KEYW inks deal to acquire SIEM technology supplier Sensage

KEYW Corp., an information security vendor that focuses on federal intelligence agencies and defense contractors, Thursday announced an agreement to buy SIEM vendor Sensage Inc.

Under the deal, Hanover, Md.-based KEYW will pay $18 million in cash and $16.5 million in KEYW common stock to acquire Redwood City, Calif.-based Sensage.

KEYW executives said they plan to continue to sell the Sensage product line, as well as integrate the Sensage technology into its cyber awareness and response platform, Project G.

"We acquired [Sensage] for their disruptive technology, commercial experience, strong customer base and good leadership," Leonard Moodispaw, KEYW CEO and president, said in a conference call late Thursday with financial analysts.

Project G is still in an early adopter phase, Moodispaw said, but has strong demand. "Sensage accelerates our ability to respond to that demand," he said. Availability for Project G is scheduled for early next year.

"Cyber awareness begins with the ability to absorb and relate large quantities of cyber operations and security data within an enterprise," Moodispaw said during a prepared statement. "Today these data overwhelm most organizations' capabilities to observe and respond to hostile activity within their network environments until it is too late. By joining forces, KEYW and Sensage will offer a new level of cyber awareness to both commercial and government markets."

In July, when KEYW announced commercial testing of Project G, the company said the purpose of the platform is "to find, fix and finish malicious cyberthreats within customers' networks through the use of automated tools and continuous updates to cyberthreat profiles and alert levels."

The SIEM market has experienced considerable consolidation recently. In April, integration software company TIBCO Software announced that it inked a deal to acquire LogLogic. Last fall, IBM bought SIEM vendor Q1 Labs and McAfee acquired NitroSecurity. SolarWinds, an IT management software company bought TriGeo, a SIEM provider that targeted midsize companies. In 2010, HP bought Arcsight and Trustwave acquired Intellitactics.

The KEYW-Sensage deal is expected to close in October.

Tech Thursday (9/13): The YEC (Young Entrepreneurial Council) and Citi Mentor Aspiring Business Owners, Dell and Manta Promoting Small Business Growth

America's Top Entrepreneurs and Citi Set Out to Mentor the Nation's Aspiring Business Owners

 

Dell and Manta: Promoting Small Business Growth

 

 

 

America's Top Entrepreneurs and Citi Set Out to Mentor the Nation's Aspiring Business Owners

 

The YEC seeks to retool and retrain the American workforce with mentorship from successful startups

 

New York, NY - This Labor Day weekend, the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) took another important step toward alleviating youth joblessness and underemployment by launching #StartupLab (http://MyStartupLab.com), a free virtual mentorship program presented by Citi that will deploy America's top young startup founders to retool the current workforce into a more entrepreneurial one. Aspiring entrepreneurs and young people will have unprecedented, direct access to mentorship (both virtual and in-person) through interactive live video chats, how-to content and weekly email lessons.

The YEC, an invite-only nonprofit organization, was founded by Scott Gerber in November 2010 to spur more entrepreneurship among Millennials; in less than two years, it has become the most elite membership organization of its kind, with 500-plus successful young entrepreneurs who have collectively generated tens of thousands of jobs and over 1 billion dollars in revenue. Through #StartupLab, young founders, high school and college students and even current business owners are able to access those minds directly. Featured mentors in 2012 include Catherine Cook of MeetMe, Jennifer Fleiss of Rent the Runway, Slava Rubin of Indiegogo, Jason Nazar of DocStoc, Ryan Allis of iContact, Matt Mickiewicz of 99Designs and Rahim Fazal of Involver, to name just a few.

#StartupLab will launch its beta model publicly on Labor Day weekend. The beta program includes a full roster of interactive live video chats (4 per month), weekly email lessons for participants, an eBook club, and access to YEC's complete library of how-to articles and videos. Organizations also benefit from the ability to request YEC members for their mentorship events across the country.

#StartupLab's beta program will be available to individuals interested in entrepreneurship as well as to the members of various organizations that have signed up for the program including Junior Achievement, Georgetown University, BizWorld, Lemonade Day, George Washington University, MassChallenge, University of Central Florida, North Carolina Rural Center, Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, Springboard Enterprises, Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative (VAi2), Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Startup Weekend, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Venture for America, Kairos Society, Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, and dozens of other universities, nonprofits, entrepreneur and small business organizations, government agencies and co-working spaces. Because the program takes just minutes to set up and is built right into an organization's Facebook Page, it allows entrepreneurship organizations across the country to create stronger online c ommunities for their members quickly and effectively - at no cost to them. More importantly, through #StartupLab, these organizations can request YEC members for in-person mentorship events as well, giving their membership even more direct access to the top startup minds in the country.

The #StartupLab Facebook app, videos and website will be available for preview the week of August 27, 2012. Executives from YEC, Citi and select launch partners can be made available for interviews upon request.

 

Dell and Manta: Promoting Small Business Growth

    Create, Work, Inspire: Dell & Manta Promoting Small Business Growth          

You've probably noticed over the past few months a new but familiar name on Manta â€" Dell. From Tweet Chats to the Small Business of the Week, Manta's collaboration with Dell promotes a shared mission to spotlight and support the unique needs and success stories of small businesses.

Recently announced was a new feature of the Dell and Manta collaboration, a series of live content-driven events called the Create. Work. Inspire: Business Edition, for small businesses to learn from other members of their community, as well as expert speakers about innovations in business growth. The half-day experience will include interactive sessions with valuable conversation, content, and demonstrations that address top business challenges. Each event will conclude with a networking cocktail hour featuring treats from local businesses. The first event will take place in Miami on September 14, 2012, followed by Los Angeles in November. Stay tuned tohttp://connect.manta.com/t/create/-work/-inspire/-workshops/-providing?f=32&t=24001 to learn how to register.

“Dell is committed to fueling the growth of entrepreneurs and small businesses of all stages, not just through technology, but by working with communities like Manta that make it easier for small businesses to have access to the information essential for success,” said Mel Parker, vice president and general manager of Consumer, Small Office and Member Loyalty at Dell Inc.

Additionally, Dell and Manta will continue promoting the Small Business of the Week and will select and spotlight one small business on Manta.com each week. Each business chosen will receive:

• Manta Premium Business Listing for 12 months to help small businesses gain exposure to the more than 30 million visitors to Manta.com and boost traffic by more than 45 percent compared to Manta's standard claim profile;

• Free promotion to Manta's community of nearly 90 million small business owners. The company will be featured on Manta.com, and will also be included in that week's Small Business of the Week Manta advertising campaign.

For small businesses today, being found online drives business, but it is an increasingly difficult thing to sustain for business owners. A recent Manta study of more than 1,000 small business owners polled found nearly one-third say they reviewed online recommendations before selecting a new vendor or business partner. This type of visibility is becoming increasingly important, but many small business owners don't have the budget for a full-scale marketing campaign. According toBIA/Kelsey, a media and advertising research firm, small businesses with 10 or fewer employees only spend an average of $3,787 on advertising per year. Manta provides a form of promotion for all small business owners which enable them to keep their focus on other aspects of their business.

For details about upcoming networking events please visit: http://connect.manta.com/t/create/-work/-inspire/-workshops/-providing?f=32&t=24001 and for more information about how to nominate your business or someone else for Small Business of the Week presented by Dell, please visit:http://connect.manta.com/t/show/-us/-why/-your/-business/-should/-be/-the?f=32&t=14264.

PCI Council issues mobile application rules for software developers

The PCI Security Standards Council has issued a new report aimed at software developers and device manufacturers advising them to create mobile applications that support encryption and other capabilities that protect credit card transactions.

The market is rapidly evolving and we're able to apply security in new ways.

Troy Leach, CTO, PCI SSC

The PCI Mobile Payment Acceptance Security Guidelines (.pdf) urge developers to support encryption of data being processed and stored in the device and ensure its protection when it is transmitted. It recommends mobile application developers password protect the application. Mobile apps that accept mobile payments should also contain functionality to detect and alert brute force attacks, invalid login attempts and cryptographic key changes, according to the report.

The document is meant to be the foundation of a number of guidance documents on securing mobile payment transactions that will be released around mobile, said Troy Leach, CTO of the PCI SSC. Security industry frameworks and models designed to address mobile application development are still in the early stages, Leach said.

"Every time we tried to frame some requirement a new exploit or attack was detected or new technologies for security were discovered," Leach said. "The market is rapidly evolving and we're able to apply security in new ways."

The PCI Council is racing to keep up with the huge adoption of smartphones transforming how businesses accept and transmit payments. The Council formed an industry taskforce in 2010 to address mobile payment acceptance security. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) was last updated in 2010 and no major update is expected when the document is revised at the end of 2013.  

The report was released Thursday at the PCI Council's North America Community Meeting. In addition, the document requires applications support being disabled remotely in the event of a compromise and that appropriate server-side controls are in place.

In May guidelines urged merchants to use validated hardware that supports encryption to accept mobile payments. The mobile payment movement is being largely embraced by small and midsized transient businesses, although some retailers, including Apple, are embracing mobile payment acceptance in their stores. Smartphone compatible payment devices are provided by a variety of vendors, including San Francisco-based Square Inc., VeriFone, PayPal and SalesVu.

The PCI Council relied on a variety of organizations including experts from the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) to help create the guidance document that addresses mobile applications. The organization's volunteers have been producing documents outlining common mobile application vulnerabilities, mobile controls and design principles.

Leach said multiple mobile platforms, various smartphone manufacturers and carriers make creating highly secure mobile payment acceptance applications extremely difficult. Leach likened mobile application development to Web application security seven or eight years ago. The lack of best practices and support documentation made it difficult for software coders to know about their responsibility to protect sensitive data.

"We've identified the problems and have a collective agreement as to what priorities to address," Leach said.

Share Your Shipping Success Story To Gain Exposure

The United States Postal Service added a new community feature on its Facebook page this year where companies can share their shipping success stories and possibly gain some exposure for their business in the process.

Success Stories was launched in February and is expected to run indefinitely. The thought behind the program is to help spread the word about Priority Mail Flat Rate and Regional Rate products to small and medium sized businesses, according to Patricia Licata of the USPS. But businesses that share their shipping success stories could also gain some valuable exposure from the page if their story is featured.

Upon visiting the Success Stories page, you can select one of three product offerings to view business success stories relating to each of those product offerings:

• Every Door Direct Mail
• Regional Rate Mail
• Flat Rate Shipping

For example, ZIPS Dry Cleaners of Elkridge, MD used the USPS's Every Door Direct Mail product to target nearby customers and send them information and coupons to persuade them to come to the store. ZIPS offers a unique customer experience because customers can actually see the dry cleaning process in the store, but actually getting customers to come in was proving to be a challenge. The store said that they saw such a great return on their investment by using Every Door Direct Mail, and they continue to use it to target customers in their surrounding neighborhoods.

Another company, Sk8ology, which sells skateboard deck mounting fixtures so that skaters can display their decks at home, said that the USPS's Flat Rate shipping option really helped the home-based business simplify its shipping process and instead spend more time focusing on the business itself.

Under each success story is a link to the business's website and Facebook page, so while USPS has designed this feature to showcase some of its products that may be useful for businesses, it has also created a place where those companies can share information about their products and services as well.

How To Make Your Business Blog Informative

There's a fine line between having a fun and interesting blog and having an informative blog.  Too much interesting content without information, and you'll never meet your goals with your blog.  Too great a focus on information, and, well… you aren't going to have a readership.

But, I believe that it's possible to combine the two.  Creating an informative business blog that is still interesting is definitely one of the more challenging aspects of content marketing, but here are 7 tips to help you do the job:

Tip #1: Be Specific: General is Bad

The more specific your business blog is, the better.  That doesn't mean you should feel limited to just one topic, but you should have an ideal reader in mind that you consider in light of every piece you publish.

It's okay to focus on niche markets (like the food industry or the real estate industry, etc.), but for the most part, focus on delivering content marketing advice for all types of small businesses.

My point?  It's okay to be ultra-specific from time to time, but you should never be ultra-general.

Tip #2: Personal And In-House Content

No matter what kind of business you run, there's about a 99.99% chance that someone else is doing nearly the exact same thing.  However, you're still unique because of the people behind your business.

A great way to be informative and interesting is to share in-house content about your business.  Celebrate your company's successes with your business blog by sharing case studies, milestones, and more.  It's a great way to educate readers about what you do, while also offering something they can't get anywhere else.

Tip #3: Solve Customer Problems

You know what people love?  Having their problems solved.  Businesses exist because they create solutions.  Why not do that with your blog?  This is one of the best ways to provide information.  And, if someone's reading your blog, chances are it's because you have the answers they need.  Take a customer's real problem, solve it, then share about it.

Tip #4: Interview, Interview, Interview!

What's better than sharing your own knowledge?  Sharing knowledge from someone who is smarter or more experienced than you.  Start asking to interview the experts in your industry.  I bet you'll be surprised by how easy it actually is.  Everyone wants exposure, right?  Plus, once you interview a big name, it opens up many more doors of opportunity.

If you ask someone for permission to interview them for your blog, more often than not, they'll say yes.  It makes the interviewee look good; it makes you appear well connected; it provides valuable information to the reader; everyone wins.

Tip #5: It's Not All About You

I know, crazy, right?!  I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you are not creating the bulk of your industry's content.  That being the case, it's time you start sharing the best of the best â€" even if it means sharing a competitor's content.

When you share other people's informative content, not only does it strengthen your reputation, but readers will welcome it.  After all, they're coming to your blog to get information, not to listen to you jabbering on from your soapbox. And you never know what sort of networking opportunities open up when you openly share the good of your competitors.

Tip #6: Are You Interested?

This should go without saying, but you'd be surprised how often it happens.  If you aren't interested in the content you're sharing, no way are your readers going to be interested.

Tip #7: Judge Yourself on Interaction

How is your blog doing with traffic?  Comments?  Re-tweets?  If the answer is “so-so,” then your business blog probably isn't informative â€" or you're just having some serious SEO issues.  Generally though, interaction is a good indicator of whether or not your blog is informative.

Start implementing these tips to make your content beam with knowledge and tell us, how do you make your business blog informative?

Need To Extend Your Local Marketing Reach? Follow These Six Simple Steps

According to recent research, small businesses are struggling with online marketing efforts, with only 33.4 percent of small businesses providing a local phone number on their website and 22 percent having an e-mail address. Such missteps can mean the difference between success and failure with local customers.

Recognizing this unmet need, Local Corporation created its new service Launch by Local, which helps you not only reach new customers, but narrow your efforts to the right clients to maximize your campaigns. “Local Corporation's online marketing consultants help small businesses navigate the complicated landscape of online marketing and customize a program that best matches their unique business needs, all tracked via a custom dashboard,” Local Corporation CEO Heath Clarke says. “Launch will provide over a dozen digital assets, and small businesses can manage their marketing activities with a single account with pricing starting at $249 per month.”

To help your marketing efforts reach local customers, follow these simple steps:

• Help customers find you. Having a website is only the first step. According to research released by The Kelsey Group, 70% of online searchers will use local search to find offline business. When you search for your business using various related keywords, what do you see? Is your phone number and address readily available? If a potential customer clicks over to your website, will that customer find your contact information with a minimal amount of searching?
• Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you're a plumber located in San Diego, your company should rank fairly high when someone types “San Diego plumber” into a search box. If not, you'll see the list of results you need to beat. This can be accomplished through using SEO to optimize your site for those specific search terms. SEOmoz has a great suite of SEO tools to help.
• Work on social media. Encourage Facebook “likes” and FourSquare check-ins by providing discounts or special rewards in exchange for them. Since many of your customers will presumably have local friends and followers on these sites, the publicity will find its way to other local residents.
• Ensure you have a presence on review sites. These sites can give your business increased exposure in search engine results. Encourage your regular customers to post reviews in order to bulk up content on those sites. Sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, and Trip Advisor place prominently in search engine rankings and are go-to sites for many local residents and travelers.
• E-mail campaigns. Capture the e-mail addresses (on an opt-in basis, of course) of those who visit your site and regularly send coupons, specials, and other information that would be of interest to the customer. Don't bog the user down with marketing e-mails, though, or they'll quickly unsubscribe.
• Targeted ads. If you pay for online advertisements focus your campaign on sites that are frequented by locals. Consider partnering with another local business and either swapping ads or paying for ads on their site.

Small businesses with limited marketing budgets may find that targeting local marketing avenues gets the message directly to those who would be most likely to utilize it. By following these few simple tips, you'll realize greater success from your campaigns.

iPhone\'s rapid obsolescence

Apple fans take note - the Apple iPhone you bought less than a year ago is now out of date. It has been 307 days since the tech company revealed the iPhone 4S.

Yesterday the new iPhone 5 was announced, to be released here on September 28.

Apple promised that the new model is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, even though it has a bigger screen.

The recommended retail price is $1049 for the 16GB model, $1199 for the 32GB model and $1349 for the 64GB model.

While it might not entice those with an earlier model or those who have competing Android handsets, here is a list of things to do with your old handset if you decide to buy:

1. Be generous

Give your old smartphone to a child / parent / sibling who still has one of those "dumb" phones.

2. Sell, sell, sell!

Flog your old model on Trade Me and use what you get to help buy the new one.

3. Charity case

Starship's Mobile Phone Recycling Appeal has raised more than $1.5 million. See starship.org.nz/phone

4. Posterity

Frame it and store it away so one day you can show your grandchildren what iPhones used to look like.

5. Call for backup

Keep it in case you lose your new one. A US survey found nearly a third of cellphone owners have lost or had theirs stolen.

6. Weekender

Keep it as your "weekend phone" so if you lose or break it at the pub, beach or sports match, you'll still have your new one.

7. Don't believe the hype

Keep your old phone. It works today and will do so tomorrow. The world will still turn if you don't spend $1000 on another gadget that will soon be outdated anyway.

- Compiled by Amelia Wade and AP

Are You Underusing The Cloud? Why Small Businesses Need To Get With The Times

Arthur Piccio writes for The Art of Small Business, UPrinting.com's Small Business Resource. UPrinting business cards are the top choice for small businesses across the United States.

A recent study suggested that around 51% of Americans believe storms affect cloud computing. While that might technically true if a storm disrupts lines and data centers- it seems to indicate a general trend where most don't really get what cloud computing is.

To emphasize this point â€" in the same survey, around 9 out of 10 Americans who claim not to use cloud computing technology have actually used it through online purchases.

The real kicker is, the reason most businesses cite for not adopting cloud computing tech is the cost â€" puzzling considering this technology has brought about a quantum leaps in cost efficiency and convenience.

What is clear though is that a lot of smaller businesses are inadvertently passing up the chance to save money and improve efficiency â€" and it's most likely due to a misunderstanding of what cloud computing can do.

As an online printer, we get a significant portion of our business from the “cloud.” We'd be nowhere without it!  While we don't expect every business to be as heavily invested in cloud computing as we are â€" it's safe to say it offers significant advantages for everyone with a secure internet connection.

But a lot of the time, it just plain makes more sense to keep data and use in a location other than the computer you're immediately using. That's the reason why most of us use email hosted by a 3rd party, for instance.

But you'd be surprised that a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs don't know you can do the same with almost everything.

Cloud computing, as much as I dislike the vagueness of the term, has dramatically lowered barriers that have prevented small businesses from operating as efficiently as much bigger ones.

Using spreadsheet software as an example, smaller operations no longer need to be hobbled by the cost of obtaining licenses to legally use spreadsheet programs that offer the functionality that more expensive tools have.

The fact that these tools are offered in the cloud for free also makes it possible to save on resources that would be otherwise spent standardizing processes in businesses with multiple physical locations. The cost of secure data storage and access is also now so miniscule for the average user, that you can get away with almost no data infrastructure at all, allowing you to put more money into your ideas and making them work.

And this is really just the tip of the iceberg. We deal with printing issues and some of the most common cloud storage tools used by our customers include Apple's iCloud, Box, Mozy, Windows Sky Drive, SugarSync, GoogleDrive, YouSendIt, Dropbox, and CX. And this is just for storage. Other industries and applications may use these or other tools as well. Most of these tools can be had for free, or at a cost much lower than it would to have these systems conventionally.

It's a stupid name, yes. But if you truly care about your business, there's no longer an excuse to be ignorant about The Cloud.

Copyright Law: What Intellectual Property is Protected?

Every business has intellectual property that is entitled to protection and from which it can potentially derive profit.  One such area is copyright law; although there is often confusion about 1) what exactly is protected by copyright law, 2) how the copyrights are secured, and 3) who exactly is the owner when a copyrightable work is created by an independent contractor or subcontractor.

Copyright Protects Tangible Expressions of Ideas

Copyright law protects “original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.”  It is limited to these specific categories: literary works; musical works, including any accompanying words; dramatic works, including any accompanying music; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works.  But, these categories should be interpreted broadly.

Does Your Business Own Any Copyrightable Works?

Copyright protection isn't just for authors and artists.  Does your business produce, create or record any of the following in a tangible form, paper or digital?  If so, then you most likely have copyrightable works:

• Architectural plans
• Articles
• Blogs
• Books
• Cartoons
• Computer software
• Demonstrations
• Graphic art
• Magazines
• Maps
• Marketing materials
• Motion pictures
• Multimedia presentations
• Newspapers
• Newsletters
• Podcasts
• Program curricula
• Publications
• Slideshows
• Trade journals
• Training materials
• Photographs
• Websites

Not Everything is Protected by Copyright

It's important to note is what is NOT protected by copyright law.   Only the actual expression of an author is protected, not the underlying idea itself.  Copyright protection does NOT extend to:

• Ideas
• Methods, processes
• Systems
• Ideas or procedures for doing, making, or building things
• Scientific or technical methods or discoveries
• Business operations or procedures
• Method of operation
• Improvisational speeches
• Unwritten or unrecorded performances
• Titles, names
• Short phrases, slogans
• Familiar symbols
• Variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring
• Listings of ingredients
• Standard calendars
• Charts
• Tape measures and rulers
• Lists or tables taken from public documents
• Blank forms for recording rather than conveying information

What Rights Does Copyright Provide?

Copyright means the owner has the exclusive right to do and authorize others to do the following to the original work:

• reproduce or copy;
• prepare derivative works;
• distribute copies to the public by sale, license, or lending;
• perform the work publicly or by means of a digital audio transmission; and
• display the work publicly.

However, these rights are subject to certain statutory exceptions, such as “fair use” and parody. The copyright owner may be entitled to recover certain statutory and civil damages and other remedies for infringement of these rights if the work is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Who is the Owner of the Copyright?

A work is protected from the time it is fixed in its tangible form.  The owner is the person who created the work.  When a person is an employee and the work is in the scope of their employment, the work is considered “work for hire” and the owner is the company.

However, if a person is an independent contractor creating work for a company, the owner is the person UNLESS certain conditions are met: 1) there must be a written agreement indicating that the work is being created for the company by the contractor as a “work for hire” AND 2) the work must fall into one of the following categories:

• contribution to a collective work
• part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
• translation
• supplementary work
• compilation
• instructional text
• test and answer material
• atlas

Notice of Copyright

It is to your benefit to put a copyright notice on a work, although it's no longer required under U.S. law.  The notice precludes any infringer from claiming they didn't know the work was protected.   An example of the proper form is: © 2012 Author's Name.

How to Secure a Copyright

Copyright in a work is secured automatically when the work is created in a fixed medium.  No publication or registration or other action is required to secure copyright.  However, there are definite advantages to registration, including the right to recover statutory damages for any infringement of the work.

Filing fees range from $35 â€" $65 per work, although under certain circumstances group registrations may be possible.  If you wish to secure a copyright registration, either visit Copyright.gov or find an intellectual property attorney to assist you.

Copyright Photo via Shutterstock

Podio: A Collaboration Application That “Does It All”

You've heard of CRM, lead management, workflow management, recruiting software, and project management. It's easy to think of them as separate solutions, but what if you could put them all together into one single collaborative platform with intranet messaging? What if you can chase leads, manage your customers, recruit new employees, and collaborate with them as they complete projects within one single elegant solution?

Apparently, Citrix has developed a solution that does exactly this called Podio. The best part about it is that you don't have to include things you don't need. Podio has its own marketplace where you can choose a number of apps that your business uses to function. The collaboration aspects of the software open new doors for your business, allowing your employees a high degree of flexibility. For example, employees can communicate from their desks on project milestones without having to send emails or get up from the chair.

In very active businesses, a phenomenon often happens called “email overload,” when employees flood each other with emails and lose track of who to include in their outgoing messages. With Podio's collaboration, an employee can simply post an update and everyone else will see it instantly. Updates can also be posted to certain departments or work groups to give them a sit-rep on the situation at hand.

You also attain flexibility by having access to a calendar where you can schedule meetings and other activities. Vacations show up in the interface, notifying others of when a person in the company won't be available.

This is not just an internal enterprise software, though. Podio allows you to communicate with others outside of the business' infrastructure. This comes handy when attempting to communicate details about orders that clients make. They can even see the progress on projects you're doing for them, if you're running that kind of business.

If you're on the road a lot, Podio also works on your iPhone or Android phone. The software, and virtually all of its apps, are free to use. To place more than 5 employees in your workspaces, invite more than 5 people from outside the company, and have unlimited storage (as opposed to 1 GB), they offer a premium upgrade for $8 a month per employee.

Analysis of data breaches discovers decline in 2012

The number of data breaches in 2012 is down in comparison with 2011, but the number of people impacted is up.

The findings were drawn from the data breach section of Symantec's Norton Cybercrime Index (CCI) and discovered that the 2011 average number of breaches per month was 16.5, while in 2012 this number dropped to 14.

In the periods evaluated: late spring 2011 to the end of the year and January to August in 2012, the report found that in the 2011 period the average number of identities stolen was 1,311,629 per data breach, yet in the 2012 period this number was down to 640,169 identities per breach.

Symantec's intelligence report for August 2012 said that this was due to the fact that the number of records stolen in the biggest attacks in 2011 was much larger, despite the overall number of attacks being about equal. “The top five breaches in our 2011 data set all registered in the tens of millions of identities. In 2012, only one breach registered above ten million,” said Paul Wood, cyber security intelligence manager at Symantec.

“It's tough to say exactly why there were fewer breaches of this size. It could indicate that after a few high-profile hacks in 2011, many large companies took steps to shelter their customer record databases from internet attacks. It could also be that hackers aren't going after the largest data breaches they can pull off, but rather smaller breaches that contain more sensitive information.”

Wood also said that while the sheer number of attacks so far in 2012 has dropped, this does not mean that the threat has passed, rather it is possible that data breaches have simply become more targeted.

Looking at the median number of identities per breach, this shows a rise from 4,000 per breach in 2011 to 6,800 per breach in 2012, a rise of 41 per cent.

Wood said: “This shows that while the overall average number of identities stolen is down, the core number of identities stolen, when accounting for variance, is increasing over time. This could indicate that the attackers are going after more select, targeted batches of data, as opposed to making off with big-number caches of data. The information that they are stealing could very well be smaller in size, but more useful for criminal activities.”

Wood said that there is a wild variance in the number of records from one breach to the next, as in the case of Sony Pictures where over a million identities were stolen, while some other breaches saw fewer than ten identities stolen.

Symantec found that the healthcare industry tops the list for number of overall breaches, with 34.1 per cent of the overall number of breaches reported, yet this sector is only responsible for 2.7 per cent of the overall number of identities exposed.

“Given the sensitive nature of medical records, this is a perfect example of a high number of attacks that result in small numbers of highly sensitive records being exposed,” Wood said.

Dect phones revealed to be susceptible to sniffing attack

Failure to enable an encryption option in Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (Dect) phones can allow an attacker to overhear and record calls.

This was demonstrated to SC Magazine by ProCheckUp researcher George Christopoulos. He said that rather than this being a vulnerability, the problem is that the manufacturers do not enable encryption as standard, despite users believing that it is ‘super secure'.

Christopoulos said: “We started looking at this a couple of years ago and it is easy to accomplish eavesdropping on any conversation.”

He explained that each phone has ten frequencies and its own range and a hacker will find the best frequency to ‘lock on'. A capability using a rooted booster can allow an attacker to detect the connection and listen to all calls that have been made. Christopoulos said that this attack is completely transparent to the victim.

The booster card is the PCMCIA card type 2, which is now almost impossible to find. It was produced as a booster for signal to enable phones to be used over a wider area away from the base station, but if broken an intercept code can be implanted.

Christopoulos said that the shell will show a call has been made and show the identity of the base station of the Dect phone and begin recording the call. He explained that there is no limit to the length of call that can be recorded and the auto record function will stop at the end of a call and begin once another call is made, without the attacker's intervention.

“If encryption is in place, then the same thing happens with auto record but the call will be silent when they play it back. However this is not bullet-proof, as an attacker can build a rogue base station that your handset will try to connect to,” he said. He also explained that Dect phones have no mutual authentication or certificate to their individual base stations.

He said: “Everyone should be more concerned about the dangers in the technology that we are using. You can use it, but with caution and if you are using a Dect phone, you might need to change it.”

For the experiment, which Christopoulos said began around three years ago, ProCheckUp purchased the top ten Dect phones from Amazon. He said that the ‘majority' were susceptible to attack, as they did not use encryption.

Want Great Marketing: Follow Apple\'s Example

On August 20, 2012, Apple surpassed Microsoft to become the largest public company in history. It's a fact that makes it easy to forget that, not that long ago, Apple didn't even exist.

What's contributed greatly to Apple's success is great marketing. As most people know, Steve Jobs was a big believer in great, smart, creative marketing. It's something he believed in from the very beginning of Apple.

Back in 1976 when Apple was just starting, Steve and his two partners had some big decisions to make. One, was about marketing. Unlike other startups and small businesses who see marketing as a questionable or unaffordable expense, Steve saw it as an important investment that was absolutely necessary to get the word out and grow the business â€" even with limited funds.

So, just months after incorporating, Jobs hired ad agency Regis McKenna. The agency designed Apple's logo and handled all of Apple's early advertising, marketing, and branding. Apple took off.

A few years later, after Regis was sold to Chiat/Day, Apple continued a close relationship with Chiat to produce some of the most brilliant advertising of all time. Steve Jobs will go down as one of the greatest marketers in history.  Yet he'd be the first to tell you that most of the credit belongs to the great advertising and marketing people he hired.

Because Steve was such a dynamic front man for Apple, it's easy to think he deserves all the marketing and advertising credit. He was involved with all of it, and he had the final say, but he didn't create it. Steve came up with the Apple name and that's about it. The iconic “1984” and “Think Different” campaigns were created by the agency. The name “iMac” was created by the agency. All the advertising and marketing for the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, including the brilliant “Mac vs PC” campaign was created by the agency.

And, what many people will find hard to believe is that some of the best marketing ideas for Apple were ones that Steve didn't even like…at least initially.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with adman Ken Segall who worked directly with Jobs for 12 years as his ad agency Creative Director. In Ken's book, “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success,” he describes an episode with Steve in 1997 when Ken's team was given the assignment to name the innovative, new, candy-colored Mac that Apple was about to introduce.

Steve informed them that the name that he had in mind was “MacMan” and they had two weeks to come up with something better. Confident that “MacMan” would not be hard to beat, Ken scheduled a meeting with Jobs the following week. At the meeting he presented a handful of names including “iMac.”

As Ken tells it, “Steve hated them all” and informed them that they now had one week to justify their jobs and come up with something better than “MacMan.” Not the reaction that Ken was expecting.

A week later, Ken and his team presented some new names, including “iMac” again, with stronger arguments as to why it was the best name. Listening to Ken's strong conviction Steve paused thoughtfully and said something like, “Well, I still hate it. But, I hate it a little less this week.” The rest is history.

It's a great story because while everyone knows the names iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, few people know how close we came to MacMan, PodMan, PhoneMan, and PadMan. It's also an important lesson in marketing and management. Because as smart as Steve Jobs was, he was also smart enough to know the areas where others knew more than him - like creative marketing.

It takes a certain amount of guts for any business owner to trust the ideas and direction of outside marketing experts, especially when there's no guarantee those ideas will work. Steve obviously had the guts and trust in the people he hired. So did Ryan Blair - a small business owner who followed Apple's example by creating a great product and investing early in the best people to get the word out. Ryan's company, ViSalus, is now valued at over $600 million.

In a recent interview, Ryan was asked about his most valuable business lesson: “Hire the best possible people that money can buy.” Like Steve, Ryan had the guts and vision to choose that path even when he was a startup with little money â€" and even when he had to pay some people more than he paid himself.

While I've never worked with Steve Jobs, I and my partners, have had the pleasure of helping other savvy business owners like him. One was an ambitious young shoe designer who left his dad's shoe business because his old school dad didn't believe that spending money on marketing was a good investment.

That young man was Kenneth Cole. And what started as a few attention getting ads became the foundation for what is now one of the most successful fashion brands in the world. We're happy to continue helping other savvy small business owners who, like Steve and Kenneth, understand the value of investing in smart, creative marketing.

So, I offer this piece to the business owners who still struggle with the idea of investing in high level, creative, marketing help. Apple makes the perfect case study. As a small business owner Steve Jobs understood that regardless of how great Apple's products were, his business would fail if the marketing didn't connect with, and emotionally resonate with, the regular people he was trying to reach.

Apple's marketing success is the combination of great products, a relentless desire to tell the world about them, and Steve's ability to find the right, talented people to help do that.

Apple Logo Photo via Shutterstock

Customers Are Your Bloodline: 5 Points on How To Attract Them AND Keep Them

It goes without saying, but without customers your business cannot survive.  Why is it then, that so many businesses today fail to recognize, or remember, this and spend their time focusing on peripheral items like marketing and social media.  Granted, those items are important and needed to get people in the door, but if once they walk in the door they are treated poorly, or not at all, they will not be coming back.

Ramon Ray, the editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, recently wrote and article titled ‘Back to Basics; How to Attract and Keep Customers' and outlined a number of key steps you can take to get attract new customers and ensure they'll keep coming back.

Let's take a look at five of those key points:

1. Provide superior customer service

From the time a new customer first phones your business to the time you process her payment, every step you take should feature outstanding customer service that leaves an indelible mark. Your workers are often the first impression customers receive, whether you pay an answering service or hire your own staff. Make sure each customer is greeted with a smile and a friendly voice. Provide extras like free coffee or bottled water in the lobby if customers are required to wait for any amount of time. And for those early-morning meetings, a bowl of fruit or some pastries can be just the “extra” that sets your business apart from all the others.

2. Be proactive

By anticipating your customers' needs and responding to them without being asked, you can demonstrate a customer-focused business model. For instance, if you own a computer services business, consider offering a frequent customer a complimentary visit or a much-needed peripheral device free of charge. The cost to your business is minimal, but you'll earn your customer's loyalty.

3. Provide employee training

This training goes beyond how to do a specific job. Training in PC use is important, as is customer relations training. If you expect any of your employees to take on leadership roles, supervisory training can make a big difference. Even training on how to handle stress can help improve employee performance.

Matt McCormick, owner of JCD Repair, puts this theory into practice. “What really sets us apart and leads to so many great reviews of our service is the way we do it,” McCormick says. “We don't just teach our employees how to fix an iPhone. We spend as much or more time teaching them how to give the customer a great experience.”

4. Do away with confusing automated voice menus

Frustrating automated phone mazes are among the top consumer complaints with businesses. “In an era where ticketing systems and automated help tools are becoming more and more prevalent, we realized that many of our customers simply wanted to talk to a human being to get help with a problem,” say Arlo Gilbert, founder of iCall. “Often, if they are unable to get that help immediately, they simply leave bad ratings in public forums such as the Apple App store.”

5. Exude a positive, helpful attitude yourself.

You represent your business more than anyone associated with it. Whether you're dealing with clients, colleagues, employees, or the competition, it's important to maintain a fully professional demeanor at all times. Always contribute productive, constructive feedback in meetings and presentations, rather than shooting down ideas. By establishing yourself as a pleasant person to work with, you'll be much more likely to attract new business and partnerships.

For more great ideas on how to attract and keep customers, read Ramon's full article here and let us know what you do to ensure your customers remain happy, loyal customers!

Wave Systems launch security on a chip via an endpoint monitor

Wave Systems have announced the launch of an endpoint monitor that detects malware by using the capabilities of the security chip onboard a PC.

According to the company, the Wave Endpoint Monitor provides protection against threats such as rootkits by utilising information stored within the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to check security health before the operating system loads. If any anomalies are detected, the IT department is alerted immediately with real-time analytics.

The Wave Endpoint Monitor also includes the ability to ensure data comes from a known endpoint, provide configurable reporting and query tools and ensure strong device identity through the use of hardware-based digital certificates, the company said.

Steven Sprague, CEO of Wave Systems, said: “Today's security threat environment calls for industry-proven solutions to collect and analyse pre-operating system health information and to ensure endpoints are known and trusted.

“Since advanced persistent threats can sometimes appear as normal traffic, new rootkits often go unnoticed for long periods of time and cause severe damage in the form of infected systems and data loss. Wave Endpoint Monitor allows IT to utilise the hardware security you've already bought and deployed to ensure PC health from the start of the boot process, while creating a higher level of trust in your endpoints.”

Cloudmark offers real-time visibility of mobile threats in new platform

Cloudmark has launched a new version of its mobile platform to provide real-time visibility and control of mobile messaging threats.

According to the company, Cloudmark Mobile Platform 3.0 operates at mobile speed and can provide visibility and control of mobile messaging threats originating from internal or external networks, and offers policy controls and scalability to stop threats before they impact mobile networks and subscribers.

Designed for the largest mobile network operators, it said that Cloudmark Mobile Platform 3.0 provides the capability for operators to offer security services to enterprises, such as message archiving to corporate mail systems, data leakage prevention and abusive image protection to simplify compliance with government regulations and corporate policies.

The platform's enterprise-wide block and allow lists also provide extra security by only allowing authorised senders and receivers to exchange messages or access specific content, while time-of-day policies enable enterprises to take more control of messaging traffic.

Neil Cook, chief technology officer at Cloudmark, said: “Mobile operators recognise that protecting their subscribers from increasingly sophisticated mobile messaging threats is an essential step for increasing subscriber satisfaction and reducing the burden of unwanted traffic on their networks.”

Obama Hugger Suffers Business Backlash

We try to stay away from politics as much as possible, even during the U.S. Presidential election season, but one item this week just cried out to be looked at more closely for the benefit of small business owners. That was the case of Big Apple Pizza owner Scott Van Duzer of Ft. Pierce, Fla., who made headlines Sunday for bear-hugging President Barack Obama during the President's visit to his establishment. The fallout from the incident has been blogged about by many in the business community because of what it has to say about the dangers of mixing business and politics and the power of social media to affect your brand. Here's more analysis:

Bear Hugs and Boycotts

Biting the hand that feeds. First, Van Duzer is a registered Republican but supports the President, a Democrat, anyway. Some critics took to Yelp, the customer review site, after the incident, with one user questioning why Van Duzer would risk his business by potentially alienating half his customers who don't support Obama. Los Angeles Times

Branded a traitor. While one angry troll on Yelp vowed he would never eat at Van Duzer's restaurant because of his support for Obama, others soon appeared to defend the small business owner and improve his Yelp rating in the process. But he says he also faces a boycott of his restaurant from those angry over his politics. Newser

Critically Acclaimed

Yelp needs some help. The thing about both Yelp entries attacking Big Apple Pizza and those supporting the business is that many of the entries had little or nothing to do with the quality of the restaurant's food. Blogger Greg Sterling points out the worst part of this is that technically many of the comments violate the review site's terms of service, raising questions about the kinds of comments the site is allowing. Search Engine Land

The other side of the coin. Despite the problems seen in the case of Big Apple Pizza, Yelp and other social media sites can be great, simple ways for small businesses to establish a Web presence even without resources to  design a Website. Customer feedback is the best way to build your brand, so consider, absent the politics, how these tools can work for you. Small Biz Diamonds

The Right to Remain Silent

Don't wear it on your sleeve. Sales consultant Paul Castain has some advice for business people when it comes to your politics during this contentious political season (and the rest of the time for that matter.) Keep it to yourself! Ask yourself whether venting your political views is worth loosing a sale or loosing business. Sales Playbook

Enjoy the parade. The best thing to remember for small business owners watching the Presidential election cycle is that very little proposed by either of the two major parties will do anything to help most small businesses, says small business journalist Dawn R. Rivers. Rivers's advice is to ignore the promises and work on running your business instead. Small Business Trends

A Vote of Confidence

If you can't beat ‘em. It's not all bad news. In fact, from the importance of branding, to making yourself accessible, to the power of data, the Presidential race can teach small business owners and entrepreneurs plenty about how to create a powerful campaign for their own products or services. Bus!ness Signs

Google acquires VirusTotal

Google has acquired VirusTotal, a free web service that inspects suspicious files against the most commonly deployed anti-virus solutions.

Founded in 2004, the service also allows users to input suspect URLs to scan websites for malware threats. According to an announcement on VirusTotal's website, the company is a longtime partner of Google.

“VirusTotal also has a strong track record in web security, and we're delighted to be able to provide them with the infrastructure they need to ensure that their service continues to improve,” a Google spokeswoman told SC Magazine US. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Mike Tuchen, CEO of Rapid7, said that because VirusTotal, which runs tests against more than 40 anti-virus providers, will remain as an independent entity, existing partnerships can be maintained.

The Google spokeswoman declined to comment on how the company plans to use VirusTotal, but Tuchen suggested the technology could be integrated into Google's array of web offerings, including its search engine, Chrome browser, as well as Gmail virus detection.