Splunk claims speedier reports with Enterprise 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kiwi Wi-Fi gadget rolls out in Oz rental cars

A kiwi-developed Wi-Fi gadget offering cheap mobile internet access is getting a run in rental cars across the ditch.

New Zealand company iDataRoam has struck a deal with global car rental brand Hertz which will see its portable 3G-based devices made available at major Australian airports.

Hertz earlier this year started offering the units to customers renting vehicles from airport locations around New Zealand.

The units can now also be rented from Hertz's airport locations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Cairns.

The rechargeable palm-sized, battery-powered devices allow up to five hours of mobile usage and a daily data limit of 150mb per day.

Although created by Chinese company Huawei, Idataroam is the first in New Zealand to target the products at international travellers in the rental car market.

iDataRoam managing director Justin De Lille said the partnership is a landmark opportunity for his company in Australia.

"Breaking into Australia has been a goal for us, and to do so with a partner such as Hertz is extremely pleasing, continuing on from the success of the product in New Zealand."

He said the product could save travellers money as hotel Wi-Fi rates and mobile roaming costs remain "extremely high".

The devices connect to the internet via mobile phone and can be recharged from a standard power outlet or in a car while travelling.

Users are able to connect up to five devices simultaneously, allowing shared access between passengers.

In Australia, the units cost from AUD$12.00 (NZD$15) per day plus tax.

There is one package available in New Zealand, at a cost of NZD$12.95 + GST per day.

Idataroam is a 100 per cent NZ-owned company, backed and partially owned by interests associated with Stephen Tindall's K1W1 fund.

By Ben Chapman-Smith Email Ben

Instagram Unveils Web Profiles

Photo sharing service Instagram just released web-based profiles for users, a long awaited feature of the once mobile-only platform.

The web profiles will allow people to browse Instagram users and photos without an iOS or Android mobile device. Users can leave comments, edit their profile information, and follow new users directly from their web browser.

Some of these features have been rolling out to users already, but never have full Web profiles been made available without the use of third party sites like Followgram.

Profiles display users' biographical information, profile photo, a selection of recent photos, and a steady stream of mobile photos as they add new photos. The profiles look similar to Timelines on Facebook, which currently owns Instagram.

For businesses that use Instagram as part of their social media promotions, this change simply makes the media readily available for more users, particularly those without iOS or Android devices. It can also make it easier for those who already have Instagram accounts to find and follow more users on the Web.

Profiles will be viewable as Instagram.com/[username]. The Web profiles are already available to some users, and will roll out to everyone throughout the week.

Those who have private Instagram profiles will still be given Web profiles, but photos will only be viewable by those who are logged into Instagram and given permission to follow those users. Public profiles will be viewable by anyone, even those who don't have Instagram accounts.

One feature that is still not available, however, is the ability to upload photos directly from the Web. Instagram remains focused on the production of photos from mobile devices, so this move might not actually draw in many new users to the photo sharing service.

Instagram currently has more than 10 million users on its mobile platform. The first Instagram app was launched in October 2010, and the company was purchased by Facebook in April, 2012.

Small Business Financing Options For Those With Not So Great Credit

If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner who does not have good personal credit but you need a small business loan of some kind to start, build, or grow your business then there's good and bad news for you.

We're really not here to talk about the bad news because you already know the bad news.  It's tough â€" some would say impossible â€" to get financing when your personal credit is “not so great.”  After all, it's been tough enough since The Great Recession for people with “good” credit to get financing.

Just to clarify, we're talking about debt financing and not equity financing.  This post will not cover equity financing options such as venture capital, private equity, angel investors, or the three F's (friends/family/fools).

Before we get started, let's review a couple important truths:

• One is that your personal credit is either an asset or a liability.  It's not neutral because, if you're like most of us, you'll want or need credit to do things like buy homes, obtain credit cards, get business financing, etc.  Your credit is not neutral, it's either an asset or a liability.  If it's an asset then keep it that way and if it's a liability then don't be guilty of the definition of insanity and continue doing the same things you've always done and then expect different results.  Do something about it.
• Two, you may want to consider an ownership strategy if you are married and your spouse has better credit than you.  More about husband & wife “insider” tips here.

Now, let's dive into the best small business financing options for people with “not so great” credit:

ROB's (Rollover as Business Startups)

This works for both new and established businesses.  If you have an IRA, 401k, or other qualified retirement vehicle then you may be able to roll some or all of those funds into your new business entity.  You'll need a C-corp and this strategy should only be executed by a qualified and experienced company or attorney.  There are no monthly payment requirements but be sure you have good people who properly set this up for you so you don't run into IRS compliance issues.

Equipment Financing

This works for both new and established businesses.  You're looking for a non-bank equipment finance company here.  There are many of them out there who will lend you the funds you need to buy construction equipment, medical equipment, tractor trailers, aircraft, printing equipment, etc.  The list goes on.  They look for clients with damaged credit and what you'll need in return is very simple.  You either need a larger down payment or collateral or both.

These lenders like to lend based on the “auction value” of the equipment you're buying and/or the auction value of some equipment you already own.  Although it goes without saying, you should expect to pay a higher cost for these loans.

Factoring

This works for established businesses only.  It's simple here too.  If you have an aging report or book of receivables then there are lenders out there who will buy your receivables at a discount (some or all of your receivables).

Qualifying for factoring is all about the company who owes you the money.  If the lender believes they will pay, then you'll probably get your financing.  However, if it's Uncle Louie from Louie, Inc. who owes you $100,000 you probably won't be able to finance that one.  I'm sure you get the idea.

The lender will check things like business credit reports on the company who owes your invoice(s), make verification phone calls, etc. but it's a quick solution and there are thousands of businesses all over the country who do this very successfully.

Merchant Cash Advances

Also known as MCA's, works for established businesses only.  This is probably one of my least-favorite forms of financing because it's so expensive but there is a time and a place for it.

We're talking about the Wild West of financing here though.  If you're working with a trusted small business loan professional then you're probably okay but these loans are a dangerous combination of two things â€" they are costly to the business owner and lucrative to the brokers who sell them.  They are tough on cash flow no matter how you slice it but if you can absorb the high-cost and the short repayment term and advance your organization then this is an option.

To give you some perspective, our company takes in around 5,000 requests for financing per year and in the last 2 years, you can count the number of MCA's we've done in the single digits.  For each of those clients it was a means to an end to achieve a larger goal.  They're an option, but use them wisely.

Purchase Order Financing

Also known as PO Financing, works for established businesses only.  Of these five lending solutions this one is done with the least frequency.  However, it's a great option when you have a large order you need to fulfill from a large customer.

For example, if Target gives you an order for 500,000 of your widgets to go in all their stores on the east coast, then you'll need to manufacture and ship those widgets to them before they ever pay you.  You will also need to pay all your people or the manufacturer for the production.  That can get expensive and many business owners have had their growth halted simply because they couldn't afford to fulfill a big order.

With PO Financing, as long as you have a credit-worthy buyer, you can finance that entire order and ensure that your business grows and that you can develop the relationship with the buyer for future orders.

And there you have it.  These are not the “only” ways to obtain financing if you are a small business owner with damaged personal credit, but these are likely your best options â€" or they are at least the most commonly used financing vehicles for people with “not so great” credit. The list could certainly be longer.

So how have you creatively financed your business growth?

Credit Problems Photo via Shutterstock

App of the week: Stride – Sales Software For The Rest Of Us

It's never been easier to sell a product. With so many software solutions available, sales staff and small business owners can easily keep up with contacts, track phone calls and e-mails, and set follow-up reminders. However, many of these software packages are far more robust (read: pricey) than small businesses need, leaving a need for smaller solutions.

While standard sales tools are great, they are usually far more robust (read: pricey) for small business use. Seeing this issue, Stride developed “sales software for the rest of us.”

“We built Stride to solve the problem of lost time, outdated information and complex bloatware that plagues the small business sales process,” a company spokesperson says. Stride allows small business sales professionals to track and manage sales leads and even collaborate with other businesses.

Among its many features, Stride offers:

• Timeâ€"By tracking your contacts, managing cases and assigning tasks, you can eliminate laborious searches through piles of paperwork and various spreadsheets and email archives.
• Metricsâ€"Stride produces reports on the entire course of a deal, including history, overall value and more.
• Collaborationâ€"Your sales staff can work together on a deal, commenting on activity and delegating specific tasks. There is no limit to the number of team members you can add and there is no additional charge.
• Weekly e-mailsâ€"A weekly status e-mail will give you an overview of where each project stands. You can log in to see your entire pipeline in one glance or obtain more information about each of your cases.

Another option similar to Stride is Base, which is free for up to 150 deals. However, Base takes a more overall approach to sales reporting, comparing various sales team  members against each other rather than letting one individual sales member track progress of individual deals. This makes it ideal for the sales manager dealing with multiple salespeople, but less ideal for the salesperson him/herself.

“The truth of the matter is, almost every business has to sell,” Stride writes on its website. “We hope Stride makes that requirement as painless as possible.”

A starter account with Stride is free, allowing you to add up to five deals at no cost. This allows you to try out the service and see if it fulfills your needs before committing to a monthly subscription plan, which starts at $9 per month.

NYC Event on November 13th: Business Gifts That Get Results and 7 Tips To Dating Your Leads and Marrying Your Customers

Join Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology and Regional Director of Development for Infusionsoft, and Teresa Reid, Community Relations Manager at Barnes and Noble, on Tuesday, November 13th for ‘Business Gifts That Get Results and 7 Tips to Dating Your Leads and Marrying Your Customers'.

 

 

When: Tuesday, November 13th, 7:00pm Where: Barnes and Noble, 1542 Northern Boulevard, Manhasset, NY 11030 Event Summary

 

Join Teresa Reid, Barnes and Noble's “Guru of Gifts” as she helps you understand best practices in finding and identifying the perfect gifts for business customers that you want to feel special.

Ramon Ray, Infusionsoft's “Guru of Gadgets” (and Regional Development Director) will then help you understand best practices and 7 important steps to nurturing your prospects so they become customers. He'll then show you how you can turn those customers into lifelong customers.

Event Hosts

 

Ramon Ray, Regional Development Director, Infusionsoft (and Tech Evangelist, smallbiztechnology.com)

Infusionsoft provides all in one sales and marketing software to small businesses â€" integrating ecommerce, analytics, contact management, CRM, automation (and more) in one software suite with one database for a comprehensive view of the customers.

Ramon is a technology evangelist, author (3 books), event producer, national speaker, journalist and freelance writer with over 8,000 articles to his name. As a former technology consultant Ramon has hands on knowledge of technology and as a business owner, knows the challenges and joys of growing a business. Read more about Ramon at www.RamonRay.com.

Teresa Reid has worked for Barnes & Noble for the past 17 years in many capacities and is now the Community Relations Manager. The Barnes and Noble community relations program builds sales and ensures customer loyalty through special events, programming and community outreach. The program supports local schools, literacy and arts organizations.

Teresa is thrilled to join with Ramon Ray for their first “Guru” event and is certain that the new HD NOOKS are going to be the hot gift this holiday season.

This event is sponsored by Adrian's Network, an immensely successful business networking community that truly enables you to network YOUR WAY!

Remote access Trojan evades detection using mouse functions

Malware developers are continuing to deploy clever agents that are designed to avoid automated detection by hiding behind operating system routines, but the same mechanisms these types of malware employ to stay stealthy could have been used to flag the code as malicious all along.

The antivirus industry is so overwhelmed and short of analysts these days, they don't have time to manually analyze such code.

Kevin McAleavey, co-founder and architect, KNOS Project

Researchers at Symantec recently identified a remote access Trojan (RAT) that is capable of evading detection by hiding behind routines that are used to communicate with external devices such as a mouse, evading detection because the code remains inactive when the mouse is not in use, as is the case during examination by dynamic analysis systems in a virtual environment.

"If malware can hide itself from automated threat analysis systems, it can blend in with millions of sample files and antivirus applications may not be able to figure out that it is malicious. Therefore, both malware and packer program authors attempt to utilize techniques to hide malicious files from automated threat analysis systems," wrote Symantec's Hiroshi Shinotsuka

Key to this type of malware's ability to evade detection is its use of system-wide “hooks,” the message-handling mechanisms which allow applications such as a mouse driver to install a subroutine to monitor system message traffic for queues to activate, Shinotsuka explained. The malware Symantec identified exploits a “wait hook” in order to remain dormant until it is activated by the use of the mouse.

The problem is that the exploitation of various system “hooks” by malware developers has been occurring for years, and dynamic analysis systems should have long ago been designed to compensate for this blind spot in threat detection, according to Kevin McAleavey, co-founder and architect of the KNOS Project.

"System-wide hooks as indicated in the Symantec discovery are old hat and should have been checked for all along by automated analysis, as well as any attempts by a legitimate program to engage hooks of any kind," said McAleavey who has been active in anti-malware research and security product development since 1996.

The issue comes down to a matter of manpower. Given that there is an average of one million new malware variants identified each day, it is impossible to manually examine the function of each sample in order to assess which warrants the immediate creation of a definition for inclusion in antivirus software, so it is necessary to automate threat analysis with systems that are used to analyze code behavior in a more efficient manner.

Since automated detection may fail to identify malware such as the RAT Symantec discovered, McAleavey believes that any application that uses a “hook” should be flagged for manual analysis, but given the shortage of personnel with the prerequisite expertise for malware analysis, this is unlikely to occur.

"Functions employing a hook of any type should be reason enough to trigger a very careful manual analysis. But then again, the antivirus industry is so overwhelmed and short of analysts these days, they don't have time to manually analyze such code," McAleavey says.

A detailed listing of the various “hookable” Windows events is publicly available in Microsoft's MSDN documentation. As an example, McAleavey points out the various things that a “wait hook” can be set on, any of which could be used by malware designers to activate the code:

•     WH_CALLWNDPROC - wait for a specific message passed from one window to another
•     WH_CBT - an oldie which supported "computer based training" and has been used for keystroke record/playback macros
•     WH_GETMESSAGE - retrieval of mouse, keyboard or any other system input
•     WH_KEYBOARD - keyboard hook, the preferred attack vector for keyloggers
•     WH_MOUSE - mouse hook, which is what Symantec is talking about
•     WH_MSGFILTER - detects touching of a button, menu or other Windows feature
•     WH_DEBUG - any overflow which would trigger a debugger

McAleavey explains that the “hook” functions listed above are only a few of the “debug” functions available for exploitation, such as those that are able to detect if a machine is running in a virtual mode, those that check to see if an antivirus has inserted its own hooks for detection purposes, and those that divert programs into separate malicious DLL's in order to control whether or not an infection is detected at all.

“The WH_DEBUG hook controls all access to the other WH hooks and can interrupt any of the other hooks in order to check for example whether or not the hooks should proceed or to replace the original functions with some other action. This would be how malware could detect if an antivirus is monitoring the other hooks, and if so, prevent detection,” McAleavey said.

The problem McAleavey has with Microsoft's debug functions is that they're present in the retail versions of the operating system itself. Microsoft already provides developer versions of all of their operating systems which contain voluminous debug functions and debug symbols for use in writing software for the Windows platform, so their presence in the retail versions is unnecessary.

"Bottom line, Microsoft's debug functions have always been used by malware in order to hide themselves. The first thing human analysts will do is review the function calls of any sample to detect the presence of any debug calls and then follow them carefully. I'm quite surprised that no flags have been raised over yet another debug call by automated systems,” he said.

McAleavey says that since each of the debug functions is enumerated and listed in all executables, any automated system should be able to easily spot their existence in a submitted sample and act on them. Any call to a debug hook in a program will leave the call visible in the program itself, so any automated analysis system could potentially spot the call to SetWindowsHookEx and flag it for analysis. These calls are not hidden; they are present in the sample being analyzed, so all the automated systems need to do is match the characters when scanning a file.

“It seems counter-intuitive to have ignored them all this time. Legitimate software should not be making debug calls such as this without a very specific reason to do so, and unknown executables should be immediately flagged when any of these functions are detected and remain flagged until proven inert,” McAleavey said.

About the author:
Anthony M. Freed is an information security journalist and editor who has authored numerous feature articles, interviews and investigative reports which have been sourced and cited by dozens of major media outlets. You can also find him tweeting about security topics on Twitter @anthonymfreed.

4 Ways To Know Your Vendor REALLY Loves or Tolerates Your Small Business (from Infusionsoft Partnercon)

I'm live at Infusionsoft's Partnercon and here with over 70 Infusionsoft partners who help small businesses â€" date their leads and marry their customers â€" code for better market their businesses.

(see the end of this post for video from Partnercon)

Clate Mask, c0-founder and CEO of Infusionsoft has kicked off the 3 day conference and spoke about why the acronym “SBM” that so many vendors use (but small businesses never use) is a “lie”.

He explained that Infusionsoft LOVES true small businesses â€" those solo businesses with one employee who rely on 1099′s to GROW, those small businesses, with 3 or 5 employees who are GROWING. This is the market Infusionsoft is after â€" explained Clate.

Clate explained that many vendors use “SMB” and they really don't want very small businesses, like Infusionsoft wants. They really want larger small businesses â€" maybe those with 20, 50 or 150 employees. While these businesses are awesome and indeed are small compared to the fortune 500, Infusionsoft is one of the few companies that LOVE and really CATER to these TRUE small businesses.

So what does this mean to you?

If you're a small business, and I mean, “really” a small business owner and you're looking for companies who not only say they love you  but SHOW YOU they love you, here's a few things to consider:

1. Do they offer live phone support? (sometimes email is just not good enough)

2. Do they offer fast support?

3. Do they have a culture of entrepreneurship?

4. Do they understand the pains (and joys) of being a small business owner? â€" this is only done if executes and staff  (at least some throughout the company) have run or worked in a small business.

There are many companies selling to small businesses but VERY few meet all of these criteria. Intuit is one, Infusionsoft (my employer) is another and there are only a very few more.

Many companies are filled with geeks creating awesome products. We need these company's products. Many companies offer “low hanging fruit” for “small businesses” but really want to sell to bigger businesses.

Know if your vendor REALLY loves your small business or is just tolerating you.

Clate Mask (see below or here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86s4KjHZe6k&feature=g-all-u

Kara Burney (see below or here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2do_CRDfhws&feature=g-all-u)

Cindy Eager (see below or here â€" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZxdD7RLtg&feature=plcp)

Dave Sherman (see below or here â€" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY2hRO2lzvw&feature=plcp)

Countdown To Launch Your Business

Once you've decided on a business structure and a location for your new business, it's time to get ready to launch your business.  This is an exciting time because it's where you start putting your business into action and making your ideas a reality. Starting a business is a big undertaking that requires attention to detail, investment of resources, and the coordination of multiple contributions coming from all directions â€" just like the launch of a Space Shuttle.

Every Space Shuttle launch started with a “countdown” on the launching pad to help the engineers and support staff ensure that all the equipment was working properly and all of the processes were in place for a successful flight. In the same way, as you get ready to launch your business, it's important to be thorough in completing all of the necessary steps and “checking the boxes” along the way.

If you complete all the steps on this countdown to launch, you'll be better positioned for success as your business takes flight:

Write a Business Plan and Set Your Prices

There's an old saying:

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

So before you do anything else, you should go through the exercise of writing a business plan. Even if you have a clear idea of what kind of business you want to start, even if you think that your business plan is “simple” or “easy,” committing to putting it in writing by creating a formal, written business plan will almost certainly be time well spent.  By writing a business plan, you are taking time to understand and analyze the market demand for your product or service.

Your business plan should show how you can tailor your offerings to meet the needs of customers, how you will compare with competitors, and how you will grow over time. An important part of your business plan is deciding what prices to charge for your products or services.

Spend some time researching and analyzing the typical prices charged by your competitors. Find out how you can add extra value to command a higher price. Find out the bare minimum price that you can afford to charge to break even, and then build in enough of a profit margin that you can have some additional “cushion.”

Do you expect that your business will have certain “busy seasons” and quiet periods throughout the year? If so, plan for the cash flow needs of your business. Try to anticipate when your business will be bringing in revenue and when you will need to dip into your cash reserves.

Writing a business plan will help you avoid surprises that are costly or even fatal for your business down the road. Lots of people have “can't miss” business ideas that fall short of their potential (or never get off the ground) because these would-be entrepreneurs don't do the research and take time to write a business plan. Don't let this happen to you.

Write a Marketing Plan

So you've got a business idea and you've written a business plan. Now you need to figure out who's going to buy from you, why they should buy from you, and how you're going to reach them to build relationships with your future customers. As part of the overall business plan, you also need to create a specific “Marketing Plan” that identifies your target markets and outlines ways to reach them.

Creating a marketing plan â€" a blueprint for how to find and engage with your customers â€" is one of the most exciting parts of running your own business (and one of the most critical for your success).

Name Your Business

Just like new parents give their baby a name, new business owners need to choose a name for the business. Choosing a business name can be fun, creative and exciting, but it can also be nerve-wracking â€" how do you choose the right name to concisely and credibly serve as your business's first impression to the world?

Another consideration in naming a business is to choose a business name that is not already being used by someone else. Making sure you have a unique business name will help you avoid trademark and copyright problems or potential disputes with other business owners. Before you invest too much in a great new name, you should do a business name search to make sure it is not already in use in a way that could create a conflict with another business.

CorpNet™ offers a free business name search that can help you check to verify whether the business name of your choice is available. If you are forming a corporation or Limited Liability Company (LLC) as part of starting your business, your company's legal entity name will often be the same as the business name. If it is a different name, or if you are a sole proprietor and using a fictitious name for your business (that is, a name other than your own), you will need to register a Doing Business As (DBA) name with the state or county in which you intend to operate.

CorpNet™ can also help prepare and file your DBA application. Once you choose a name for your business, it is also a good time to buy a URL for your business website. Ideally, your business website URL will include your business name (or something close, so that customers can easily find you online). You should also take steps to protect your business name, including possibly filing for trademark protection.  If you'd like to learn more about “what's in a name” when it comes to your business, contact CorpNet for a free business consultation.

Once you have decided on a business name (and made sure it is available for you to use), you should next determine the best form of legal entity for your business.

Form a Legal Entity for your Business

As we discussed in our previous articles on incorporating a business and choosing a business structure, there are many choices, including incorporating your business by forming a C Corporation or S Corporation, forming a partnership or limited liability company (LLC), or operating as a sole proprietorship.

Different legal entities have different advantages, complications and drawbacks. You will need to decide which type of business structure is right for you. CorpNetâ„¢ offers easy-to-use online guides and tools to help entrepreneurs make the best choice of business structure to fit their needs.

Once you decide if you want an LLC, S Corporation or other business structure, CorpNet can help you form your business's legal entity. We manage the business filings for you, making it fast and cost-effective for you to make your business “official” as a legal entity.

If you have a complex or unusual business, you should consider hiring a good attorney and tax accountant from the beginning of your business operations.

Now that the countdown to launch your business is complete, it's time to get ready for the daily work of running your business.

In the next article in our series, we'll talk about the nitty gritty details of how to outfit and equip your business, how to learn the rules of running your business with the proper licensing, how to protect your business with liability insurance, and how to get ready to market your business and start making sales.

Countdown Clock Photo via Shutterstock

UK authorities to decide on McKinnon pursuit

UK prosecutors are to meet Metropolitan Police officers in late November to decide whether to open a new criminal investigation into Nasa and Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon.

The meeting will decide whether evidence will be gathered against McKinnon in preparation for a possible UK trial, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

"The Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police Service have agreed to form a joint panel to decide whether a new criminal investigation into the allegations against Gary McKinnon should take place," said the statement. "It is proposed that the panel will convene in late November once some preliminary enquiries have been made by both the CPS and the MPS."

SC Magazine UK understands that medical evidence that halted McKinnon's extradition to the US may be taken into account by the authorities at the meeting.

The Home Office decided to drop extradition proceedings against the self-confessed hacker in October after weighing up evidence on his medical condition. McKinnon, who has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum, was found to have been at risk of suicide if extradited.

McKinnon's extradition proceedings began in 2002, and continued for a decade. Crossbench peer Lord Maginnis said on 1 November that if McKinnon's case went before the UK courts, it could take another ten years.

"Justice has again been put on the 'long finger' by a home secretary who has effectively said, 'I will delegate the matter, without time considerations, to the courts'," said Maginnis. "Hence, a once 35 year-old with autism spectrum disorder - now 45 years old - is tossed in life's dustbin for, what, perhaps another ten years, and that is justice?"

The CPS decided not to pursue a UK prosecution in 2009 on the grounds that it had insufficient evidence to prosecute McKinnon here.

Think That The Concept of A Company Intranet Is Dead and Useless? Think Again!

Can you really rule out a technology that was built with a sense of adaptability so that it could withstand the demands of the future? It would be wise not to. Many industry experts and tech reporters have stated that intranets, which CMOs and CIOs in big companies generally prefer, are mostly “stagnant and simply document repositories”. The fact that intranet 2.0, known as the social intranet, is a big leap forward as compared to what its predecessor (Intranet 1.0) offered to big business, should make us pause and try it out before we decide to fully rule out the technology.

The reason CMOs and CIOs are “looking inward” instead of succumbing to the success stories of Web 2.0, is that in spite of the perceived redundancy of intranet 1.0 in the business world, a platform where the company can present its own face to its own employees, who after all are the most valuable resources it has. IT giant IBM has refused to call the intranet “dead”; it claims that with the birth of what it calls ‘the Social Intranet' (which is basically intranet 2.0 that also supports social media and analytics capabilities), intranet now has the ability to understand the online behavior of employees and their sentiments as customers. This is something that an internal communication platform was seriously lacking earlier.

With  IBM Intranet Experience Suite, a hassle free two-way communication route is possible between employees. This way, it makes it easier for employees to get in touch quickly with the right people in case collaboration is required for a particular project. The main reason why companies need to continue with intranet is that employees always need to be aware of what's going on with, and within the company, so that they can make better decisions in real time.  It is true that email allows you to do that by exchanging information among individuals or groups, but it still does not provide the benefits of real time usage and it does not include knowledge databases with real time updates.

“Infusionsoft uses the Moxiesoft skeleton for its social intranet needs”, says Kimberlee Morrisson, the cultural evangelist of Infusionsoft.  She says, “Internally it is referred to as the “Cereal Bowl”, where employees are constantly sharing information and managing databases about each other as well the company.”

Social media enabled intranet can lead to a stronger sense of employee engagement and increased knowledge sharing within, and between, various departments and levels of a company. It can help companies discover people with various levels of expertise within the company, but not bound by the same department, and in doing all of this it can effectively result in a much smarter and more efficient workforce.

So, this goes out to CMOs and CIOs who were hesitant to put their trust into an intranet site â€" upgrade to intranet 2.0 and see if your company grow even faster.

Prudential fined £50,000 over account mix-up

Financial services firm Prudential has been fined £50,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office for mixing up two customers' accounts.

The customers share the same first name, surname and date of birth. Their records were mistakenly merged in March 2007 after an address mix-up by one of the customer's financial advisors. The issue was not successfully resolved until September 2010, the ICO said on Tuesday.

"Organisations must make sure the information they hold on their customers' files is accurate and kept up to date in order to comply with the Data Protection Act," ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said in a statement. "In this case two customer files were consistently confused and the company failed to remedy the situation despite being alerted to the problem on more than one occasion.

"This case would be considered farcical were it not for the serious sums of money involved."

Tens of thousands of pounds, meant for a retirement fund, were transferred to the wrong recipient's account. In addition, correspondence meant for each of the customers was sent to the other on a number of occasions.

This is the first fine made by the regulator that doesn't relate to data loss.

Cyber Security Challenge UK reveals winner of \'can you talk security\' competition

Cyber Security Challenge UK has unveiled the winner of its ‘Can you talk security' competition devised by BT and Get Safe Online.

The competition, launched in April, aimed to test the ability of competitors to communicate good security practise to people and to keep small businesses informed on cyber security issues. The winning entry, designed by Leo Pickford, focused on ‘bring your own device' (BYOD) dogs that gave tips and good security practise advice to encourage users to manage the dangers of BYOD.

“The dogs have good intentions but there is an element of unruliness to them and they are neither completely controllable nor uncontrollable,” Pickford said. “This makes them a good metaphor for the challenges surrounding BYOD.”

Pickford, an IT manager at a design company, won the chance to work with creative digital and marketing experts to turn his idea into a nationwide campaign.

“What we liked about Pickford's approach is that he took one of the key security issues that affects him in his working environment and tackled it in a way that he believed would speak best to his colleagues,” said CEO of Get Safe Online Tony Neate. “We immediately saw the potential in his idea and I look forward to seeing the BYOD dogs appearing in adverts of posters across a variety of formats.”

“We must educate the wider population on the role they need to play in securing our future. It is here that creative skills shown by people such as Pickford in this competition will prove so invaluable,” Dr Bob Nowill, director of cyber and information assurance at BT Security, said.

7 Steps to Writing A Great Blog Post

Writing great content isn't easy. Anyone who has ever tried knows this. Thankfully, however, there are techniques designed to make writing a great blog post easier. One of those this is to create a process for how you'll do it.

As a writer in the search marketing space, much of my time is spent crafting content designed to educate and (sometimes) entertain my audience. As the VP of Strategy at Overit, I'm also responsible for helping our team to write content to be published on various platforms.

As such, I've had to develop a clear and effective process to keep myself and my team on task with the content we have to write. In doing that it's not only helped us to get content out in a timely manner, but to create content people actually want to read and share with their communities.

Turns out, the more you enjoy sharing your words, the better those words tend to be.

My process for content writing looks like this:

1. Decide On Your Topic

Start by creating a list of everything you're passionate about or that you feel like you can write on authoritatively. As a freelancer or small business owner, your list will undoubtedly be a mix of not only your subject-matter excellence, but also topics related to business, productively tools, work/life balance, and how you manage your day.

Also think about the questions that you're constantly answering. What are the common problems/concerns your customers come to you about? What information are you often seeking? If you can pinpoint areas related to your business where many face difficulties, you can create a great benefit to your reader by solving their problems.

Start keeping a list of potential topics to write about. My team uses Google Docs to suggest blog topic ideas, both for themselves and for other departments.

2. Outline The Post

There are two great ways to work out an outline for your blog post.

The first way is that traditional outline our teachers taught us in grade school. It involves breaking out the main points of our post and creating a list of everything you want to include, in the order you will address it. By creating a traditional outline, it helps you work out the flow of your post and organizes thoughts in a logical manner so you're better prepared when you start writing.

The second way to outline your post is verbally. Grab a friend or a voice recorder and talk out your post and main points instead of trying to write them. Talk about your topic like you're explaining it to a friend or a customer. For many, talking through your post is a lot more effective than trying to write about it from a blank slate. Once you record yourself, you can take the transcript and use it to build an outline.

3. Fill In The Blanks

With a workable outline for your post created, start filling in the blanks. Add supporting evidence, show research, cite sources, give examples, tell stories, and just write. Don't worry yet about how it sounds, just get the words out and work on building your story. Focus on the ideas you want to convey, not your ability to say them intelligently. Because writing and editing are very different skills, trying to do both at the same time will hinder your process and cause you to get “stuck” rewriting and editing the same three lines.

In step 3, just focus on getting your ideas out and saying what it is you want to say.

4. Edit

With a first draft down, read your post out loud to help you spot any writing awkwardness, typos, wrong words, sentence fragments, and anything else that may be hindering the flow of your post. If you have a difficult time being able to read it, that's a good indication a reader will have a hard time getting through it, as well. If you're not currently in the process of reading your writing out loud, I'd encourage you to start. You'll spot a lot more typos and awkward writing that way.

5. Work On Your Title

Writing effective blog titles is hard. You need to not only describe your post and set your reader up for what you're about to show them, but you need to engage them and be descriptive for the search engines as you do it. To become better at writing blog titles (and writing, in general) I'd recommend following blogs like Copyblogger, which truly make crafting blog titles an art.

6. Add Images

Adding compelling images to your content will help tell your story and affect how users perceive it. If you're going to use stock photography, you may want to re-read our post on things to avoid when using stock photography to help you focus in on the photos that will add the most to your content. Concentrate on images that will set the tone for your post and draw people in. Images of people or that use warm colors often work best.

If you don't already have a preferred site for purchasing images, TJ McCue's post on 50 places to find images can help you get started.

7. Share Your Post!

Now that you've done the work, make sure to share your post via all of your social media networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and wherever else you participate. While you don't want to overload or spam people, sharing your post multiple times can help account for different time zones or preferred reading times.

Above is my process for writing blog posts that people want to read. What do you find works best for you? How have you handled the content writing process?

Paper Receipts and Coupons Go Digital: How your Small Business Can Benefit

For mobile-oriented consumers, paper receipts and coupons can seem very dated and cumbersome. But mobile solutions seem to be taking off slowly. Apple's Passbook, integrated into iOS 6, shows promise, but with so few merchants participating at this stage, many iPhone owners are still holding off.

There's no denying that eventually consumers will store receipts, coupons, loyalty cards, and more on their smartphones. The question is, how do small business owners encourage consumers to use mobile apps for traditional paper functions? Is it simply a case of, “Build it and they will come?”

Early adapters of mobile couponing technology certainly seem to think so. Coupon Clipper and Coupon Sherpa have coupons but they aren't the same coupons that come in the mail every day. Services like Lemon turn smartphones into receipt storage devices, but the user has to photograph the receipts and it's still questionable if all retailers will take them for proof of purchase for returns and exchanges.

Proximiant's paper-eliminating solution opens up interaction between businesses and customers, with retailers sending receipts directly to smartphones and later sending coupons to those same customers. The app works through a phone's near-field communication technology, making the process seamless for the customer while protecting his or her personal data.

“It's no secret that mobile technology is a huge trend that will only continue to grow, so more and more businesses of all sizes are looking for ways to capitalize on this trend to market and connect with their customers,” a Proximiant spokesperson says.

One way to get customers on board is for small businesses to begin offering receipts through this method. Through signage or verbal notifications, a small business can tell a customer to download the app in order to store a digital copy of their receipt. Soon, when a customer checks out, the question won't be, “Would you like your receipt in the bag?” but, “Would you like your receipt on your smartphone?”

Proximiant develops relationships with its small business owner clients, helping you find ways to offer exclusive rewards to shoppers who use the smartphone app. This encourages future use, as well as bringing customers back to your business again. Business owners can add the Proximiant console to their existing point of sale and instantly begin sending receipts to customers.

Best of all, the app is free for customers, not to mention easy to use. A customer needs to only download the app and tap their phone against the console to transfer the receipt. Deals that might be of interest to that customer will be attached to the receipt, as well, making it a great money-saver. But the deals begin when the customer enters your store, with any coupons and specials beamed directly to that customer's phone based on his or her shopping habits.

One downside is the app won't yet work with the iPhone, since Apple has not yet embraced NFC technology. Proximiant has an answer for that, as well. Proximiant tags are available for merchants to provide to customers who have iPhones and other non-NFC devices. The customer needs only pair the phone with the tag and it will work whenever they return to your store.

To get started with Proximiant, visit the app's portal for businesses, located here.

(ISC)² announces collaboration with the Information Security Forum

Membership body (ISC)² is strengthening its professional certifications and education programs through an extended collaboration with the Information Security Forum (ISF).

The ISF's library of experimental research on privacy issues, usually only seen by its corporate members, will be made available to (ISC)²'s examination and course development teams for the advancement of its examinations and official education programs.

“(ISC)² is committed to increasing the level of scenario-based content in the examinations, which calls for test takers to demonstrate their ability to make judgment calls, a core competency for information security professionals today,” said W. Hord Tipton, executive director at (ISC)². “Through this agreement, we have also strengthened our ability to support a global viewpoint on issues such as privacy, where laws tend to be very regional or country-specific.”

“This agreement puts the strength of two world-leading bodies behind the development of skilled professionals and the businesses and communities they work to protect.”

Penguin, Random House Merge to Focus on Digital Publishing

The book industry is changing, and digital media has made it easier for more people to distribute their writing to an audience. Now, two of the major players in the book publishing industry have teamed up to better keep up with these trends and potentially offer more options to these new writers.

Publishing companies Random House and Penguin just announced that they plan to join forces next year in order to better take on emerging markets and the digital publishing Read More

The post Penguin, Random House Merge to Focus on Digital Publishing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Swingline Document Shredder for Small Business Security Needs

As a device, a document shredder does not generate a lot of passion. But Swingline has created a sweet office model that I felt would help many small business owners who spend monthly on a document security service.

Swingline sent me a temporary loaner unit for review purposes, with the promise that I would be impressed. I am impressed. You see, I have the occasional need in my company to shred secure documents and I either have to feed those Read More

The post Swingline Document Shredder for Small Business Security Needs appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Instagram Introduces Profiles, Gets More Like Facebook

Instagram introduced profiles this week, becoming more like its big brother Facebook, some say. In today's roundup, we have a look at the photo sharing super site and how new photo sharing tools are becoming useful in the online business community. You should think about the possibilities photo sharing social tools can offer your business. Add a new visual dimension to your brand, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Improving Your Image

In profile. This week, the photo sharing social site unveiled what some fans think is its crowning achievement so far. The company's blog introduced the new feature as something demanded by members-Web profiles. You can share your profile with others you want to see your photos. Web profiles also provide a handy way to follow other users, comment, and like photos. Instagram Blog

Forward facing. If all this sounds familiar, yes, it reminds everybody a little bit of Facebook, the social network that acquired Instagram earlier this year. But the evolution may be more than just a family resemblance. It's a natural next step for an application that is pushing photo sharing on the social Web to the next level. What do you think? All Things Digital

Framing the Conversation

Instagram errors. Clearly, you don't need to spell out to business owners already using social media to power their marketing the value of adding Instagram to the mix. Still, blogger James T. Noble insists there are least three big mistakes businesses make when deciding to use Instagram for marketing purposes. Growth University

Social media myths. If anything, the rise of Instagram has only encouraged more complaints by those who just don't get it. They ask who wants to see all these photos you're sharing…or read about what you just ate, or know where you just checked in. A lot of people do, says small business owner Liz King, and if you don't understand why, your business could be left behind. Liz King Events

The one list Instagram didn't make. Interestingly, the one list of big photo sites online Instagram doesn't make is the list of free photo sites bloggers and other content creators use to add images to their posts and articles. Blogger Leah Singer doesn't even mention the biggest photo sharing site on the web in her post, but commenter Martin Lindeskog points out the social site will likely soon introduce a similar feature. Merchantos

Instagram Intelligence

An infographic education. If you want to get a better understanding of the social sharing culture that now includes users of apps like Instagram, you'll want to check out this post and the infographic that comes with it. Editor and Community Manager Kelly Ferrier explains how sharing photos of the food she eats is a way of sharing her passion for vegetarianism and cooking. Learn more about why your audience shares. Communicatto

An inspiration for others. Instagram is much more than just a marketing tool for small businesses. A startup eventually purchased by mega social network Facebook for $1 billion, it now serves as an inspiration for many small businesses of what can be possible with a simple, well executed idea. Startup blogger Caimin Jones discusses why Instagram has become a startup superstar. Genius Startup