Your top three expenses are your employees’ wages, inventory, and rent. According to a new infographic from Bolt Insurance, 1 in every 5 dollars your business earns goes toward paying your employees. That’s a tough expense to cut, but there’s a lot you can do to reduce your costs on equipment, taxes, utilities, phone service and shipping.
You might not save a lot right off the bat, but these kinds of savings add up once you’ve implemented a fair few. Bolt offers us 16 ways to save on the top 10 business expenses. Some of the great tips include:
Reduce Your Hardware Footprint: Desktops use far more power than new laptops or tablets - when computers break, replace them with new models
Rent: Even though you have a fixed lease, given the state of the economy, you can negotiate
Accrue Interest: By making your bank deposits early in the day, you can get credit (and start accuring interest) that same day
Utilities: Change your light bulbs, turn off the lights when you’re not using them, shut down your computers at night and switch off your surge protectors to avoid any electricity vampires like cell phone chargers
Check out these tips and more right here:
These kinds of savings can definitely add up. How do you cut costs in your business Tell us your tips in the comments below!
Your top three expenses are your employees’ wages, inventory, and rent. According to a new infographic from Bolt Insurance, 1 in every 5 dollars your business earns goes toward paying your employees. That’s a tough expense to cut, but there’s a lot you can do to reduce your costs on equipment, taxes, utilities, phone service and shipping.
You might not save a lot right off the bat, but these kinds of savings add up once you’ve implemented a fair few. Bolt offers us 16 ways to save on the top 10 business expenses. Some of the great tips include:
Reduce Your Hardware Footprint: Desktops use far more power than new laptops or tablets - when computers break, replace them with new models
Rent: Even though you have a fixed lease, given the state of the economy, you can negotiate
Accrue Interest: By making your bank deposits early in the day, you can get credit (and start accuring interest) that same day
Utilities: Change your light bulbs, turn off the lights when you’re not using them, shut down your computers at night and switch off your surge protectors to avoid any electricity vampires like cell phone chargers
Check out these tips and more right here:
These kinds of savings can definitely add up. How do you cut costs in your business Tell us your tips in the comments below!
Have you ever calculated the true cost of lost time due to server or other technology problems
Lucky for those of us who don’t do our own calculations like this, CMIT Solutions, a leading provider of managed services and other computer consulting services, has. The company recently released some stunning numbers that calculate the real cost of IT problems.
Consider this scenario:Â You are a company owner and you have 150 employees with an annual average salary of $50,000 each. When a server crashes at your company, employees are without email and database access and the IT guy is called. While he works his way over to your office and proceeds to fix the problems, your employees might be sitting tight doing little while they wait for the repair. This certainly costs your company productivity as well as money.
According to CMIT, full time employees work 2,000 hours a year in general. Employees who earn $50,000 a year make roughly $25 per hour; multiply that by 150 workers and you have paid your employees a total of $3,750 for the time they have been unable to do what they need to do at their jobs.
Aside from that loss, there are other losses - you pay for the IT guy to come to the office and do the repair (perhaps with extra costs added in for holidays or after hours calls) and you lose orders. If you would normally make about $1,000 an hour in sales or orders, and you are down for only an hour, you lose that, too. Now your cost is nearly $5,000 for just the lost productivity and the lost sales.
Though most companies have the forethought to make sure there’s an automatic backup system in place, not all do. If that simple one-hour of downtime actually turns into days or weeks of downtime because of a catastrophic server failure (and you don’t have the proper protections in place), you could lose thousands of dollars and experience a host of other problems (including loss of customers).
CMIT advocates for a different approach to handling server and other IT issues. If you start with an IT company that offers a proactive approach to protecting networks and computers, you can avoid this entire scenario altogether.
The company specializes in this active approach to computer and server safety and actively monitors client servers, computers, mobile devices and critical components like routers and firewalls for problems. When issues are resolved before they become major problems, you avoid economic and other losses that can occur due to downtime.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that the costs of downtime due to server (or other) issues can be significant. Making the investment in a company that can prevent downtime issues can be a small step toward productivity and success.
Have you ever calculated the true cost of lost time due to server or other technology problems
Lucky for those of us who don’t do our own calculations like this, CMIT Solutions, a leading provider of managed services and other computer consulting services, has. The company recently released some stunning numbers that calculate the real cost of IT problems.
Consider this scenario:Â You are a company owner and you have 150 employees with an annual average salary of $50,000 each. When a server crashes at your company, employees are without email and database access and the IT guy is called. While he works his way over to your office and proceeds to fix the problems, your employees might be sitting tight doing little while they wait for the repair. This certainly costs your company productivity as well as money.
According to CMIT, full time employees work 2,000 hours a year in general. Employees who earn $50,000 a year make roughly $25 per hour; multiply that by 150 workers and you have paid your employees a total of $3,750 for the time they have been unable to do what they need to do at their jobs.
Aside from that loss, there are other losses - you pay for the IT guy to come to the office and do the repair (perhaps with extra costs added in for holidays or after hours calls) and you lose orders. If you would normally make about $1,000 an hour in sales or orders, and you are down for only an hour, you lose that, too. Now your cost is nearly $5,000 for just the lost productivity and the lost sales.
Though most companies have the forethought to make sure there’s an automatic backup system in place, not all do. If that simple one-hour of downtime actually turns into days or weeks of downtime because of a catastrophic server failure (and you don’t have the proper protections in place), you could lose thousands of dollars and experience a host of other problems (including loss of customers).
CMIT advocates for a different approach to handling server and other IT issues. If you start with an IT company that offers a proactive approach to protecting networks and computers, you can avoid this entire scenario altogether.
The company specializes in this active approach to computer and server safety and actively monitors client servers, computers, mobile devices and critical components like routers and firewalls for problems. When issues are resolved before they become major problems, you avoid economic and other losses that can occur due to downtime.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that the costs of downtime due to server (or other) issues can be significant. Making the investment in a company that can prevent downtime issues can be a small step toward productivity and success.
Apps you download for your small business may not be as safe as you believe. Symantec, a security software company, says it has identified so-called “one-click fraud apps†(since removed) on a site trusted by millions of mobile users.
In a post on the Symantec official blog, the company stated they recently identified at least 200 apps at Google Play that were one-click fraud scams. The apps attempted to sign up those who downloaded them, for a service that costs upwards of $1,000. More than 50 developers were identified as being responsible for these apps.
The development, especially on a trusted site for Android Apps, should concern small business owners. Â Small business owners and employees increasingly depend on mobile apps and the mobile devices on which they operate for many aspects of their business operations. This makes them vulnerable if scam apps or fraudulent apps continue to flood the market.
The affected apps were Japanese-language apps and all dealt with adult or pornographic material. According to Symantec, the apps appeared at the top of Google Play searches when an Android user searches for anything related to adult video content on their devices.
“No English language apps were identified as part of this particular group of discovery; all targeted Japanese language speakers. However, there is no reason to believe that this same scam could not be perpetrated with English language apps,†said Symantec Security Response Manager Satnam Narang.
At least 5,000 people downloaded the apps in the last two months, but Symantec said it is unsure how many people, if any, actually paid the money for the so-called service. The apps were removed from Google Play upon notification of their existence by Symantec, Narang added. The Google Play accounts of the developers have been suspended, too.
While the target of this scam was seemingly limited, the advent of similar one-click scams on Android devices just one year ago means that those perpetrating the fraud are only beginning. Narang warns that more markets will be targeted in the future and that the best protection besides knowledge â€" because most scam apps are made to look legit â€" is mobile security software.
“Attackers are constantly improving their tradecraft. So, malicious apps can sometimes be hard to spot. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid downloading apps from sources other than trusted app marketplaces. In addition, it’s also a good idea to pay close attention to the permissions apps request. Another trick is to look at the reviews from other users who downloaded the apps,†Narang said. “However, in the case of these malicious apps, these tactics aren’t as effective.â€
(Symantec is a past sponsor of events involving this publication.)
Apps you download for your small business may not be as safe as you believe. Symantec, a security software company, says it has identified so-called “one-click fraud apps†(since removed) on a site trusted by millions of mobile users.
In a post on the Symantec official blog, the company stated they recently identified at least 200 apps at Google Play that were one-click fraud scams. The apps attempted to sign up those who downloaded them, for a service that costs upwards of $1,000. More than 50 developers were identified as being responsible for these apps.
The development, especially on a trusted site for Android Apps, should concern small business owners. Â Small business owners and employees increasingly depend on mobile apps and the mobile devices on which they operate for many aspects of their business operations. This makes them vulnerable if scam apps or fraudulent apps continue to flood the market.
The affected apps were Japanese-language apps and all dealt with adult or pornographic material. According to Symantec, the apps appeared at the top of Google Play searches when an Android user searches for anything related to adult video content on their devices.
“No English language apps were identified as part of this particular group of discovery; all targeted Japanese language speakers. However, there is no reason to believe that this same scam could not be perpetrated with English language apps,†said Symantec Security Response Manager Satnam Narang.
At least 5,000 people downloaded the apps in the last two months, but Symantec said it is unsure how many people, if any, actually paid the money for the so-called service. The apps were removed from Google Play upon notification of their existence by Symantec, Narang added. The Google Play accounts of the developers have been suspended, too.
While the target of this scam was seemingly limited, the advent of similar one-click scams on Android devices just one year ago means that those perpetrating the fraud are only beginning. Narang warns that more markets will be targeted in the future and that the best protection besides knowledge â€" because most scam apps are made to look legit â€" is mobile security software.
“Attackers are constantly improving their tradecraft. So, malicious apps can sometimes be hard to spot. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid downloading apps from sources other than trusted app marketplaces. In addition, it’s also a good idea to pay close attention to the permissions apps request. Another trick is to look at the reviews from other users who downloaded the apps,†Narang said. “However, in the case of these malicious apps, these tactics aren’t as effective.â€
(Symantec is a past sponsor of events involving this publication.)
Have you ever calculated the true cost of lost time due to server or other technology problems
Lucky for those of us who don’t do our own calculations like this, CMIT Solutions, a leading provider of managed services and other computer consulting services, has. The company recently released some stunning numbers that calculate the real cost of IT problems.
Consider this scenario:Â You are a company owner and you have 150 employees with an annual average salary of $50,000 each. When a server crashes at your company, employees are without email and database access and the IT guy is called. While he works his way over to your office and proceeds to fix the problems, your employees might be sitting tight doing little while they wait for the repair. This certainly costs your company productivity as well as money.
According to CMIT, full time employees work 2,000 hours a year in general. Employees who earn $50,000 a year make roughly $25 per hour; multiply that by 150 workers and you have paid your employees a total of $3,750 for the time they have been unable to do what they need to do at their jobs.
Aside from that loss, there are other losses - you pay for the IT guy to come to the office and do the repair (perhaps with extra costs added in for holidays or after hours calls) and you lose orders. If you would normally make about $1,000 an hour in sales or orders, and you are down for only an hour, you lose that, too. Now your cost is nearly $5,000 for just the lost productivity and the lost sales.
Though most companies have the forethought to make sure there’s an automatic backup system in place, not all do. If that simple one-hour of downtime actually turns into days or weeks of downtime because of a catastrophic server failure (and you don’t have the proper protections in place), you could lose thousands of dollars and experience a host of other problems (including loss of customers).
CMIT advocates for a different approach to handling server and other IT issues. If you start with an IT company that offers a proactive approach to protecting networks and computers, you can avoid this entire scenario altogether.
The company specializes in this active approach to computer and server safety and actively monitors client servers, computers, mobile devices and critical components like routers and firewalls for problems. When issues are resolved before they become major problems, you avoid economic and other losses that can occur due to downtime.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that the costs of downtime due to server (or other) issues can be significant. Making the investment in a company that can prevent downtime issues can be a small step toward productivity and success.
Working from home is a common topic around these parts. We’ve talked about the benefits for employers and for employees. But once you’ve decided to give it a shot, how do you manage your employees and their tasks Many companies have turned to platforms like Asana, Kona, and Do.com.
These are web apps, which allow you and your employees to share a virtual workroom, where you can assign tasks, due dates, and observe progress. Your employees can submit work and complete tasks, collaborate and communicate, and share files. These apps are social networks for your employees to work in. You don’t have to delve into emails or anything else outside the apps.
These social productivity platforms keep employees and employers organized and task-based. They strive to keep you from getting lost in the time-suck that is the email inbox. When you work, you need a tool that is just for work and that’s what Asana, Kona and Do.com can be for you.
Asana
Offers iOS and Android apps
Released API for integration with Dropbox, Google Apps and many other services
Free up to 30 team members. Paid plans up to 100+ members
Started by Facebook co-founders
Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine describes Asana as “a single place where people can see every project colleagues are working on, answer questions, and get instant updates about how the work is progressing.â€
Do.com
Offers iOS and Android apps
Released API for integration with Desk, Contractually, Dropbox, Wufoo, Harvest, Google Drive and more
Owned by Salesforce and integrates with Salesforce
Free for unlimited members, but limits number of deals and contacts. Paid plans offer unlimited deals and contacts, and offer private projects and deals, guest access and priority support.
Google picked Do.com for their team.
Kona
Offers iOS and Android apps
Integrates with Box, Google Drive and Dropbox, among other services
Free to all, with unlimited projects and 1 GB of cloud storage. Paid plans forthcoming
This social collaboration/productivity app space is heating up. These three are just some of the players in this space and the competition is fierce.
Do you use Kona, Asana or Do.com Is there a better app out there Let us know your experiences with social productivity apps in the comments!
Working from home is a common topic around these parts. We’ve talked about the benefits for employers and for employees. But once you’ve decided to give it a shot, how do you manage your employees and their tasks Many companies have turned to platforms like Asana, Kona, and Do.com.
These are web apps, which allow you and your employees to share a virtual workroom, where you can assign tasks, due dates, and observe progress. Your employees can submit work and complete tasks, collaborate and communicate, and share files. These apps are social networks for your employees to work in. You don’t have to delve into emails or anything else outside the apps.
These social productivity platforms keep employees and employers organized and task-based. They strive to keep you from getting lost in the time-suck that is the email inbox. When you work, you need a tool that is just for work and that’s what Asana, Kona and Do.com can be for you.
Asana
Offers iOS and Android apps
Released API for integration with Dropbox, Google Apps and many other services
Free up to 30 team members. Paid plans up to 100+ members
Started by Facebook co-founders
Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine describes Asana as “a single place where people can see every project colleagues are working on, answer questions, and get instant updates about how the work is progressing.â€
Do.com
Offers iOS and Android apps
Released API for integration with Desk, Contractually, Dropbox, Wufoo, Harvest, Google Drive and more
Owned by Salesforce and integrates with Salesforce
Free for unlimited members, but limits number of deals and contacts. Paid plans offer unlimited deals and contacts, and offer private projects and deals, guest access and priority support.
Google picked Do.com for their team.
Kona
Offers iOS and Android apps
Integrates with Box, Google Drive and Dropbox, among other services
Free to all, with unlimited projects and 1 GB of cloud storage. Paid plans forthcoming
This social collaboration/productivity app space is heating up. These three are just some of the players in this space and the competition is fierce.
Do you use Kona, Asana or Do.com Is there a better app out there Let us know your experiences with social productivity apps in the comments!
Brian Solis, Author of “What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences,†joins Brent Leary to discuss the importance of creating fluid, memorable and enjoyable customer experiences in business and across marketing channels.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Â You have written a number of books and are a highly sought after speaker. Can you tell us a bit about your background
Brian Solis: I am a digital analyst over at Altimeter Group, I have studied how technology is affecting society, culture and business and I try to reverse engineer everything to help the two roads between customer behavior and business relevance intersect as often as possible.
Small Business Trends:  You were recently at South by Southwest (SXSW) and had an on-stage conversation with the one and only, Shaquille O’Neal. Did you learn anything interesting about Shaq
Brian Solis: A lot of people don’t know that he was an investor in Google Pre IPO. He also has a lot of investments in companies like Five Guys and Vitamin Water. He is a very smart man. He earned his doctorate recently. He is all about knowledge and at the same time, he is pursuing comedy. So it is an interesting balance of a human being that makes for something unique.
Brian Solis: I thought, ‘Why not use a book as an object to demonstrate the point of shared experiences†So I took a step back, I looked my previously published book, The End of Business as Usual, and I looked at the things that I hear all the time. The one thing that was consistent across the board is that we are reacting to technology.
What’s happening is businesses, schools, everything has just started to get into a reactive mode and that is not a good place to be because technology is only accelerating. The next big thing is always here. If we get into this cycle of just trying to react to everything we are going to lose our footing. When you lose your footing your start to lose your relevance. When you lose your relevance, it comes back to that thing that we were talking about earlier on digital dwarfism - that is when technology and society evolves faster than your ability to adapt.
Small Business Trends: Â Do you find that businesses understand that concept
Brian Solis: Businesses don’t get it. But they could and they should. It is just taking a step back because then, technology becomes the enabler. All of these channels, all of these tools that exist, they become the thing that people use and that you use to bring that experience to life.
Small Business Trends: Â You talk about disruptive technology being a catalyst but not a reason for change. But how many companies are still looking at technology as the silver bullet
Brian Solis: I think over the years we just started putting stuff on top of other things because that is what we are supposed to do. Technology was just part of the equation for efficiency and automation - to use a buzz word in business ‘operationalization.’  But it wasn’t necessarily driven by a vision or by a purpose. I think that business could benefit from rethinking what that vision and what that purpose could be or what it should be.
Technology then, like experiences, just becomes a manifestation of what it is you are trying to do or what you are trying to accomplish; instead of saying on the outside, ‘Hey, marketing jumps all over these social networks’ because that is where everybody is.
Small Business Trends: Â I wanted to ask you about the six pillars of social commerce, because we all know that companies are trying to leverage social mobile to the Cloud to sell stuff, find customers and keep them happy longer. Can you tell us what your six pillars are
Brian Solis:Â I reference in the book the work of Robert Cialdini and what he called, The 6 Pillars of Social Commerce. Those six were adapted into the world of social media, and the six pillars are essentially:
Social Proof: Â When in doubt view what everyone else is viewing.
Authority:  Earning a position of value in any one of these networks because you continually help people. For example, businesses that put out creative marketing on all of these social networks aren’t necessarily earning authority. But people like the Mayo Clinic or Mint.com, that can consistently produce objects that help people, that give insights, that answer questions - that earns the position of authority.
Scarcity: Less is more, so you don’t have to be everywhere all of the time, but when you do it should have a reverberation.
Liking: Â Building relationships, and by relationships I mean, not just moving and reacting or following people. I mean by having meaningful exchanges.
Consistency:  So that you are not just in one network or in one place all time, but all of those networks, mobile, social, the Web - in a consistent experience across each one of those channels. Right now all of those experiences are broken because they are designed to be broken. They don’t work together. Consistency is just another pillar.
Reciprocity: Â In the new world of social commerce, if you can reinforce positive behavior, reciprocity is the most powerful of all of these. If you share experiences, reciprocity plays a big role in that.
Small Business Trends:  What are a few things you’d like for people to walk away with after reading your book
Brian Solis:Â I hope they walk away with a better understanding that there is a need for integrating experience. There is a need to define what integrating experiences should be. There is the ability, or the need, to see that your product is an interesting experience to everything.
Lastly, to recognize that I am bringing Joseph Campbell’s, ‘Hero Journey’ at the beginning and at the end of the book. At the beginning, I am talking about the customer as the hero in the journey. I show the change that they go through and the opportunity that you have to reach.
Then at the end of the book, I say you are the hero in the hero’s journey. I talk about the steps that you need to take to bring about change, the challenges you are going to face and how to break through them.
Small Business Trends: Â I will say this; the book has a style and a vibe to it.
Brian Solis: It is very visual. I worked with the folks at Mechanism, who did the Beyonce Pepsi Commercial at this year’s Super Bowl. I call it an analog app, because it even has a slider that gives you the sense that you are literally moving through a journey.
It is gorgeous; it is four colors but it was intentional. It was a statement that said business books do not have to look like business books. They can be exciting because this is an exciting time. So reinvent a book and if you can reinvent the idea of a book and make it an experience, imagine what you can do with any business.
This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.
Australian police have charged a 17-year-old with numerous counts of unauthorised access to computer systems.
The youth, accused of being a member of hacking collective Anonymous, cannot be named for legal reasons.
The youth appeared in Parramatta Children's Court where he was formally charged with six counts of “unauthorised modification of data to cause impairmentâ€, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years; one count of “unauthorised access with intent to commit a serious offenceâ€, which also carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years; one count of “possession of data with intent to commit a computer offenceâ€, which carries a maximum terms of three years imprisonment; and 12 counts of “unauthorised access to restricted dataâ€, which carries a maximum prison sentence of two years.
No further details of the attacks were revealed, such as the target, when it happened or how successful it was.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) released a statement saying the youth is “suspected to be a member of the online issue motivated group ‘Anonymous' and allegedly committed serious offences on their behalfâ€.
Commander Glen McEwen, manager of cyber crime operations, added: “Protesting through computer intrusions and website defacements is not an appropriate method to raise public awareness about any issue. The AFP investigates various types of cyber crime and will continue to take a strong stance against these perpetrators.â€
The youth is scheduled to appear in court again on 17th May 2013, the statement said.
Australian police have charged a 17-year-old with numerous counts of unauthorised access to computer systems.
The youth, accused of being a member of hacking collective Anonymous, cannot be named for legal reasons.
The youth appeared in Parramatta Children's Court where he was formally charged with six counts of “unauthorised modification of data to cause impairmentâ€, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years; one count of “unauthorised access with intent to commit a serious offenceâ€, which also carried a maximum prison sentence of 10 years; one count of “possession of data with intent to commit a computer offenceâ€, which carries a maximum terms of three years imprisonment; and 12 counts of “unauthorised access to restricted dataâ€, which carries a maximum prison sentence of two years.
No further details of the attacks were revealed, such as the target, when it happened or how successful it was.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) released a statement saying the youth is “suspected to be a member of the online issue motivated group ‘Anonymous' and allegedly committed serious offences on their behalfâ€.
Commander Glen McEwen, manager of cyber crime operations, added: “Protesting through computer intrusions and website defacements is not an appropriate method to raise public awareness about any issue. The AFP investigates various types of cyber crime and will continue to take a strong stance against these perpetrators.â€
The youth is scheduled to appear in court again on 17th May 2013, the statement said.
Hackers claiming to represent Anonymous have attacked Twitter and Flickr accounts run by North Korea's government.
The group has also forced the Uriminzokkiri website offline, days after hacking its database and stealing user details for 15,000 members. Uriminzokkiri is a North Korean news service run by the government.
The Uriminzokkiri Twitter feed, which is operated by the North Korean government, posted a number of messages reading “hackedâ€, followed by links to other North Korean websites that were also believed to have been hacked.
One of the links goes to the supposed website of the AINDF, a pro-communist political party in South Korea, which now just features a picture mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The picture depicts him with pig ears and a snout and offers a $1 million reward.
Another link also pointed to the official North Korea Flickr page. The hackers were reported to have uploaded four images to the account, one of which was the same wanted poster the AINDF site displayed. However, at the time of writing the Flickr account had been suspended.
Anonymous Korea has claimed responsibility for the attack, as it did with this week's earlier incident, under the title of #opNorthKorea. The group says it is protesting against the recent aggressive behaviour of the North Korean government, which includes threatening the US with a nuclear missile strike. The group's first statement demanded the resignation of Kim Jong Un and that North Korea stops its nuclear program.
In a statement posted on Pastebin the group repeated its calls and suggested it had people within the country working for it, which could help it penetrate Kwangmyong, the government run intranet that North Korean users access instead of the wider internet.
“We have a few guys on the ground who managed to bring the real internet into the country using a chain of long distance WiFi repeaters with proprietary frequencies, so they're not jammed (yet),†the statement said. “We also have access to some N.K. phone landlines, which are connected to Kwangmyong through dial-ups.â€
The statement ended with a call for the citizens of North and South Korea and the USA to unite against their governments for “freedom and peace and democracyâ€.
Hackers claiming to represent Anonymous have attacked Twitter and Flickr accounts run by North Korea's government.
The group has also forced the Uriminzokkiri website offline, days after hacking its database and stealing user details for 15,000 members. Uriminzokkiri is a North Korean news service run by the government.
The Uriminzokkiri Twitter feed, which is operated by the North Korean government, posted a number of messages reading “hackedâ€, followed by links to other North Korean websites that were also believed to have been hacked.
One of the links goes to the supposed website of the AINDF, a pro-communist political party in South Korea, which now just features a picture mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The picture depicts him with pig ears and a snout and offers a $1 million reward.
Another link also pointed to the official North Korea Flickr page. The hackers were reported to have uploaded four images to the account, one of which was the same wanted poster the AINDF site displayed. However, at the time of writing the Flickr account had been suspended.
Anonymous Korea has claimed responsibility for the attack, as it did with this week's earlier incident, under the title of #opNorthKorea. The group says it is protesting against the recent aggressive behaviour of the North Korean government, which includes threatening the US with a nuclear missile strike. The group's first statement demanded the resignation of Kim Jong Un and that North Korea stops its nuclear program.
In a statement posted on Pastebin the group repeated its calls and suggested it had people within the country working for it, which could help it penetrate Kwangmyong, the government run intranet that North Korean users access instead of the wider internet.
“We have a few guys on the ground who managed to bring the real internet into the country using a chain of long distance WiFi repeaters with proprietary frequencies, so they're not jammed (yet),†the statement said. “We also have access to some N.K. phone landlines, which are connected to Kwangmyong through dial-ups.â€
The statement ended with a call for the citizens of North and South Korea and the USA to unite against their governments for “freedom and peace and democracyâ€.
Microsoft's April 2013 Patch Tuesday release will include nine bulletins -- two of them rated 'critical' and the rest deemed 'important' -- affecting Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Server Software and Microsoft Security Software, the software giant announced Thursday.
Bulletin 1, rated critical, addresses remote code execution vulnerabilities present in Internet Explorer (IE) 10 on Windows 8, IE 8 and 9 for Windows 7, IE 7 and 8 on Windows Vista and IE 6, 7 and 8 on Windows XP. It will require a restart.
Bulletin 2, also deemed critical, addresses remote code execution vulnerabilities in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, though notably not Windows 8. It may require a restart.
Bulletin 3 addresses a vulnerability only present in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, and may require a restart. If successfully exploited, this vulnerability would lead to information disclosure issues.
Bulletins 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 deal with privilege escalation vulnerabilities in Windows, the built-in Windows Defender antivirus program for Windows 8 and RT, Microsoft Office Apps 2012 Service Pack 1, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Groove Server 2010 Service Pack 1.
The bulletins are scheduled to be released April 9.
Welcome to Barry’s Bite, a weekly article series from Barry Moltz, host of Business Insanity Radio.  This week Barry shares with us his 10 favorite mobile productivity apps that help businesses grow.
Â
There are a lot of mobile“productivity†apps out there that actually waste time. They are either too complicated to use or they do not sync across multiple platforms.
Here are my 10 best apps for increasing your productivity.
Pushbullet (Android): Moves snippets of what you need easily from your computer to your phone for later use. This includes files, messages, to-do lists and addresses.
Password Wallet (All): It is becoming increasingly hard to remember all your passwords. This app stores them all in one place on your phone. A real time saver!
Everclip (Apple): Makes it easy to clip anything you find on your smartphone to Evernote.
Pocket (All): This app creates a list of items to read later instead of the pressure to focus on it now.
Sleep Pillow (All): Experts show that the key to being more productive is to get a good night sleep. This sleep machine app plays sounds that make it easy to fall asleep. (especially when in a noisy hotel room).
Any.Do (All): This app not only syncs with all your devices, but allows you to share them with other team members to make sure they get tasks done.
Text Web (All): This app lets you download only the text part of the website. A real time and battery saver!
Cam Card (All): Put all those business cards to good use. Take them out of your pocket, scan them with your phone and either add them to your contact list or export them to your favorite CRM program.
Ego (Apple): Stop wondering. Find all the stats for your website and social media feeds right on your phone.
Flightview (All): This is a favorite app for frequent business travelers. It tells the user where a flight is originating from. Many times the airline does not update departures based on when the inbound flight gets to a departure location.
What are you favorite mobile productivity apps
Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show. He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, and Forbes.com.  Â
Welcome to Barry’s Bite, a weekly article series from Barry Moltz, host of Business Insanity Radio.  This week Barry shares with us his 10 favorite mobile productivity apps that help businesses grow.
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There are a lot of mobile“productivity†apps out there that actually waste time. They are either too complicated to use or they do not sync across multiple platforms.
Here are my 10 best apps for increasing your productivity.
Pushbullet (Android): Moves snippets of what you need easily from your computer to your phone for later use. This includes files, messages, to-do lists and addresses.
Password Wallet (All): It is becoming increasingly hard to remember all your passwords. This app stores them all in one place on your phone. A real time saver!
Everclip (Apple): Makes it easy to clip anything you find on your smartphone to Evernote.
Pocket (All): This app creates a list of items to read later instead of the pressure to focus on it now.
Sleep Pillow (All): Experts show that the key to being more productive is to get a good night sleep. This sleep machine app plays sounds that make it easy to fall asleep. (especially when in a noisy hotel room).
Any.Do (All): This app not only syncs with all your devices, but allows you to share them with other team members to make sure they get tasks done.
Text Web (All): This app lets you download only the text part of the website. A real time and battery saver!
Cam Card (All): Put all those business cards to good use. Take them out of your pocket, scan them with your phone and either add them to your contact list or export them to your favorite CRM program.
Ego (Apple): Stop wondering. Find all the stats for your website and social media feeds right on your phone.
Flightview (All): This is a favorite app for frequent business travelers. It tells the user where a flight is originating from. Many times the airline does not update departures based on when the inbound flight gets to a departure location.
What are you favorite mobile productivity apps
Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show. He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, and Forbes.com.  Â
Welcome to Barry’s Bite, a weekly article series from Barry Moltz, host of Business Insanity Radio.  This week Barry shares with us his 10 favorite mobile productivity apps that help businesses grow.
Â
There are a lot of mobile“productivity†apps out there that actually waste time. They are either too complicated to use or they do not sync across multiple platforms.
Here are my 10 best apps for increasing your productivity.
Pushbullet (Android): Moves snippets of what you need easily from your computer to your phone for later use. This includes files, messages, to-do lists and addresses.
Password Wallet (All): It is becoming increasingly hard to remember all your passwords. This app stores them all in one place on your phone. A real time saver!
Everclip (Apple): Makes it easy to clip anything you find on your smartphone to Evernote.
Pocket (All): This app creates a list of items to read later instead of the pressure to focus on it now.
Sleep Pillow (All): Experts show that the key to being more productive is to get a good night sleep. This sleep machine app plays sounds that make it easy to fall asleep. (especially when in a noisy hotel room).
Any.Do (All): This app not only syncs with all your devices, but allows you to share them with other team members to make sure they get tasks done.
Text Web (All): This app lets you download only the text part of the website. A real time and battery saver!
Cam Card (All): Put all those business cards to good use. Take them out of your pocket, scan them with your phone and either add them to your contact list or export them to your favorite CRM program.
Ego (Apple): Stop wondering. Find all the stats for your website and social media feeds right on your phone.
Flightview (All): This is a favorite app for frequent business travelers. It tells the user where a flight is originating from. Many times the airline does not update departures based on when the inbound flight gets to a departure location.
What are you favorite mobile productivity apps
Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show. He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, and Forbes.com.  Â
Microsoft has released details of April's Patch Tuesday update, with critical vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer being addressed.
In total there are nine bulletins this month, with two being rated critical.
The first of these is a remote code execution vulnerability, meaning attackers could potentially hijack a system if a user visits an infected website. It affects all versions of Internet Explorer, from IE6 right up to IE10, the newest version. This means Windows 8 and RT are impacted by the update, as are older Windows versions such as XP and Vista.
This update fixes a vulnerability that exists across lots of different versions of IE and Windows, so security experts are warning IT admins to push out this update as soon as possible. Wolfgang Kandek, CTO at Qualys, said the update should be “on the top of your patching effortsâ€.
The second big update this month affects all versions of the Windows operating system, except Windows 8, RT and Server 2012. However, as many businesses are yet to upgrade to the newest versions this update will still have a big impact across the enterprise world. Like the first patch, it also concerns a remote code execution vulnerability.
The remaining patches are all rated as important. Interestingly one of these fixes a flaw in Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware program that was upgraded to be an anti-virus package for Windows 8 and RT.
Wolfgang Kandek added that IT admins should not solely concentrate on Microsoft updates this month, as an equally important one from Oracle is on the way.
“Please keep also in mind that Oracle has scheduled an extra release for Java this month,†he wrote. Normally Java is on a four-month release cycle: February, June and October of each year. Due to the amount and severity of recent vulnerabilities discovered, there will be an additional release that will go live on 16th April.â€
Have you ever calculated the true cost of lost time due to server or other technology problems
Small Business Trends: Â You have written a number of books and are a highly sought after speaker. Can you tell us a bit about your background
Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show. He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, and Forbes.com.  Â