Many of Google’s most popular and used Apps including Google Drive and Gmail experienced service disruptions on Wednesday morning, causing some panic among faithful users.
According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard, its Mail and Drive services, primarily, began experiencing interruptions just before 9 a.m. EST on Wednesday. However, industry observer Barry Schwartz reported problems with Google Docs and Gmail may have begun around 8 a.m.
Most Google users noticed the lack of service when trying to access files stored on the Drive App. This is a popular App that allows users to store documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and other files in its cloud storage.
Disgruntled Drive users who lost their service temporarily took to Twitter and forums on Google+ to vent their frustrations. The discussion under the Twitter tag #googledown shows many users reporting that their service was down and wondering if any other users had been experiencing the same outages.
One user posted the 502 Error screen he encountered on Wednesday:
Just before 11 a.m., Google reported on the Dashboard that the problem had been resolved and that Mail and Drive were working properly again.
Google said the problem affected just seven one-thousandths of its Mail users, but specified no numbers on the amount of users affected by the outage with Drive. Google has yet to offer any explanation on the outage, either. The Twitter accounts for both @googledrive and @gmail were both silent through the day on Wednesday.
Even though hearing it from Google would probably have been the best way to learn about service disruptions and find out when service has been restored, users were busy during the downtime keeping each other informed, including on Google’s fledgling social network, Google+. Still, if small businesses and others rely on Google Drive and Mail to conduct their daily business, knowing when it may again be available would be helpful. Otherwise, people get other ideas:
This is the first service disruption to Google Drive since March 21, 2013 when users experienced long load times and received “still trying†warnings while attempting to access their files saved in its cloud. Google filed a report (PDF) on that incident one full week after the service disruption.
Many of Google’s most popular and used Apps including Google Drive and Gmail experienced service disruptions on Wednesday morning, causing some panic among faithful users.
According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard, its Mail and Drive services, primarily, began experiencing interruptions just before 9 a.m. EST on Wednesday. However, industry observer Barry Schwartz reported problems with Google Docs and Gmail may have begun around 8 a.m.
Most Google users noticed the lack of service when trying to access files stored on the Drive App. This is a popular App that allows users to store documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and other files in its cloud storage.
Disgruntled Drive users who lost their service temporarily took to Twitter and forums on Google+ to vent their frustrations. The discussion under the Twitter tag #googledown shows many users reporting that their service was down and wondering if any other users had been experiencing the same outages.
One user posted the 502 Error screen he encountered on Wednesday:
Just before 11 a.m., Google reported on the Dashboard that the problem had been resolved and that Mail and Drive were working properly again.
Google said the problem affected just seven one-thousandths of its Mail users, but specified no numbers on the amount of users affected by the outage with Drive. Google has yet to offer any explanation on the outage, either. The Twitter accounts for both @googledrive and @gmail were both silent through the day on Wednesday.
Even though hearing it from Google would probably have been the best way to learn about service disruptions and find out when service has been restored, users were busy during the downtime keeping each other informed, including on Google’s fledgling social network, Google+. Still, if small businesses and others rely on Google Drive and Mail to conduct their daily business, knowing when it may again be available would be helpful. Otherwise, people get other ideas:
This is the first service disruption to Google Drive since March 21, 2013 when users experienced long load times and received “still trying†warnings while attempting to access their files saved in its cloud. Google filed a report (PDF) on that incident one full week after the service disruption.
Many of Google’s most popular and used Apps including Google Drive and Gmail experienced service disruptions on Wednesday morning, causing some panic among faithful users.
According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard, its Mail and Drive services, primarily, began experiencing interruptions just before 9 a.m. EST on Wednesday. However, industry observer Barry Schwartz reported problems with Google Docs and Gmail may have begun around 8 a.m.
Most Google users noticed the lack of service when trying to access files stored on the Drive App. This is a popular App that allows users to store documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and other files in its cloud storage.
Disgruntled Drive users who lost their service temporarily took to Twitter and forums on Google+ to vent their frustrations. The discussion under the Twitter tag #googledown shows many users reporting that their service was down and wondering if any other users had been experiencing the same outages.
One user posted the 502 Error screen he encountered on Wednesday:
Just before 11 a.m., Google reported on the Dashboard that the problem had been resolved and that Mail and Drive were working properly again.
Google said the problem affected just seven one-thousandths of its Mail users, but specified no numbers on the amount of users affected by the outage with Drive. Google has yet to offer any explanation on the outage, either. The Twitter accounts for both @googledrive and @gmail were both silent through the day on Wednesday.
Even though hearing it from Google would probably have been the best way to learn about service disruptions and find out when service has been restored, users were busy during the downtime keeping each other informed, including on Google’s fledgling social network, Google+. Still, if small businesses and others rely on Google Drive and Mail to conduct their daily business, knowing when it may again be available would be helpful. Otherwise, people get other ideas:
This is the first service disruption to Google Drive since March 21, 2013 when users experienced long load times and received “still trying†warnings while attempting to access their files saved in its cloud. Google filed a report (PDF) on that incident one full week after the service disruption.
With more people using the internet to do their taxes, there is an increase in the potential damage that can result in the event of being hacked by cyber criminals. A lot of personal and financial information is shared online during tax season, so everyone needs to be on high alert.
To help you with that, the Director of Security Strategy for WatchGuard Technologies, Corey Nachreiner, sent us a list of common hacking techniques that bad guys use to gain access to your information.
Let’s take a look:
Clickjacking: This technique tricks users by making them think they are clicking one button or link, but it is actually a hijacked link. Hackers build a transparent page over a seemingly innocent website, and when consumers click through the webpage, they end up clicking on malicious links within that transparent overlay.
Spear phishing: In this message-based tactic, a hacker sends a personalized email, IM message or message via social media (Twitter, Facebook). Since the message is customized for the victim, it can seem innocent and the target feels comfortable to click on a malicious link which allows malware to be loaded onto the computer.
Drive-by downloads: There are two ways this method of hacking can happen: a user authorizes a download without understanding exactly what the action will be, or a download happens without awareness from the user. Pop-up advertisements and error messages are common catalysts for drive-by downloads - when a user tries to close the window, they actually trigger a download to initiate.
-
Watch out for those. On a PC, good antivirus software and some vigilance can go a long way. To avoid being phished, always ensure that the website you’re on is legit by checking the address bar before entering personal information.
Dell has finally unveiled its long-awaited large tablet / desktop computer hybrid, called the XPS 18 (pictured above).  It’s an all-in-one computing device.  It runs Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro.
Business users will want to take note.  The new product, the company boasts, can function like a computer someone might use for business purposes, but features the benefits of a touch  tablet.
All the computing elements are in one unit, behind the screen. A stand is available, and when you add a keyboard and mouse, the unit functions like a sleek desktop or laptop.
Take it off the stand, and you can use it as a tablet. Â And it would be a rather large tablet, with a screen over 18 inches.
With the ability to use it like a regular desktop or laptop, with keyboard and mouse, you can apply it to some heavy duty work like data entry and spreadsheets.  But when it’s time to wind down, you can curl up with as a portable tablet, and surf the Web, watch videos or play games.
Dell calls the XPS 18 the “world’s thinnest and lightest portable AIO†device available.
According to a Dell announcement from its Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca, the $899.99 price point on the XPS 18 delivers the standard hardware, a 1.8GHz Pentium processor. A souped-up version of this AIO features Core i3 or Core i5 processors with up to 8GB RAM.
The most noticeable feature on the XPS 18 is the overall size of it. Though it weighs less than 5 pounds, the Dell AIO has an 18.4-inch touchscreen display, featuring 350-nit full HD (1920 x 1080) capabilities. At that size, it is nearly double the size of most other tablets. Running Windows instead of an Android system is a clear advantage for those wishing a tablet were more integrated with their other business machines.
Menchaca writes in his overview of the XPS 18: “I … installed Microsoft Office 2013, and used both SkyDrive and Google Drive to store documents and notes using a combination of my Latitude work laptop, my Studio XPS 7100 desktop and the XPS 18 along the way. One Note 2013 also made it really easy for me to share information across these devices.â€
Of course, Dell is offering peripherals to have the XPS 18 function more like a conventional desktop computer and it also features a kickstand for a convenient display when using the device either as a desktop or a tablet. There are two USB 3.0 ports available on the XPS 18 but it also features built-in wireless capabilities that allow it to work with the Dell wireless keyboard and mouse combination without occupying one or both of these ports, according to Dell.
Radisson has been working on overhauling their hotels to meet the needs of technologically savvy guests and business travelers. As we’ve covered in the past, hotels are increasingly trying to leverage technology to make your stay as easy as possible. For business users, this is incredibly important, as when you check in to a hotel, you’re often making your room into a mobile office.
Hotel chains are starting to recognize that good, strong WiFi signals in all areas of the hotel are a huge selling point for them. Lindsey Ueberroth, president of the Preferred Hotel Group, told the New York Times that the number one thing travelers want is high-speed Internet access and enough bandwidth to download videos, social media and music.
In a national pilot program, Radisson has been attempting to boost internet availability, eliminate queues for check-in and check-out, and help you make the most of your stay with a new app. From now through spring and summer 2013, Radisson guests visiting select pilot hotels in La Crosse, Wisconsin; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Seattle, Washington will find technologically-driven amenities and services. Let’s take a look at the details:
Check-In Choice Kiosks
Radisson is evaluating the ability for guests to have a digital check-in, allowing them to bypass the front desk, obtain their key from a kiosk in the lobby, and access their room quickly and conveniently. Customers can enter their credit card information online and check-in 24 hours in advance of their stay. Upon virtual check-in, guests will receive a confirmation email containing a bar code that is unique to their reservation. When customers arrive at the hotel property, they simply approach the Check-In Choice Kiosk in the lobby, scan their unique bar code, and receive their requested number of automated room keys.
iConcierge Mobile App
Radisson teamed up with Runtriz, a leading developer in hotel industry software, to create a new mobile application that recently launched on April 1, designed to help guests make the most of their hotel experience. The application, appropriately named iConcierge, is a virtual tool that allows guests to create personalized itineraries, access the local scene, create customer service requests, stream live music, check flight information, and much more. In lieu of flipping through the in-room customer service directory, guests now have the ability to make a request within twelve groups of customer service options. Whether they’re looking to request housekeeping services, order room service, book a spa appointment, or request a taxi, it’s as easy clicking a button on their virtual device anytime, from anywhere. Meeting and event planners will take a particular liking to iConcierge, as it allows organiers to virtually host personalized agendas, create menus, request transportation, send instant messages to onsite groups, and portably communicate with hotel staff for immediate requests and requirements.
From leisure travellers looking to stay in touch with family and friends, to business travellers requiring a convenient office on-the-go, the price of staying connected can become a costly necessity. Recent studies have shown that the demand for complimentary Internet access is indefinitely increasing and becoming a determining factor on where guests choose to stay. To fulfil this necessity, all Radisson hotels in the U.S. currently provide complimentary Internet to Club Carlson rewards program members. Additionally, nearly all Radisson hotels across the U.S. offer complimentary high-speed Internet access to all hotel guests and lobby visitors.
-
Tell us the comments about your best experiences with hotel technology. What do hotels still need to improve? What do you wish you had at every hotel you check into?
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the first handheld cellular telephone call. Motorola’s Martin Cooper made the first call to his rival over at Bell, presumably to gloat. The first commercially available cell phone weighed 2 pounds and cost almost $4,000.
We’ve come a long way in the size, weight, cost and capabilities of cell phones. Today’s cell phones have transformed our entire lives. RingCentral released a new survey that shows this quite clearly, by shedding light on mobile phone usage in the work place and the generational divide in phone behavior.
Some of the survey’s findings include:
Sixty-three percent of people older than 40 still have a traditional home phone, while 69 percent under 40 use their mobile phone as their home phone.
Seventy percent of people use mobile phones to communicate for work. Of those surveyed, 47 percent use their own personal mobile phone for work while 24 percent use a company issued mobile phone.
Seventy-nine percent of adults use SMS messaging for business communications. Thirty-two percent say they’ve closed a deal with a text.
Sixty-nine percent of people over 40 still use the phone book to look up numbers they don’t know.
And there are plenty more findings in the infographic below! Check it out:
It’s important for your customers to be able to connect with your service or product, almost on a personal level. We tend to look for something to relate to in everything, something that speaks to us. In the areas of marketing, this cannot be understated. You are looking for a connection and in the age of instant communications, where some are often ephemeral, crafting a connection that you can harvest and make last for years to come is vital to your business surviving in the high speed digital age. So where do celebrities come into this?
Celebrities, regardless of their background, whether it’s an actor, musician, athlete or someone who’s famous just for being famous, brings a certain eminence with them and most importantly, a fan base.
Charities, for example, have leveraged this for many, many years with countless organizations pairing with a celebrity, or a slew of celebrities, to be the face of their cause and spread the word. It’s a model that isn’t new by any means but in the age of social media, and specifically Twitter, companies, big and small, are finding new ways to engage with consumers and celebrity endorsements are just one way of doing that.
Adly is an online marketing start-up that was founded in 2009, but in May of 2012, they grabbed a few headlines when they announced that former News Corp. executive and Photobucket general manager Walter Delph had been named the new CEO of the company.
“With the advent of social media consumers are able to connect with celebrities that they would not have otherwise had access to,†Walter explains on the very basic idea that inspired the beginning of Adly four years ago.
The small company, with a team of four, is a marketing firm that aims to “spark authentic conversations between celebrities and their fansâ€, all on the topic of your brand. By analyzing the conversations, Adly optimizes the results for more efficient targeting of your product/service to the right people in the right places. These two services of celebrity contacts and analytics form the foundation for Adly and it has been built from there.
“The power of celebrity has long been acknowledged as one of the most powerful ways to influence and connect with consumers. A brand’s ability to influence consumers via celebrity is considered one of the most effective ways to raise affinity and ultimately to drive purchase. Now with the power of data we can provide ROI metrics to brands,†says Walter on the power Adly and the information they can provide.
“For brands, the potential for celebrity influence is greater than ever, given how far a message can go thanks to social media and its ability to reach wide audiences,†he explains. “It’s apparent that a vast majority of consumers are using social media platforms to engage with celebrities and key influencers and this creates a space where brands can join in and benefit from the influence of a celebrity. Celebrities have the same reach as most in social television shows. The difference is that there is a two-way interaction between the consumer and the influencer.â€
Celebrity endorsements can be tricky to leverage as there are many pros and cons. It is possible to go too far with celebrity endorsements, resulting in a backlash, and this is true regardless of whether you are small or large business, or even a huge global company. Take the negative response that Chanel received as a golden example. They had Brad Pitt endorse their perfume products only for the advertisements to be parodied and criticized. So, how can small businesses avoid something similar happening to them?
Authenticity is the key. An endorsement of your brand needs to be real and genuine, otherwise the cracks will begin to emerge and potential customers will be all too aware of it. “With social media, the barrier that once existed between celebrity and the public has lessened, making it possible for them to interact on a much more meaningful level and create a valuable relationship between the two,†says Walter.
“For brands to become intertwined in this relationship, the messages they communicate through celebrities must be deemed trustworthy, accurate and authentic to maintain the foundation of the relationship. When the engagement is authentic everyone wins: the brand, the celebrity, and most importantly, the consumer.â€
Adly appears to be paying dividends to Walter and his team as the firm is expected to generate $5 million this year in revenue, a rise that has been greatly aided by the company’s growing analytics service and customers deciding to avail of Adly more often, rather than one-off agreements.
One of the company’s highlights thus far has been their partnership with Verizon for the launch of its FiOS Quantum high speed internet service, partnering with Boston Celtics basketball star Paul Pierce. However, Adly’s doors remain open to businesses of any size that are looking to take advantage of this potentially valuable marketing technique.
It’s important for your customers to be able to connect with your service or product, almost on a personal level. We tend to look for something to relate to in everything, something that speaks to us. In the areas of marketing, this cannot be understated. You are looking for a connection and in the age of instant communications, where some are often ephemeral, crafting a connection that you can harvest and make last for years to come is vital to your business surviving in the high speed digital age. So where do celebrities come into this?
Celebrities, regardless of their background, whether it’s an actor, musician, athlete or someone who’s famous just for being famous, brings a certain eminence with them and most importantly, a fan base.
Charities, for example, have leveraged this for many, many years with countless organizations pairing with a celebrity, or a slew of celebrities, to be the face of their cause and spread the word. It’s a model that isn’t new by any means but in the age of social media, and specifically Twitter, companies, big and small, are finding new ways to engage with consumers and celebrity endorsements are just one way of doing that.
Adly is an online marketing start-up that was founded in 2009, but in May of 2012, they grabbed a few headlines when they announced that former News Corp. executive and Photobucket general manager Walter Delph had been named the new CEO of the company.
“With the advent of social media consumers are able to connect with celebrities that they would not have otherwise had access to,†Walter explains on the very basic idea that inspired the beginning of Adly four years ago.
The small company, with a team of four, is a marketing firm that aims to “spark authentic conversations between celebrities and their fansâ€, all on the topic of your brand. By analyzing the conversations, Adly optimizes the results for more efficient targeting of your product/service to the right people in the right places. These two services of celebrity contacts and analytics form the foundation for Adly and it has been built from there.
“The power of celebrity has long been acknowledged as one of the most powerful ways to influence and connect with consumers. A brand’s ability to influence consumers via celebrity is considered one of the most effective ways to raise affinity and ultimately to drive purchase. Now with the power of data we can provide ROI metrics to brands,†says Walter on the power Adly and the information they can provide.
“For brands, the potential for celebrity influence is greater than ever, given how far a message can go thanks to social media and its ability to reach wide audiences,†he explains. “It’s apparent that a vast majority of consumers are using social media platforms to engage with celebrities and key influencers and this creates a space where brands can join in and benefit from the influence of a celebrity. Celebrities have the same reach as most in social television shows. The difference is that there is a two-way interaction between the consumer and the influencer.â€
Celebrity endorsements can be tricky to leverage as there are many pros and cons. It is possible to go too far with celebrity endorsements, resulting in a backlash, and this is true regardless of whether you are small or large business, or even a huge global company. Take the negative response that Chanel received as a golden example. They had Brad Pitt endorse their perfume products only for the advertisements to be parodied and criticized. So, how can small businesses avoid something similar happening to them?
Authenticity is the key. An endorsement of your brand needs to be real and genuine, otherwise the cracks will begin to emerge and potential customers will be all too aware of it. “With social media, the barrier that once existed between celebrity and the public has lessened, making it possible for them to interact on a much more meaningful level and create a valuable relationship between the two,†says Walter.
“For brands to become intertwined in this relationship, the messages they communicate through celebrities must be deemed trustworthy, accurate and authentic to maintain the foundation of the relationship. When the engagement is authentic everyone wins: the brand, the celebrity, and most importantly, the consumer.â€
Adly appears to be paying dividends to Walter and his team as the firm is expected to generate $5 million this year in revenue, a rise that has been greatly aided by the company’s growing analytics service and customers deciding to avail of Adly more often, rather than one-off agreements.
One of the company’s highlights thus far has been their partnership with Verizon for the launch of its FiOS Quantum high speed internet service, partnering with Boston Celtics basketball star Paul Pierce. However, Adly’s doors remain open to businesses of any size that are looking to take advantage of this potentially valuable marketing technique.
It’s important for your customers to be able to connect with your service or product, almost on a personal level. We tend to look for something to relate to in everything, something that speaks to us. In the areas of marketing, this cannot be understated. You are looking for a connection and in the age...
Tune in as Matt Thomson, Vice President of Business Development and Platforms for Klout, joins Brent Leary to discuss the ins and outs of social influence. Â Among the topics discussed are measurement, influential media, leveraging, branding and more.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
Matt Thomson: Sure, I mostly spent my time consumerizing the enterprise normally on the product side. Klout is actually is my first business development role. Before that I worked at Lithium and Microsoft; Microsoft in the Dynamics CRM area. I came over to Klout as the first business guy, if you will. But again, my background is mostly on the product side and little bit of marketing.
Small Business Trends:Â Is it more difficult to measure online influence today as compared to when Klout first start rolling a couple of years back?
Matt Thomson: It is a little more difficult both industry wide and Klout-specific. Let’s talk industry wide first. Estimates are about 2.3 billion people in the world are on some form of social. Mobile makes it easier; you’ve got video now and it is much easier to work with. Bandwidth is getting better and images are coming on really strong.
Instagram’s growth cannot be trifled with. I don’t know how anybody who doesn’t think about this as a standalone business can actually track this in a meaningful way.
Now from the Klout standpoint, we started with a robust vision and a very simple way to try to parlay that vision to the world with the Klout Score. We started two and a half years ago breaking it down into more contextualized chunks. For example, Matt is influential in Pabst Blue Ribbon. We have gotten to the point where we can actually crunch data enough to dictate that fact for about 150 million people.
Small Business Trends:Â You mentioned Instagram is becoming a real force. When did you see that happening and how quickly can you determine whether a new network is going to be something very important in this sphere of influence?
Matt Thomson: I would break that question down into volume vs. the niche. I think there are some niche networks out there that are very important and this is something that Klout probably is a bit long term vision on. You can think of something like Stock Twits.
Those are super interesting to us, mostly because of the very robust verticalization.
Now to answer your question more directly about volume-oriented networks, what you see with Instagram, we just registered a user base attaching their Instagram accounts at a level that’s almost above Twitter and Facebook at this point. So you can see some mature volume numbers and rate of growth, because if you think about Klout, at the end of the day a lot of users aggregate all of their networks in one place. Instagram grows quickly.
There is a cycle where you go up through the hype and then go under the trough of disillusionment. With Instagram, you just don’t see that. You  see it continuing to grow up and out to the right.
Let me give you a good example of a network I personally love that the jury is still out on - and that’s Vine. It is number one in the App Store. You see more and more Vines being created. I would say that we are still in that phase to see if it is going to be big.
Small Business Trends:Â Are you seeing smaller businesses being able to leverage what you guys are doing in terms of using Klout from a corporate branding perspective?
Matt Thomson:Â I think if you are talking about brick and mortar, like Little Star Pizza in San Francisco that has two or three locations now, no not yet. They might have the same page on Facebook and maybe on a Twitter account and that is about it.
Now with what I would consider an SMB (small business) like a Cirque Du Soleil. They are a pretty outsized brand, but they are still in my world an SMB, because they are not an enterprise. Usually, what it comes down to is if it’s a consumer facing company that uses brand and awareness to drive purchases down the funnel. Is it a heavy word of mouth driven industry? Fashion is pretty good for this, obviously travel and entertainment, all of those kinds of SMB’s in those areas, absolutely. It is still creeping down, but I would say it is still in the upper echelons like the P&G’s of the world, McDonalds, etc.
A lot of SMB’s consider themselves to have conversion based products. Obviously influence, advocacy, word of mouth lends itself very well to basically the whole brand funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase intent.
Small Business Trends:Â Â What are some of the best ways that they could begin to use Klout?
Matt Thomson:Â I think generally our Perks program has proven really successful in mobilizing influencers to discuss a brand. So that is clearly our bread and butter business. Then, our API and our data is just heavily utilized. Going forward, we are basically going to be moving a little bit more into allowance. We announced Klout for Business almost a month ago, and we will be looking a lot more at letting friends come in and do self-service.
What we are going to do is give more tools around audience analysis and group management of influencers. Then allow brands to not only give rewards based on that, but also conduct surveys of their top influencers so they are giving their opinion of the most influential people in the market for their brand. Then we are going to be experimenting with other engagement channels to come off of Klout. So if you think about LinkedIn, they have an InMail feature, they have a customer side, they have an enterprise side, they have a recruiters side in their case and then they have an InMail feature which allows those two sides of the platform to connect. We think about our business very much like that.
Small Business Trends: Are you doing anything to address some of the concerns people may still have in terms of getting the full measure of somebody’s influence?
Matt Thomson:  Yes, you thought I was going to say no, right? I think when I get into that world I start to think a lot about the old word of mouth practices, about worrying about everybody’s offline influence in every way, shape and form. It is where you draw the line saying this is the amount of information we can actually utilize, and then this is the amount of information that gets us 80% of the way there.
I think anything that has scale in history had to make some concessions to perfection. In other words, some concessions with perfection taking a back seat. Do I think we are perfect? No, absolutely not. Do I think we are going to do a lot more at scale than any other company can do out there that is trying to perfect it? Yeah, absolutely.
Usually those complaints come from the business side of the world. While we care about the business side, our one guiding principle is to make Klout a viable utility for consumers, not to make money from brands. I think we do pretty well. I can guarantee that we have more science behind what we do, than any so called experts out there in this field of word of mouth.
Small Business Trends:Â Where can people learn more?
Matt Thomson:Â I would say Klout.com is obviously a great resource. There are some really good books like Mark Shafter on Influence and stuff like that are out there that are very interesting, that are good reads about the market overall.
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.
Tune in as Matt Thomson, Vice President of Business Development and Platforms for Klout, joins Brent Leary to discuss the ins and outs of social influence. Â Among the topics discussed are measurement, influential media, leveraging, branding and more.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
Matt Thomson: Sure, I mostly spent my time consumerizing the enterprise normally on the product side. Klout is actually is my first business development role. Before that I worked at Lithium and Microsoft; Microsoft in the Dynamics CRM area. I came over to Klout as the first business guy, if you will. But again, my background is mostly on the product side and little bit of marketing.
Small Business Trends:Â Is it more difficult to measure online influence today as compared to when Klout first start rolling a couple of years back?
Matt Thomson: It is a little more difficult both industry wide and Klout-specific. Let’s talk industry wide first. Estimates are about 2.3 billion people in the world are on some form of social. Mobile makes it easier; you’ve got video now and it is much easier to work with. Bandwidth is getting better and images are coming on really strong.
Instagram’s growth cannot be trifled with. I don’t know how anybody who doesn’t think about this as a standalone business can actually track this in a meaningful way.
Now from the Klout standpoint, we started with a robust vision and a very simple way to try to parlay that vision to the world with the Klout Score. We started two and a half years ago breaking it down into more contextualized chunks. For example, Matt is influential in Pabst Blue Ribbon. We have gotten to the point where we can actually crunch data enough to dictate that fact for about 150 million people.
Small Business Trends:Â You mentioned Instagram is becoming a real force. When did you see that happening and how quickly can you determine whether a new network is going to be something very important in this sphere of influence?
Matt Thomson: I would break that question down into volume vs. the niche. I think there are some niche networks out there that are very important and this is something that Klout probably is a bit long term vision on. You can think of something like Stock Twits.
Those are super interesting to us, mostly because of the very robust verticalization.
Now to answer your question more directly about volume-oriented networks, what you see with Instagram, we just registered a user base attaching their Instagram accounts at a level that’s almost above Twitter and Facebook at this point. So you can see some mature volume numbers and rate of growth, because if you think about Klout, at the end of the day a lot of users aggregate all of their networks in one place. Instagram grows quickly.
There is a cycle where you go up through the hype and then go under the trough of disillusionment. With Instagram, you just don’t see that. You  see it continuing to grow up and out to the right.
Let me give you a good example of a network I personally love that the jury is still out on - and that’s Vine. It is number one in the App Store. You see more and more Vines being created. I would say that we are still in that phase to see if it is going to be big.
Small Business Trends:Â Are you seeing smaller businesses being able to leverage what you guys are doing in terms of using Klout from a corporate branding perspective?
Matt Thomson:Â I think if you are talking about brick and mortar, like Little Star Pizza in San Francisco that has two or three locations now, no not yet. They might have the same page on Facebook and maybe on a Twitter account and that is about it.
Now with what I would consider an SMB (small business) like a Cirque Du Soleil. They are a pretty outsized brand, but they are still in my world an SMB, because they are not an enterprise. Usually, what it comes down to is if it’s a consumer facing company that uses brand and awareness to drive purchases down the funnel. Is it a heavy word of mouth driven industry? Fashion is pretty good for this, obviously travel and entertainment, all of those kinds of SMB’s in those areas, absolutely. It is still creeping down, but I would say it is still in the upper echelons like the P&G’s of the world, McDonalds, etc.
A lot of SMB’s consider themselves to have conversion based products. Obviously influence, advocacy, word of mouth lends itself very well to basically the whole brand funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase intent.
Small Business Trends:Â Â What are some of the best ways that they could begin to use Klout?
Matt Thomson:Â I think generally our Perks program has proven really successful in mobilizing influencers to discuss a brand. So that is clearly our bread and butter business. Then, our API and our data is just heavily utilized. Going forward, we are basically going to be moving a little bit more into allowance. We announced Klout for Business almost a month ago, and we will be looking a lot more at letting friends come in and do self-service.
What we are going to do is give more tools around audience analysis and group management of influencers. Then allow brands to not only give rewards based on that, but also conduct surveys of their top influencers so they are giving their opinion of the most influential people in the market for their brand. Then we are going to be experimenting with other engagement channels to come off of Klout. So if you think about LinkedIn, they have an InMail feature, they have a customer side, they have an enterprise side, they have a recruiters side in their case and then they have an InMail feature which allows those two sides of the platform to connect. We think about our business very much like that.
Small Business Trends: Are you doing anything to address some of the concerns people may still have in terms of getting the full measure of somebody’s influence?
Matt Thomson:  Yes, you thought I was going to say no, right? I think when I get into that world I start to think a lot about the old word of mouth practices, about worrying about everybody’s offline influence in every way, shape and form. It is where you draw the line saying this is the amount of information we can actually utilize, and then this is the amount of information that gets us 80% of the way there.
I think anything that has scale in history had to make some concessions to perfection. In other words, some concessions with perfection taking a back seat. Do I think we are perfect? No, absolutely not. Do I think we are going to do a lot more at scale than any other company can do out there that is trying to perfect it? Yeah, absolutely.
Usually those complaints come from the business side of the world. While we care about the business side, our one guiding principle is to make Klout a viable utility for consumers, not to make money from brands. I think we do pretty well. I can guarantee that we have more science behind what we do, than any so called experts out there in this field of word of mouth.
Small Business Trends:Â Where can people learn more?
Matt Thomson:Â I would say Klout.com is obviously a great resource. There are some really good books like Mark Shafter on Influence and stuff like that are out there that are very interesting, that are good reads about the market overall.
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.
Tune in as Matt Thomson, Vice President of Business Development and Platforms for Klout, joins Brent Leary to discuss the ins and outs of social influence. Â Among the topics discussed are measurement, influential media, leveraging, branding and more.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
Matt Thomson: Sure, I mostly spent my time consumerizing the enterprise normally on the product side. Klout is actually is my first business development role. Before that I worked at Lithium and Microsoft; Microsoft in the Dynamics CRM area. I came over to Klout as the first business guy, if you will. But again, my background is mostly on the product side and little bit of marketing.
Small Business Trends:Â Is it more difficult to measure online influence today as compared to when Klout first start rolling a couple of years back?
Matt Thomson: It is a little more difficult both industry wide and Klout-specific. Let’s talk industry wide first. Estimates are about 2.3 billion people in the world are on some form of social. Mobile makes it easier; you’ve got video now and it is much easier to work with. Bandwidth is getting better and images are coming on really strong.
Instagram’s growth cannot be trifled with. I don’t know how anybody who doesn’t think about this as a standalone business can actually track this in a meaningful way.
Now from the Klout standpoint, we started with a robust vision and a very simple way to try to parlay that vision to the world with the Klout Score. We started two and a half years ago breaking it down into more contextualized chunks. For example, Matt is influential in Pabst Blue Ribbon. We have gotten to the point where we can actually crunch data enough to dictate that fact for about 150 million people.
Small Business Trends:Â You mentioned Instagram is becoming a real force. When did you see that happening and how quickly can you determine whether a new network is going to be something very important in this sphere of influence?
Matt Thomson: I would break that question down into volume vs. the niche. I think there are some niche networks out there that are very important and this is something that Klout probably is a bit long term vision on. You can think of something like Stock Twits.
Those are super interesting to us, mostly because of the very robust verticalization.
Now to answer your question more directly about volume-oriented networks, what you see with Instagram, we just registered a user base attaching their Instagram accounts at a level that’s almost above Twitter and Facebook at this point. So you can see some mature volume numbers and rate of growth, because if you think about Klout, at the end of the day a lot of users aggregate all of their networks in one place. Instagram grows quickly.
There is a cycle where you go up through the hype and then go under the trough of disillusionment. With Instagram, you just don’t see that. You  see it continuing to grow up and out to the right.
Let me give you a good example of a network I personally love that the jury is still out on - and that’s Vine. It is number one in the App Store. You see more and more Vines being created. I would say that we are still in that phase to see if it is going to be big.
Small Business Trends:Â Are you seeing smaller businesses being able to leverage what you guys are doing in terms of using Klout from a corporate branding perspective?
Matt Thomson:Â I think if you are talking about brick and mortar, like Little Star Pizza in San Francisco that has two or three locations now, no not yet. They might have the same page on Facebook and maybe on a Twitter account and that is about it.
Now with what I would consider an SMB (small business) like a Cirque Du Soleil. They are a pretty outsized brand, but they are still in my world an SMB, because they are not an enterprise. Usually, what it comes down to is if it’s a consumer facing company that uses brand and awareness to drive purchases down the funnel. Is it a heavy word of mouth driven industry? Fashion is pretty good for this, obviously travel and entertainment, all of those kinds of SMB’s in those areas, absolutely. It is still creeping down, but I would say it is still in the upper echelons like the P&G’s of the world, McDonalds, etc.
A lot of SMB’s consider themselves to have conversion based products. Obviously influence, advocacy, word of mouth lends itself very well to basically the whole brand funnel of awareness, consideration and purchase intent.
Small Business Trends:Â Â What are some of the best ways that they could begin to use Klout?
Matt Thomson:Â I think generally our Perks program has proven really successful in mobilizing influencers to discuss a brand. So that is clearly our bread and butter business. Then, our API and our data is just heavily utilized. Going forward, we are basically going to be moving a little bit more into allowance. We announced Klout for Business almost a month ago, and we will be looking a lot more at letting friends come in and do self-service.
What we are going to do is give more tools around audience analysis and group management of influencers. Then allow brands to not only give rewards based on that, but also conduct surveys of their top influencers so they are giving their opinion of the most influential people in the market for their brand. Then we are going to be experimenting with other engagement channels to come off of Klout. So if you think about LinkedIn, they have an InMail feature, they have a customer side, they have an enterprise side, they have a recruiters side in their case and then they have an InMail feature which allows those two sides of the platform to connect. We think about our business very much like that.
Small Business Trends: Are you doing anything to address some of the concerns people may still have in terms of getting the full measure of somebody’s influence?
Matt Thomson:  Yes, you thought I was going to say no, right? I think when I get into that world I start to think a lot about the old word of mouth practices, about worrying about everybody’s offline influence in every way, shape and form. It is where you draw the line saying this is the amount of information we can actually utilize, and then this is the amount of information that gets us 80% of the way there.
I think anything that has scale in history had to make some concessions to perfection. In other words, some concessions with perfection taking a back seat. Do I think we are perfect? No, absolutely not. Do I think we are going to do a lot more at scale than any other company can do out there that is trying to perfect it? Yeah, absolutely.
Usually those complaints come from the business side of the world. While we care about the business side, our one guiding principle is to make Klout a viable utility for consumers, not to make money from brands. I think we do pretty well. I can guarantee that we have more science behind what we do, than any so called experts out there in this field of word of mouth.
Small Business Trends:Â Where can people learn more?
Matt Thomson:Â I would say Klout.com is obviously a great resource. There are some really good books like Mark Shafter on Influence and stuff like that are out there that are very interesting, that are good reads about the market overall.
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.
Secure USB vendor BlockMaster is to introduce cloud backup and a ‘digital fence' concept next week.
Named the ZoneRestrictor, the technology will be presented at next week's Infosecurity Europe exhibition and locks down the usage of SafeConsoleReady secure USB drives to specific computers using certificate technology, BlockMaster said.
According to the company, this allows for stronger controls for manual transfers of confidential or sensitive files between secure networks, lab environments and within high-security organisations.
Part of the 4.7 release of SafeConsole, the management system for its SafeStick USB, Anders Kjellander, co-founder and chief security officer of BlockMaster, told SC Magazine that it had seen great pickup on the ZoneRestrictor feature from users with the highest security requirements or businesses that need to adhere to strict compliance.
He said: “It seems to be a global issue as we have seen pickup in North America, Europe and Asia. Moving data between strictly controlled networks is a task commonly assigned a USB drive and now the SafeConsoleReady secure USB drives can be locked down to only be allowed to unlock on designated machines - it is very much like a authenticated VPN.
“We are really excited about the 4.7 release of SafeConsole as it delivers on our promise to our customers to keep on pushing the envelope in our development and expand what problems secure USB drives can help solve.â€
Speaking about the Cloud Backup addition, Kjellander said that no other company is offering automated backup on secure USB drives, and called the new addition ‘truly elegant'.
He said it introduces fully-feature automatic secure backup from the secure USB drive onto any cloud, be it private or public and all data is encrypted on the devices prior to being transferred to storage ensuring full compliance and security.
“It works in the background and requires no user actions to complete the backups,†he said.
“A device recovery is a point and click exercise for the administrators and the backups are restored over the network or internet onto a new off-the-shelf drive.â€
A third of European enterprises have experienced an increase in the frequency of network and data security-related incidents in the last 18 months.
According to a survey of 400 senior IT decision makers by Ciena, 36 per cent had experienced an increase in the frequency of network and data security-related incidents, while 28 per cent of UK respondents had noticed an increase in security threats.
Mervyn Kelly, EMEA marketing director at Ciena, said: “Today's technology-intensive environment relies on communications networks to deliver information safely among individuals and organisations. Yet, as technology has become more complex, these survey results show that threats against keeping information safe have also become more frequent, complex and pervasive.â€
The survey also found that 11 per cent of surveyed enterprises do not deploy any encryption method, while 16 per cent of public sector respondents had no encryption in place, even though almost one-third (29 per cent) of them have experienced an increase in security threats in the last 18 months.
The US House of Representatives pushed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) forward last night.
Despite a White House threat to veto the controversial information-sharing bill, it was passed and protocols for sharing cyber intelligence information among the US government and the private sector were formalised, in a 288-127 vote.
However the version of the act, which was rejected in 2012 and was never taken up by the Senate, faces the same hurdles, along with a signature from President Obama, before being enacted. Two days earlier, the White House expressed longstanding concerns about the bill's privacy.
This year's version of the bill, which cleared the House Intelligence Committee last Wednesday, features a number of revisions from when the legislation was first re-introduced. But to the chagrin of privacy advocates, some of the bill's toughest privacy amendments, did not make their way into the final iteration of the bill.
Critics of CISPA wanted the bill to include limited liability protection for companies sharing intelligence with the government, and requirements that personal information be eliminated from threat data prior to it being shared. Supporters believe it is necessary to counter increasingly advanced threats, such as those emanating from China, Iran, Russia and elsewhere.
Rainey Reitman, activism director at the digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, explained her problems with CISPA during a Reddit discussion held 10 days ago. "Congress wants to appear as if it's doing 'something' about internet security," she wrote. "But the truth is that the proposals they're suggesting don't address most of the major network security issues.
“From social engineering to two-step authentication, from the broken CA [certificate authority] system to encrypting the web, there are concrete and real issues around network security that can and should be addressed (though a lot of them aren't legislative solutions). Instead of grappling with these issues, Congress is trying to push an information 'sharing' bill that would undermine existing privacy laws.â€
Consumers are savvier than they’ve ever been. Before making a purchase or choosing a service, consumers will do their research. They’re comparing you to your competitors and looking to make the best decision for themselves. One big thing that’ll send them to you over the other guys is a recommendation. Good reviews, or the assurance of a friend, can be all someone needs to hand their money and their trust over to you.
Word of mouth is the most powerful force in the world, after water, and it’s tough to grasp and control (like water). But here are five steps to jumpstart word of mouth, boost your brand reputation and make your cash register sing, courtesy of Rob Fuggetta, CEO of social media marketing firm Zuberance.
1.) Identify your Word of Mouth Champions (AKA “Brand Advocates)
Advocates are your most loyal, enthusiastic, and engaged customers. They’re your most valuable customers. Advocates don’t just buy your products. They help you sell products. An easy way to identify Advocates to ask the “Ultimate Question†for customer loyalty: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company or products?†Customers who answer 9 or 10 are considered Advocates.
2.) Encourage Advocates to rate and review your products
Seventy percent of consumers trust online reviews, Nielsen says. Give Advocates online applications and tools to rate and review your products and services plus create positive stories about their experiences. This can help you boost online ratings and rankings.
3.) Amplify Advocates
Enable Advocates to rave about you on shopping sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and elsewhere by including social sharing widgets in content creation forms. Make it easy for Advocates to publish and/or share the content they’ve created with their social networks Among these friends and followers of your Advocates are your existing customers. (Birds of brand feather do flock together.)
4.) Monetize Advocates
Give Advocates promotional offers they can share with their friends and colleague. Here’s a hint: give Advocates special offers to share instead of the same offers you give everyone.
5.) Generate referral leads
Make it easy for Advocates to generate referral leads and referral traffic to your website and landing pages by including links in the content and offers they share with their friends and colleagues.
For more on the elusive beast we know as word of mouth, see our archives!
Have you had success encouraging word of mouth? What techniques did you use? Let us know in the comments!
Consumers are savvier than they’ve ever been. Before making a purchase or choosing a service, consumers will do their research. They’re comparing you to your competitors and looking to make the best decision for themselves. One big thing that’ll send them to you over the other guys is a recommendation. Good reviews, or the assurance of a friend, can be all someone needs to hand their money and their trust over to you.
Word of mouth is the most powerful force in the world, after water, and it’s tough to grasp and control (like water). But here are five steps to jumpstart word of mouth, boost your brand reputation and make your cash register sing, courtesy of Rob Fuggetta, CEO of social media marketing firm Zuberance.
1.) Identify your Word of Mouth Champions (AKA “Brand Advocates)
Advocates are your most loyal, enthusiastic, and engaged customers. They’re your most valuable customers. Advocates don’t just buy your products. They help you sell products. An easy way to identify Advocates to ask the “Ultimate Question†for customer loyalty: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company or products?†Customers who answer 9 or 10 are considered Advocates.
2.) Encourage Advocates to rate and review your products
Seventy percent of consumers trust online reviews, Nielsen says. Give Advocates online applications and tools to rate and review your products and services plus create positive stories about their experiences. This can help you boost online ratings and rankings.
3.) Amplify Advocates
Enable Advocates to rave about you on shopping sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and elsewhere by including social sharing widgets in content creation forms. Make it easy for Advocates to publish and/or share the content they’ve created with their social networks Among these friends and followers of your Advocates are your existing customers. (Birds of brand feather do flock together.)
4.) Monetize Advocates
Give Advocates promotional offers they can share with their friends and colleague. Here’s a hint: give Advocates special offers to share instead of the same offers you give everyone.
5.) Generate referral leads
Make it easy for Advocates to generate referral leads and referral traffic to your website and landing pages by including links in the content and offers they share with their friends and colleagues.
For more on the elusive beast we know as word of mouth, see our archives!
Have you had success encouraging word of mouth? What techniques did you use? Let us know in the comments!
It’s been a shocking time in the past 12 hours in the Boston area.  In the wake of Monday’s bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon, one police officer is dead and one wounded, and one suspect is dead.  And nearly the entire metropolitan area of Boston is currently in the midst of a giant manhunt for the second suspect (pictured,  inset below) as of 8 am Eastern time.
Public transportation in the Boston area is shut down, and all colleges are closed. Citizens are being asked to stay in their homes and businesses being asked to stay closed â€" at least those in the immediate area of Watertown and surrounds.
And once again, just like in the immediate wake of Monday’s Marathon bombing, ordinary citizens using social media had the scoop on tragic events even before the news media.  Armed with cameras, mobile phones and Internet connections, people in Watertown, Massachusetts were giving gripping minute-by-minute accounts as the events unfolded.  Eventually the news media will catch up, but the value of social media in these situations in warning citizens and sharing important news has been proven.
The latest events started unfolding at around 5 pm yesterday, when the FBI released photographs of two suspects. Â Several hours later after a convenience store robbery and a carjacking, a ferocious gun battle was caught on video by a citizen (it was happening outside his house).
Reddit.com in particular was an excellent source of information on events as they unfolded overnight.  Two threads (including this one) have had ongoing updates, including photographs, police scanner reports, and videos.  There’s even a link to an interactive Google map with locations identified of shootouts and other activities.  The Huffington Post also has had live blog updates with a good collection of images at the bottom of the post.
Twitter also had coverage, although there were many rumors tweeted that turned out not to be true. Â For instance, the names of suspects were inaccurately discussed for hours. Still, a lot of good and valuable information was shared, for those willing to take the time to sift through it. Â And you get fascinating shots, like this one taken by Shawn England and shared on Twitter, showing police on the roof of a building in her backyard in Watertown at 6 am local time.
So, YouTube has reached 1 billion monthly unique visitors. That gives YouTube a comparable size audience with Facebook. If you already use Facebook to engage with customers, you should be aware that for the first time another network has an equal reach as far as visitors.
And the push by social media sites to get advertising dollars continues…. YouTube apparently apparently feels under-appreciated, and wants you to know that its audience is more than just a bunch of people who watch funny cat videos. On its official blog it points out that all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are currently running ad campaigns on YouTube. And that, “If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India.† Got it?
From the days of early email marketing, online businesses have focused on the value of building a list of faithful subscribers. Those subscribers then become potential customers and clients. YouTube’s new One Channel design focuses on subscribing to favorite video channels versus randomly watching popular individual videos. This article offers tips for migrating to the new YouTube One Channel approach.
South Korean rapper Psy’s followup to his popular Gangnam Style video racked up 82 million views as of this week. Twenty million of those were in the first 24 hours. That’s better than Justin Bieber’s latest record. While the typical small business couldn’t dream of those numbers of views â€" still it proves the viral video is alive and thriving. On a more modest scale, you can gain interest with a quality video that gets even a fraction of those numbers.
YouTube recently demonstrated the use of its streaming video feature to build both brand awareness and engagement with an elaborate April Fool’s video presentation. The gag awards broadcast generated more than 400,000 comments, more than 50,000 new channel subscribers, and more than 500,000 unique views. Again, as a small business those kinds of huge metrics may be out of reach â€" but even modest live streaming numbers could give a boost to your marketing.
A recent update of the YouTube iOS app will allow iPhone users to view the new streaming video feature on their mobile devices. The update means more iPhone users on YouTube, and of course, a potentially bigger audience for your channel and for streaming videos you create for your brand. With growing mobile use and the popularity of the iPhone, this offers even more opportunities to reach your audience.
You may be reading all these big numbers and feeling a bit inadequate. Perhaps you haven’t gotten involved in posting online video for your business on YouTube. Perhaps you haven’t yet had a chance to share some of those videos via social media or on your website. But entrepreneur and celebrity wineseller Gary Vaynerchuck, a big YouTube user, says there’s still time to get involved. Vaynerchuck predicts plenty of growth ahead and opportunities for businesses to use YouTube for marketing.
You can now make your YouTube channel even more social. Google allows users to add a Google+ account to their YouTube channel. The new feature allows brands to add even more social engagement to their video channel, but it also allows them to create even more potential crossover between Google+ followers and YouTube subscribers.
Like most large platforms, YouTube has developed a surrounding ecosystem of smaller companies and startups that provide products and services to help businesses use YouTube. Â Cambridge-based Pixability is one such example. The company just raised $4.1 million in funding for its YouTube-related services.
If you still need convincing about the power of video, just look at Yahoo’s bid to acquire YouTube rival Daily Motion.  Former Googler and now Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wouldn’t be interested in acquiring a video competitor if video wasn’t important to the future.
Tax time may finally be behind small business owners, but the pressure remains. Small business owners face a tax time crunch much more than once a year, and new data from the National Small Business Association confirms just how much filing taxes can slow down operations.
According to a report from the National Small Business Association (PDF), small business owners are putting nearly four full work weeks toward completing their taxes annually. For nearly half of all small business owners, Read More
Malicious tactics that exploited the Boston marathon bombing have switched to the explosion in Waco, Texas.
According to research by Websense Security Labs, tactics have been altered so that where Monday's bombing in Boston was the common term in malicious links and phishing messages, they now relate to the explosion in Texas.
As revealed by SC Magazine on Wednesday, malicious links had been detected by a number of virus labs relating to the Boston bombing, with one suggestion that 234 malicious domains had been spotted.
Websense senior security researcher Carl Leonard said that the malicious campaign had quickly evolved to match the latest news from the Texas fertilizer plant explosion.
He said: “The emails are similar, but use texas.html instead of boston.html path. Subjects lines include: Texas Plant Explosion; Texas Explosion Injures Dozens; and Caught on Camera: Fertilizer Plant Explosion. The lure pages have updated titles, but the rest is similar.â€
In the attack, if the recipient attempts to open the attachment they are redirected to an exploit page and then malware is downloaded to the victim's desktop and remote commands send and receive data.
Websense said that rather than using a dropper file, which contains the malicious code within itself and often packed to prevent detection by anti-virus signatures, this campaign uses a downloader belonging to the Win32/Waledac family that is used to download further malicious binaries.
“In this case, two bots named Win32/Kelihos and Troj/Zbot are downloaded and installed on the compromised machine in order to join it to the cyber criminals' bot network,†Leonard said.
“We continue to see cyber criminals use tragic events to exploit people's thirst for information and their eagerness to help those affected. It's important for businesses to recognise that without the right level of protection, their employees could be accessing emails or websites that could ultimately give the bad guys access to their corporate network.â€
It’s important for your customers to be able to 
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
