Critical infrastructure security: Electric industry shows the path

The U.S. government must do more to regulate cybersecurity practices, particularly in industries that own or operate critical infrastructure, said Brian Zimmet, a partner with law firm Venable LLP, which focuses on regulation and restructuring issues for electric utilities.

Zimmet believes owners and operators of such infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines, chemical refineries, transportation systems, financial institutions, hospitals, nuclear reactors, dams and agricultural infrastructure, will likely see more government oversight of their cybersecurity practices in the coming years. And there's an obvious place to look for clues to what those changes may look like.

The electric industry is the one to watch for a look at the future, Zimmet said. Changes already in place in the electric industry show us what regulations that are in the works will look like, as well as how increasing government oversight will affect enterprises security practices, he said.

Zimmet and his colleague Jason Wool recently co-authored an article in MarketWatch that highlighted the types of requirements the electric industry has faced. These changes, the authors contend, are likely to be carried over to a new, more broadly applicable regulatory regime.

"There likely will be specific requirements governing the identification of critical cyber infrastructure," Zimmet said, likely through a risk-based assessment. The requirements will cover areas such as setting up and maintaining both electronic and physical defensive perimeters around infrastructure; tracking who has access -- both physical and logical-- to the infrastructure, and keeping tabs on who is actually accessing the infrastructure, he said.

Regulations will also look at how the infrastructure is configured to ensure open ports and services are limited only to those needed for actual operations, patch management practices, antivirus practices, testing practices and disaster recovery practices, Zimmet said.

Electric industry regulations have been in transition because the standards currently applicable to the electric industry "are quite general and vague, and it's often unclear exactly what a company has to do to comply with many of those standards," Zimmet said. "For example, one of the requirements in the standards is for a company to have 'strong procedural and technical controls' at access points into an electronic security perimeter. What are strong procedural and technical controls"

The phrase is not defined in the standards, and opinion on what it means can vary among cybersecurity experts, Zimmet said. "There is substantial discretion on the part of the regulators to come in and disapprove of a company's practices, based on the vague language of the standards," he said. "That phenomenon has presented significant challenges for the industry."

At the same time, Zimmet noted, "We have found that IT personnel in most companies generally are not used to the type of command-and-control regulation that the current standards impose, and therefore have been unprepared for the type of oversight that they have experienced. For better or worse, being regulated means, in large measure, clearly documenting all your practices, and being able to prove to a regulator that you comply with the applicable requirements. This also has been a challenge for the industry."




Find the Perfect Hire by Tapping Into Social Media

perfect hireAre you looking to hire employees, contractors or interns this year Take a tip from a Washington Post article on how public radio station NPR used Twitter to find employees.

When NPR’s standard methods of searching for interns fell short and the organization wasn’t getting enough candidates, they decided to spread the word through a Twitter campaign. The one week effort landed a flood of applications and led to hiring 15 new interns.

NPR’s move made sense because the organization was looking for employees who were social media savvy. What can you learn from NPR’s approach

Here are 3 ideas:

Think Outside the Box

While we might think of LinkedIn first when we think of hiring, since that social media site is set up for business networking, and even allows you to post job openings, it’s not the only way to go when using social media to find job candidates.

Match the social media network to your needs: For instance, if you’re looking for a Facebook marketing expert, or someone whose job involves lots of socializing and outreach (such as a PR person), try reaching out on Facebook.

If you’re looking for a graphic designer or photographer, try spreading the word on a visually oriented social site like Tumblr or Instagram.

Get Niche

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t the only ways to go in terms of social media. Are there niche social media sites dedicated to your industry

If so, they could be great places to post if you’re looking for someone with wide expertise in your industry. Even on Facebook and LinkedIn, you can get better results by drilling down to industry oriented or skill oriented groups (such as groups for the manufacturing industry or for B2B marketers) to spread the word about your open positions.

On Twitter, create new hashtags relevant to your open positions or use existing hashtags so your tweets catch the attention of people following those topics. NPR, for instance, used a hashtag “#pubjobs” to attract people interested in public media.

Always be Recruiting

You say you have no open positions and no immediate plans to hire

No matter. With competition for talent heating up this year, if you do find yourself short of staff, you could end up suffering in comparison with bigger companies. That’s why it’s important to present ongoing information about what your company does, what it’s like to work for you and what kinds of people and skills you’re looking for.

In addition to outright recruiting, NPR also did “soft” recruiting by using the hastag #nprlife to tweet about daily life at the office. The outreach gave potential candidates a look at what it would be like to work at the company.

You can put this kind of information on your business’s website, under a heading “Working at X Corp.” or similar, where you can also list open positions and contact information when you have openings.  All year long, share informal insights into what it’s like to work at your business on your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.  Those insights could be photos from your latest staff potluck or tweets about what you’re working on now.

Showing off your small business as a fun, creative and rewarding place to work will go a long way toward building interest and goodwill that leads qualified candidates to you when the time comes.

Employee Photo via Shutterstock




17 Web-based Sketching and Painting Tools

Most business owners need a graphic design tool from time to time. From sketching out a new logo, animation for a slide presentation, or to create caricatures of your crew to increase morale, these tools can help you without the added cost of traditional art software.

This post highlights 17 tools to help you draw out your ideas. Most of these are free unless otherwise noted. Most run within your web browser with just one click or two and allow you to save an image file.

Skitch from Evernote is one of my favorite tools for drawing. Skitch for iPad is the one I use and it makes a lot of sense from a tablet or smartphone. They do have versions for Windows and Mac. You can mark up a web page easily or draw something from scratch, then save to Evernote which is part of why it is popular and effective. The red arrow, pink blob, and red box are my marks, not from the elegant Evernote team!

painting sketching tools

FlashPAINT v2 lets you draw and paint online with a Flash paint tool. Click the “Paint” link in the left navigation box to get started. You are able to save your drawings (and post them to the public gallery). Provides you with a grid paper option to make drawing easier.

Gliffy allows you to create technical drawings but has the added diversity of creating flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, Venn diagrams, and SWOT analyses. It works directly in your browser with easy to use with drag-and-drop shapes from the available library.  Works with Windows and iOS; provides online sharing and collaboration. There is a free 30-day trial with $4.95 monthly subscriptions after that.

Myoats offers an interesting drawing tool because you can create multisided figures. It only allows you to draw, but the multifaceted effects work like a kaleidoscope. Simple one-sided drawing is available as well, but the strength of this website is in its ability to replicate what you have drawn.

Pencil Madness only creates sketched drawings, but it has interesting effects including spider webbing, bubbles, the leaky ink pen, grids, squares, a water smeared line, icicles, and spindles. I found it fun to play with this application and kept doodling. I even saved a few of my masterpieces, but I’m not sharing them. See image of a much better sketch in screenshot below.

painting sketching tools

Draw Island Allows you to paint or draw. It is unique in that you can create animations with this tool, as well. However, the animation feature only currently works if you have Firefox (Mozilla) for your Web browser.

Sketchpad is solely a free online paint tool, but the effects it can create are awesome. There are stamp, wallpaper, geometric design, and fill options. Its unique color adjusting method allows you to visualize your scheme easier. It also has an option of painting in two tones.

Viscosity is a unique abstract art creation site. Like other online painting and drawing websites, you are allowed to save your work on your computer. The difference is you begin viscosity with a mixed palette, which you drag your “brush” through. This tool is a little more difficult to use effectively, but it is also extremely enjoyable.

Do Ink is a drawing and animation application that allows you to use vector-drawing tools to create your pictures. Aside from the traditional drawing tool, you also get art props that will add to the drawings you create. Do Ink is only available in a downloadable form for the iPad, iPhone, and iTouch.

Odosketch is interesting because the sketches it creates resemble pencil and watercolor. The tips of your brush create both thin lines and wide ribbons. When you select your color you can also select the width of the tip. Create your sketch free online and then save it to your hard drive or disk.

FlockDraw is an excellent choice for collaborative business drawing. It allows an unlimited number of users to participate for free. Think of a community whiteboard in an online format and you will have the essence of FlockDraw.

painting sketching tools

Artpad is an online painting tool that allows you to see the paintbrush. You can change colors, brush sizes, paint opacity, and you can even splatter paint or write on your drawing. It will let you replay your drawing and save it or any frame from the replay.

Scriblink is an online whiteboard for users to share across the Internet. Use their board on their website or it allows you to download their whiteboard to fit your website for ($9 to $29 per month). It needs Java to run and I had a few problems with it, but overall it is a solid tool.

Graffiti Plado allows you to bring the street to your art. Using spray paint on a wall texture background create your ideas and save them. Allows you to adjust color, size of the spray, strength, and even whether or not you want to see and hear the spray can while you paint.

Wixie has all the traditional paint and drawing options, but adds in three-dimensional, crayon, and stretch functions. This website also allows you to choose the texture of your fills.

Brushter is a free online painting website with a twist. Its paintbrushes all produce textured strokes. Like other painting websites, you can choose your colors, shades, and widths. You need the Adobe Shockwave Player to use it. This tool is produced by the National Gallery of Art.

Onemotion is an online painting website. It allows you to adjust brush width and color, but its unique feature is that your speed controls the width of your line.

What art program do you use to sketch out your ideas




Skip PayPal - Send Money From Bank to Bank With Zipmark

Many of us use PayPal quite a bit to send and receive money, I know that I do. In fact Paypal is integrated into many online services, such as Eventbrite - so many of us use it more than we think.

There’s a new service I’ve been looking at called Zipmark, which let’s vendors/businesses/people transfer money from their bank account to the recipient’s bank account - instantly. No middleman.  And, unlike services like PayPal, who charge higher transaction fees, Zipmark’s transaction fee is only 1% with a $5 cap.

Here’s a detailed overview of how it works from a Zipmark spokesperson:

Zipmark doesn’t require you to constantly log-in to your account to receive or pay money and is not a ”clearinghouse” like PayPal that is actually moving money. Instead, Zipmark allows the payee to send money directly to the payer’s checking account. Below is a step-by-step process of how Zipmark has transformed the payment process for small businesses.
  1. Wanda’s Interior Design sends her new client an invoice for $1,200 via email to her customer, Betty.
  2. Betty receives the invoice, opens it and sees various ways she can pay for it (check via snail mail, PayPal or Zipmark).
  3. Betty chooses Zipmark and a link takes her to the Zipmark registration site where she authorizes her bank to send money to that particular vendor (Wanda’s Interior Design).
  4. Once registration is complete, Betty hits the “pay” button on Wanda’s electronic invoice and she authorizes payment for $1,200.
  5. The next day Wanda’s Interior Design accesses their bank account online and sees a cleared deposit for $1,200 from Betty.

Wanda’s Interior Design offered Betty a secure and easy way to pay her bill once she received her invoice. For Betty, no time was wasted cutting a paper check, placing a stamp on the envelope and inserting the letter in the mailbox or taking it to the Post Office. No money is stored using Zipmark; Zipmark is just helping open the connection between the bank accounts to send and receive money.

“Zipmark secure digital checks improve the way small businesses send and collect money from their customers by bringing check payments into the 21st century,” said Jay Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Zipmark. “Zipmark is as much a risk management platform as it is a payment platform. We take on the risk of the transaction and guarantee funds to billers.” 

So, if you are looking for a new alternative to paying your invoices, with reduced fees and headache, maybe Zipmark is a solution that will fit your need.  Let us know if you try it and what you think.

 

 



Skip PayPal - Send Money From Bank to Bank With Zipmark

Many of us use PayPal quite a bit to send and receive money, I know that I do. In fact Paypal is integrated into many online services, such as Eventbrite - so many of us use it more than we think.

There’s a new service I’ve been looking at called Zipmark, which let’s vendors/businesses/people transfer money from their bank account to the recipient’s bank account - instantly. No middleman.  And, unlike services like PayPal, who charge higher transaction fees, Zipmark’s transaction fee is only 1% with a $5 cap.

Here’s a detailed overview of how it works from a Zipmark spokesperson:

Zipmark doesn’t require you to constantly log-in to your account to receive or pay money and is not a ”clearinghouse” like PayPal that is actually moving money. Instead, Zipmark allows the payee to send money directly to the payer’s checking account. Below is a step-by-step process of how Zipmark has transformed the payment process for small businesses.
  1. Wanda’s Interior Design sends her new client an invoice for $1,200 via email to her customer, Betty.
  2. Betty receives the invoice, opens it and sees various ways she can pay for it (check via snail mail, PayPal or Zipmark).
  3. Betty chooses Zipmark and a link takes her to the Zipmark registration site where she authorizes her bank to send money to that particular vendor (Wanda’s Interior Design).
  4. Once registration is complete, Betty hits the “pay” button on Wanda’s electronic invoice and she authorizes payment for $1,200.
  5. The next day Wanda’s Interior Design accesses their bank account online and sees a cleared deposit for $1,200 from Betty.

Wanda’s Interior Design offered Betty a secure and easy way to pay her bill once she received her invoice. For Betty, no time was wasted cutting a paper check, placing a stamp on the envelope and inserting the letter in the mailbox or taking it to the Post Office. No money is stored using Zipmark; Zipmark is just helping open the connection between the bank accounts to send and receive money.

“Zipmark secure digital checks improve the way small businesses send and collect money from their customers by bringing check payments into the 21st century,” said Jay Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Zipmark. “Zipmark is as much a risk management platform as it is a payment platform. We take on the risk of the transaction and guarantee funds to billers.” 

So, if you are looking for a new alternative to paying your invoices, with reduced fees and headache, maybe Zipmark is a solution that will fit your need.  Let us know if you try it and what you think.

 

 



6 Reasons The New BlackBerry10 Will Boost Small Business Productivity and Communication

Right now I’m at the BlackBerry10 launch, here’s a few things you should know.

  1. BlackBerry, whose company name is “Research in Motion” (RIM) is now officially  named BlackBerry
  2. BlackBerry has a communication hub which seamlessly integrates all your communication (email, social, calendar). You can read more about it here.
  3. BlackBerry flow is a central ribbon which “provides a series of minimized windows on users’ screens that show them all the apps they’re currently running, and it lets them easily flip through them without having to return to a central home screen and clicking on separate icons.” (this definition from BGR)
  4. Using the BlackBerry swipe feature you can control and manage your communication, quickly, from within any other app
  5. BlackBerry looks like it is now the leader in keyboarding. One of the most important things we do on our phone is type on the keyboard - BlackBerry has some very innovating features which makes it much easier to type and FASTER to type
  6. The BlackBerry Messenger has also been upgraded and users can do an instant video chat with another BB user and share their screen with another user
  7. There’s more…….these are my highlights so far.
BlackBerry has launched two new phones - the Z10 with a virtual keyboard and the Q10 with a physical keyboard
Indeed the biggest challenge for BlackBerry will be
a) will overall consumers and corporate users (who are consumers) buy it
b) will there be enough of the most popular apps on this platform

So far BlackBerry10 does LOOK new and fresh and innovative. I’ll buy a phone, test it out, and let you know what I think!



NYC Event: Sales Horror, Success and Tactics From The Queen of Sales

It goes without saying, but the foundation of every business is it’s ability to ‘sell’.  For some, that is a talent that comes naturally, but for many it’s a struggle that is dealt with everyday.  How does one overcome the hurdles of selling  One way is to learn from the professionals and find out how they’ve done it, which you can do on February 7th at ‘Sales Horror, Success and Tactics from the Queen of Sales‘.

Join Ramon Ray, Infusionsoft’s sales & marketing evangelist and Adrian Miller of Adrian Sales Training and Adrian’s Network as they share with you their years of practical insight in how to increase your sales.

 

When:  Thursday, February 7th - 8am - 10:30am

Where:  Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue (17th Floor) New York, NY 10018

 

Ramon has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products in a few short years, Adrian has taught thousands of business professionals how to SELL and in this presentation they’ll share their insights with you!

Start 2013 off on the right foot with the right tools for you business!  You won’t regret it!

 



Alicia Keys Advice To Small Businesses - 7 Tech Tips From Alicia To Ramon For Small Businesses

I’m at the BlackBerry10 launch today in New York City. You can see my earlier coverage of the launch here.

I was able to briefly speak with Alicia Keys about the role of technology and small business.

She shared with me, in our discussion, that she has a 9 person business. Here’s Alicia Keys’ tips and thoughts on the role of technology and small business:

  1. Mobile devices are an incredible platform for small business growth.
  2. You can do so much on your smartphone - such as managing your expenses.
  3. Since so many small businesses are on the road, mobile technology is even more important.
  4. Alicia is a mom, an entertainer and has a personal life of fun as well - it’s important that her mobile technology help manage these parts of her life
  5. Small businesses struggle with how to get the attention of their customers - mobile technology can help with this.
  6. Each small business owner must focus on what makes them UNIQUE - leveraging technology overall can help (such as the power of social media)
  7. Leverage mobile technology to give you LIMITLESS possibilities in your business.

Well there you have it from Alicia Keys - 7 tips to use technology to GROW YOUR small business.



Alicia Keys Advice To Small Businesses - 7 Tech Tips From Alicia To Ramon For Small Businesses

I’m at the BlackBerry10 launch today in New York City. You can see my earlier coverage of the launch here.

I was able to briefly speak with Alicia Keys about the role of technology and small business.

She shared with me, in our discussion, that she has a 9 person business. Here’s Alicia Keys’ tips and thoughts on the role of technology and small business:

  1. Mobile devices are an incredible platform for small business growth.
  2. You can do so much on your smartphone - such as managing your expenses.
  3. Since so many small businesses are on the road, mobile technology is even more important.
  4. Alicia is a mom, an entertainer and has a personal life of fun as well - it’s important that her mobile technology help manage these parts of her life
  5. Small businesses struggle with how to get the attention of their customers - mobile technology can help with this.
  6. Each small business owner must focus on what makes them UNIQUE - leveraging technology overall can help (such as the power of social media)
  7. Leverage mobile technology to give you LIMITLESS possibilities in your business.

Well there you have it from Alicia Keys - 7 tips to use technology to GROW YOUR small business.



6 Reasons The New BlackBerry10 Will Boost Small Business Productivity and Communication

Right now I’m at the BlackBerry10 launch, here’s a few things you should know.

  1. BlackBerry, whose company name is “Research in Motion” (RIM) is now officially  named BlackBerry
  2. BlackBerry has a communication hub which seamlessly integrates all your communication (email, social, calendar). You can read more about it here.
  3. BlackBerry flow is a central ribbon which “provides a series of minimized windows on users’ screens that show them all the apps they’re currently running, and it lets them easily flip through them without having to return to a central home screen and clicking on separate icons.” (this definition from BGR)
  4. Using the BlackBerry swipe feature you can control and manage your communication, quickly, from within any other app
  5. BlackBerry looks like it is now the leader in keyboarding. One of the most important things we do on our phone is type on the keyboard - BlackBerry has some very innovating features which makes it much easier to type and FASTER to type
  6. The BlackBerry Messenger has also been upgraded and users can do an instant video chat with another BB user and share their screen with another user
  7. There’s more…….these are my highlights so far.
BlackBerry has launched two new phones - the Z10 with a virtual keyboard and the Q10 with a physical keyboard
Indeed the biggest challenge for BlackBerry will be
a) will overall consumers and corporate users (who are consumers) buy it
b) will there be enough of the most popular apps on this platform

So far BlackBerry10 does LOOK new and fresh and innovative. I’ll buy a phone, test it out, and let you know what I think!



NYC Event: Sales Horror, Success and Tactics From The Queen of Sales

It goes without saying, but the foundation of every business is it’s ability to ‘sell’.  For some, that is a talent that comes naturally, but for many it’s a struggle that is dealt with everyday.  How does one overcome the hurdles of selling  One way is to learn from the professionals and find out how they’ve done it, which you can do on February 7th at ‘Sales Horror, Success and Tactics from the Queen of Sales‘.

Join Ramon Ray, Infusionsoft’s sales & marketing evangelist and Adrian Miller of Adrian Sales Training and Adrian’s Network as they share with you their years of practical insight in how to increase your sales.

 

When:  Thursday, February 7th - 8am - 10:30am

Where:  Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue (17th Floor) New York, NY 10018

 

Ramon has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products in a few short years, Adrian has taught thousands of business professionals how to SELL and in this presentation they’ll share their insights with you!

Start 2013 off on the right foot with the right tools for you business!  You won’t regret it!

 



RSA combines SIEM with incident visibility to create Security Analytics

RSA has combined technology from the acquisition of NetWitness to create a granular analytics platform.

Named Security Analytics, it builds upon the analysis and detection capabilities of the NetWitness technology that was expanded 12 months ago, RSA said. The new capabilities include leveraging the power of Big Data to provide visibility and context required to help identify and defend against advanced security challenges and sophisticated threats, according to the company.

Richard Nichols, regional sales director for UK and Ireland at RSA, told SC Magazine that Security Analytics is engineered to enable the discovery of risks as they occur and is a technology that allows users to do security monitoring, incident investigation and management. “Using a Big Data warehouse, it allows organisations to do advanced analysis in real-time and after the fact,” he said.

“Organisations are facing more [attacks] than ever before and reducing the level of impact by making the opportunity of attack smaller. With this you get full security visibility of data for log and packet and it gives the user more intelligence and if something is known, if it has been seen before.”

RSA said that the concept combines security incident and event management data with analytics to give users one tool for visibility. Nichols said: “We have taken the best of NetWitness and combined it with the RSA enVision platform, so it is about log collection and compliance.

“The amount of security events that are generated require a Big Data approach. Organisations have implemented networks managing terabytes of data so the ability to drill down is key.”

Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said: “The sophistication of advanced attacks and the associated malware is growing every day testing the limitations of existing security analytics tools.

“The Big Data phenomenon could help address this situation for security professionals making it important for organisations to rethink their choice of security solutions. Marrying intelligence-driven security with Big Data analytics has the potential to help enterprises address the complex problem of advanced threats and thus meet a significant need in the marketplace.”



RSA combines SIEM with incident visibility to create Security Analytics

RSA has combined technology from the acquisition of NetWitness to create a granular analytics platform.

Named Security Analytics, it builds upon the analysis and detection capabilities of the NetWitness technology that was expanded 12 months ago, RSA said. The new capabilities include leveraging the power of Big Data to provide visibility and context required to help identify and defend against advanced security challenges and sophisticated threats, according to the company.

Richard Nichols, regional sales director for UK and Ireland at RSA, told SC Magazine that Security Analytics is engineered to enable the discovery of risks as they occur and is a technology that allows users to do security monitoring, incident investigation and management. “Using a Big Data warehouse, it allows organisations to do advanced analysis in real-time and after the fact,” he said.

“Organisations are facing more [attacks] than ever before and reducing the level of impact by making the opportunity of attack smaller. With this you get full security visibility of data for log and packet and it gives the user more intelligence and if something is known, if it has been seen before.”

RSA said that the concept combines security incident and event management data with analytics to give users one tool for visibility. Nichols said: “We have taken the best of NetWitness and combined it with the RSA enVision platform, so it is about log collection and compliance.

“The amount of security events that are generated require a Big Data approach. Organisations have implemented networks managing terabytes of data so the ability to drill down is key.”

Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said: “The sophistication of advanced attacks and the associated malware is growing every day testing the limitations of existing security analytics tools.

“The Big Data phenomenon could help address this situation for security professionals making it important for organisations to rethink their choice of security solutions. Marrying intelligence-driven security with Big Data analytics has the potential to help enterprises address the complex problem of advanced threats and thus meet a significant need in the marketplace.”



Trojan captures Facebook login details and steals Poker app details

A Trojan that specifically harvested Facebook login credentials managed to steal more than 16,000 credentials.

According to Eset, Facebook users specifically in Israel were targeted. Once the details were collected, the attacker programmed the Trojan to log into Facebook accounts and collect information on Zynga Poker stats and the number of payment methods saved in the Facebook account, as well as the amount of credit cards stored in their Facebook account.

In the case of a user without a credit card or with a low score, the infected computer received instructions to infect the victim's profile with a link to a phishing site that lured the player's friends to a website resembling the Facebook home page where login credentials were harvested again.

Róbert Lipovský, Eset security intelligence team lead, said: “To protect against attacks relying on social engineering methods, having a good security solution is not enough, users should be attentive to any such ploys. The user could recognise the fake Facebook login page if he/she would check the site's URL.”

Eset said that unlike other Trojans it often sees spreading through Facebook, this Trojan does not log into or in any way interfere with the Facebook account of the user that is infected. Instead, the botnet serves rather as a proxy, so that the illegal activities are not carried out from the perpetrator's computer.



New firewall and policy manager added to F5 Networks range

F5 has announced enhancements to its application and firewall range to offer throughout up to 640Gbps.

Adding the BIG-IP advanced firewall manager and enhancements to other security offerings as well as the new VIPRION 4800 hardware, the company claimed that it is offering the world's fastest firewall with a capability to manage 288 million concurrent sessions and eight million connections per second.

The newly-launched New BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is built on a full-proxy architecture and by orienting application security around the applications themselves, it claimed that this approach simplifies firewall policy management.

Also added is access control for the BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and support for Google Web toolkit-written applications in the BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM).

Nathan Pearce, EMEA product manager at F5 Networks, told SC Magazine that these launches were about better access control of the firewall as well increased performance.

“For us it is about building technology to say which application is dealing with which firewall, and it is different from the next generation firewall as that is about outbound traffic and not in-bound, that the data centre needs to know about,” he said.

“It is all about knowing your user base and protecting the data centre from the unknown user base as you wouldn't put a next-generation firewall in front of our types of technology. You are protecting the application - why you have sight of the throughput if you don't know what is coming in”

Mark Vondemkamp, VP of security product management and marketing at F5, said: “Increasingly, we're seeing organisations grapple with attacks that target applications, in addition to more conventional network and perimeter threats.

“Because F5 products occupy strategic points of control within the infrastructure, they're ideally situated to combine traditional application delivery with firewall capabilities and other advanced security services. F5 is committed to a highly scalable and extensible approach for our customersâ€"one that integrates market-leading performance, monitoring, and context-based policy enforcement for superior protection.”



Payvment Shuts Down Facebook E-commerce Platform

E-commerce platform Payvment is shutting down its service that gives online merchants the ability to run stores from their Facebook Pages. Now, it’s helping its 200,000 customers transfer their stores over to Ecwid, a competing e-commerce platform that also allows merchants to sell on Facebook and a number of other sites.

A message on the company’s site stated that Payvment will be joining a new company, but offered no other details thus far. The Payvment platform will officially shut down on February 28, 2013.

payvment facebook

To ensure a smooth transition, Ecwid has setup a process that will allow sellers to keep their Facebook storefronts up without interruption. The process involves just logging into your Payvment account and clicking “Transfer your Payvment store to Ecwid.” Your data will be automatically transferred into a new Ecwid account.

Once the transition is completed, you’ll be automatically logged into your new Ecwid account where you can configure your online store and launch your new Facebook storefront.

Payvment specialized in finding out what Facebook users Liked and what types of items they bought. Payvment also gave merchants access to an advertising platform that helped them auto-target Facebook advertising campaigns.

Ecwid, on the other hand, works with both Facebook and other OpenSocial enabled networks. The platform allows users to manage their store from a single control panel even if they run storefronts on many different sites.

The photo above shows Ecwid’s sample storefront on Facebook. Users can separate items into categories, and shoppers can simply drag and drop items into their shopping carts.

To use it, you simply sign up for an account and receive some lines of code into your website’s source code. The code will allow you to include Ecwid widgets on other sites, including WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace and more. Then you just add your products to your Ecwid control panel and manage the settings of your online store. Changes will appear instantly on your Ecwid storefronts.

Ecwid offers a free plan and other plans ranging from $15 to $99 per month. The plans give users different options for number of products, bandwidth, support, and other e-commerce features.

Ecwid was founded in 2009, but the majority of the team previously worked on X-Cart, so they have been building e-commerce technology since 2000. The company is based in Encinitas, California and Ulyanovsk, Russia. The company currently has about 250,000 customers in 170 countries.




Payvment Shuts Down Facebook E-commerce Platform

E-commerce platform Payvment is shutting down its service that gives online merchants the ability to run stores from their Facebook Pages. Now, it’s helping its 200,000 customers transfer their stores over to Ecwid, a competing e-commerce platform that also allows merchants to sell on Facebook and a number of other sites.

A message on the company’s site stated that Payvment will be joining a new company, but offered no other details thus far. The Payvment platform will officially shut down on February 28, 2013.

payvment facebook

To ensure a smooth transition, Ecwid has setup a process that will allow sellers to keep their Facebook storefronts up without interruption. The process involves just logging into your Payvment account and clicking “Transfer your Payvment store to Ecwid.” Your data will be automatically transferred into a new Ecwid account.

Once the transition is completed, you’ll be automatically logged into your new Ecwid account where you can configure your online store and launch your new Facebook storefront.

Payvment specialized in finding out what Facebook users Liked and what types of items they bought. Payvment also gave merchants access to an advertising platform that helped them auto-target Facebook advertising campaigns.

Ecwid, on the other hand, works with both Facebook and other OpenSocial enabled networks. The platform allows users to manage their store from a single control panel even if they run storefronts on many different sites.

The photo above shows Ecwid’s sample storefront on Facebook. Users can separate items into categories, and shoppers can simply drag and drop items into their shopping carts.

To use it, you simply sign up for an account and receive some lines of code into your website’s source code. The code will allow you to include Ecwid widgets on other sites, including WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace and more. Then you just add your products to your Ecwid control panel and manage the settings of your online store. Changes will appear instantly on your Ecwid storefronts.

Ecwid offers a free plan and other plans ranging from $15 to $99 per month. The plans give users different options for number of products, bandwidth, support, and other e-commerce features.

Ecwid was founded in 2009, but the majority of the team previously worked on X-Cart, so they have been building e-commerce technology since 2000. The company is based in Encinitas, California and Ulyanovsk, Russia. The company currently has about 250,000 customers in 170 countries.




Boost Your Bottom Line With These Two Essential Online Marketing Tips

Email marketing leader Constant Contact has recently released a list containing a set of insights and trends for small businesses for 2013. These trends revolve around the emergence of SoLoMo (the integration of social media, local merchants using location-aware technology, and mobile device usage), which allows merchants to tailor their marketing efforts - such as content, deals, and offers - specifically to individuals, increasing the chance they will become customers. Today’s social society is a mixed blessing for businesses because social media makes it easy for businesses to engage their customers however, it is also important for businesses to respect th relationship with customers. This is crucial because the increased use of social media means that rather than relying on celebrities and paid testimonials, 3rd-party endorsements combined with social sharing will make loyal customers the best advocates for deals and products in the foreseeable future.  That is why it is so important for small businesses to have effective online marketing and social media campaigns.

Although pundits have been predicting the demise of email for years, email still remains the preferred form of communication among consumers. This is because they have control over the messages which come through - whether they act on it, ignore it, delete it, or opt out of it. Email is non-intrusive. That being said, with the rise of email blasts and spam, consumers are becoming more selective with the content they consume. Tip #1: When sending out any email campaign it is important to ensure that the content is of value to the consumer, that the email has a professional look, and that all email blasts should be sent on a set schedule. If these rules are not followed, the consumer will opt-out and never return.

Tip #2: Ensure that all email campaigns are double opt-in to reduce the likelihood that your emails will head to the spam folder. For those unfamiliar with the practice, double opt-in is when a customer first fills in a form to sign up for an email newsletter. Afterwards, an automatic email is sent to the address entered which contains a link to be clicked for the customer to confirm they own the address which was entered. This feature is already built into many email newsletter programs such as Constant Contact and MailChimp so it is unlikely to be a hassle. If you decide to self-host your email newsletters, adding  the automated email confirmation can be done fairly easily on many servers.

If your business is not on social media and not using email marketing, now is a crucial time to evaluate the options on the table. Although it might be tempting to just start posting blindly on social networks and sending out email blasts aimlessly because your competitors are doing so, remember that a poorly executed campaign will do more damage than nothing at all. Additionally, not every form of marketing works well for every industry.



Boost Your Bottom Line With These Two Essential Online Marketing Tips

Email marketing leader Constant Contact has recently released a list containing a set of insights and trends for small businesses for 2013. These trends revolve around the emergence of SoLoMo (the integration of social media, local merchants using location-aware technology, and mobile device usage), which allows merchants to tailor their marketing efforts - such as content, deals, and offers - specifically to individuals, increasing the chance they will become customers. Today’s social society is a mixed blessing for businesses because social media makes it easy for businesses to engage their customers however, it is also important for businesses to respect th relationship with customers. This is crucial because the increased use of social media means that rather than relying on celebrities and paid testimonials, 3rd-party endorsements combined with social sharing will make loyal customers the best advocates for deals and products in the foreseeable future.  That is why it is so important for small businesses to have effective online marketing and social media campaigns.

Although pundits have been predicting the demise of email for years, email still remains the preferred form of communication among consumers. This is because they have control over the messages which come through - whether they act on it, ignore it, delete it, or opt out of it. Email is non-intrusive. That being said, with the rise of email blasts and spam, consumers are becoming more selective with the content they consume. Tip #1: When sending out any email campaign it is important to ensure that the content is of value to the consumer, that the email has a professional look, and that all email blasts should be sent on a set schedule. If these rules are not followed, the consumer will opt-out and never return.

Tip #2: Ensure that all email campaigns are double opt-in to reduce the likelihood that your emails will head to the spam folder. For those unfamiliar with the practice, double opt-in is when a customer first fills in a form to sign up for an email newsletter. Afterwards, an automatic email is sent to the address entered which contains a link to be clicked for the customer to confirm they own the address which was entered. This feature is already built into many email newsletter programs such as Constant Contact and MailChimp so it is unlikely to be a hassle. If you decide to self-host your email newsletters, adding  the automated email confirmation can be done fairly easily on many servers.

If your business is not on social media and not using email marketing, now is a crucial time to evaluate the options on the table. Although it might be tempting to just start posting blindly on social networks and sending out email blasts aimlessly because your competitors are doing so, remember that a poorly executed campaign will do more damage than nothing at all. Additionally, not every form of marketing works well for every industry.



7 Tips for Your Business Sign or Lawn Sign

business sign tipsDo you have a retail storefront

Are you a contractor that is supplying services at someones house or place of business

You should be using a business sign, like a sandwich board or a lawn sign, to draw in traffic or build awareness for you business. Signage is an excellent way to help generate sales leads for your company.

Below are 7 tips that will help you generate a higher percentage of sales leads:

Phone Number

This is just basic common sense.  But believe it or not, business owners forget to add this one important piece of information to a business sign.

So that you can track your results from any lawn signs, use a unique phone number that people can call. By doing this, you will be able to see how many leads came from that phone number. A great service for this is Toll Free Forwarding or Google Voice.

Your Address

If you have a retail establishment that you want people to go to, why not list your address on your business sign  It should help you to drive foot traffic to your retail location.

A Strong Call To Action For An Offer

Do you want to get someone to do something If so, you need to have a “call to action.” Basically, you need to tell people what you want them to do.

A suggestion that ties into the next 2 tips (QR Codes and Text Codes) is to have a coupon or special offer that allows you to capture an email and other relevant information.  By capturing an email, you will have the ability to continually market to someone with an email newsletter.

A QR Code

Add a QR code to your business sign that is tied to a special offer or something that a potential customer may want. The QR Code should send the person to a mobile ready landing page that has a sign up form.

Once the person signs up for your offer, they will be sent an email with a code or a coupon.  A service that I have used before is Kawya.

Text Code or SMS Code

A text code or SMS code will allow a person to text a specific keyword to and assigned short code. This may sound confusing, but in reality, all you do is find a SMS marketing provider and register a keyword. Then you will be able to start directing people to a specific landing page on your website.

I interviewed Jed Alpert, who wrote “The Mobile Marketing Revolution” and he stated that the:

“. . . response rate from adding a text code on a sign is up to 10 times greater compared to no code.”

I can confirm this as I have a client where we added a text code to a radio ad they were running and they saw a twenty-fold increase in sales leads from that spot.

Here’s one more use for a text code:  Place one on your vehicles so that people will connect with you.

For the QR code and the text code, have separate landing pages and coupons and coupon codes. You want to do this so that you can track a conversion rate.

For example, you can see how many people used your text code by the number of hits to a specific page. Then you can see how many people sign up for an offer and finally, the amount of people who redeem your coupon or offer.

Website Address

Make sure that you add your website address to your business sign. If your domain is too long, use a shortener like Bit.ly or get a separate shorter domain that redirects to your website.

Bit.ly allows you to make a vanity url and you can also track the clicks from that specific url. As a suggestion, make sure that if you have an offer on your business sign - that the Web address corresponds with that offer. Don’t just send them to your homepage as your conversion rates will be far lower by doing this.

Email Address

Create a unique email address to put on your business sign so that you can track the amount of inquiries that come in.

Add all of these tips to your business sign and you should see an increase in the amount of sales leads that you generate.  By the way, this isn’t just for signs.  Use these different tactics on business cards, letters, mailers and other printed material that you have as well.

If you have other business sign tips, please share them in the comments.

Sandwich Board Photo via Shutterstock




7 Tips for Your Business Sign or Lawn Sign

business sign tipsDo you have a retail storefront

Are you a contractor that is supplying services at someones house or place of business

You should be using a business sign, like a sandwich board or a lawn sign, to draw in traffic or build awareness for you business. Signage is an excellent way to help generate sales leads for your company.

Below are 7 tips that will help you generate a higher percentage of sales leads:

Phone Number

This is just basic common sense.  But believe it or not, business owners forget to add this one important piece of information to a business sign.

So that you can track your results from any lawn signs, use a unique phone number that people can call. By doing this, you will be able to see how many leads came from that phone number. A great service for this is Toll Free Forwarding or Google Voice.

Your Address

If you have a retail establishment that you want people to go to, why not list your address on your business sign  It should help you to drive foot traffic to your retail location.

A Strong Call To Action For An Offer

Do you want to get someone to do something If so, you need to have a “call to action.” Basically, you need to tell people what you want them to do.

A suggestion that ties into the next 2 tips (QR Codes and Text Codes) is to have a coupon or special offer that allows you to capture an email and other relevant information.  By capturing an email, you will have the ability to continually market to someone with an email newsletter.

A QR Code

Add a QR code to your business sign that is tied to a special offer or something that a potential customer may want. The QR Code should send the person to a mobile ready landing page that has a sign up form.

Once the person signs up for your offer, they will be sent an email with a code or a coupon.  A service that I have used before is Kawya.

Text Code or SMS Code

A text code or SMS code will allow a person to text a specific keyword to and assigned short code. This may sound confusing, but in reality, all you do is find a SMS marketing provider and register a keyword. Then you will be able to start directing people to a specific landing page on your website.

I interviewed Jed Alpert, who wrote “The Mobile Marketing Revolution” and he stated that the:

“. . . response rate from adding a text code on a sign is up to 10 times greater compared to no code.”

I can confirm this as I have a client where we added a text code to a radio ad they were running and they saw a twenty-fold increase in sales leads from that spot.

Here’s one more use for a text code:  Place one on your vehicles so that people will connect with you.

For the QR code and the text code, have separate landing pages and coupons and coupon codes. You want to do this so that you can track a conversion rate.

For example, you can see how many people used your text code by the number of hits to a specific page. Then you can see how many people sign up for an offer and finally, the amount of people who redeem your coupon or offer.

Website Address

Make sure that you add your website address to your business sign. If your domain is too long, use a shortener like Bit.ly or get a separate shorter domain that redirects to your website.

Bit.ly allows you to make a vanity url and you can also track the clicks from that specific url. As a suggestion, make sure that if you have an offer on your business sign - that the Web address corresponds with that offer. Don’t just send them to your homepage as your conversion rates will be far lower by doing this.

Email Address

Create a unique email address to put on your business sign so that you can track the amount of inquiries that come in.

Add all of these tips to your business sign and you should see an increase in the amount of sales leads that you generate.  By the way, this isn’t just for signs.  Use these different tactics on business cards, letters, mailers and other printed material that you have as well.

If you have other business sign tips, please share them in the comments.

Sandwich Board Photo via Shutterstock




Save Time When Managing Multiple WordPress Sites

ManageWP, a management console that allows users to control multiple WordPress sites, just launched a new redesign that aims to save users time by keeping all the available features and functions more organized and simplified.

manage multiple websites

The photo above shows the new ManageWP 3.0 dashboard, which includes an overview of all your websites, plugins, pageview statistics and themes. On the left side, the column labeled “favorites” is a new feature that allows users to organize the functions they need to Read More

The post Save Time When Managing Multiple WordPress Sites appeared first on Small Business Trends.



Mobile Business Benefits from AT&T Sales

Mobile business benefited from a recent rise in AT&T sales. The increase in smartphones and mobile plans means a bigger audience and more opportunity for small businesses. Read on for details on how mobile is changing the way we do business.

Mobile Business Demand Increases

More mobile phones and plans added.  AT&T announced sales of 8.6 million iPhones and added 780,000 new subscribers in a successful fourth quarter, closing 2012. The numbers mean more mobile users out there and Read More

The post Mobile Business Benefits from AT&T Sales appeared first on Small Business Trends.



Business Brand Rocks: Ben & Jerry’s Launches New Flavor

An iconic business brand rocks with the announcement of its latest product. Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company known for its outrageous flavors with even more outrageous names always manages to keep its products in the spotlight. See how Ben & Jerry’s handles its brilliant branding efforts and how you can do the same with any budget.

Business Brand Magic

30 Rock finale. Ben & Jerry’s will unveil its latest flavor, “30 Rock” on Thursday, just in time Read More

The post Business Brand Rocks: Ben & Jerry’s Launches New Flavor appeared first on Small Business Trends.



Fastest firewall and enhanced security from new F5 range

F5 has announced enhancements to its application and firewall range to offer throughout up to 640Gbps.

Adding the BIG-IP advanced firewall manager and enhancements to other security offerings as well as the new VIPRION 4800 hardware, the company claimed that it is offering the world's fastest firewall with a capability to manage 288 million concurrent sessions and eight million connections per second.

The newly-launched New BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is built on a full-proxy architecture and by orienting application security around the applications themselves, it claimed that this approach simplifies firewall policy management.

Also added is access control for the BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and support for Google Web toolkit-written applications in the BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM).

Nathan Pearce, EMEA product manager at F5 Networks, told SC Magazine that these launches were about better access control of the firewall as well increased performance.

“For us it is about building technology to say which application is dealing with which firewall, and it is different from the next generation firewall as that is about outbound traffic and not in-bound, that the data centre needs to know about,” he said.

“It is all about knowing your user base and protecting the data centre from the unknown user base as you wouldn't put a next-generation firewall in front of our types of technology. You are protecting the application - why you have sight of the throughput if you don't know what is coming in”

Mark Vondemkamp, VP of security product management and marketing at F5, said: “Increasingly, we're seeing organisations grapple with attacks that target applications, in addition to more conventional network and perimeter threats.

“Because F5 products occupy strategic points of control within the infrastructure, they're ideally situated to combine traditional application delivery with firewall capabilities and other advanced security services. F5 is committed to a highly scalable and extensible approach for our customersâ€"one that integrates market-leading performance, monitoring, and context-based policy enforcement for superior protection.”



AppSense launches SaaS-based mobile management solution

AppSense has launched a software-as-a-service (SaaS) mobile, application and data management solution.

Named MobileNow, it said that it provides a range of features, including mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM) and secure native email and isolation of applications to ensure that business data is always encrypted, compliant and protected by IT policies.

Using a SaaS deployment model, it said that users can be up and running in minutes, and the MDM and MAM capabilities can be deployed independently to leverage existing legacy solutions or as an integrated suite.

Ajay Arora, CTO of Mobile at AppSense, said: “Companies that embrace enterprise consumerisation will fly past IT departments that don't allow users flexibility. MobileNow frees users of corporate boundaries and enables IT to enforce the security and compliance controls they require over sensitive corporate apps and data. AppSense MobileNow delivers the best of both worlds: freedom for users and seamless control for IT.”



DDoS attack size standardises at 60Gbps

Advanced persistent threats are a top concern for businesses, while distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are becoming larger.

The key threat findings of the Annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report from Arbor Networks showed that 55 per cent of the 130 respondents named APTs as the top concern, especially for service providers and enterprises. The report also found that data centres and cloud services were being increasingly victimised, with 94 per cent of data centres reporting attacks.

In keeping with its previous report, Arbor Networks said that the standard size of DDoS attacks had plateaued, with the largest attack reported as being 60 gigabits per second.

The report said that application-layer and multi-vector attacks were continuing to evolve, while volumetric attacks are starting to plateau in terms of size. “Attackers have now turned to sophisticated, long-lived, multi-vector attacks - combinations of attack vectors designed to cut through the defences an organisation has in place - to achieve their goals,” it said.

“Multi-vector attacks are the most difficult to defend against and require layered defences for successful mitigation. This year's report includes a case study on the on-going attacks against US financial services organisations, a great example of a multi-vector attack.”

The report claimed that 46 per cent of respondents were experiencing multi-layer attacks, a rise of 27 per cent since last year.

Bloor Research's Fran Howarth believed that the results of the report highlight an important issue - that anyone can be targeted.

“DDoS has evolved from basic attacks that simply tried to overwhelm a connection with data, to ones that are complex and focused on multiple targets at once,” Howarth said.

“It is the enterprise that should pay closer attention to the evolution of DDoS attacks and their consequences. Today, DDoS is the favoured tool of hacktivists and is increasingly seen as a tool for achieving competitive advantage - this should serve as a warning light. I would like the enterprise to start paying as much attention to threats to availability as it does now to data security.”