Mobile impacting cloud security issues, says panel

ORLANDO Fla. --- The burgeoning influx of employee-owned smartphones and tablets in the workplace has added to the complexity of securing cloud-based systems, according to a panel of experts who urged IT security teams to consider setting enforceable mobile policies alongside cloud policies.

There seems to be somewhat of a classic brute-force security approach to address the issues, but if you dumb down devices too much you are going to be impacting the user.

William Corrington, consultant, Stony Point Enterprises LLC

The process for setting policies addressing both mobile and cloud is easier said than done, said Tom Kellerman, vice president of Trend Micro Inc. Hybrid cloud policies done in conjunction with mobile security policies should be accomplished with all of the company's data owners, administrators and others who know the business and can find a middle ground, Kellerman said.

"Make a conscious decision policy wise about what the devices are being used for," Kellerman said, adding that security technologies are still emerging to better protect smartphones and tablets. "I think there is a need to make the device context aware."  

At the 2012 Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Congress, Kellerman joined William Corrington a consultant at Stony Point Enterprises LLC,  and Jon-Michael Brook a principal  security architect with Symantec's Public Sector Organization,  in discussing mobile security threats and their impact on cloud security. The discussion was set against the backdrop of a report to be released Thursday from the CSA that concludes that while organizations are beginning to implement policies to address mobile security issues, many still wrestle with the challenges of securing corporate data on personally owned devices.

The walled garden maintained by Apple's iOS leaves antivirus vendors out of the equation, but also appears to be keeping out security issues. Meanwhile Google Android devices are a growing security problem because the open architecture attracts malicious applications and an ever increasing amount of mobile malware.

"There seems to be somewhat of a classic brute-force security approach to address the issues, but if you dumb down devices too much you are going to be impacting the user," Corrington said.

Contextual authentication

Adding to the mobile security conundrum are a multitude of cloud environments that are slowing eroding the concept of perimeter away, Corrington said. In a complex ecosystem with multiple players and service providers, organizations need to begin thinking about it from an access control perspective.

"A strong identity ecosystem is really critical," Corrington said. "Authentication and identity management should be bidirectional."

Identity attributes and device attributes in conjunction can be used to infer a trust level and define access to resources based on the trust level, Corrigan said.  For example, a device authenticated with two factor would be given a higher trust level and access to more resources.

Segmenting personal and business data is a tough problem that hasn't been fully solved, said Symantec's Brook. Technologies can wrap some apps with IT policies and wall off corporate data on the device. Basic security policies should be enforced. Encryption should be turned on, location services and remote wipe capabilities employed, he said.

"Follow through with what you actually put into policy and put some teeth into it," Brook said.  Enforcing policies give employees the signal that the company is serious about security.

Security will get better, because technologies are still emerging, said panel moderator Salim Hariri, director of the Autonomic Computing Laboratory (ACL) at The University of Arizona. Hariri said researchers are testing moving target defenses with software behavior encryption, designed to make it more difficult for attackers to root a device. Behavior encryption changes the environment randomly, Hariri said. "With faster processors we might create multiple decoy environments at the same time," he said. "One is active the rest are honeypots."

Mac Planet: Scratching the surface

One of my favourite books of all time has this passage: "Presteign took out a silver-mounted slab of crystal and handed it to Olivia. She touched it with a fingertip; a black dot appeared. She moved her finger and the dot elongated into a line. With quick strokes she sketched the hideous swirls and blazons of a devil-mask."

I first read this book in 1972, so you might think of it as prescient. I was also impressed (apart from the great story and writing) by the fact the author mentioned Maori face tattoo (no slur intended with the 'devil-mask' thing, by the way, it's just a side-reference) in a US sci-fi book set way in the future. Even more impressive, though, is that author Alfred Bester predicted the iPad (or at least, touch-screen tablets) in 1955, which is when 'Tiger Tiger' was first published. I recently read it again, and enjoyed it every bit as much.

Myself, I don't like making tech predictions. I don't like being wrong. And I doubt I've written or said much worth quoting over the years.
Don't quote me on that - but on quotable quotes, feel free to quote the CEO of Microsoft. If you also suspect Steve Ballmer's mouth is connected to something other than his brain, here's some more ammunition.

Ballmer recently went on record (in an interview with CNBC) saying "I don't think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting.

You can go through the products from all those guys ... and none of them has a product that you can really use. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon."

At least, for a change, Ballmer isn't just tilting at Apple. He really is against the world, now. Ballmer reckons everyone wants the Surface, which he touts as a reimagining of the PC, of Windows and of Microsoft itself, which is now a "devices and services company."Albeit one that used to criticise Apple for 'not knowing what it was'. Microsoft is allegedly spending an estimated US$1.5 billion to launch the Surface and Windows 8 as a Microsoft version of the much criticised (by non users) Apple iCloud 'walled garden' which lets its devices sync painlessly.

Of course, Ballmer could be right about one thing, anyway. At the very least, many Windows PC users must be keen to have other devices that work well with their existing systems. They may have been casting covetous eyes at what Mac users experience with their iDevices, or at least wishing that iPads etc worked better with their Windows boxes. Despite some effort, Macs and iDevices still don't talk flawlessly with Microsoft exchange all the time. My first impulse might be 'so what?' but the reality is that many businesses justifiably rely on this technology to achieve their commercial aims.

I sometimes get put in the situation where irate new Mac owners demand of me "Why isn't this more like my Windows PC?" They obviously haven't done the research. Any research. But that's the risk Apple took, building fashionable devices everyone wants, even if people can be misdirected enough to simply buy a product for its looks, mystique or for other real or imagined charms (rather than Apple's very real and actual charms).
Another Microsoft exec, Steven Sinofsky, rather more realistically (than Ballmer) pointed out that the new Windows 8 PCs deliver better value than Apple's products.

Sinofsky said there are "full-featured Windows 8 laptops that sell for $279. These are fantastic machines. At that price, you can get a computer good enough to last a student through college."

Yes you can. But this is kinda missing the boat, because despite logic, the recession, natural disasters and all sorts of other negative factors, price somehow isn't the reigning factor for all consumers when it probably should be. Maybe in straitened times, people would rather buy something good? At least when the investment is beyond minor. I mean, Walmart's profits are still good, as are NZ's retail equivalents, so there's still a correspondingly active market for risible junk. But Apple's recent 2012 fourth-quarter sales of the Mac line showed sales one per cent higher than last year's. For the same period, the (non-Apple) PC market saw a sales drop of 8 per cent.

Apple's figures are salutary. It has increased its number of employees to almost 73,000 full-timers when unemployment is an issue for pretty much every country. The 2011 employee count was 60,400. [Please do note, I am not an Apple employee. I have never been an Apple employee.]

Just under half of these employees work in Apple Retail. The square footage of Apple's retail building space has meanwhile increased from 4.02 million square metres last year to 5.27 million square metres this year. That's growth of almost 32 per cent.

Thirty-three new Apple Retail stores opened during 2012. Twenty-eight of those were outside the US, although not as far outside the US as New Zealand is. This brings Apple's total retail store count to 390 - and there are plans for more Apple Stores in 2013.
Revenue per store is also up: a 19 per cent increase to US$51.5 million this year, compared to US$43.3 million in 2011.

Net sales in Asia jumped 47 per cent during the past year, mostly thanks to iPhone sales in the region. Net sales in Japan alone increased 94% to US$5.1 billion. Pretty good figures for devices that people 'can't really use'. Apple sold three million of its new iPads in the three days from launch.

While older (or should I say 'experienced') users might fret about Apple's future and distinctions between consumer and professional devices, as I do, Apple certainly has no plans to stop innovating, or at least (as more cynical readers will no doubt point out) buying and rebranding the companies and software that innovate. Apple has increased its research and development costs by US$1B in the last year. The 2012 costs were reported as $3.4 billion, an increase of $1 billion over last year's numbers. The cost was 'just' $1.8 billion in 2010, the year iPad was introduced. In NZ dollars, this comes out to about $4.11 billion dollars just on R&D. That's significantly more than New Zealand - the entire country - spends on R&D (about $2.44 billion).

But erring on the side of fairness, as I like to do just occasionally: it's not just Microsoft that can act in an unseemly fashion. Forced, in the UK, to publish ads apologising to Samsung for transgressions against its reputation, Apple's original apology was deemed inaccurate. So a link to a new statement has been made available ... but Apple modified its website to ensure the message is never displayed without visitors having to scroll down to the bottom first.
So there.

By Mark Webster

AnyMeeting: Web Conferencing That Scales With Small Businesses

For small businesses that need to use technology to host meetings, webinars, or chats, it can be difficult to find a program that is both affordable and able to scale with the company's needs, since free services may not have all the tools needed for certain functions, and enterprise solutions have an abundance of features but aren't always affordable.

That's why web conferencing service provider AnyMeeting has a unique pricing model that gives small businesses different options to work with as companies grow.

AnyMeeting offers a free version that is supported by advertising for small businesses looking to keep costs low, but it also has paid versions available for both meetings and webinars where users don't have to deal with advertisements.

AnyMeeting, which was designed specifically with small businesses in mind, enacted this pricing model in 2011 in order to give users more options and flexibility as businesses evolve and grow.

Said David Gerkin, AnyMeeting's Vice President of Business Development:

“There are many players in web conferencing, many large players who serve small business, but it's not their exclusive focus. At AnyMeeting, small business is what we are all about.  So we've got product pricing and integrations specifically focused on small business today and that will be our focus going forward.”

AnyMeeting, which just announced a new integration with collaboration server Zimbra, is available as its own web conferencing service, but is also available within collaboration services used often by small businesses, including Google Apps, where AnyMeeting is currently the second most downloaded productivity app.

Said Gerkin:

“On the integration side, we are increasingly integrating with those platforms used by small businesses. Zimbra serves 85 million users, which includes enterprise, but it also includes tens of millions of small businesses as well, so it's important for AnyMeeting to be there.”

AnyMeeting, which was formed in 2009, currently has more than 200,000 small business users. The company is based in Huntington Beach, California and has a team of 14.

Prezi, The Mighty PowerPoint Puncher, Just Redesigned Its Site

If you haven't heard of Prezi, you'll probably be hearing about it soon. It's a platform that lets you make presentations in the cloud with unique dynamic characteristics that set it apart â€" far apart â€" from Microsoft's PowerPoint. Our chief evangelist, Ramon Ray, has previously covered Prezi on this site, highlighting why this is a cool, revolutionary, and handsome platform that can help you make quite the impression.

Recently, Prezi has redesigned its website from a simple run-of-the-mill marketing site to something new and daring. Is there anything we can learn from Prezi? Yes! Let's have a look at lessons you can learn to make your site more compelling:

• Prezi keeps the most important aspects of its website above the fold. This means that everything you have to see to get a clear picture of the service doesn't require you reaching for the mouse and scrolling down. If your customers want more info, they'd scroll down, but what you put “above the fold” has to tell a very clear story that compels your customers to take that extra step.
• Prezi features its video as the centerpiece. If you have a video, don't just shift it to a corner on the right-hand side. Prezi did that in its previous layout. This doesn't catch everyone's attention as effectively as putting a big, fat image with a play button on the centerpiece of your site. If you can't do that, at least put a picture of what you're about. They speak a lot louder than a bunch of text.
• Brag about what you do. Prezi, for example, puts up its impressive year-over-year growth figures just below the fold. You can put something like new products you've introduced or customer testimonials. Put anything you're proud of on the front page. It'll show that you're passionate about what you do and that your business really means something.
• Don't forget to make a clear and pronounced call to action. Below its video centerpiece, Prezi includes a “Sign Up Now” button. So, right after seeing the power of Prezi's product, you click your way out of the video and see a big blue button showing you where you can sign up. Who would say no to that?

Just one more piece of advice: With video content, present an example of a problem you solve, show off your product a bit while talking about how your product solves this problem, and then show them the “big picture.” The “big picture” part can be a scene showing how a world would look like when people use your product. If you make a mobile app that helps people find each other, for example, you can show a scene with two long lost family members finding each other through a crowded city street. It's just a little food for thought. Now, go ahead and put this stuff into practice!

CSA 2012 keynote: Attack data vital to securing cloud-based systems

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The private sector needs to iron out new ways to share anonymous attack data or face serious consequences, brought on by expanding information stores and cloud computing services that are complicating the process of deploying security technologies, said Dave Cullinane, CEO of Security Starfish LLC and chairman of the

Cloud Security Alliance.

GCHQ pilots cyber response scheme

Intelligence agency GCHQ has started a pilot response scheme for organisations that have suffered a cyber attack.

Four private companies have been accredited to sell services under the 'Cyber Incident Response' scheme: BAE Systems Detica, Cassidian, Context IS and Mandiant.

The companies will perform clean-up operations in the wake of a cyber attack, a GCHQ spokesperson told SC Magazine on Wednesday.

"The companies will respond to an incident by analysing and then containing the incident, and then cleaning it up," said the spokesperson. "They will produce an incident report describing the incident and recommend actions to prevent a recurrence."

Cyber attack victims will choose and contract with response companies directly, said the spokesperson.

The scheme, which will be in pilot until February 2013, is aimed at public sector and critical infrastructure bodies, but is also open to private organisations.

GCHQ and the response providers will not offer cyber offensive capabilities as part of the scheme, the spokesperson added.

Cyber attack victims that contact Detica can expect an initial discussion followed by forensic analysis of systems, a Detica spokeswoman told SC Magazine UK.

"Our cyber analysts would scope out the problem using specialist tools, forensic skills and knowledge of previous attackers' methods to uncover and investigate the problem and analyse it," said the spokeswoman. "We then work out how to contain it and suggest appropriate action to remove the threat, making sure the attacker is removed with no back door left open for them to return."

Some attacks on organisations are bound to be successful, UK cyber security minister Chloë Smith said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The growing cyber threat makes it inevitable that some attacks will get through either where basic security is not implemented, or when an organisation is targeted by a highly capable attacker," said Smith.

The four cyber response companies were accredited by CESG, the information assurance arm of GCHQ, and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).

CESG will develop working practices with the four companies during the pilot, and publish requirements so that other interested companies can apply to be part of the scheme.

Workplace Bullying Can Hurt Your Business

How can workplace bullying hurt your business? Let me count the ways. If your employees are being bullied, they could quit, retaliate or even develop health problems as a result of the stress. All of these can cost your company time, money, hassles and more.

If you think workplace bullying can't happen at your business, then you may want to read the results of a CareerBuilder study conducted earlier this year that found bullying in the workplace is on the rise. More than one-third (35 percent) of employees report feeling bullied at work, compared to 27 percent last year. Bullying drove 17 percent of these workers to quit their jobs and 16 percent to develop health problems.

You may think there's no workplace bullying in your business because no one's complained to you or your managers. Well, more than half (57 percent) of employees never report the problem to anyone. And of the 27 percent who have reported a bullying issue, more than half say nothing was ever done about it.

Bullying doesn't always come from an employee's boss. Co-workers account for almost half of bullying incidents, and 31 percent of employees report they've been bullied by customers.

Having managed employees for many years, I can attest that workplace bullying can be hard to spot. What seems like bullying to the victim may seem to you like nothing more than two employees joking around. Being yelled at by a boss or being insulted during a meeting are obvious incidents of bullying, but respondents in the survey were more likely to cite “not being acknowledged,” “double standards” or “being left out” as examples of bullying.

In other words, the guy who never gets invited to lunch may feel more upset about being “bullied” than the guy who just got dressed down at the sales meeting.

Given that bullying is so subjective, you may feel there's no way to protect your business. In reality, there are several. First, develop a comprehensive grievance policy for your business that states what employees should do if they have a problem with a co-worker or supervisor.

Second, if employees do come to you or a manager with a complaint, take it seriously. (I can't emphasize this enough.) Talk to the victim, then to the alleged bully, documenting both discussions. Don't be accusatory but do try to get to the facts of the situation. Then bring the two workers together to come up with ideas for how the problem can be solved.

You'll find that the majority of workplace bullying incidents, when treated respectfully and positively, resolve very easily. If the problem escalates, continue documenting the situation while trying to resolve the problem. If necessary, get help from an attorney experienced in human resource issues. Hopefully, you won't have to go there.

As a small business owner, you and your managers are the eyes and ears of your company. No matter how busy you are, make it a point to get out and walk around your business every day and find out what's going on. With a little sensitivity, you'll pick up on problems before they get out of hand.

Have you ever had workplace bullying in your business and, if so, what did you do about it?

Office Bully Photo via Shutterstock

What is the Best Time of Day to Send E-mail? (Infographic)

If you've ever run an e-mail campaign, you've probably wondered the same thing we all have: Is there a specific time of day that's best to hit the “send” button? With many small businesses turning to specialized software  that allows for timed e-mail delivery, small businesses are interested in knowing what time of day is best for information to land in a consumer's inbox.

GetResponse decided it was time to find out. The company recently released an infographic detailing results of its study of 21 million e-mail messages sent from accounts in the U.S. The study found that if small businesses send e-mail newsletters between the hours of 8 a.m.-10 a.m. and 3 p.m.-4 p.m., they can increase click-through rates by up to six percent. Review the infographic for the facts and figures.

“We analyzed 21 million messages sent from US accounts in the 1st quarter of 2012 to determine top open and click-through times,” a GetResponse spokesperson wrote on the company's blog. “We also analyzed the recipients' top engagement times - all to test our thesis: sending times matter, and message results depend on reader engagement routines, not just a little but a lot.”

But it's far more complicated than simply sending your e-mail at the right time. As GetResponse explains, nearly one-fourth of all e-mail opens happen within one hour of delivery, making it more important than ever that your e-mail arrive at a time a user is at his or her desk, attentive and ready to read information. If you send your e-mail when a consumer is at lunch, for instance, that customer may simply give your e-mail a cursory glance in the long list of e-mails on his or her smartphone. By the time that person returns to work, your e-mail is forgotten in the heap of new messages waiting.

Since e-mail open rates drop by half by the second hour after you've sent it, it's important to pinpoint a time when users are most likely to be reading. Most people would assume morning is the best time, but as GetResponse's infographic points out, most messages arrive in users' inboxes in the morning, creating far more competition for readers' attention. For this reason, GetResponse found that sending your e-mail in the afternoon provides the greatest opportunity for reader engagement.

In fact, GetResponse found that from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., e-mail messages hit a peak open ratio, with 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. being the hour with the highest number of click-throughs. In the infographic, GetResponse also emphasizes the importance of adjusting your message for each time zone. For your customers in New York, 3 p.m. will fall at a completely different time than your customers in London or Australia. Separate your mailings out by time zone for optimum results.

GetResponse asks you to consider the life of your average reader. What time of day is that reader in the car on the way to and from work, cooking dinner, bathing children, etc. While there's no one time that will guarantee every person on your mailing list will read your e-mail, you can improve results by choosing the best possible time.

 

Step Away from the Megaphone and Listen to Your Customers

One of the greatest questions in the age of the interactive web 2.0 is:

“Given the new technology at my fingertips, how do I use these tools to improve customer experience?”

Certainly, there are enough widgets, applications, social buttons, and the like to allow your customers to interact with your business in many ways. However, some businesses make the mistake of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into a site with the intent of forming one amazing community that no one will ever want to leave.

What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, such an approach is unoriginal and represents a failure to look beneath the surface to determine what a customer actually wants from a site. What you get instead is a Web presence that offers too much while catering to too few.

However, it is easy for me to sit here and say you need to revamp the content on your site to perfectly match what your customers want. Obviously, that's impossible. Interests and tastes are far too varied to choose the perfect image, text, font or content for everyone.

The truth is that you don't have to have those things. Businesses are in the habit of overloading their customers (and their sites) with fluff. Fluff can be defined as those things that are important to you, but that your customers care little about.

In addition to being uninteresting, fluff is also static. People are looking for dynamic experiences, and human interactions are about as dynamic as it gets. There is a reason people play on social media all day.

One of the best ways to facilitate interaction is to host a blog to initiate the exchange of ideas and comments. When it comes to blogs, the content is the initial draw, but the conversation is what keeps people coming back. Another woefully underused feature is forums. Sure, many sites have them, but I am amazed at the number of businesses that set them up and then never review them.

Obviously, the integration of these contributes to a strong social presence. If you can listen even better than you can talk, you will have a leg up on 90% of the businesses out there.

That's the key, really. When everyone has a gigantic megaphone to their mouth, the business with an ear to the ground, paying attention to what their customers have to say, will come out on top.

Stop Talking, Listen Photo via Shutterstock

Top Tips To Ensure A More Successful 2013 (Part 2)

2013 is now a few weeks closer than when I wrote Part 1 of this article and the need to get moving on these tips is even more important.  Waiting until December (who WANTS to get into gear just when the holiday parties are starting) or heaven forbid January (a wee bit too late don't ya think?) are foolish. Start NOW, when you have the luxury of time to re-engineer your tactics if they don't play out the way you envision.

In the last post we stressed three key things that are critical in laying the foundation for success in 2013:

1. Prospect smarter
2. Network strategically
3. Clarify your points of differentiation

Here are three more tips that can mean the difference between seeing your business soar or watching it falter:

Understand what social media can do for you. Social media is simply a tool that plays a role in a thoroughly “integrated” marketing strategy. It does not stand-alone, it will not save a failing marketing program and it is not a panacea for poorly defined sales processes. Social media can play a powerful role in your business building efforts but it should be just ONE part of your game plan.  Ignore the other critical components in an integrated plan and you run the risk of losing business.

Refine your touch point management program. Staying on the grid during a lengthy sales cycle is challenging. Keeping current with networking contacts and referral sources can also be difficult. How can you do it effectively without “checking in” and “touching base” and without becoming intrusive and bothersome?  It's really quite simple. Use the 3 I's (invitations, introduction and information) to stay on the grid and add value to the relationship, sometimes even before there is a relationship.  Checking in is a cliché; use the 3 I's and see how many more doors will open especially if it takes many months for the business to come to fruition.

Develop excellent probing skills. If you ask the right questions prospects will tell you what they need, when they need it, what they will pay for it and pretty much everything else that you need to pull through the business. And while you're at it, don't forget to continue to have questions for your clients. Situations change, new contacts are added to the company, mergers and acquisitions get planned and it is important for you to stay on top of what is happening with your current clients.

These 6 tips should help you to develop more robust NEW business and ensure that you will be able to retain and even grow your existing business. Need more information or wish anything to be clarified? Contact me and I'm happy to tell you more. And while you're at it, subscribe to my blog for more tips, tricks and techniques to make your business soar.

Hackers expose list of Navy email logins

Hackers claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous have exposed a list of Navy email logins after breaking into Queen's Harbour Masters websites.

The websites, which are hosted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), are public-facing, and not linked to internal MoD systems, an MoD spokesman told SC Magazine UK on Wednesday.

"The MoD is advising [affected] staff to change their email login details now," the spokesman said. "No [internal] MoD website was attacked and no further information was taken."

Queen's Harbour Masters liaise between military and civilian shipping to ensure the safe movement of traffic in and out of harbour. The Navy email logins that were compromised belonged to staff who coordinate the shipping movements at three ports: Plymouth, Clyde and Portsmouth.

The hackers who stole the details, 'Null' and 'Timoxeline', belong to the 'NullCrew' hacking group. 'Null' and 'Timoxeline' said they used SQL injection to gain access to the logins in a document posted on the AnonPaste pastebin. SQL injection involves a hacker entering SQL statements into a web form to gain the contents of a database.

Anonymous claimed a number of document leaks around Guy Fawkes day, including VMware source code.

4 Ways To Improve Your Business Networking

As small business owners and consultants, we understand the importance of networking. Your ability to schmooze, to meet people, and to create relationships will very often determine your success in business and how far you're able to take your company. However, that doesn't mean most of us are very good at it. We have a difficult time starting conversations and even keeping the relationships that we do start.

We could all be a little better.

Below are four tips to help increase your networking A-game:

1. Ask Better Questions

When you attend a conference, seminar or networking event, you're not there for small talk. You're there to learn more about the people who are attending the event and to uncover potential business opportunities. That means those vague questions designed to fill the silence but that don't actually reveal any information? They need to go.

What types of questions should you be asking?

Ones that dig deeper. Get a handle on your new contact's story â€" when did they start their business, why did they start it, what is their business mentality/how do they see things? Ask about the tools they use, the pain points they have, what they're working on, and what they're excited about.

These types of questions are going to move you beyond the “Hi, my name is John” phase and they're going to get you closer inside their business and their mind. This is important for getting to know people, but it's also important down the road when you're looking to maintain the relationships you've created.

2. Share a Memorable Fact

At some point the conversation will turn to you. Someone will ask you what you do, what brings you here, or about your hobbies. Instead of using this opportunity to be boring and sound like everyone else, share something that is unique and memorable about you. Maybe you have a passion for collecting coins. Or you sky dive on the weekends. Or you're an advocate for a particular cause.

Share something that will help that person to not only remember you, but to learn a little bit more about who you really are. Networking is not about learning everyone's name in the room. It's about forming relationships. The more you reveal about yourself, the better the relationship you'll create.

3. Keep Notes

Immediately after you return home from the event, while your adrenaline is still pumping, jot down information about everything that happened while you were out:

• Who did you meet?
• What did you talk about?
• What is the important information about the people you met (interests, kids, projects they're working on)
• What cards do you have in your pocket?
• What topics kept coming up?
• Did you promise to call/email/connect with someone?

Getting this all down on paper while it's still fresh in your mind will leave you better prepared for follow up conversations, will help you remember important information, and can assist in cataloging your new contacts.

4. Create a Reason For Follow Ups

Maybe it's that you'll give the person a call to discuss X.

Or that you're going to look up Y and back to them.

Or that you heard they were having a problem with Z and you have the solution.

Whatever it is, have a reason for a follow up conversation in the near future. If you've asked the right questions, you should have an idea of how you can be of value to that person â€" whether it's a tool recommendation, an introduction, or the opportunity for a deeper conversation. Find a way to take action on it to keep the momentum and the relationship going.

If you return home from networking events without a list of things to do or no plans for how you'll reconnect with the people you had conversations with, you're missing out on potentially huge business opportunities.

Those are some of the tips that help me in my business networking? Any pointers you're willing to share with the class? I'm sure we could all benefit.

QuickBooks Adds Four New Features That Make Managing Your Finances Easier and Mobile

In August of this year new features for the QuickBooks Online ecosystem were introduced to the business world. This open, online financial management program allows for seamless integration with Intuit apps, third-party apps and mobile access to data.

Small businesses in 130 countries and over 362,000 subscribers to the QuickBooks Online Suite have been notified of these latest updates. More effective and even easier to use, business owners will find the accounting software instrumental in  managing their online business finances more successfully  and within a shorter time frame,  thus freeing up their time and enabling them to concentrate more fully on what they know they should really be doing â€" running their  businesses.

As senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's Financial Management Solutions division, Dan Wernikoff states: “It's a transformative time for small businesses and their accounting partners as online and mobile solutions become the norm. We're seeing 28 percent annual growth in our QuickBooks Online customers, and saw our QuickBooks Mobile users triple over the past year. We're committed to serving the needs of this fast-growing community in the U.S. and abroad with innovations and an always-on, hassle-free experience that helps small businesses save time managing their finances.”

Let's look at their latest features:

• Downloaded Transactions: No longer will one have to labor through manual entries. With the downloaded transactions feature, all new transactions from a client's credit card or bank account can be automatically and accurately imported and categorized. Once categorized, QuickBooks Online will remember the transaction and apply the rule henceforth. Thus a client will be able to access their credit card or bank accounts immediately, making logging in unnecessary. Of course, the business owner will always have the final say on which transactions s/he wishes to save.

• Money Bar: Money Bar centralizes income forms such as invoices, sales receipts, and estimates. The status of any transaction, from initialization to payment, is tracked and displayed by the status bar (patent-pending).  The totals of ascribable or past due transaction items are summarized and the user is advised on immediate action.

• QuickBooks Online ‘On The Go': QuickBooks Mobile now includes the capacity for recording payments, allowing the user to view all customer balances and invoices on record in QuickBooks Online. Records of payments can also be made. A free companion app, QuickBooks Mobile is more comprehensive than any other app of this genre. It can be accessed from Android and Apple mobile devices.

• Third-party Applications for Customization: The individual requirements of different small businesses can be catered to by integrating new add-on components with QuickBooks Online data. So, what are you looking for? Inventory or project management? These and many other apps like eBillity, Mavenlink and Salesforce can be acquired from the Intuit App Center.

So there you have it- greater power, flexibility and manageability with QuickBooks Online Suite. If you are looking for a financial software package that will save you time and offers ease of use, then you may want to check out the full package that QuickBooks has to offer along with all it's features.

 

Police arrest man over Home Office DDoS

Police have arrested a 41-year-old man in connection with distributed denial-of-service attacks against the websites of the Home Office and home secretary Theresa May.

Officers from the Police Central e-Crime Unit in London, and from its East Midlands hub, arrested the man in Stoke-on-Trent on Tuesday on suspicion of encouraging cyber crime.

Police seized computers, telephones and media storage devices, and the man was bailed to return to a local police station in mid-December pending further enquiries, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Assisting and encouraging cyber crime is a serious matter and I would advise all persons to consider their actions and any possible future consequences prior to posting any material online," said Police Central e-Crime Unit detective inspector Jason Tunn.

The Anonymous hacktivist group claimed to have launched a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the Home Office and Theresa May in April this year.

Four More Years! President Obama Re-Elected

President Barack Obama won a second term in office Tuesday night, defeating challenger GOP candidate Mitt Romney. No matter who you supported in the 2012 U.S. election, we know small business owners have an important role to play in building our future here in the U.S. and abroad, so there's cause for optimism looking ahead. We've gathered some of the key quotes from both candidates as they spoke on the last days of the campaign, expressing the hopes and aspirations of both leaders.

President Barack Obama

“No matter how bad the storm gets, no matter how tough times are, we're all in this together.”

“Our work isn't done. Our fight for change goes on, because we know this nation cannot succeed without a growing, thriving middle class and sturdy ladders for everybody who's willing to work to get into that middle class.”

“We know what real change looks like because we fought for it. We've got the scars to prove it.”

“After all we've been through together, after all that we've fought through together, we cannot give up on change now.”

“Change comes when we live up to this country's legacy of innovation by investing in the next generation of technology and manufacturing.”

“The restaurant owner who needs a loan to expand-he's got great food, but the bank turned him down. He needs help. He needs a champion.”

“We've come too far to let our hearts grow faint. Now's the time to keep pushing forward.”

-President Obama, Des Moines, Iowa, 11/5/12

Mitt Romney

“Your voices…are being heard all over the nation, and they're being heard loud and clear.”

“This campaign is about America and about the future we're going to leave to our children.”

“Change is not measured in words and speeches. Change is measured in achievements.”

“The question of this election comes down to this. Do you want four more years of the same, or do you want real change?”

“I actually started and built a business and I turned around another one. I helped put the Olympics on track when they got off track. And with a Democrat legislation, I helped turn my state from deficit to surplus, and from job losses to job growth, and from higher taxes to higher take home pay. That's why I'm running for President. I know how to change the course the nation is on.”

“…I'm not just going to take office on Jan. 20th. I'm going to take responsibility for the office of the Presidency.”

“I'm going to act to boost small business and all business. I'm going to issue executive orders aimed at the problems that have been holding our economy back. The first executive order will be to grant state waivers from Obamacare to begin its repeal. The second will launch a sweeping review of all the Obama era regulations with an eye to eliminating or repairing any that are killing jobs. And for the first time in four years, every entrepreneur, every small business person, every job creator will know that the President and government of the United States likes them and loves the jobs they can create.”

-Mitt Romney, Cleveland, Ohio 11/4/12

Tell us your opinion of the U.S. Presidential election results. We'd like to hear your thoughts.

SecureData acquires application security company Quadrant Networks

Kent-based SecureData has announced the purchase of application delivery and security specialist Quadrant Networks, further strengthening its position as one of the largest independent security service providers in the UK.

The acquisition will enable SecureData to improve its knowledge in the application delivery space and will provide Quadrant's customers with access to its managed and cloud security products and services.  

“We are very excited to welcome Quadrant Networks; we believe that the combination of our two companies will offer our joint customers an unmatched range of products and services,” said SecureData's managing director Etienne Greeff. “Quadrant represents the ideal acquisition for SecureData with a strong, loyal customer base backed up by excellent people.”