What’s in a Business Name? Ask Kayne West, Suing Coinye

Singer, songwriter and rapper Kayne West has filed a trademark infringement suit against an unnamed group of developers. West claims the developers of a digital currency called Coinye are attempting to trade on his name and image.

The digital coins bear the likeness of a fish with a human head wearing sunglasses that does bear a resemblance to West. The name and logo may also be a play on a segment from the animated Comedy Central series South Park which lampooned the singer.

In fact, many in the tech press originally suggested Coinye might not be a real business at all, but a joke, The Verge reports.

West doesn’t seem to be laughing. Excerpting from the suit filed by West’s company, The New York Post quotes:

“Defendants have willfully and admittedly traded upon the goodwill and notoriety of Kanye West, one of the most famous entertainers and brand names in the world. Without hesitation, defendants have usurped Mr. West’s name and likeness for the sole purpose of propping up the perceived ‘value’ of the defendants ‘digital coin mine’ and its ‘cryptocurrency.’”

Whether a real business or not, the company seems to be no more after West’s legal action. Messages on both the Coinye site and a thread setup on Reddit seem to indicate developers have moved on. West also targeted some exchanges ready to work with the mysterious digital currency in his suit.

The new-age currency company tried to evade the issue by moving from a .com domain to a domain in India (.in), but even that couldn’t save them.

The moral of this crazy story is: Get your own name!

You can’t profit off the trademark, or name and likeness of a rich and famous person â€" no matter how clever the infringing name might be (and it was pretty catchy, we have to admit).

Before choosing a name for your business, be sure to research it to make sure you are not infringing on anyone else’s trademark. And understand the basic issues surrounding trademarks to better protect your business in the future.

Image: Coinyeco

Immigrant Lender Nominated as New SBA Administrator

Maria Contreras-Sweet, who founded a community bank in Los Angeles, was nominated today by President Barack Obama to become the next Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

She founded ProAmérica Bank, in Los Angeles in 2006.  The bank’s website says it:

“… was formed to serve the Los Angeles business community and ultimately to become the leading financial services provider of Latino entrepreneurs. As the first Latino-formed business bank to debut in downtown Los Angeles in the past 30 years, PROAMÉRICA BANK is dedicated to building family wealth by empowering entrepreneurs with the requisite financial services and capital infusion for the success of their small to mid-size businesses.”

According to BizJournal, it’s a small bank at $148 million in assets and has done a small number of SBA loans (just 4 in the most recent quarter).

Highlighting her experience in banking, President Obama observed:

“So not only did she start small businesses, but they were her customers. She understands the needs of small businesses…. She knows the important part they play in the community.”

Contreras-Sweet was born in Guadalajara, Mexico.  She was the secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 1999 to 2003.

Her nomination has been met with cautious optimism by small business advocacy groups.  Katie Vlietstra, vice president of the National Association for the Self Employed (NASE), said, “We are optimistic that with the announcement of Maria Contreras-Sweet to lead the Small Business Administration, President Obama and his Administration will be focused on fostering and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit of this country, including for the 23 million self-employed who are working tirelessly each an everyday to achieve the American Dream.”

Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, was even more positive:

“Finally!  The nomination of a new SBA Administrator has taken far too long, but it appears that Maria Contreras-Sweet is well-suited for the role.  Hopefully, upon confirmation, she will reach out and more actively engage with entrepreneurs and small business organizations to listen to their ideas and concerns. For the past year or more, the SBA has gone dark in terms of outreach. Beyond effectively managing the core functions of the SBA, it is equally important that she convey to President Obama and his economic team, small business concerns about the new health care law, the state of the economy, regulatory overreach and access to capital issues.  Small business owners need better policies from Washington….”

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) added:

“Many of us hoped the President’s decision to elevate the SBA Administrator to Cabinet level was a sign that this White House would value small businesses, but the 11-month timespan between Karen Mills’ resignation announcement and a successor being nominated showed us that small businesses really aren’t valued much by this Administration. Small businesses have been bombarded with a flood of regulations, a health care law that stifles growth, and a constant fear of tax increases during the past five years. I hope the new SBA Administrator will give a voice to small businesses in this White House and redirect the SBA to focus on its core missions of capital access, contracting, and counseling, while reducing duplication, overlap, and wasteful spending. If she is confirmed, I will look forward to working with Ms. Contreras-Sweet to do so.”

The SBA Administrator position has been vacant ever since the resignation of Karen Mills, President Obama’s first SBA Administrator, in February of 2013.

A trial balloon proposal had been floated by the Obama administration to consolidate the SBA under the Commerce Secretary.  Unfortunately, something similar has been proposed by a Republican, Senator Burr.  It is a terrible idea, because small businesses need a very visible agency.  It seems to be a solution in search of a problem. We hope that terrible idea dies.

Updated post-publication to add remarks of Karen Kerrigan

Image: White House

Calling All Small Businesses! Be Featured in New Spotlight Series

We’re delighted to kick off a new series of articles called the Small Biz Spotlight.  As the name suggests, we’ll be putting small businesses in the spotlight on a regular basis.

And we’d love to consider YOUR business to be covered in the series.

Each article will be a profile of a small business. For our purposes, that means having fewer than 100 employees.  It can be any type of business, in any industry.

What’s the catch?  No catch, except that we’re looking for businesses that are interesting to other business owners, or where you as the owner have a lesson or two to share with other business owners.  You have to have an interesting story behind the scenes.  Perhaps it’s the story of how your business got started. Or maybe it’s about a challenge you faced down, or an opportunity that changed your business. Or it might even be the unusual nature of your industry or what you do in your workday.  It could even be your interesting work space.

Don’t get all lacking in confidence, however.  We find lots and lots of businesses to be fascinating, and love to cover them.

We’re able to do this series through the generous underwriting of series sponsor, iCIMS.  iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition software solutions for growing businesses.  And they are just as excited as we are.

So how do you throw your hat into the ring, to be considered?  Just fill out our short form.  We’ll contact you and we can conduct a phone interview to gather the details.

Apply here to be featured in the Small Biz Spotlight.  

* * * * *

iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition software solutions for growing businesses. iCIMS’ Talent Platform, the industry’s premier candidate management solution, enables organizations to manage their entire talent acquisition lifecycle from sourcing, to recruiting, to onboarding all within a single web-based application. With more than 1,700 clients worldwide, iCIMS is one of the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition system providers with offices in North America, UK, and China.

Stage Photo via Shutterstock

Researchers developing cyber-attack predictive model

January 15, 2014

Removing the uncertainty from cyber attack risk calculations

Researchers at the University of Michigan are developing a statistical model that uses a complex set of calculations to predict the likelihood of when a cyber attack is likely to be launched against a given organisation.

Researchers Robert Axelrod and Rumen Illiev have published a white paper -entitled ‘Timing of Cyber Conflict' - on the matter, which details that there are four main variables to define the risk of a cyber attack taking place at any given time.

These include the specific vulnerability being exploited; the overall stealth level of the attack vector - and its potential for re-use; the risk of the attack methodology being spotted and remediated; and the threshold (point) at which the attacker will gain more than they will lose.

These parameters will be familiar to anyone involved with major war or battle strategies, especially the final one, which is integral to the calculation of DEFCON, the readiness state for warfare of the US Armed Forces.

According to the researcher's paper, the exploitation of vulnerabilities in computer systems is already in active use by espionage and sabotage practitioners and - in the near future - "cyber conflict will likely allow international sanctions to be more precisely targeted than economic sanctions alone.”

The white paper concludes that the implications of the researcher's model boil down to two primary and desirable issues - stealth and persistence - with the level of each issue having an opposite effect to the other in terms of the optimum time to use a given attack resource.

Incoming Thought analyst Sarb Sembhi described the findings as "fascinating" and says that the risk calculation methodology used by the researchers centres on the risk issues associated with vulnerabilities and zero-day attacks.

These parameters, he adds, are then used to work out the likelihood of being attacked.

"Whilst this model can be used to predict the risk, the limitation is that it can only be used in a number of cases," he said, adding that the model would be especially useful to telcos, who could predict the likelihood that their network could come under attack.

Sembhi, who is also a leading light at non-profit organisation ISACA, did however warn that it remains very early days in terms of the development of a mathematical risk model, and added that work needs to be done to refine the model.

Professor John Walker of Nottingham-Trent University added that that there are other parameters that need to be considered when calculating the risk of a cyber attack being imminent.

These, he explained, include industry placement, size, and exposure - the latter of which is defined by the form of business change - and which allow the model to predict which industries and sectors will have the highest levels of risk attached to them.

"In 2012 - under the banner of the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham-Trent University - the vectors of attack for a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Attack) were monitored over a 12 month period," he said, adding that the results allowed researchers to predict the geography of a risk map, as well as the periodic lows and highs involved.

Rather than wondering if an attack will occur, it is more a case of when, he explained, adding that these types of models allow experts to predict the likelihood of events taking place with relatively high degrees of informed certainty.

Walker added that the invisible/variable element of these attacks is an aspect known as passive footprinting, which - in the case of large organisations - allows the identification of a point of interest that the attackers will exploit.

EU cyber agency: Websites must improve user trust

January 15, 2014

EU Cyber Security Agency says websites must do more to promote trust

ENISA says that websites and services need to do a lot more in terms of raising trust levels on the Internet, most notably when it comes to using online seals and other mechanisms to reinforce online trust amongst users.

In a research paper on the subject, the EU's cyber security agency points out that websites need to use seals to base their trust in a service, since most Internet users suffer from information overload.

Against this backdrop, ENISA argues that websites - and their designers - need to develop clearer privacy icons and which are based on research, including cultural and legal differences.

Because users are not sufficiently aware of what trust seals actually mean, the agency says that educational material should also be provided to spread knowledge of the existence and meaning of the seals.

The paper concedes, however, that since trust seals are not checked by users, service providers and web developers need to provide and implement seals that can be automatically checked.

Professor Udo Helmbrecht, the Executive Director of ENISA, said that the overall effectiveness of trust seals must be improved.

"Regulatory bodies at the EU and national level should set incentives for service providers to obtain better online security and privacy protection," he explained.

ENISA's recommendations were met with caution by Amar Singh, the President of ISACA London's Security Advisory Group, who pointed out that there needs to be an agency to validate the use of trust seals on the web, as otherwise there is a very real risk of the seals being misused.

Singh, who is also CISO at News International, suggested that a better strategy would be for the Government to stage a series of education campaigns to raise awareness of the need for care when using e-commerce and similar websites plus services.

"This would, I believe, have more of a long term effect than the strategy outlined by ENISA,” he told SCMagazineUK.com. 

“On top of this, any trust verification scheme also needs to be universal in nature if it is going to succeed. The question then becomes 'where do you stop?'. I can see a website or service having multiple seals from different trust organisations. This can result in confusion."

Singh went on to say that whilst the intentions of ENISA and its recommendations are good, the key question he would ask is who will actually police a logo scheme, regardless of which organisation operates it.

"There is a very real risk of some websites misusing the logo," he said.

ENISA's report, meanwhile, concludes that pan-European or international standards for evaluation are required to address the challenges.

"Due to different types of services and due to different budget limitations for such an evaluation, different levels or categories are required and should be considered by such a standard," says the paper, adding that additional information also needs to be adequately represented by the online security and privacy seal.

The report also suggests a simple traffic light system to allow a comparison relating to the strength of protection granted by a given product or service.

Vine Continues Growth Despite Challenge From Instagram

While YouTube faces challenges from competitors like Vimeo, competition is also fierce in shorter video formats online. Vine and Instagram seem to be locked in a fight for supremacy after Instagram introduced video clips last summer.

Businesses may see benefits in using both platforms to boost their brands and engage their online followers. But if you’re trying to choose one or the other, it’s still a little early to figure out which one will wind up on top.

Vine is not only one of those social apps to which younger users seem to be gravitating. It was also the fastest growing app of 2013, expanding its audience by an estimated 403 percent, Global Web Index reports.

But since the introduction of video on Instagram about halfway through last year, its growth seems to have slowed.

Vine Has Fewer Members Total

When judged on sheer numbers, Instagram comes out on top. For example, as of August, two months after Instagram introduced video, Vine had only 40 million members.

By contrast, as of December, Instagram had about 150 million, according to the official Instagram Blog.

But Vine continues to grow and added 27 million members just since Instagram introduced its video feature, Venture Beat reports.

Registered Versus Active Users

Another of the things that makes comparing the two platforms even more confusing is that both describe their audiences in different ways.

Vine talks about the number of registered users it has. As you can imagine, this could mean quite a few people who have signed up for an account but don’t hang out very often on the platform.

Instagram gives its numbers in term of active users. Some seem to feel this gives a better idea of the audience on a social platform. This is because it refers to the number of people who are actually engaging with other members and might be viewing and sharing your content.

Of course, even with these terms, it’s hard to know exactly how active each member is. For example, suppose 80 percent of Vine users view and share video everyday. By contrast, suppose 80 percent of the “active” Instagram users only look at or share video once a month.

In fact, you may remember that back in June, Vine surpassed Instagram in the amount of content members were sharing on Twitter.

Both Are Different Communities

In the end, businesses deciding which platform to be active on must realize both communities are different. For example, Vine is a video only platform while Instagram users are sharing and viewing both photos and video.

Also, Vine videos are only 6 seconds, though the Vine team has been looking at experimenting with longer formats and other changes, Recode reports. Instagram videos are 15 seconds and also include filters and other features. Both communities also presumably have different kinds of members. So you need to decide which one is the best fit for your business.

Images: Vine, Instagram

NSA surveillance reportedly hits offline PCs

January 15, 2014

Almost 100,000 computers are said to be under active surveillance

Reports are circulating that the NSA can now remotely break into computers that are not connected to the Internet.

According to the New York Times and Reuters, the NSA has installed custom malware on "almost 100,000 computers around the world", in order to spy on the machines and "provide a digital highway for cyber attacks."

The Quantum malware is reported to date back to 2008 and relies on a covert channel of radio waves from "tiny circuit boards and USB cards secretly inserted in the computer."

That said, initial analysis suggests that this is similar to a strategy, known as ‘bypassing the air gap', employed in the past by the NSA to track dial-up modems and GSM handsets.

SCMagazineUK.com notes that when dial-modems and GSM (2G) mobile handsets were the norm in the early 1990s, the viruses of the day used any and all means of propagation -- including the use of floppy disks, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and other communications methodologies -- to spread themselves around and communicate back-to-base, a process that could take days or weeks.

Andrew Rose, principal analyst for security and risk with Forrester Research, agrees that the techniques used by the NSA's Quantum project are actually nothing new, as the methodology is designed to jump the air gap.

'Air gapping', which is also known as 'air walling', is a network security measure that relies on the physically isolation of a computer from unsecured networks, such as the Internet or an unsecured local area network.

"It's really not that new, even though the media thinks otherwise,” Rose told SCMagazineUK.com.

“Stuxnet used this approach and there are a number of other less high-profile attack vectors that use this approach," he said, adding that the irony of the situation is that telecoms hardware from China has been blamed in the past for leaking information back to malware and bad firmware code creators.

"These days the `bad guy' finger pointing is not just confined to the Chinese - it's also the Americans. In some ways the Americans are worse than the Chinese in terms of surveillance. And it is reports like these that call into question the security of all of the technology we use today.”

Rose says that the bottom line is that you cannot truly trust the technology you are using.

"Encryption offers some degree of protection, but ultimately, the data has to be decrypted for viewing and analysing - and even if the data is only viewed on a monitor, it's still a collection of bits and bytes, so could be relayed using a surveillance process.

“As this is a state-sponsored [security] game, you have to presume the worst and, whilst you can reduce the risk of eavesdropping and surveillance, you can never remove the risk entirely."

Offline Business Owners: What’s Your Content Strategy?

If the answer to your content strategy is “I don’t know,” or “It’s still in the development stage,” then you’ve got some work to do. Your competition, if they’re smart, is using the fundamentals of “Data Science” to formulate a content marketing game plan long before the new year settled in.

Very few businesses in this day and age can avoid the profitability power of having online content available to customers to help promote their business. If people can’t do a simple search for you from the comfort of their home or while browsing on a portable gadget, they’ll find another company that does instead.

What Your Customers Aren’t Telling You

If you own a strictly online-based business, you already understand the importance of being available to your customers. It’s a crucial part of your business model.

For the rest of you who have offline businesses and very little online presence -  what’s holding you back?

Several reasons could be:

• You’re retiring soon.
• Competition isn’t a problem because you’re based in a small town with a loyal following.
• You don’t need more customers (really?)
• You don’t know anything about all this new computer technology.
• You don’t trust anyone to build/manage a site for you.
• You don’t go online.
• You believe that people don’t buy things online.
• You own a coffee-shop.
• You don’t have the patience.
• Phone book adverts still work just fine to bring in new customers for you.

Customers dictate why and how they’re going to become your next customer. If they say they want to check out your business online, then give them what they want. And chances are, that’s what they’re saying. This is a global reality folks. Don’t rely on what one or two regulars tell you. Just because it isn’t important to some of your regulars doesn’t mean it isn’t important to the people who haven’t bought from you yet.

Here’s an article from 1995 to read. It’s funny how it’s still relevant today. Some things never change. It’s been updated with a few current facts, but the core of the article was written nearly two decades ago.

If you don’t know anything about content marketing, then I’ve got some homework for you. Register on Copyblogger and download their free eCourse. It’s factual and to-the-point (i.e., no fluff whatsoever.)

All you need to provide is an email address. Copyblogger’s an authority on everything to do with content and you get to keep the eBooks forever. This material is the unofficial “online content bible” as far as I’m concerned.

3 Tips (Not Necessarily New) for Your Content Strategy

Now that we’ve established the importance of online content for marketing your business and building your brand, and you now have a resource to learn the basics if you don’t already know them, we’ll finish things off by briefly discussing 3 emerging strategies that you need to be in line with for the future. These tips assume that you either know about common forms of content, or that you downloaded and read the free copyblogger course or other content-development-related material.

1. Think outside the box and stop saying that your specific industry or business can’t benefit from content marketing.

Let’s look at an obvious example: Say you’re a convenience store owner and maybe you think there’s no way you can get online content out to the people who aren’t already coming in your doors. Take out paper adverts, or send a small paper flyer out with the postman once in a while - and tell people to add you to their social media for a chance to win a cash prize, small shopping spree in your store, or even an iPod.

Once you get some followers, you’ve just easily and cheaply opened the door for you to get your content in front of them indefinitely. This is just one great idea that can be adapted to any business model.

2. Exploit the heck out of paid advertising methods, even if you’re a local business.

Learn and understand how to work with the data science that companies like Google Adwords and Facebook have spent billions to develop for you. These platforms are far from being used only for online businesses or big corporations. Everything is going “ultra-local” this year, with more tools to make it easier for small businesses to laser-target their advertising to people in a small locale.

3. Build personas.

No, we’re not talking about creating your own unique Firefox or Chrome persona here. This refers to how you’ll develop ways get inside the minds of your customers, so you can tailor your content to their needs and wants. Figuring out who they are inside: Their hopes and dreams, what they do in a typical day, things they most value, and their most common objections to buying your product or service. Check out this Persona Development Worksheet (PDF), courtesy of Hubspot, for more details.

Now over to you - what’s your content strategy for the future?

Content Photo via Shutterstock