Patent Applications to Be Reviewed Outside Washington for First Time in History

Innovative American businesses and entrepreneurs may no longer have to send their ideas off to Washington D.C. and wait years for patent approval. The US Commerce Department has announced plans to open four regional patent offices in order to clear out the backlog of patent applications and to help spur innovation and growth among American businesses.

Some critics may not agree with the added expense of the satellite offices, but lawmakers from both sides of the aisle backed the idea of adding satellite offices last year because of the overwhelming amount of patent applications currently awaiting approval. With the new offices, the US Patent and Trademark Office hopes to work through the applications more quickly and get the nation's innovative companies and individuals back on track. They also hope the extra offices will help businesses to protect their intellectual property and hopefully to create some jobs in the process.

Currently, those waiting for approval on patent applications may have to wait up to three years, and more and more are filed each day. The four satellite offices will be located in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, and Silicon Valley. According to the USPTO's official announcement, the site selection for the new offices was based on public input, meetings with state and local officials, and factors such as geographical diversity, regional economic impact, and ability to recruit and obtain employees. This is the first time in the USPTO's more than 200-year history that patents will be examined outside of the Washington metropolitan area.

The first satellite office in Detroit will open on July 13. The USPTO plans to create a timeline for the additional three offices within the next few months.

And this may not be the last big change American innovators can expect from the USPTO. The satellite offices are being established as part of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011, which includes a larger effort to modernize the US patent system over the next several years.

Image of U.S. Patent Office Interior courtesy of Library of Congress.

13 Tips to Starting Up in a Brand New Region

Entrepreneurs usually sprout ideas from what they know best-current occupations, lifetime hobbies, subjects they've unknowingly studied for so long before starting up. Most of the time, they know who their target audience is.  Which is why they feel so comfortable when taking such a big risk in order to serve them with something new.

If that target audience is located nowhere near your current headquarters, the leap into entrepreneurship may require relocation a brand new region. Whether just across town, to other side of the country or onto a different continent, launching or expanding into previously uncharted lands can be daunting.

We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation only nonprofit organization comprised of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question to find out their advice for exploring foreign territory:

“What advice would you give a CEO launching or expanding in a brand new region?”

Here's what YEC community members had to say:

1. Lead With Media

“I have the honor of doing CEO branding for several CEO's, and I would advise a CEO to lead with media. Hire a public relations professional that can immediately get you on local TV, newspapers or radio, as this will add to your credibility locally and put you on fertile ground.” ~ Raoul Davis, Ascendant Strategy

2. Are Your Legal Bases Covered?

“Check with your attorney to make sure you are not triggering any additional legal requirements. For example, many cities and states require a company to register if they are “doing business” in the jurisdiction. You need to notify your legal counsel so you can determine whether your new business activities trigger any additional legal requirements.” ~ Doug Bend, Bend Law Group, PC

3. Add a Local on Your Team

“Most of the time, you don't know enough about another region/country to go it alone. Hire someone who understands the local markets and culture to help you get started. There are enough reasons why you might not succeed, take advantage of local insight and knowledge about the region or market. We've seen the benefits of hiring locally in every market we've entered:  U.S., Japan, China and Mexico.” ~ Christian Springub, Jimdo

4. Research the Region

“I would recommend doing research on the region and on the culture of the region. I would also recommend doing market research on the area. Become knowledgeable about the type of consumers you will encounter and their buying habits, as well as what works from a marketing/advertising/public relations standpoint.” ~ Zach Cutler, Cutler Group

5. Draft a Local Strategy

“Go in with a strategy if you're in a new region. If you have a client or group of clients in the area, then have them take you around and show you who they interact with. Join them â€" they have a local view into the community.” ~ Jordan Guernsey, Molding Box

6. Market Makers Make Good Friends

“Make friends with the market makers - the people who know and influence everyone. They set the tone for a product or service and can make or break your business. Make fans of them, and they'll do much of the work for you.” ~ Brent Beshore, AdVentures

7. Join Startup America!

“The best all-around resource for startup founders is Startup America. Sign up online, connect to startups in your new region, and attend local Startup America events. It just works - I met my top mentors and co-founders this way.” ~ Neil Thanedar, LabDoor

8. Build Your Personal Brand

“As a leader, you need to build your personal brand so you can effectively launch your new business. You will need new relationships, partnerships and clients to build your company. A solid brand will attract more of these than anything else.” ~ John Hall, Digital Talent Agents

9. Speak at Local Events

“Early on, find a conference or event you can speak at to create fans, customers, and a following of your product or service. Seeing someone out-of-state coming to speak about their expertise bolsters credibility at events.” ~ Kenny Nguyen, Big Fish Presentations

10. Go on a Listening Tour

“Too often, an upstart company enters a new region with too much bravado. You're entering somebody else's community, so get to know the people - key business leaders, industry reps, and potential customers in the region. Don't go in trying to sell, but work on listening. Set a tone that shows how you want to become part of their community. Build the relationships and the money will follow.” ~ Michael Margolis, Get Storied

11. Call In the Experts

“Expanding to a new region is never as simple as “take what we did before and repeat.” Find experts in the region who can help you translate your product to the new environment. The smartest move is to find those who know the local customer sentiment, regulatory environment, real estate market, and have insights into the local talent pool.” ~ Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

12. Keep Uncompromising Focus

“Stick to your core competency and do what you do best. It's usually a mistake to vary your formula for success when moving into a new market. Build your brand on what you're known for, using the killer skills that made you successful to begin with.” ~ Nick Reese, Microbrand Media

13. Be Prepared to Test

“After making sure your new regional website is catered toward your new demographic, it's important to quickly figure out what works for you in that particular market. Split-testing is priceless, since there can be culture and/or language differences that you and your team don't completely comprehend first-hand. Move things around, try different language tones, swap out images, etc.” ~ Logan Lenz, Endagon

Explore Photo via Shutterstock

Tech Thursday (7/12):Dell Financial Services Offers Zero Percent Financing on EqualLogic Storage Solutions, Survey Reveals Digital Information Costs Businesses $1.1Trillion, Study Guide for Microsoft® Office 365, Experian\'s New Online Tool Helps Improve Cash Flow

Dell Financial Services Offers Zero Percent Financing on EqualLogic Storage Solutions

 

Symantec Survey Reveals Digital Information Costs Businesses $1.1Trillion

 

MOS Study Guide for Microsoft® Office 365

 

Experian Launches Online Tool That Helps Improve Cash Flow

 

 

Dell Financial Services Offers Zero Percent Financing on EqualLogic Storage Solutions to Help Growing Businesses Keep Up with Data Demands

 

The promotion is the first zero-percent financing offer available to Dell channel partners

Dell Financial Services (DFS) is offering zero percent financing on Dell's award winning EqualLogic storage systems for growing businesses feeling the pressure of data growth. With the offer, small and medium businesses have access direct from Dell and through trusted partners to highly virtualized storage technology that scales with their business, enabling them to manage and store critical data as they grow. 

The Zero-Percent EqualLogic promotion helps small and medium businesses manage their growing data storage needs while preserving their capital for sales, marketing and R&D. Dell EqualLogic arrays, regardless of generation, work together to automatically manage data, load balance across all resources and scale as business demands change. A recent analysis by analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group found Dell EqualLogic systems have the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) .Today's offer includes a zero percent $1 buyout lease on a 36-month term on all EqualLogic storage equipment. Dell Financial Services helps customers manage their budget with fixed monthly payments.

“The number of devices, data movement and usage makes storage a crucial component of accommodating business growth. However, access to capital remains an obstacle for many small and medium businesses looking to scale their IT infrastructures, “said Erik Reichman, vice president and general manager, Dell Financial Services for Small and Medium Business. “With Dell Financial Services, we eliminate a key barrier for customers who can now move forward on long delayed purchases.”

Zero Percent Promotional Financing from Dell Financial Services a Dell Channel First
The Zero-Percent EqualLogic promotion is the first zero-percent offer for the Dell partner channel, making it easier for Dell small and medium business channel partners who are storage certified to help their customers acquire business-critical storage. Dell is committed to being a long-term partner for the channel community and is using this offering to set the standard for integration of Dell Financial Services with the PartnerDirect community.

“The Zero-Percent Dell Financial Services EqualLogic offering is a sign of our commitment to making it easy for our partners to work with Dell, enabling them to help growing businesses store their data while providing a flexible way to manage their budget with fixed monthly payments,” added Greg Davis, vice president and general manager Dell Global Commercial Channel.

Pricing and Availability
The Zero-Percent EqualLogic offering is a 36-month zero percent $1 Buyout lease on all EqualLogic storage components with no minimum purchase amounts necessary and runs through August 3, 2012. The $1 buyout lease gives customers a predictable budget with fixed payments through the end-of-lease term and equipment ownership. In addition, equipment may qualify for a standard depreciation schedule (tax treatment).

 

Symantec Survey Reveals Digital Information Costs Businesses $1.1Trillion 

Yet Businesses Still Struggling To Protect Information Efficiently

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. â€" Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that information costs businesses worldwide $1.1 trillion annually, according to its first ever State of Information Survey. From confidential customer information, to intellectual property, to financial transactions, organizations possess massive amounts of information that not only enable them to be competitive and efficient â€" but also stay in business. In fact, the survey revealed that digital information makes up 49 percent of an organization's total value.

“The vast amount of information that organizations produce today can help them better serve their customers and increase productivity. However, the same information can also become a major liability if it is not properly protected. Companies that effectively use their information will have a major competitive advantage over those who cannot, and in some cases it can be the difference between success and failure,” said Francis deSouza, group president, Enterprise Products and Services, Symantec Corp. “With its increasing value and rising cost, successful companies will find ways to more effectively protect their information and unleash the productivity it can bring.”

 Information is Skyrocketing and It's Expensive: Businesses of all sizes are dealing with enormous amounts of data. The total size of information stored today by all businesses is 2.2 zettabytes. Small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) on average have 563 terabytes of data, compared with the average enterprise that has 100,000 terabytes. The survey also reveals that information is expected to grow 67 percent over the next year for enterprises and 178 percent for SMBs.

On average, enterprises spend $38 million annually on information, while SMBs spend $332,000. However, the yearly cost per employee for SMBs is a lot higher at $3,670, versus $3,297 for enterprise. For example, a typical 50-employee small business spends $183,500 on information management, whereas a typical large enterprise with 2,500 employees would spend $8.2 million.

The Business Impact of Lost Information: The consequences of losing business information would be disastrous. “We would have to fold our operations for at least a couple of years before we'd come back again,” noted an IT manager at a large engineering firm when asked about the consequences of losing the enterprise's information. Respondents highlighted the impact of data loss to their business, including lost customers (49 percent), damage to reputation and brand (47 percent), decreased revenue (41 percent), increased expenses (39 percent) and a tumbling stock price (20 percent).

Protection Measures are Falling Short: With so much at stake, protecting information should be a top priority, yet businesses are still struggling. In the last year, 69 percent of businesses experienced some form of information loss for a variety of reasons, such as human error, hardware failure, security breach, or lost and stolen devices. In addition, 69 percent have had confidential information exposed outside of the company, and 31 percent have experienced compliance failures related to information. Another challenge is the amount of duplicate information businesses are storing â€" an average of 42 percent of data is duplicated. Storage utilization is also low, at only 31 percent within the firewall and 18 percent outside.

All these risks and inefficiencies result in businesses spending more than necessary on storing and protecting their information. A key issue identified by 30 percent of businesses is information sprawl â€" the overwhelming growth of information that is unorganized, difficult to access and often duplicated elsewhere.

Businesses Need to Put the “I” Back in “IT”

To help businesses more effectively protect their information, Symantec has the following recommendations:

• Focus on the information, not the device or data center: With BYOD and cloud, information is no longer within the four walls of a company. Protection must focus on the information, not the device or data center.
  
• Not all information is equal: Business must be able to separate useless data from valuable business information and protect it accordingly. 
  
• Be efficient: Deduplication and archiving help companies protect more, but store less to keep pace with exponential data growth.
  
• Consistency is key: It is important to set consistent policies for information that can be enforced wherever it's located… physical, virtual and cloud environments.
  
• Stay agile: Plan for your future information needs by implementing a flexible infrastructure to support continued growth.
  

 

MOS Study Guide for Microsoft® Office 365

 

Sebastopol, CA-Demonstrate your expertise with Microsoft Office 365 by earning a MOS certification. The MOS Study Guide for Microsoft® Office 365 (Microsoft Press, $11.99 USD) is designed to help you prepare for MOS Exam 77-891: Microsoft Office 365, and features:

• Full objective-by-objective review
• Easy-to-follow procedures and hands-on tasks
• Exam-discount offer from Certiport
  

Use the in-depth exam prep, practice, and review to help advance your proficiency with Office 365-and earn the credential that proves it.

For a review copy or more information please email reviews@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information.

 

Experian Launches Online Tool That Helps Small Businesses Improve Cash Flow

 

BusinessIQ ExpressSM helps small businesses better manage their customer relationships and get paid faster and more reliably

 

Costa Mesa, Calif., /PRNewswire - Experian®, the leading global information services company, today announced BusinessIQ ExpressSM , a complete online tool that helps small businesses improve cash flow by empowering more informed decisions about their business customers, suppliers and partners. The new service provides information and tools for evaluating and monitoring business relationships to help support profitable growth. Additionally, the service provides tools and resources to help small businesses collect on outstanding debts and avoid future losses.

Experian designed BusinessIQ Express to help small businesses keep their cash flowing by enabling owners and principals to quickly and easily make better decisions across the entire Customer Life Cycle. These important decisions help businesses meet their obligations and often can mean the difference between success or failure.

“Maintaining a profitable business is a challenge that all business owners face. Small-business owners especially feel this pressure because access to tools that enable them to effectively manage their business relationships have been too costly, too complex or too difficult to use,” said Adam Fingersh, senior vice president of Experian's Business Information Services. “We designed BusinessIQ Express to address these challenges and level the playing field for small businesses as they compete in the marketplace with larger businesses that have historically had access to these types of tools and resources.”

The new online tool is available now, and offers three key ways to help members manage their business relationships quickly and easily:

• Evaluate - BusinessIQ Express members can evaluate prospects, customers, suppliers and partners on their likelihood to pay or deliver on time.
  
• Monitor - Members can easily monitor their business relationships with alerts and notifications of key changes, allowing them to take appropriate account actions and maintain beneficial relationships.
  
• Collect - The tool offers small-business members unique options that may have never before been easily accessible to them to help collect on outstanding debts and avoid future losses.
  

 

BusinessIQ Express delivers valuable real-time data on more than 99.9 percent of all U.S. businesses. Members of the service also can rate an organization, as well as provide comments that can be viewed and used by other community members when evaluating a business. Additionally, the site is loaded with tutorial videos, tool tips and support options to assist small-business professionals at every stage of the Customer Life Cycle.

Fast net not just for fun

As the Government's ultra-fast broadband rollout grinds along, there are concerns that not enough focus is being put on how it can be used to boost the economy.

Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen kicked off a session on UFB at the NetHui internet conference yesterday by asking attendees how they planned to take advantage of the infrastructure.

"If all we do with this thing is watch TV and get our email a bit quicker ... I think we will have missed an opportunity to really have a step-change in terms of New Zealand's economic future," Brislen said.

The Government has teamed up with private infrastructure partners for its UFB project, which will see fibre lines rolled out across 75 per cent of New Zealand.

The initiative will offer download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second by the end of 2019.

This is over 20 times faster than the average speeds enjoyed by urban internet users in 2010.

The project comes at a $1.5 billion cost to the taxpayer.

While online TV and movie content has been identified as a primary driver of uptake on fibre networks, entrepreneur Glen Barnes said we needed to move past this.

"I think the discussion 'we want our content on our Apple TVs' ... has gone on for years and it's kind of boring. We know we want it [the content] so let's just get over it."

Barnes suggested that the fibre being rolled out would allow businesses to collaborate a lot easier.

He said an architect could have an online set of plans to share with the council, engineers and everybody working on those plans.

"They can get marked up in real time online.

"Once the building's built you will be able to control all your lighting, all of the power [online] - that's the sort of stuff that this faster broadband is going to allow," Barnes said.

TelstraClear's Andrew Cushen suggested that many of the uses for UFB would not appear until the technology was already in play.

However, he challenged those at the Auckland conference to find a use for faster broadband that would justify the money the Government is pouring into it.

"It was people in a room such as this that was very loud-mouthed when this idea came up of investing in UFB, right? I also suspect it's people like you in this room that now have to find a reason in which we can justify that investment and I haven't heard too many good justifications for that type of investment so far today," he said.

FX Networks' Jamie Baddeley said attention needed to shift to the upload side of things.

"If we want to make UFB a success, then we need to start exporting stuff and then we can start importing dollars," Baddeley said.

If internet providers stopped rating (charging) for uploading data overseas, he said, people might then start generating wealth.

By Hamish Fletcher | Email Hamish

Is Plaxo Still a Viable Personal Assistant?

When Napster co-founder Sean Parker founded Plaxo, the landscape was wide open, but these days a few things have changed. For one thing, the competition to become your small business contact organizer is fierce. Functionality is included in your smartphone and other devices free of charge. Ultra-sophisticated contact organizer tools like Salesforce give users full control of their contacts. So what does Plaxo offer that these other services don't?

One of the shining features of Plaxo is its ability to constantly stay updated. All information is stored on Plaxo's Cloud, allowing you and your co-workers to access contact information from anywhere. If you or a colleague make a change, it automatically updates in everyone else's address books, as well.

To further enhance Plaxo's capabilities, the site syncs with Outlook and Outlook Express, as well as your Blackberry, iOS, and Mac OS X address books. Now owned by Comcast, the company uses Plaxo's technology to power its SmartZone contact database.

Plaxo's recent move toward social media has made it more relevant than ever. Plaxo now interacts with Facebook to gather information on your contacts' birthdays, making sure you never forget again. Photos can also be added to your address book, letting you easily put a face with the name. This social media connectivity also allows you to be alerted if your contacts' information changes.

Another benefit to Plaxo is its ability to keep old versions of your address book, allowing you to revert if you ever need to. This backup also ensures if something should ever happen to your device, you'll be able to restore your contacts from the Cloud. This can be especially helpful when it's time to switch to a new cell phone.

There are quite a few companies out there that do what Plaxo does, but one thing that sets Plaxo apart is its partnerships. Its agreement with Avery Dennison, for instance, allows users to print mailing labels directly from contact lists. The service also integrates with AOL, providing integration with the site's instant messaging software.

In a field where many older services eventually shut down, it's notable that Plaxo has endured. In fact, Plaxo VP of operations Ethan Erchinger was recently named a “Rising Star” finalist by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.

“When faced with the challenge of selecting the best IT system for Plaxo, Erchinger would not accept the status quo that high availability and high performance cannot be achieved in parallel,” Schooner Information Technology wrote. Erching recently chose SchoonerSQL to provide the back-end for Plaxo.

Plaxo is an example of how businesses must continue to evolve in order to stay alive in the competitive technology marketplace. By implementing social media and Cloud-based technology into its platform, Plaxo is able to continue to market itself as a viable competitor to the many other contact list applications available today.

Dealing With “I Just Can\'t Afford You”

Regardless of what you're selling, most everyone in business has heard it:

                          “Sorry, I just can't afford it right now.”

No one likes hearing that.  In some cases it might be true. In most, however, it's not.

What makes me say that? Just look around. Every day thousands of people will pay $5.00 for a coffee, $15,000 for an attorney, or $50,000 for a car. Because, whatever the cost, they're convinced it's worth it.

Why will a woman pay $300 for a handbag when she could find tons for a fraction of the price? Because, she's convinced that the $300 bag is worth it. Even in the cases where the excuse is true, not being able to afford something hasn't stopped 80% of Americans from buying it.

So, whenever a person says they can't afford it, it usually means they just aren't convinced of the value. Which means you have 3 options:

1.) Accept it.

2.) Try to convince them otherwise.

3.) Lower your price.

None are good options.  The best option is to get some professional help to figure out what can be done (now) to more effectively communicate the value and benefit of the product or service you offer.

Take the Macintosh computer for example. There was a time when it didn't exist. Steve Jobs and his advertising team had to figure out what they needed to say to convince people that the Mac was worth the money. The rest, as they say, is history.

The fact is, that having a great product is only part of the equation. You then have to make sure you've done what's necessary to communicate those product benefits in a way that resonates with your target audience. It's not an easy thing to do, which is why savvy people like Steve Jobs sought out the best people to help them. Even with all his marketing talents Steve was the first to admit that he was no marketing expert. It's why he brought in marketing expert, Mike Markkula, while Apple was still making computers out of his garage.

It's a good lesson for every small business owner who thinks they:

1.) Don't need marketing help.

2.) Don't see the value of paying for the right help.

So, before you react to prospects who say, “I just can't afford it,” be sure you're not saying the same thing.

Too Expensive Photo via Shutterstock

Should Your Small Business Hire a Data Specialist?

Is a data specialist a worthy investment for your small business? Explain why or why not.

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

1. Try Out a Contract Basis

For most businesses, hiring a data specialist full-time is probably too much investment in the skill set, but having a data specialist engage occasionally on a contract basis can be ideal. Whether you're looking to reduce inefficiencies by raking through your data to uncover problems, or looking for someone to use your internal data to create PR-worthy infographics, the skill set can be useful.
- Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

2. It Depends on the Business

If you're dealing with a lot of data - say, tons of information on buy processes from your customers - a specialist is going to be able to help you make the most of it. But while the number of data-intensive businesses has dramatically risen in the past decade or so, the reality is that most businesses don't need a full-time data specialist, especially when you're just out of the gate.
- Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

3. It's Already in the Job Description

Depending on the business, a employee designated to being a data specialist might not be the best investment. I try to hire employees that are capable of tracking their own data and making better decisions by using that data.
- John Hall, Digital Talent Agents

4. Do They Provide A Positive ROI?

A data specialist is worthwhile only if you truly believe it would provide a positive ROI. If you're running a small business, there are plenty of tools that can provide free, detailed and laid-out data, such as Google Analytics for websites, which can easily and quickly be analyzed.
- Nicolas Gremion, Foboko.com

5. Consider Other Options First

It depends on the business, but overall, I would say no. With so many SaaS and cloud-type infrastructures becoming mainstream, small businesses can utilize those avenues more cheaply and more quickly than hiring an employee to help with the workload.
- Jordan Guernsey, Molding Box

6. Do Your Own Data!

As a small business owner, you know your business better than anyone. In the early stages, learn to analyze your own data. You'll be able draw correlations that a data specialist couldn't because they don't know the ins and outs of the business, such as customer behavior, psychological factors, industry expertise, etc. Data only gives you half the story - the real value is turning that data into something actionable.
- Bhavin Parikh, Magoosh Test Prep

7. Can Your Company Execute?

If data is actively collected throughout the life of a company, a data specialist may provide great optimization insights later down the road. For many startups, however, this isn't a great investment unless you have the bandwidth to execute on their recommendations. The analysis will be work that is not “business as usual” and will have to find its way into the workload.
- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

8. Short Answer - No!

Few small businesses have the budget or the need for a data analyst, so my short answer is no. For a small business, hiring a full-time data analyst is unlikely to be a good investment. However, the success of your business is in the details. My best advice is to hire smart, versatile people who can keep an eye on the data using analysis tools to track trends and marketing ROI to determine what works and abandon what doesn't as part of their normal responsibilities. A well-developed business system with checkpoints can ensure that everything gets done without the need for pricey specialists.
- Nick Reese, Microbrand Media

Change of Pace and A Little Pressure: Innovation and Execution

How many times has pressure worked in your favor? Or is it the calmer moments that serve you better? Creativity tends to show up when you make room for it.

A Little Pressure For Your Plans

It's funny how deadlines tend to heat things up and you create and finish what you've been putting off for days or months.

Let me put it this way: if you have forever to complete a task, it will probably take you forever to get it done. But add a deadline that you respect to that and things will start moving. You could finish that book in a year or six months if you had to. If it's the right kind of pressure, chances are you will rise to the occasion, and create all kinds of unique solutions along the way.

So let's set that deadline - in fact, every project needs one. Since you're the boss and can change your mind, then you need a little accountability and reward to make it stick.

Accountability

You can make the deadline concrete by bringing your team in as well as sharing it with your trusted and respected mentor. When you add others to the mix, it tends to make an idea more real. But you can do one more thing.

Two days after the deadline, schedule a trip. Pay for that airline ticket, book the hotel room and the rental car. It can be business or pleasure - the point is you have to leave town. That adds to the pressure. The right kind of pressure is good for planning and execution.

Quick Tip: To be effective the deadline has to be doable, so make it realistic and have a little fun with that trip.

A Pace Change for Your Ideas 

For the always mobile, traditionally type A personality, it may be time for a change of pace. In Use This Summer To Boost Creativity, Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends, suggests that you take advantage of the season by getting into the summer flow. She says in the summer “things slow down” and “we take vacations.”

So back to our trip - it can pay for it self in terms of this:

1. you have some fun
2. you get some rest
3. you let your ideas marinate

When you get back to it, you just may solve some of the problems that have had you stuck.  We can stress and overwhelm ourselves until the best ideas die. Or we can switch it up, and give creativity a little room to breathe.

Deadline Photo via Shutterstock

ENISA: Banks should presume customer PCs are infected

Banks should presume that all customer PCs are infected, according to the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).

According to an advisory from the EU cyber security division, it recommended that organisations should assume that all PCs are infected and for a bank, "in the current situation it is safer to assume that all of its customers' PCs are infected â€" and the banks should therefore take protection measures to deal with this".

In the wake of the report on Operation High Roller, where McAfee and Guardian Analytics warned of high-level bank account hacking yielding at least £47 million in fraudulent transfers from accounts at 60 or more financial institutions, ENISA pointed out that many authentication systems failed in that instance and worked on the assumption that the customer's PC is not infected.

It said: “Given the current state of PC security, this assumption is dangerous. Banks should instead assume that PCs are infected, and still take steps to protect customers from fraudulent transactions.

“For example, a basic two-factor authentication does not prevent man-in-the-middle or man-in-the-browser attacks on transactions. Therefore, it is important to cross check with the user [about] the value and destination of certain transactions, via a trusted channel, on a trusted device (e.g. an SMS, a telephone call, a standalone smartcard reader with screen). Even smartphones could be used here, provided smartphone security holds up.”

ENISA also said that as more and more transactions are carried out on smartphones or tablets, we should not take smartphone security for granted, but the rapid adoption of smartphones offers an important opportunity to improve endpoint security - for example by using vetted app stores or smartphones as second factors.

Security blogger Brian Krebs called the advice "blunt, timely and refreshing", particularly for financial institutions.

He said: “No doubt security is a constantly moving target; it is necessarily reactive and therefore lags behind new methods adopted by cyber criminals. But from my perspective, the advisory highlights a fundamental reality gap between threat perception and security practice in the banking sector today.

“Many financial institutions seem to pay lip service to security. Many simply urge customers to follow security advice that is increasingly quaint and irrelevant: use firewall and anti-virus software; don't respond to phishing emails; pick complex passwords and change your password often.

“What is almost never mentioned is that all of these security procedures amount to nothing if the customer's system is already compromised by a powerful banking Trojan such as Zeus or SpyEye.

Perhaps some banks here in the US already operate under the assumption that all customer PCs are compromised. But if so, I have yet to see a financial institution willing to communicate that to their customers.”

File sharing persists in businesses, as browser-based technology emerges

Analysis has found that the bandwidth consumed by peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications now accounts for 14 per cent of the average overall bandwidth used.

According to the Palo Alto Networks application usage and risk report, P2P file sharing ‘quietly' continues to be used across all manner of organisations, despite efforts to control it.

It said that of the 38 variants found during the six-month period, at least one P2P application was detected on 78 per cent of the participating organisations and on average, seven different P2P applications were found on each network.

Following the launch of at least three new browser-based file sharing applications by Google, Facebook and Citrix and with at least 70 different file sharing variants available, the report said that this renews concerns over privacy and security.

It claimed that the most well-known risk is the loss of data through improper use, particularly as breaches have occurred, running into millions of records in the past. It highlighted the incident where blueprints of President Obama's helicopter Marine One were found on a P2P network.

It said: “The risk of data loss remains significant as evidenced by the February 2012 notice sent by the FTC to more than 100 organisations of all types informing them that their confidential data was floating around on P2P file sharing networks and that it was their responsibility to exert control over that data.”

In terms of security threats to the network, it said that the distributed nature of P2P is a fundamental part of how the technology works, and also underlies what makes it so risky.

“Because files can be uploaded to a P2P network and distributed to a tracker anonymously, the use of P2P poses significant moral hazard, as it provides a convenient and risk free method to distribute malware to a large user population anonymously,” it said.

The report also found that browser-based file sharing is more popular than P2P in terms of frequency of use and the number of variants found. It said that of the 140 file sharing applications found, 71 are browser-based, 38 are P2P and the remainder are client-server.

Palo Alto Networks found at least one browser-based file sharing application on 89 per cent of the participating networks, while an average of 13 different browser-based file sharing applications were found on each network.

It also claimed that as more of these offerings add premium services such as auto synch, the risks of data loss will only increase.

It blamed the ‘byzantine language' used in the terms of service that ensure few outside of the legal profession understand what they are reading, and that both Facebook and Google admittedly analyse the content stored in their services for marketing purposes to make organisations concerned about employees using these applications.

“With the recent file sharing announcements from Facebook and Google, the terms-of-service and who owns the data have become cause for concern both for individuals and for organisations,” it said.

“With Google, Facebook and Citrix all announcing browser-based file sharing alternatives, on top of the other 70 or so existing offerings, this group of applications shows no signs of going away or slowing down. However, with so many variants there will no doubt be some additional segment refinement and use case definition as they all struggle to compete and survive.”

Social networking site and search engine report password leaks

Formspring has reported a breach of 420,000 user passwords, while Yahoo has said that up to 400,000 Voice account usernames and passwords have been stolen and published online.

According to a blog post by the Formspring CEO and founder Ade Olonoh, the social networking site has disabled all users' passwords in response, with users being prompted to change their passwords when they log back in.

He said that he was notified that approximately 420,000 password hashes were posted to a security forum, with suspicion from a user that they could be Formspring passwords.

“The post did not contain usernames or any other identifying information. Once we were able to verify that the hashes were obtained from Formspring, we locked down our systems and began an investigation to determine the nature of the breach,” he said.

“We found that someone had broken into one of our development servers and was able to use that access to extract account information from a production database.

We were able to immediately fix the hole and upgraded our hashing mechanisms from sha-256 with random salts to bcrypt to fortify security.”

Olonoh said Formspring is continuing to review its internal security policies and practices to ensure that this never happens again. “We apologise for the inconvenience but prefer to play it safe and have asked all members to reset their passwords,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has said that up to 400,000 of its Voice account usernames and passwords have been stolen and published online.

According to security researcher Rob Fuller, the credentials were kept in clear text and were taken from the Yahoo.com subdomain dbb1.ac.bf1.yahoo.com. TrustedSec said the breach appeared to be an SQL injection attack to extract the sensitive information from the database.

A brief note at the end of the dump said: "We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat. There have been many security holes exploited in web servers belonging to Yahoo that have caused far greater damage than our disclosure. Please do not take them lightly. The subdomain and vulnerable parameters have not been posted to avoid further damage."

GFI to offer services from the cloud via new web-based console

GFI has launched a web-based platform for the delivery of cloud services.

The company said that GFI Cloud, designed for companies with 500 users or fewer, permits IT administrators within small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to manage their IT systems more easily and efficiently. Initially, GFI Cloud will include the anti-virus suite GFI Vipre Business Online and GFI Network Server Monitor Online that allows administrators the ability to monitor the health of their networks and optimise server and workstation configurations to improve performance.

Speaking to SC Magazine, GFI chief executive Walter Scott said the company spent the last 18 months deciding what was important to do in the next 18 months, and it was going to the cloud for "simplicity, interesting features and as most are not used by the mass market".

“At the end of the year we will add GFI LanGuard technology. We are good at building an infrastructure and we believe that we can build a better product, not just on the cloud but on systems and integration," said Scott.

“This is easier for us to manage and issue updates and upgrades and you do not have to support so many consoles. We can get data easier to fix problems and we can roll it out now. Salesforce would not be the product it was if it was on-premise. For me it is important as to how quickly we can upgrade it, our mantra is if you cannot get it up and working in ten minutes, then we are the wrong company for you.”

According the company, GFI Cloud involves a one-time installation of an agent that links each machine to the management console via the web. Once connected, IT administrators log into GFI Cloud console to manage essential GFI services on all workstations and servers from a single unifying interface.

Regardless of location, the lightweight agent connects each machine to the GFI Cloud over the internet to enable administrators to manage PCs and laptops used by mobile or home-based employees as easily as those that are within their own sites, it claimed.

Starbucks Pushes Mobile Payments Ahead of New Business Trend

Mobile marketing for business is exploding these days, but there's another side to the mobile revolution that you'll want to consider, especially if your company takes customer payments regularly. Here are a few new developments and what you need to understand about the mobile payment trend.

Starbucks Mobile

The fastest way to pay. The hugely successful coffee chain offers a way to pay for beverages and other products using your smartphone in a move many say could be the payment of choice for the future. Here are the details on the Starbucks app, in all its glory. Perhaps providing your own payment option might be in the cards for your business, too. Starbucks for Android

Wake up and smell the coffee. Starbucks is introducing the Android app already available in its US store to customers in Canada and the UK. Currently the company boasts 55 million transactions from mobile devices in the US. Imagine the mobile sales your business may be missing. The Verge

Here comes big foot. With the new apps, Starbucks expands its mobile payment footprint globally. The company's efforts will help boost customer acceptance and demand for a new way of paying for products and services, creating the opportunity for other business to experiment with mobile payment programs too. Chain Store Age

Startup Services

Mobile moving to your town. While mobile payments may not yet be an option for many brick and mortar businesses, it could be soon. GoPago, a startup offering its own smartphone payment app for merchants and backed by an investment from JP Morgan Chase, is testing the app in San Francisco and soon other major cities. Technology Review

Paydiant dials for dollars. And now the Maryland-based company has raised $12 million in investment from Stage 1 Ventures, amounting to a total of $20 million in investment to date. Experts say mobile payments have been waiting to take off, and it seems many companies are preparing to provide services, making it easier for businesses to take those payments. Xconomy

Mobile Trends

Smartphone users call for mobile option. Lest any business owner question whether a demand for mobile payment truly exists, take a look at results from a survey by the International Data Corporation. According to the survey, one third of Americans have already made mobile payments. BizReport

Putting mobile payments on speed dial. Plenty of data suggests mobile payments are an option customers want to use now and in the future, and one that could mean additional revenue for businesses. But more effort and customer education is needed to jump start mainstream adoption. Ad Age Digital

Mobile moves up. The trend toward mobile payments is part of an overall increase in the use of mobile devices, not just for purchasing, but for accessing bank accounts, credit card, and other financial information in the US, says the US Federal Reserve. The increase in use of mobile devices for all of these daily activities should give business owners a good idea of where they should be headed to connect with customers. Daily Deal Media

Other Ways to Pay

Being where you're not. For some, mobile payments might involve paying for something, perhaps your daily cup of coffee, while physically at your local coffee shop. But research indicates an even greater number of customers buy on their mobile devices whether at a physical location or not, for example buying tickets for your favorite concert or sports event on your smartphone. The Third Screen

Apple doesn't move on mobile payments. While Google already offers a payment system on its Android platform and Microsoft is preparing a mobile payment option of its own, one major company is dragging its feet on mobile payments citing security concerns. The delay might be a hurdle for businesses seeking to offer mobile payment options. PC World