitive and you shouldn't have any problems getting around and creating a good survey in short order.

What I Liked

  • Tons of options to create a wide, wide range of question types. I didn't know there were that many options of survey questions!
  • Another interesting feature was the logic function which allows you to create highly flexible surveys based on how people answer the question.
  • The mobile feature is powerful.  Each QuestionPro account comes standard with their SurveyPocket app that allows you to give and take online surveys without an Internet connection.  I can see how valuable this might be.  My first thought was to create a survey and install the SurveyPocket app on my iPhone and take it to conferences and networking events where I could use it as a fun way to  qualify prospects love to find out what's important to my prospects.
  • On the mobile page, I also could see that they allow you to upload your reports to DropBox and Google Docs (now called Google Drive).  This is super smart and very useful.  It makes it easy to share reports with colleagues and clients.

What Can Be Improved

  • The user interface is really “techy” and not as good looking as you might find on some consumer-focused online survey tools.  But what QuestionPro Lacks in looks, it makes up for in its ability to collect and generate data.

There is a fairly complete help file and some video tutorials, but it's clear that this tool is targeted to someone who has some basic knowledge of creating online surveys.  A small business owner who has never done a survey might find it somewhat overwhelming.

If you have made a commitment to do more market research and customer research so that you can make better decisions - then QuestionPro is a terrific tool that you can use. The 30-day free trial will give you plenty of time to create, run and analyze a survey â€" and if you need more time, the basic plan is only $15 per month - so it's not a huge investment to try. Online customer service is available and I've found the reps to be very helpful and responsive.

Overall, I believe QuestionPro is a service that a small business owner can use to discover more about their customers and prospects.




Ziptask. Almost Like Elance or oDesk But Different. No Interviews and Get A Quote.

I've been using Elance for years and in fact many of my core staff I've successfully found on Elance. I've been clued to a new service, that's similar to Elance, but a bit different â€" it's Ziptask.

What I like about Ziptask is that instead of me finding people to do the work for me, I send my work to Ziptask and they find someone (or a team) to do the work. They check it and send it back to me. I like that. I don't have to put out a query and find the right person for the job. Ziptask handles that. For .39 â€" .70 cents a minute for most jobs, the service is quite economical. Jobs include graphics, content development, programming and so much more. What I also like is that they give me an estimate for the project as well. Check it out â€" tell me what you think.

Check out a video about Ziptask here or below:



Crowd computing hits target

Twelve months of tinkering while working day jobs in the film industry saw Queenstown entrepreneurs Chris Thompson and Ben Ryan create their dream camera gadget - a motion control timelapse device.

All that was needed now was US$150,000 ($187,000) to make the prototype a commercial reality.

Instead of hitting up banks for loans or approaching angel investors and venture capital players, Thompson and Ryan listed on Kickstarter, an internet-based platform that solicits donations in exchange for a reward - small or large depending on the size of the donation.

Put US$1 into the Genie - a camera attachment combining timelapse photography with either panning or linear movement - and feel the glow of a "shout out" from the lads. Pledge US$690 and get the Genie at a US$300 discount.

Genie, the flagship product of design company Syrp, has blown all expectation out of the water.

Within six days of listing on Kickstarter the Genie had hit its funding goal of US$150,000. Just two days later it was at US$220,000.

This week the campaign closed with US$636,766 pledged to the project - double the "dream amount" of US$300,000 they hoped to raise.

Ryan says pledges, consisting mainly of pre-sales, provide validation for what they are doing.

It was proof that there was a genuine market for the Genie, that gave Kickstarter the edge over traditional funding methods.

"In some ways it's less risky than taking a loan, where you're taking up this money and you've got no idea whether you're going to sell units," Thompson says.

They did consider getting an investor on board but decided it was expertise and passion for the product that was more important than a cash injection.

Since its launch three years ago the US-based crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has commonly been associated with financing creative projects.

Film director Taika Waititi used Kickstarter this year to raise the US$100,000 needed to get his movie Boy distributed in the States.

Increasingly it's technology entrepreneurs using Kickstarter as a way to get funding and test the market appetite for products.

The Pebble watch is a recent, high-profile success raising US$10 million - 100 times its goal amount of US$100,000 - to produce a wristwatch with the ability to connect to and display information from an iPhone or Android phone.

The Pebble creators stopped taking orders once it burst through the US$10 million mark. They limited the initial production run to 85,000, saying they needed to "return our focus to creating the most awesome watch possible for you".

The company recognised those happy backers would quickly become grumpy, vocal critics if the yet-to-be-manufactured product didn't deliver as promised.

David Hsu, an associate professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times that Kickstarter is proving to be a viable alternative to starting a company the traditional way.

"You're activating a user base that you know will be interested in your project," he says.

Pebble watch developer Eric Migicovsky turned to Kickstarter, promising a watch in return for a US$99 pledge, after being unable to interest venture capital investors.

Within 24 hours of listing on Kickstarter he had gained US$1 million in pledges.

Ben Milson, local crowdfunding specialist and co-founder of social lending platform Nexx New Zealand says Kickstarter and its ilk work well for people who already have a product or are a reasonable way down the product development road.

"You're not going to see anybody on Kickstarter raising money for a new biological process to refine bio-oil from sewerage but you certainly might see it for a product that already does that," he says.

Milsom says the ability for a video game studio to raise $1 million on Kickstarter shows this is about "serious projects, serious money, serious people".

Not every crowdfunding campaign has been a roaring success - about 44 per cent of Kickstarter projects hit their financing target last year - which may also reflect the challenges of crowdfunding as well as project viability.

Waiheke-based technology entrepreneur Toby Ruckert raised US$1315 of the US$74,000 target for his Unified Inbox application on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

He says feedback on his product, an application that brings together communication across a variety of channels - from Twitter, email, Facebook through to voicemail, texts and postal mail - into one inbox, was positive but he learned some key lessons along the way.

Ruckert says the perks needed to be "spot on" with people wanting to see a realisation of your projects in the rewards.

He says they "got a bit sidetracked" and offered quirky rewards, such as a recording by Ruckert, a talented classical pianist.

The video that accompanies the campaign needs to be "awesome", Ruckert says.

While it doesn't have to be a TV-quality recording, he says, it does need to be an emotionally, factually and purposefully compelling video that encourages support from potential backers.

He says companies also need 1000 people to share the campaign passionately or "you are not going to make a dent in the universe".

Armed with the knowledge gained from his Indiegogo campaign Ruckert plans to use crowdfunding again, most likely Kickstarter.

He is also seeking funding though angel investor and venture capital channels, with the ideal investor being someone prepared to take a hands-on role within the company.

Thompson says it has been a 12 hour a day job working their contact book and pushing the Genie campaign on to social media, industry blogs and websites.

Promotional material has been translated into Japanese and Spanish to drive Genie into different markets

The online buzz around Genie has created some "crazy marketing benefits", Ryan says.

"You're instantly known by the whole film community and your product is just out there in the whole global market within four to five weeks, so that's a massive advantage.

"Something you could spend a year or two trying to do, through Kickstarter it's done and happening in a week."

Just back from meeting with possible manufacturers in China, Ryan and Thompson will return to oversee an initial run of 1500 units.

Thompson, an industrial designer, has prior experience dealing with Chinese manufacturers and is using established contacts to produce the Genie.

"It's not uncharted territory for us," Ryan says.

The pair is also likely to crowdfund future updates and accessory add-ons to the Genie.

For them, Kickstarter has meant their dream gadget has become a reality.

Consumers help to reshape financing

Crowdfunding uses internet-based platforms to match projects or people with potential investors.

Crowdfunding entrepreneur and co-founder of the Nexx social lending platform Ben Milsom says the growth in crowdfunding has been driven in part by consumers wanting to change the way the financial world works, including greater transparency and choice.

It has been assisted by the technological tools that knit together bank transaction services, credit scoring, payment processing and invoice chase-up systems, he says.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo, two of the most popular "in-kind" funding platforms take pledges as small as US$1 in exchange for rewards, most commonly the end product of the campaign.

Kickstarter campaigns are only funded on an all-or-nothing basis. People who only receive $2000 worth of funding aren't expected to complete a $5000 project.

It also allows people to test concepts in the market without having to follow through if it doesn't receive enough support.

There are no up-front fees but Kickstarter takes 5 per cent of the final amount raised if the goal target is hit and Amazon, which processes the payments, takes 3 to 5 per cent.

People creating a campaign on Kickstarter don't have to be a US citizen but permanent US residency, social security number, bank account and other credit criteria need to be met to enable payments via Amazon.

Since launching in 2009 more than 24,000 projects have been funded to the tune of US$250 million by 2 million people.

Indiegogo is more accessible to international projects, with Pay Pal and bank wire services handling payments, but non-US projects attract additional fees.

By Helen Twose | Email Helen

Google Analytics Gets Better: Check It Out. Check It Daily. Boost Your Online Presence & Intelligence

I've used Google Analytics on Smallbiztechnology.com to know as much as I can about my audience . What sources are sending traffic to smallbiztechnology.com, what pages are most popular, what browsers are most popular, which mobile devices are used on my site and so much more.

Google's Analytics has been updated with some great new features, from Google:

Download the new Analytics App to view your Analytics account on your mobile phone. We hope you discover even more ways to use these new reports and features to improve your business.

Measure your mobile application with Analytics - Mobile App Analytics provides end-to-end measurement of the entire customer journey within a mobile application. It enables mobile developers and marketers to create more successful apps and user experiences by measuring metrics at all stages: from acquisition metrics such as new/active user; engagement metrics such as visitor flow, loyalty, and app crashes; and outcome metrics such as goal conversions and in-app purchases. We're slowly rolling out this feature, and it will be available to all by the end of summer. Learn more

The Intelligence Alerts Widget makes it easier to spot unexpected changes on your website - Your automatic and custom alerts are now in your dashboard! No need to click on the Intelligence tab or check your email to see alerts. In your dashboard, you can see a timeline graph of the number of automatic/custom alerts. If you are curious for more details or there is spike in the number of alerts, click on the widget, and it will lead you to the appropriate reports. Learn more

Browser size analysis: find out what your visitors actually see  - What is actually “above the fold” on a webpage is a significant factor in conversion rates, so we've created a visualization that lets you quickly determine which portions of your page are visible to which percentages of visitors. Find it in your Analytics account in the Content section under In-Page Analytics. Learn more

Data at your fingertips: the Google Analytics app for Android - With the Google Analytics App, you can access the same accounts and profiles you see when you open Analytics from a desktop browser, but you'll see reports that are optimized for your phone. Swipe through these reports to see the essential data about your websites and apps anywhere, anytime. Learn more



Boot Up With A Secure USB To Securely Use Guest Computers (Or Your Own)

There's a lot of online threats when using a computer system, especially one that's connected to the Internet â€" as most of our computers are. When travelling to other countries, the threat is even higher with corporate and government sponsored espionage. One of the ways you can be VERY secure is by booting the computer with a bootable USB drive. Doing so completely by-passes the computer's operating system.

Cryptzone, European IT Threat mitigation specialists, announced the release of AppGate MOVE (My Own Virtual Environment), a USB flash drive that provides a portable and robust way to access information and applications securely from virtually any computer. As the secure bootable USB works independently of the host device's operating system, the risk from malware infection is eradicated.

Jamie Bodley-Scott, Account Director for Systems Integratorsat Cryptzone says “With more organisations offering occasional home working, MOVE is a perfect low-cost option, providing trustedaccess to corporate information from anuntrusted computer at home or in a public space. MOVE allows people to work securely because the configuration of the PC is irrelevant and untouched.Thisis important from a security policy viewpoint.”

Cryptzone is not the only maker of bootable USB drives â€" in fact your IT person can make one for you or you can search for how to do this online.

It's probably a pain to boot up with a USB drive on your personal computer â€" but if you travel and you're working with secure documents a bootable drive will make you more secure. Want an extra layer of secure? Use a mobile broadband card for your OWN internet connectivity.

 

 



Sean Whiteley of Salesforce & Do.com: Live The Life of Your Customer

One thing is for sure, the world of social media has changed the way we do business, with some industries being affected more than others.  Sean Whitely, Senior Vice President of Salesforce.com & General Manager of Do.com, feels that the “entire definition of CRM has changed as a result of social.” Tune in as he shares his thoughts and insights with Brent Leary on this timely topic.

* * * * *

Sean Whiteley of Salesforce & DoSmall Business Trends: Can you give us a little bit about your background?

Sean Whiteley: I had a company in 2006 called Kieden, that integrated Google Ad Words and Salesforce CRM, which was acquired by Salesforce.com in 2006. Since then I have worked on a variety of different initiatives at the company.  As you know, Salesforce has been growing by leaps and bounds and there is never a shortage of interesting things to work on.

Now, I am actually running a business of ours called DO.com, which is a social productivity platform that has helped people get things done.

Small Business Trends:  How have small businesses CRM needs changed over the years from when you first got started with Salesforce?

Sean Whiteley: I think that CRM and the entire CRM landscape has probably changed more than it ever has historically in the last couple of years. I mean, if you look at the way you live your life, and you look at all of the social, and the ubiquity of communications you have on your various mobile devices, you are always connected.  And you are always able say something or listen to something 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

That has drastically changed the relationship that businesses have with their customers.  In terms of the way they support them, in terms of the information they have about them so they can support them better, and also the way that they sell and market their services to those customers.

Small Business Trends: How are these new acquisitions addressing the needs of your small business customers today?

Sean Whiteley: You know Desk.com is a social services support application and the whole approach is ‘you need to be where your customers are.'   You need to be on the social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, email and phone. You need to be on all of these places and you need to let your customers decide how they interact with you. So, a big part of it is listening and a big part of it is engaging.  That is what the Desk.com philosophy is.

DO.com is based on an acquisition that Salesforce has made. The whole idea of DO.com is that you can use it to get things done. It is a shared task list, project collaboration, sharing files, and taking notes. It is really focused very heavily on the utility that people need in their day-to-day life.  They are used to taking notes and then instantly translating that into a set of tasks.

It hooks up to email, you can forward emails into a task at DO.com.  It automatically sits at the top of your task list so you don't forget. The whole thing is really set and designed so that, from the first second that you use it, you already know how to use it.  You can use it for personal productivity or you can use it for collaborative projects.

Small Business Trends: You mention you are running DO.com as a small business within a big business. Can you talk about why you are doing that?

Sean Whiteley: We have a saying at DO.com that ‘we need to live the life of our customers.'  We work very hard to use tools and build for the user persona of a small business. We have a very small office, we are about 16 people.  We are not on the core main Salesforce campus, although we go back and forth a lot.

One of the things I think a lot of these small agile upstarts do really well is they focus on one problem.  They focus exclusively on that problem and they typically solve it very well. We are spending 95% of our time just building new features for the user, which is sort of ideal for a small business.

Small Business Trends: You mentioned Facebook. What are you guys doing together, if anything at all?

Sean Whiteley: Facebook is, of course, one of our great customers and we are customer of theirs as well. They are right down the road and we spend quite a bit of time with Facebook.

I think that Salesforce and Facebook are natural partners in the sense that Facebook has evolved their advertising platform. There are over 900 million people that are on Facebook and they are spending an inordinate amount of time on this service. It's very natural that you want to be potentially experimenting with Facebook ads. You want to be using Facebook insights for analytics.

Salesforce is the place where, once you have engaged, you want to start to cultivate that customer relationship from a lead to potentially an opportunity, to potentially a customer. So how you market and sell and support customers in Salesforce, Facebook is, a lot of times, the place where you are going to find relevant prospects.  The people that are a good match for the thing that you are building or selling.

Small Business Trends: Where do you think small businesses are going to be with their needs for CRM?

Sean Whiteley: I think the entire definition of CRM has changed as a result of social.  I think that will continue to happen over the next couple of years. Next year, when you look at what is the CRM system, I think it is going to look very different.  I think there is going to be more utility.  I think it is going to be much more collaborative.  I think it is going to be real time.  And I think it is going to be a lot different than the CRM systems that you are used to.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you're growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

 


Quick, Check Your Web Site On Your Phone. Does It Look Bad? You\'re Probably Losing Sales.

Right now, take your smartphone or tablet and look at your web site. How does it look? Does it look good or terrible. I was speaking recently to an Infusionsoft customer about a variety of things and one topic was if her web site was mobile or not. She said she's used the “DIY” mobile web site services and they didn't make her web site look too good, so she's going to work with a company who can really customize the mobile experience for her web site visitors.

For those of you who want to try to DIY (do it yourself) I've been pretty happy with Mobstac - they make Smallbiztechnology.com look pretty good on mobile devices. In fact their free starter plan caught my eye. They'll mobilize your site for FREE until it reaches 250,00 page views, then they'll charge you for it.

So go check out your web site on a smartphone and on a tablet. Like how it looks? If you don't â€" neither do prospective customers and you're probably losing sales by not correcting this.



Research reveals suspicious application in Apple App Store

A suspicious application has been named as the first malware in the in the Apple App Store.

According to research by Denis Maslennikov, senior malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab, the application ‘Find and Call' appeared to be an SMS worm spread via sending short messages to all contacts stored in the phone book with the URL to itself at first glance.

“However, our analysis of the iOS and Android versions of the same application showed that it's not an SMS worm but a Trojan that uploads a user's phonebook to remote server. The 'replication' part is done by the server - SMS spam messages with the URL to the application are being sent from the remote server to all the contacts in the user's address book,” he said.

Maslennikov said that if a user launches this application they will be asked to register the app with their email address and mobile phone number, and to ‘find friends in a phone book' their contacts data and GPS coordinates will be secretly (no EULA/ terms of usage/notifications) uploaded to a remote server.

He said that while the user continues to use the application it steals data from the device which are uploaded to a remote server to be used for SMS spam campaigns.

“Each phone book entry will receive SMS spam message offering to click on the URL and download this ‘Find and Call' application. It is worth mentioning that the ‘from' field contains the user's mobile phone number. In other words, people will receive an SMS spam message from a trusted source,” he said.

He said that the website for this app allows the user (after logging into your account) to ‘enter' your social network accounts, mail accounts (it seems that these details will also be used) and even PayPal to add money to your account.

Later, the writer of the App responded to the Russian blog AppleInsider.ru with a statement that said: “System is in process of beta-testing. In result of failure of one of the components there is a spontaneous sending of inviting SMS messages. This bug is in process of fixing. SMS are sent by the system, that is why it won't affect your mobile account.”

The apps were later removed from the Apple Store and Google Play.

James Lyne, director of technology strategy at Sophos, told SC Magazine that this was not the most insidious payload but there was a number of smartphone invulnerabilities that the ‘walled garden' was not delivering.

Lyne said “There are other apps with superior techniques, some by accident and some intentional, but this does show that things are possible and we should not rest on our laurels about smartphone security. However the application checking process needs to be more transparent."



My Reputation Usually Precedes Me

reputation business cartoon

“You reputation precedes you” is one of those phrases you don't really give a lot of thought. Usually, it surfaces when a person is meeting another and is clearly impressed and maybe a little nervous.  But it's more conversational filler than meaningful dialogue and it's that quality that usually pops out at the cartoonist in me.

Who else might say it? How can I change it? Can I turn it around on itself?

In this cartoon, I focused on the “precedes” part and thought it would be fun if everyone was expecting a reputation.  But for some reason, it was running late. Although, if you have a bad reputation maybe that is to be expected?




11 Tips For Improving Virtual Meetings: Introduce Attendeees

Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese are authors of the book The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization's True Potential (Cisco Press).

According to Ricci and Wiese, new technology and the reality of working in global organizations means we are replacing traditional in-person meetings with travel-free, technology-enabled, face-to-face collaboration that can occur at anytime, with anyone, anywhere in the world.

The virtual workplace has many advantages, but it also introduces new challenges. We work with people we've never met before, and we cannot bond in the same way we do when we are sitting across the table from them.

The three most important ingredients of a successful virtual meeting are trust, communication and ready access to information, says the authors.

Here are a few tips to help you succeed, from their book:

  1. Before the meeting, make sure attendees have all the preparation materials they will need and the time to review them.
  2. Begin with a quick warm-up. For example, start the meeting by asking remote attendees to describe what's happening in their country, town or office.
  3. During “blended” meetings, where some attendees are gathering in person and others are participating virtually, address remote attendees first and then offer the opportunity to speak to in-person attendees.
  4. Identify in-person attendees. In-room speakers - whether presenting or making a comment - should introduce themselves so that remote attendees know who is speaking.
  5. Ask remote attendees to be vocal. Emphasize that it is their responsibility to let in-person people know if they cannot hear or follow the discussion.
  6. Don't assume everyone is comfortable with the virtual collaboration technology. Communicate and publish the location and guidelines for the tools you're using.
  7. Rotate meeting times. Ensure that each time zone has a meeting scheduled during normal business hours.
  8. Solicit participation. Regularly ask remote attendees if they have comments and encourage participants to post a message.
  9. Assign a meeting monitor. Keep an eye out for questions, IMs or chat postings and interjects from remote attendees.
  10. If your virtual team includes customers, partners, suppliers or vendors, ensure the security of your documents and corporate information.
  11. Avoid colloquialisms, acronyms and corporate-speak if you have nonnative speakers.


UK consumers fail to trust security of mobile banking

A survey of more than 2,000 UK adults has found that three-quarters believe that mobile banking technology is insecure.

The study of 2,031 6-64 year olds in Great Britain by retail and banking solutions provider Wincor Nixdorf found that 72 per cent of consumers believe mobile banking services are insecure and unsafe.

Ed Brindley, director of marketing at Wincor Nixdorf, said: “When you look at some technology such as the ATM, this has become a retail banking mainstay. Consumers feel comfortable using it and see that it is of benefit. However, the key here is that it was rolled out gradually and consumers were given the right education in how to use it.

“The problem now is that while banks are doing the right thing by innovating to improve service, the speed of technology-adoption has accelerated. Customers feel like they may walk into a bank and be surrounded by machines with no staff in sight, while mobile banking remains a big concern for them.

“However if they're given the right level of education and help initially, they will soon feel comfortable, see that it is of benefit to them and the concern and distrust this study has identified will no longer be an issue.”



Microsoft to release three critical patches next week

Microsoft to release three critical patches among a bundle of nine on next week's Patch Tuesday.

According to Trustworthy Computing spokesperson Angela Gunn, the Tuesday July 10th release is scheduled to include nine bulletins to address 16 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Visual Basic for Applications.

The critical patches affect two Windows patches and one for both Internet Explorer and Windows, all fix a remote code execution flaw. The remaining ‘important' bulletins address flaws in Windows, Office, Sharepoint and Office for the Mac.

Microsoft also said that it would release an updated version of its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center next week.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle, said: “Looks like we are going to get some unanticipated Internet Explorer fireworks this month. Usually, Microsoft patches Internet Explorer every other month, and we just got a cumulative update in June. That's why it's so surprising to see that IE9, the 'most secure' version of Internet Explorer, will be patched next week. It's pretty safe to say this bulletin will patch something pretty serious.

“On June 12th, Microsoft issued a security advisory for their core XML services, but there's no mention of this bug being patched in today's notification. Usually, if a bug with an advisory is going to be patched, MSRC will mention it in their advance notification blog post. If Microsoft doesn't patch this bug it's going to cause some heartburn for IT security teams. We've already seen reliable reports that the exploit for this bug has been included in several popular attack tool kits."

Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at Qualys, said that he expected bulletin one to address the XML vulnerability disclosed by Microsoft in the June Patch Tuesday as KB2719615.

He said: “This bulletin will be the highest priority for users, at least for those who did not apply Microsoft's FixIt supplied in the advisory. Bulletin two is for Internet Explorer, and is a bit of a surprise as it breaks the usual cycle of supplying an update for IE every two months. The bulletin only applies to IE9 and is thus limited to Vista and above. Bulletin three is ‘critical' for all desktop operating systems, XP, Vista and WIndows 7; for all others it is rated only ‘moderate'.” 

Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst at Lumension, said that this release means that Microsoft has released 51 bulletins during 2012, about on par with 2011, which saw 56 bulletins at this time last year.

“Looking at the bulletins, one of the first things that jumps out is that these really impact the entire family of products, from XP all the way to 2008. This is really a weird mix of patches, impacting both legacy and current generation software with critical issues,” he said.



Imperva: US has approved state-sponsored hacking

Revelations that the US government was among those behind Stuxnet shows that the Obama administration has given its approval to the use of cyber tools in espionage.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Rob Rachwald, Imperva's director of security strategy said that the biggest story learned from the development of Stuxnet is that the US and Israel collaborated together to work on the virus.

He suggested that this move means that the US has ‘approved' state-sponsored hacking and espionage, and for a country such as the US to bless this sends a strong message to rogue states.

He said: “Flame cost millions of dollars to develop, that is about the same (or less) than an F-18. Cyber weapons give you an option that is all about making a point, but this has backfired for Obama. If this was China or Russia, then he would be heralded as a hero. But not in the US.”

Rachwald commented that the level of knowledge that the US and Israel had about the Iranian uranium enrichment programme would have taken considerable time and showed good amounts of intelligence, and Stuxnet required ‘a lot of TLC' to evade anti-virus for as long as it did.

“Stuxnet was above and beyond malware writers' capabilities and was done to ensure that it caused damage, so there was the espionage,” he said.

As reported by SC Magazine last month, a report by the New York Times claimed that the United States and Israel were behind the Stuxnet virus with Anonymous sources, who reportedly worked on the project, quoted as saying that the National Security Agency working with part of Israel's military developed the worm to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme.

The report was written by David Sanger, whose book Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, reported that the sabotage strategy began in 2006 under the administration of George W. Bush as an alternative to a military strike. He said that the code was passed on to President Obama who was "strongly urged" to continue the programme.

John Bumgarner from the US Cyber Consequences Unit suggested on Twitter that Bush was still working on Stuxnet just a few days prior to the 2009 inauguration of Obama, and that the project was under way for approximately four years before Obama took office. He also said that Obama then green-lighted the project five months after taking office.



Imperva: US has legitimised state-sponsored hacking

Revelations that the US government was among those behind Stuxnet shows that the Obama administration has given its approval to the use of cyber tools in espionage.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Rob Rachwald, Imperva's director of security strategy said that the biggest story learned from the development of Stuxnet is that the US and Israel collaborated together to work on the virus.

He suggested that this move means that the US has ‘approved' state-sponsored hacking and espionage, and for a country such as the US to bless this sends a strong message to rogue states.

He said: “Flame cost millions of dollars to develop, that is about the same (or less) than an F-18. Cyber weapons give you an option that is all about making a point, but this has backfired for Obama. If this was China or Russia, then he would be heralded as a hero. But not in the US.”

Rachwald commented that the level of knowledge that the US and Israel had about the Iranian uranium enrichment programme would have taken considerable time and showed good amounts of intelligence, and Stuxnet required ‘a lot of TLC' to evade anti-virus for as long as it did.

“Stuxnet was above and beyond malware writers' capabilities and was done to ensure that it caused damage, so there was the espionage,” he said.

As reported by SC Magazine last month, a report by the New York Times claimed that the United States and Israel were behind the Stuxnet virus with Anonymous sources, who reportedly worked on the project, quoted as saying that the National Security Agency working with part of Israel's military developed the worm to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme.

The report was written by David Sanger, whose book Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, reported that the sabotage strategy began in 2006 under the administration of George W. Bush as an alternative to a military strike. He said that the code was passed on to President Obama who was "strongly urged" to continue the programme.

John Bumgarner from the US Cyber Consequences Unit suggested on Twitter that Bush was still working on Stuxnet just a few days prior to the 2009 inauguration of Obama, and that the project was under way for approximately four years before Obama took office. He also said that Obama then green-lighted the project five months after taking office.



ACTA Dies but Intellectual Property Issues Remain for Online Business

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is dead, but intellectual property issues online remain. Businesses owners whose companies rely upon content may understand the importance of safeguarding the material they create, however some argue that Internet freedom is at stake. Your business's freedom might be at stake too.

As Good as Done

Killing ACTA. The European Parliament vote was an overwhelming 478 to 39 against the controversial trade agreement that some say was created to safeguard intellectual property on the Internet. But critics say the agreement also opened the door for unfounded claims against many, possibly your business too. Torrent Freak

Intellectual property lines. With the defeat of ACTA by the European Parliament, it's become clear that online freedom and privacy remain important issues to the public, to businesses, and to your customers. The question is what will be the next step for defining intellectual property online. TechDirt

A New Hope

Copyright treaty seeks balance. Those advocating Internet freedom say a renegotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership will call for balance of intellectual property rights with exceptions and limitations for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. The exceptions are imperative for the freedom of communication necessary to do business on the Internet. Ars Technica

Entrepreneurs fight for freedom. Online business leaders are among the group who are fighting for the Internet to remain open and free. To this end, they have declared a set of guiding principles they say will help protect these rights, including the freedom to operate your business as you see fit. The Verge

Guarding innovation. One of the most important reasons to keep the Internet free, say some, is the need to protect innovation. Not surprisingly, innovation is a tremendously important activity for business, whether online or not. Here are two declarations that may protect future innovation on the Web. Computerworld

Causes for Concern

Be careful where you link. But those fighting against seemingly impractical rulings on Internet copyright cases may not want to celebrate victory just yet. Witness the case of 24-year-old Richard O'Dwyer who may be extradited to the US. His crime: linking to other sites that hosted copyrighted material. CNET

Internet innovator could be jailed. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has launched an unprecedented petition to save O'Dwyer. Could misguided cases built on intellectual property rights potentially imprison the next great online entrepreneur? The Guardian

Why this case matters. O'Dwyer's Website was targeted because he is allegedly guilty of secondary “infringement by inducing” others to post copyrighted content. But if everyone fears linking to your site, and you fear linking to others, it's clear the free exchange of information upon which online business and innovation are based will disappear. Gigaom

Community Cautions

Woz weighs in. And just in case you're wondering how one of the founding fathers of computer-based business feels about this whole intellectual property thing, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has expressed his own concerns over the charges against Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. Wozniak feels the case against Megaupload opens the door for holding all site operators responsible for what users share. The Associated Press

Twitter jitters. Even 140 characters is sufficient to infringe on intellectual property, it seems. The microblogging platform issued its own transparency report mirroring one by Google showing the number of copyright related takedown notices the site has received and the number the number of information requests from the government. The New Web