Microsoft Apologizes For Prolonged Outlook.com Outage

Amazon was not the only service to see downtime in recent days. Microsoft has apologized for a recent outage on Outlook.com that took nearly three days to fully repair.

Microsoft says the outage lasted between Aug. 14 and Aug. 17 last week. On its service status page, the company blamed a system that interacts with a protocol used by most mobile devices.

This incident was a result of a failure in a caching service that interfaces with devices using Exchange ActiveSync, including most smart phones. The failure caused these devices to receive an error and continuously try to connect to our service. This resulted in a flood of traffic that our services did not handle properly, with the effect that some customers were unable to access their Outlook.com email and unable to share their SkyDrive files via email.

After Microsoft was able to restore Web access to Outlook email and sharing to SkyDrive, it began experiencing a backlog of requests from mobile accounts. While the company slowly restored mobile access, some users were unfortunately left without any services for a few days. The Microsoft services team reported all problems resolved with its services by early on Aug. 18.

The company says it has learned from the experience and has made changes in its system to compensate.

Was your business affected by the Outlook.com outage last week? What do you do when a service you rely upon for communications or other important business functions is out of commission?

Apology Concept Photo via Shutterstock

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Microsoft Apologizes For Prolonged Outlook.com Outage

Amazon was not the only service to see downtime in recent days. Microsoft has apologized for a recent outage on Outlook.com that took nearly three days to fully repair.

Microsoft says the outage lasted between Aug. 14 and Aug. 17 last week. On its service status page, the company blamed a system that interacts with a protocol used by most mobile devices.

This incident was a result of a failure in a caching service that interfaces with devices using Exchange ActiveSync, including most smart phones. The failure caused these devices to receive an error and continuously try to connect to our service. This resulted in a flood of traffic that our services did not handle properly, with the effect that some customers were unable to access their Outlook.com email and unable to share their SkyDrive files via email.

After Microsoft was able to restore Web access to Outlook email and sharing to SkyDrive, it began experiencing a backlog of requests from mobile accounts. While the company slowly restored mobile access, some users were unfortunately left without any services for a few days. The Microsoft services team reported all problems resolved with its services by early on Aug. 18.

The company says it has learned from the experience and has made changes in its system to compensate.

Was your business affected by the Outlook.com outage last week? What do you do when a service you rely upon for communications or other important business functions is out of commission?

Apology Concept Photo via Shutterstock

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Keep Your Best Employees With Better Benefits

Searching for quality talent can prove to be difficult, especially in the face of rising health care costs and health care reform. In fact, a recent NFIB report (PDF) found that 41 percent of small business owners reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions and 19 percent reported having job openings they could not fill in the current period.

To maintain the best employees for your business, it’s imperative for business owners to take necessary steps to keep current top-tier employees satisfied in today’s economy. So what can small businesses do to make sure their key players stick around instead of window shopping for new opportunities? One way to retain current personnel and attract superior applicants is by offering strong benefits packages.

According to the 2013 Aflac WorkForces Report (AWR), nearly half (49 percent) of employees say that improving their benefits packages is one thing their employer could do to keep them in their job. And with 51 percent of small business professionals at least somewhat likely to look for new employment in the next 12 months, strong benefits packages are necessary to encourage top talent to stay.

Wellness Works

One way to keep workers satisfied is to add wellness programs to existing benefits offerings. These programs don’t need to follow suit of large companies that pay monthly gym fees or provide daily healthy lunch substitutes.

An easy way to start off is to simply show employees the company cares about health and wellness. Organize after-hour fun runs or invite nutritionists to come into the office for lunch-and-learns. Place fruit bowls in office common areas, email wellness tips or provide information about free local exercise events.

These are effective ways to improve office health at little to no cost and demonstrate that your staff’s well-being is important to you.

Put Voluntary Into Action

If you’re afraid that strengthening benefits packages will put a burden on company finances, consider this: Voluntary insurance policies.

Many supplemental policies are offered at no additional benefits cost to the company. Companies can choose to contribute a portion of the premium or simply make the product available for employees to purchase. Some carriers even offer payroll deduction without added direct cost to businesses.

Be a Benefits Marketer

Offering strong benefits to your employees just isn’t enough - you have to expand your benefits communication beyond the open enrollment season. Seventy-nine percent of small business employees agree that well-communicated benefits programs would make them less likely to leave their jobs, according to the AWR. Since benefits are generally deducted directly from paychecks, it’s easy for workers to forget about the great aspects of their benefits package.

Plan creative ways to communicate about the total compensation, employee assistance programs and wellness incentives you offer on an ongoing basis.  Here are ways you can market your benefits options:

• Post benefits tips, reminders and employee testimonials on bulletin boards in high traffic areas.
• Print benefits communication on colored paper instead of white paper to quickly grab the attention of personnel.
• Mail benefits information directly to the homes of employees  to increase employee awareness and encourage conversation with family members.
• Plan benefits “office hours” when employees can drop by to discuss anything benefits related with a HR professional or a visiting agent or broker.
• Carve out time in a staff meeting or town hall to give an overview of the different benefits available for employees.

With an undeniable connection between benefits and employee loyalty, you need to make sure employees are not only armed with options suitable for their individual lifestyles, but also that they are fully aware of their choices.

Wellness Photo via Shutterstock/small>

Keep Your Best Employees With Better Benefits

Searching for quality talent can prove to be difficult, especially in the face of rising health care costs and health care reform. In fact, a recent NFIB report (PDF) found that 41 percent of small business owners reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions and 19 percent reported having job openings they could not fill in the current period.

To maintain the best employees for your business, it’s imperative for business owners to take necessary steps to keep current top-tier employees satisfied in today’s economy. So what can small businesses do to make sure their key players stick around instead of window shopping for new opportunities? One way to retain current personnel and attract superior applicants is by offering strong benefits packages.

According to the 2013 Aflac WorkForces Report (AWR), nearly half (49 percent) of employees say that improving their benefits packages is one thing their employer could do to keep them in their job. And with 51 percent of small business professionals at least somewhat likely to look for new employment in the next 12 months, strong benefits packages are necessary to encourage top talent to stay.

Wellness Works

One way to keep workers satisfied is to add wellness programs to existing benefits offerings. These programs don’t need to follow suit of large companies that pay monthly gym fees or provide daily healthy lunch substitutes.

An easy way to start off is to simply show employees the company cares about health and wellness. Organize after-hour fun runs or invite nutritionists to come into the office for lunch-and-learns. Place fruit bowls in office common areas, email wellness tips or provide information about free local exercise events.

These are effective ways to improve office health at little to no cost and demonstrate that your staff’s well-being is important to you.

Put Voluntary Into Action

If you’re afraid that strengthening benefits packages will put a burden on company finances, consider this: Voluntary insurance policies.

Many supplemental policies are offered at no additional benefits cost to the company. Companies can choose to contribute a portion of the premium or simply make the product available for employees to purchase. Some carriers even offer payroll deduction without added direct cost to businesses.

Be a Benefits Marketer

Offering strong benefits to your employees just isn’t enough - you have to expand your benefits communication beyond the open enrollment season. Seventy-nine percent of small business employees agree that well-communicated benefits programs would make them less likely to leave their jobs, according to the AWR. Since benefits are generally deducted directly from paychecks, it’s easy for workers to forget about the great aspects of their benefits package.

Plan creative ways to communicate about the total compensation, employee assistance programs and wellness incentives you offer on an ongoing basis.  Here are ways you can market your benefits options:

• Post benefits tips, reminders and employee testimonials on bulletin boards in high traffic areas.
• Print benefits communication on colored paper instead of white paper to quickly grab the attention of personnel.
• Mail benefits information directly to the homes of employees  to increase employee awareness and encourage conversation with family members.
• Plan benefits “office hours” when employees can drop by to discuss anything benefits related with a HR professional or a visiting agent or broker.
• Carve out time in a staff meeting or town hall to give an overview of the different benefits available for employees.

With an undeniable connection between benefits and employee loyalty, you need to make sure employees are not only armed with options suitable for their individual lifestyles, but also that they are fully aware of their choices.

Wellness Photo via Shutterstock/small>

You’ve Been Hacked: 6 Steps To Handling The Situation and Protecting Your Business

Your business has been hacked, but it doesn’t need to be the end of the world! By taking the right steps following a breach, you can control the situation and your reputation with employees and customers, all while restoring your information and adding additional protection.

This article is brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business stay protected - go to http://www.avg.com/us-en/internet-security-business .

You’ve Been Hacked: 6 Steps To Handling The Situation and Protecting Your Business

Businesses face breaches around the world every day. If you’re reading this, you’ve either been faced with a serious hacking incident at some point or are curious of what to do in such an event. As many as 90 percent of businesses have been hacked in their lifetimes. And we’re not talking about defacing a website. The survey the report refers to only takes network and database breaches into account. These are the most serious, since hackers can steal customer data and everything you hold precious.

59 percent of the companies participating in the survey have suffered breaches more than once and 41 percent have suffered half a million dollars in damages or more. These kinds of incidents don’t just cost money. They also cause employees and customers to lose trust in you.

So, you got hacked. What do you do? There’s no easy way to deal with a security breach, but you can start telling yourself it’s not the end of the world after you do these things:

• Identify Breach. Find out exactly what kind of breach occurred. Check your bank accounts, “Sent” folders in email accounts, database logs, and any other relevant data stores where you might have been compromised. Search for clues that show where the hacker has been. Once you have that information, you’ll know where the hacker has been and where the holes in your security are.

• Get IT professionals in on the case. Cooperate with them only as much as necessary, giving them the access they need to perform a full analysis. They’ll be able to tell you how the hacker got in and perhaps even let you know what you could do to prevent this from happening again.

• Notify Authorities. Notify authorities, especially if there are signs of a “calling card” left behind. Some hackers like to take credit for their work and leave behind an alias or something unique. Give authorities all the information they need to assist with catching the crook.

  

• Tell Employees and Customers. Make a statement to all employees and customers, even those who you might think were unaffected by the catastrophe. You really have no way to know who might have fallen victim to the attack collaterally. The best thing to do is be straightforward and honest to them so that they may also take measures to protect themselves. This might damage your company’s reputation a bit, but you’ll suffer even more if you don’t come out with the truth about this incident.

• Only Share What You Have To. Tell customers only what they need to know. There is such a thing as giving away too much information. Tell them you were compromised, but don’t reveal too many details about it. Give them only enough information so they get the general idea. You must let them know exactly what kind of information was stolen. For example, if the hacker got access to customer passwords, let them know of the fact and advise them to change their passwords on other accounts. Be courteous and reset their passwords on your database as well.

• Take Measures To Avoid Future Breaches. Work with everyone involved and give them the reassurance that you are taking measures to prevent the situation from repeating itself in the future. For many people, this is sufficient. Unfortunately, you will lose some respect from customers, but it’s part of life. You must move on with determination.

Breaches can be frightening, and nobody really is ever completely prepared to face one. With these pieces of advice, you’ll pull the reigns hard enough to steer your company in a more desirable direction. It really isn’t the end of the world.

You’ve Been Hacked: 6 Steps To Handling The Situation and Protecting Your Business

Your business has been hacked, but it doesn’t need to be the end of the world! By taking the right steps following a breach, you can control the situation and your reputation with employees and customers, all while restoring your information and adding additional protection.

This article is brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business stay protected - go to http://www.avg.com/us-en/internet-security-business .

You’ve Been Hacked: 6 Steps To Handling The Situation and Protecting Your Business

Businesses face breaches around the world every day. If you’re reading this, you’ve either been faced with a serious hacking incident at some point or are curious of what to do in such an event. As many as 90 percent of businesses have been hacked in their lifetimes. And we’re not talking about defacing a website. The survey the report refers to only takes network and database breaches into account. These are the most serious, since hackers can steal customer data and everything you hold precious.

59 percent of the companies participating in the survey have suffered breaches more than once and 41 percent have suffered half a million dollars in damages or more. These kinds of incidents don’t just cost money. They also cause employees and customers to lose trust in you.

So, you got hacked. What do you do? There’s no easy way to deal with a security breach, but you can start telling yourself it’s not the end of the world after you do these things:

• Identify Breach. Find out exactly what kind of breach occurred. Check your bank accounts, “Sent” folders in email accounts, database logs, and any other relevant data stores where you might have been compromised. Search for clues that show where the hacker has been. Once you have that information, you’ll know where the hacker has been and where the holes in your security are.

• Get IT professionals in on the case. Cooperate with them only as much as necessary, giving them the access they need to perform a full analysis. They’ll be able to tell you how the hacker got in and perhaps even let you know what you could do to prevent this from happening again.

• Notify Authorities. Notify authorities, especially if there are signs of a “calling card” left behind. Some hackers like to take credit for their work and leave behind an alias or something unique. Give authorities all the information they need to assist with catching the crook.

  

• Tell Employees and Customers. Make a statement to all employees and customers, even those who you might think were unaffected by the catastrophe. You really have no way to know who might have fallen victim to the attack collaterally. The best thing to do is be straightforward and honest to them so that they may also take measures to protect themselves. This might damage your company’s reputation a bit, but you’ll suffer even more if you don’t come out with the truth about this incident.

• Only Share What You Have To. Tell customers only what they need to know. There is such a thing as giving away too much information. Tell them you were compromised, but don’t reveal too many details about it. Give them only enough information so they get the general idea. You must let them know exactly what kind of information was stolen. For example, if the hacker got access to customer passwords, let them know of the fact and advise them to change their passwords on other accounts. Be courteous and reset their passwords on your database as well.

• Take Measures To Avoid Future Breaches. Work with everyone involved and give them the reassurance that you are taking measures to prevent the situation from repeating itself in the future. For many people, this is sufficient. Unfortunately, you will lose some respect from customers, but it’s part of life. You must move on with determination.

Breaches can be frightening, and nobody really is ever completely prepared to face one. With these pieces of advice, you’ll pull the reigns hard enough to steer your company in a more desirable direction. It really isn’t the end of the world.

Is WordPress Easy To Work With? That Depends on Your Web Developer

Small business owners all have one thing in common: They’re all on a budget, trying to do the best they can to build their businesses with a limited amount of financial resources.

One of the ways business owners attempt to save money is to take on the job of editing and updating their websites themselves, after having the initial site built for them by a development team. It’s a smart strategy, but it’s not always a successful one.

Adding and managing the content on your website can be a challenging task - particularly if your web developer makes it harder than it needs to be.

WordPress Doesn’t Equal Easy

If you only know one thing about website development, it’s likely to be WordPress. WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in use on the Web today, controlling nearly 60% of the marketplace. That’s 4 times more than the market share enjoyed by their nearest competitor, Joomla.

There’s a reason for WordPress’ popularity. When WordPress is used properly, it can result in wonderful websites. The key words here are “used properly.”

WordPress is, in many ways, similar to a kit-car or a modular home. All of the pieces are there, but some assembly is definitely required. Building even a basic website using WordPress requires a certain level of expertise. To accomplish the job in a time effective manner, you have to know the nuances and tricks to putting the site together.

It’s important to understand that a basic assembly approach generally isn’t enough to make the small business owner happy with their website. To make it easy for the everyday user to update and edit it - customization is required.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS). It is based on open source language of PHP and database foundation of MySQL. This platform is most well-known for blogging but you can do a lot more with it. WordPress provides much more functionality with plugins.

Plugins are extensions or enhancements to the basic WordPress platform. Plugins can be free or paid tools that can be integrated into your WordPress platform. Plugins can do things like protect your website from spam, add a contact form to your website or import the comments and posts from your social media sites. Plugins can also be custom written for your website by a WordPress developer.

The theme is the design of your website. It dictates what your website looks and feels like. Designers and web developers can customize the theme to control the front-end or user experience.

WordPress Out of the Box

When you install a clean version of WordPress it comes with a basic front-end white theme.  That looks like this:

[New blank site]

A WordPress front end designer will know how to create a custom look and feel for your website that meets the needs of your organization. This is known as a custom theme.

Something you should note is that creating a custom theme still means that the website should follow best practices of clean code, enhanced load time for the website and cross-browser compatibility.

WordPress Back-End

Every content management system has an administration area. This is where you go to update and manage the content on your website. Out of the box, the WordPress back-end or administration area looks like this:

[Dashboard]

[Page Draft]

The choices that your web developer makes here have a direct and profound impact on how easy it will be for you and your team to edit and update your website.

For example, a company may often want to update and edit content about their different types of projects. A savvy web developer will configure the back end with an easy-to-navigate system that makes it easy to add new projects, change project descriptions, change project classifications and more.

This functionality doesn’t come standard with the default WordPress back-end. Your web developer needs to build that for you.

If you are going to be handling updating and managing the content on your website yourself, you want the process to be as simple as possible. Making sure your WordPress website is easy to work with is your web developer’s job. Be sure to communicate clearly what you plan to do with your website, and ask them how they’re going to make it easy for you to accomplish your business goals.

The Right Developer Makes the Difference

Out of the box WordPress, like any open source content management system, does not always make managing and editing a site simple and easy. It’s up to your design and development team to customize the WordPress back-end to give you and your team what they need to manage the site with little knowledge about coding.

Making websites easy to use, edit and update is what separates one WordPress team from another. When you’re deciding who you want to have work on your website, don’t just look at the front of a website. You want to see samples - or even tour - the back-end of sites they’ve built for their clients. You want to know what kind of experience you can expect from your own website.

This information is critical to making a good decision. It’s never just about WordPress, it’s about making WordPress work for you.

Frustrated Photo via Shutterstock

Is WordPress Easy To Work With? That Depends on Your Web Developer

Small business owners all have one thing in common: They’re all on a budget, trying to do the best they can to build their businesses with a limited amount of financial resources.

One of the ways business owners attempt to save money is to take on the job of editing and updating their websites themselves, after having the initial site built for them by a development team. It’s a smart strategy, but it’s not always a successful one.

Adding and managing the content on your website can be a challenging task - particularly if your web developer makes it harder than it needs to be.

WordPress Doesn’t Equal Easy

If you only know one thing about website development, it’s likely to be WordPress. WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in use on the Web today, controlling nearly 60% of the marketplace. That’s 4 times more than the market share enjoyed by their nearest competitor, Joomla.

There’s a reason for WordPress’ popularity. When WordPress is used properly, it can result in wonderful websites. The key words here are “used properly.”

WordPress is, in many ways, similar to a kit-car or a modular home. All of the pieces are there, but some assembly is definitely required. Building even a basic website using WordPress requires a certain level of expertise. To accomplish the job in a time effective manner, you have to know the nuances and tricks to putting the site together.

It’s important to understand that a basic assembly approach generally isn’t enough to make the small business owner happy with their website. To make it easy for the everyday user to update and edit it - customization is required.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is a content management system (CMS). It is based on open source language of PHP and database foundation of MySQL. This platform is most well-known for blogging but you can do a lot more with it. WordPress provides much more functionality with plugins.

Plugins are extensions or enhancements to the basic WordPress platform. Plugins can be free or paid tools that can be integrated into your WordPress platform. Plugins can do things like protect your website from spam, add a contact form to your website or import the comments and posts from your social media sites. Plugins can also be custom written for your website by a WordPress developer.

The theme is the design of your website. It dictates what your website looks and feels like. Designers and web developers can customize the theme to control the front-end or user experience.

WordPress Out of the Box

When you install a clean version of WordPress it comes with a basic front-end white theme.  That looks like this:

[New blank site]

A WordPress front end designer will know how to create a custom look and feel for your website that meets the needs of your organization. This is known as a custom theme.

Something you should note is that creating a custom theme still means that the website should follow best practices of clean code, enhanced load time for the website and cross-browser compatibility.

WordPress Back-End

Every content management system has an administration area. This is where you go to update and manage the content on your website. Out of the box, the WordPress back-end or administration area looks like this:

[Dashboard]

[Page Draft]

The choices that your web developer makes here have a direct and profound impact on how easy it will be for you and your team to edit and update your website.

For example, a company may often want to update and edit content about their different types of projects. A savvy web developer will configure the back end with an easy-to-navigate system that makes it easy to add new projects, change project descriptions, change project classifications and more.

This functionality doesn’t come standard with the default WordPress back-end. Your web developer needs to build that for you.

If you are going to be handling updating and managing the content on your website yourself, you want the process to be as simple as possible. Making sure your WordPress website is easy to work with is your web developer’s job. Be sure to communicate clearly what you plan to do with your website, and ask them how they’re going to make it easy for you to accomplish your business goals.

The Right Developer Makes the Difference

Out of the box WordPress, like any open source content management system, does not always make managing and editing a site simple and easy. It’s up to your design and development team to customize the WordPress back-end to give you and your team what they need to manage the site with little knowledge about coding.

Making websites easy to use, edit and update is what separates one WordPress team from another. When you’re deciding who you want to have work on your website, don’t just look at the front of a website. You want to see samples - or even tour - the back-end of sites they’ve built for their clients. You want to know what kind of experience you can expect from your own website.

This information is critical to making a good decision. It’s never just about WordPress, it’s about making WordPress work for you.

Frustrated Photo via Shutterstock

Choosing Software? The 8 Step Checklist To Finding Cloud-Based Software

Small businesses are constantly bombarded with information on Cloud-based software and services. For many cost-conscious business owners, Cloud providers can be an appealing option for increasing productivity while still staying on budget. It’s a plan that’s working, too. According to two recent studies from Microsoft, 75 percent of small businesses say Cloud-based software and services have allowed them to experience improved service availability. An even more impressive 94 percent cite increased security benefits by using Cloud services.

But moving operations to the Cloud is more involved than simply signing up with a service provider. To ensure effectiveness, before choosing  Cloud-based software or services provider, Support.com vice president of product management and marketing James Morehead provides the following checklist.

• Cost-Effectiveness. Morehead points out that Cloud services can provide significant savings over deploying enterprise-class I.T. software and services locally. He recommends searching for a low monthly rate with reasonable or no up-front fees, from a company that charges pay-as-you-go billing.
• Scalability. As your business grows, you’ll want a Cloud solution that grows with you. Morehead points out the importance of being able to add or delete seats and/or licenses as necessary.
• Easy deployment. Most small businesses have limited I.T. resources, making it essential to find a Cloud service that allows for easy deployment.
• Security. Turning services over to a trusted company doesn’t reduce a business of liability. Be sure you check a provider’s security features to ensure customer data is safe.
• Maintenance. Both updates and backups should be handled by the Cloud provider, so it’s important to remain aware of the frequency of these updates and backups.
• Mobile accessibility. One of the best benefits of Cloud services, according to Morehead, is accessibility from anywhere, using any device. To take full advantage of this, add smartphones and tablets to your network and encourage employees to remain connected.
• Use technology. Morehead recommends AppDirect, an online marketplace that allows businesses to add software and license agreements as needed.
• Remember tech support. Ideally, a business’s equipment will be fully functional at all times, but on the rare occasions a computer or mobile device malfunctions, businesses need a plan. Implement a tech support service that can help even if your computer crashes at 11 p.m. when a presentation is due the next morning.

Cloud services are ideal for small businesses, who often lack the I.T. resources enjoyed by their much larger competitors. By ensuring your Cloud provider provides a full suite of services, you can remain in control of your data while still enjoying the benefits of having your software and services managed by offsite experts.

Choosing Software? The 8 Step Checklist To Finding Cloud-Based Software

Small businesses are constantly bombarded with information on Cloud-based software and services. For many cost-conscious business owners, Cloud providers can be an appealing option for increasing productivity while still staying on budget. It’s a plan that’s working, too. According to two recent studies from Microsoft, 75 percent of small businesses say Cloud-based software and services have allowed them to experience improved service availability. An even more impressive 94 percent cite increased security benefits by using Cloud services.

But moving operations to the Cloud is more involved than simply signing up with a service provider. To ensure effectiveness, before choosing  Cloud-based software or services provider, Support.com vice president of product management and marketing James Morehead provides the following checklist.

• Cost-Effectiveness. Morehead points out that Cloud services can provide significant savings over deploying enterprise-class I.T. software and services locally. He recommends searching for a low monthly rate with reasonable or no up-front fees, from a company that charges pay-as-you-go billing.
• Scalability. As your business grows, you’ll want a Cloud solution that grows with you. Morehead points out the importance of being able to add or delete seats and/or licenses as necessary.
• Easy deployment. Most small businesses have limited I.T. resources, making it essential to find a Cloud service that allows for easy deployment.
• Security. Turning services over to a trusted company doesn’t reduce a business of liability. Be sure you check a provider’s security features to ensure customer data is safe.
• Maintenance. Both updates and backups should be handled by the Cloud provider, so it’s important to remain aware of the frequency of these updates and backups.
• Mobile accessibility. One of the best benefits of Cloud services, according to Morehead, is accessibility from anywhere, using any device. To take full advantage of this, add smartphones and tablets to your network and encourage employees to remain connected.
• Use technology. Morehead recommends AppDirect, an online marketplace that allows businesses to add software and license agreements as needed.
• Remember tech support. Ideally, a business’s equipment will be fully functional at all times, but on the rare occasions a computer or mobile device malfunctions, businesses need a plan. Implement a tech support service that can help even if your computer crashes at 11 p.m. when a presentation is due the next morning.

Cloud services are ideal for small businesses, who often lack the I.T. resources enjoyed by their much larger competitors. By ensuring your Cloud provider provides a full suite of services, you can remain in control of your data while still enjoying the benefits of having your software and services managed by offsite experts.

Simple Customer Service Lessons from A Chinese Restaurant (Video)

I ordered some Chinese food from my local restaurant on Friday night - they got the order wrong. What was surprising was how they handled their mistake.

So many small retailers that I run into don’t seem to care about doing right by their customers - this one did.

What they did is a great lesson on customer service for us all.

Starbucks, Ritz Carlton and Zappos don’t hold a lock on customer service. Check out the video below or here.

Simple Customer Service Lessons from A Chinese Restaurant (Video)

I ordered some Chinese food from my local restaurant on Friday night - they got the order wrong. What was surprising was how they handled their mistake.

So many small retailers that I run into don’t seem to care about doing right by their customers - this one did.

What they did is a great lesson on customer service for us all.

Starbucks, Ritz Carlton and Zappos don’t hold a lock on customer service. Check out the video below or here.

Simple Customer Service Lessons from A Chinese Restaurant (Video)

I ordered some Chinese food from my local restaurant on Friday night - they got the order wrong. What was surprising was how they handled their mistake.

So many small retailers that I run into don’t seem to care about doing right by their customers - this one did.

What they did is a great lesson on customer service for us all.

Starbucks, Ritz Carlton and Zappos don’t hold a lock on customer service. Check out the video below or here.

2 Types of Video to Build Your Business

Online video is exploding. It’s now the most popular online advertising format, beating out Facebook and Google Adwords. If you have anything to sell, promote or explain, you’d better be using video to help do it.

One type of video that small business owners have been doing for years is a basic video of them speaking. If you run a small business that offers some type of personal service, this personal touch type of video can be very effective.

On the other hand, if you’re not great on camera or your particular business doesn’t lend itself to this type of video, you’ve got other great video options. These two below have become both popular and effective with every type of business, product, service and organization.

Concept Videos

Also known as “big idea” videos, these short, creative videos are designed to captivate the viewer, convey a compelling message and leave the viewer with a desire to buy.

In essence, a great concept video is a great commercial.

A well done concept video should not only resonate with your prospect on an intellectual level, it needs to connect on an emotional level. Because studies have shown that it’s that emotional connection that makes the difference in a buying decision.

The goal of a concept video is to not only inform, but to convert your prospects into paying customers.

Explainer Videos

As the name suggests, “explainer” videos are designed to explain a product or service. They usually take the form of simple animated graphics that tell a story. It often involves a cartoon-like character and infographics. A “whiteboard” animation that simulates a hand quickly drawing on a whiteboard is another popular explainer video style.

Unlike a 30 or 15 second concept video, explainer videos usually average about 60 seconds.

Explainer videos have become very popular in the B2B arena because B2B products, in general, tend to be more esoteric. However, familiar products and services can also benefit from an explainer video. For example, while everyone knows what a dentist is, they may not know much about dental implants. An explainer video can explain what a dental implant is, why you might need one and how it’s done.

Smart business owners realize that even if they have the best product in the world, they won’t be successful if they don’t effectively excite and convince prospects. If done right these types of videos will help you do that.

Video Photo via Shutterstock

Microsoft re-releases patch for bug in Active Directory Federation Services

A second patch released last week by Microsoft has caused problems for users, forcing the software company to pull it and, on Monday, release an amended version of the fix.

Bulletin MS13-066 addresses a privately reported flaw, rated 'important', in Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) that could permit an attacker to obtain information related to the service account being used.

The original patch caused AD FS to stop functioning in some instances, Microsoft said. The new update should eliminate that possibility.

Last week, the company also pulled MS13-061, which addresses three vulnerabilities in Exchange Server. It was scrapped after Microsoft became aware that installing it causes problems. The issues do not occur in Exchange 2007 or 2010 environments, only 2013. Microsoft is still working on a revised fix.

Microsoft: Upgrade from Windows XP or risk infinite \'zero-days\'

Microsoft is intensifying its efforts to get users to scrap Windows XP, the 12-year-old operating system for which the software giant is ending support next April.

Tim Rains, director of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, authored a blog post last week reminding customers of the perils that could await them should they continue running XP, which debuted in 2001, once Redmond stops patching the platform. Users should upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.

"There is a sense of urgency because after April 8 [2014], Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates," Rains wrote. "This means that any new vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP after its 'end of life' will not be addressed by new security updates from Microsoft."

Rains said that when a vulnerability is patched in one of Microsoft's supported operating system versions, attackers typically reverse engineer the fix in the hope of creating an exploit that could target users who failed to apply the update.

When Microsoft ends support for XP, it will be likely that such a vulnerability would affect even outdated Windows versions, and without any possibility for a patch, attackers will essentially have free reign on XP endpoints.

"Since a security update will never become available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will essentially have a 'zero day' vulnerability forever," Rains wrote.

In addition, customers should not rely on the hope that anti-exploit functionality will prevent a successful attack, he said.

"The challenge here is that you'll never know, with any confidence, if the trusted computing base of the system can actually be trusted because attackers will be armed with public knowledge of zero-day exploits in Windows XP that could enable them to compromise the system and possibly run the code of their choice," Rains wrote.

So what's holding up the migrations?

According to a study conducted in April by VMware, 64 per cent of enterprise-size companies still haven't migrated off XP. The same goes for 52 per cent of mid-size firms and 61 per cent of SMBs.

"Common challenges such as end-user downtime, data loss, migration failures and effort to upgrade remote employees can all be avoided if you plan ahead," wrote Sarah Semple, VMware's director of product marketing, in a blog post.

In addition, cost is an impediment. Gartner has estimated that, based on a 10,000-PC environment, the expense of migration is between £769 and £1,275 per machine. 

Syrian Electronic Army attacks several sites for the price of one

It only took one attack last week, but it was enough to allow the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) to compromise The Washington Post, CNN and Time.  

On Wednesday, visitors who clicked recommendation links featured on any of the the victim sites may have been redirected to pages controlled by the pro-Assad hacker collective. The links were said to have contained political messages and did not serve any malicious content.

The SEA took claim for the attacks via Twitter, explaining it was facilitated - and in a short time - by a compromised third-party known as Outbrain, a content recommendation service used by more than 90,000 websites and blogs.

Access to Outbrain enabled the attackers to infect the targeted sites.

A successful phishing attack likely provided the entry in, Chris Wysopal, co-founder and chief technology officer for application security company Veracode, told SCMagazine.com on Monday. He explained that official-looking emails were sent to Outbrain employees, appearing to come from CEO Yaron Galai.

Each email contained an embedded link that, when followed, led to a page asking employees to enter their corporate usernames and passwords. At least one phish was successful, and that information was sent back to the attackers.

“Once the SEA had those credentials, they could change the content Outbrain published to their customers - [thus] changing the content that is displayed on those websites,” Wysopal said, explaining future implications could be significant, especially if the end goal is something malicious and not just to spread a political message.

Outbrain responded by taking down its service and successfully blocking the intruders, making a public announcement and by improving security to prevent these kinds of attacks. All other services on the media websites do not appear to have been affected.

Wysopal said third-party organisations must be held accountable and that the media industry and their associates appear to be skimping on security. He said these types of attacks will continue to happen if larger entities that outsource do not work collaboratively with their partners to set defence standards.

“To prevent these types of attacks from succeeding, organisations should provide security awareness to their staff to help identify and prevent them from falling prey to spear phishing attacks, implement multi-factor and role-based access controls for corporate social networking accounts, enforce a password policy requiring strong passwords and regular password changes, and conduct regular, thorough account access and vulnerability scanning of internet-facing servers, applications and services,” said Scott Hazdra, principal security consultant at security and risk management consulting company Neohapsis.

The SEA has gained notoriety for hijacking Twitter accounts and exploiting vulnerabilities in websites to harvest data. Wysopal said this particular attack was crafty and signals a significant advancement.