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Join Gene Marks @genemarks , Brent Leary @brentleary and Ramon Ray @ramonray as they discuss:
Watch below or here -Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgqdEvRJQM#t=65
Online security company RiskIQ has announced that the number of malicious apps on Google Play has increased by a staggering 388 percent. That increase happened between 2011 and 2013 with the number of apps increasing from 11,000 to 42,000.
Apps mentioned by Risk IQ seem to largely deal with personalizing your phone, entertainment and gaming. But apps popular with business users might also be affected too. The report classed an app as malicious if it contained spyware, or an SMS trojan.
Malicious apps do a variety of different things including sending contact lists, email addresses and other important information to third parties without the user’s consent.
Google managed to remove about 60 percent of malicious apps from Google Play in 2011. By 2013, the malicious apps Google had removed had dropped to only 23 percent of those in the store, the report claims. This means Google left the remainder of these apps on the site to be downloaded by unsuspecting users.
“The explosive growth of mobile apps has attracted a criminal element looking for new ways to distribute malware that can be used to commit fraud, identity theft and steal confidential data†said Elias Manousos CEO of RiskIQ. “Malicious apps are an effective way to infect users since they often exploit the trust victims have in well known brands and companies they do business withâ€.
Not everyone is convinced by the report though. ZDNet expresses huge doubt, by virtue of the fact that Google routinely scans the Google Play store for malware, using a program called Bouncer. Bouncer also scans new apps which are uploaded to the store for the first time. And the app doesn’t make it into the store, unless Bouncer gives it the all-clear. So if malicious apps have really increased by almost 400 percent, then is Bouncer a total failure?
If these stats are true, then it would be good news for Apple, who has many more safeguards in place to prevent malware apps. A report like this may deter people from using an Android device, and instead persuade them to use an iOS device instead.
Image: Google Play
Instead of struggling and striving to get NEW customers, it’s best to first focus on your existing customers and nurture them to buy more from you.
Facebook’s custom audiences enables you to upload personally identifiable information (such as an email address or cell phone) and target Facebook advertisements to the contacts in your list.
Twitter has this feature as well, Tailored Audiences, announced in a December blog post. Companies such as Mailchimp have integrated with Twitter to enable you to seamlessly leverage email addresses in your database to reach these same contacts through Twitter.
Sounds simple, but it’s darn powerful.
Rikki Mor was so desperate to find a brush that would untangle her daughters’ curly hair that she designed her own prototype and had it created overseas. This mompreneur developed her own prototype. She decided to sell the brushes online to help other moms dealing with similar issues.
Now she sells about 250,000 Knot Genie brushes each year online and in children’s salons around the country. The brushes have even been featured on the Today Show and in gift bags at the Emmys.
But it wasn’t her original intent to start a business. Her product’s success came only after years of trying every product already on the market for untangling hair. Mor spoke to Fox Business about the process of deciding to start a business.
“I bought every product, brush, shampoo and conditioner - spent a ton of money,†says Mor.
Unsatisfied, Mor says she decided to create her own brush that combined the best facets of all the products she had purchased.
“I wired money overseas and prayed we got good brushes,†says Mor.
She worked with an engineer to design a prototype of a brush that she thought would work with her daughters’ curly hair. Then she used Alibaba.com to find an overseas supplier for a prototype and product supply.
After experiences with a couple of unreliable sources, she found a person she trusted to outsource production of her brushes. She ordered 10,000 units in the first round and blew through them much quicker than she expected. Mor said that after a few slow months at first, everything sort of fell into place. She had people approaching her about carrying the brushes and featuring them on blogs and in other publications.
The video below from Best Mom Products gives a more detailed account of Mor’s journey from working mom to successful entrepreneur.
Mor’s original intent in creating and selling the brushes was just to solve a problem she had experienced and to help other moms dealing with similar issues. But because she was so personally involved, she spent a lot of time and energy creating a product she truly thought would work. And even though she didn’t have a lot of knowledge about manufacturing or product development, she took a leap of faith and was eventually rewarded for her efforts.
Image: KnotGenie.com
Britain's Labour Party wants to change how GCHQ and other spy agencies collect data, and reinforce that cyber crime is increasingly commonplace.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper addressed a Demos Event on Monday, and a transcript of her speech was published on the Labour Party website beforehand.
The speech revealed that the opposition party is seeking a significant reform of how surveillance is carried out, but - at the same time - wants to give police and other authorities the power to tackle the growing threat of cyber crime.
“In the face of growing online crime and abuse, and the use of online communications by criminals and extremists, the police, intelligence and security agencies need to be able to operate more effectively in this digital world,†reads a transcript of her prepared speech.
“But for them to do so, we also need stronger safeguards and limits to protect our privacy and sustain confidence in their vital work.
“Above all we need the Government to engage in a serious public debate about these new challenges and the reforms that are needed. Online communication and technology is forcing us to think again about our traditional frameworks for balancing privacy and safety, liberty and security. The Government can't keep burying its head in the sand and hoping these issues will go away - they are too important for that.â€
Cooper, an outside tip for the Labour leadership should Ed Milliband fail to win the general election next year, said that Edward Snowden's revelations on NSA and GCHQ surveillance had been damaging, but went onto call for sweeping changes to the accountability of intelligence agencies as well as the out-of-date Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).
Cooper's speech - which also noted some worry over the proposed NHS database - drew praise for alerting people to the rise of cyber crime, but also attracted criticism for a lack of action.
The Don't Spy On Us Campaign, a coalition between UK and international civil liberties groups - including Privacy International and Big Brother Watched, welcomed the talk.
“The Don't Spy on Us campaign welcomes the speech by Labour's Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and her calls for reform of the oversight and legal frameworks for surveillance," the group wrote on its website. "She is right to contrast the strength of the political debate in the US with the very muted reaction here in the UK, even though GCHQ has engaged in the very same mass population surveillance as the NSA.
“The question for Labour is whether they will back our campaign's six principles for reform. Independent judges, not the Home Secretary, should sign off on surveillance. Cooper should push for a legal framework where surveillance must be necessary and proportionate - not fishing expeditions through our private data or mass data collection. Without such reform, our rights are not adequately protected.â€
Cyber security expert Alan Woodward, a Visiting Professor at the Surrey University, cast doubt on Cooper's aims and tweeted on Twitter. “Labour to call for tougher action against cyber crime in speech today by Yvette cooper. But it's not the first time they've said it.â€
The Internet has made personal branding a huge deal: Nowadays everyone can become a micro-celebrity. However, if you care about your professional footprint, personal brand search results and overall image - personal branding is actually a long, continuous process.
Below is a checklist of what needs to be done in order to get your personal brand under control as well as build your name meaningfully.
Verified social media profiles stand out in search results and obviously make you look much more professional.
If you are wondering why vanity URLs are awesome, you can do some reading here. In a word, vanity URLs are easier to remember and type.
Leaving a trusted footprint online means doing your homework. Every bit counts. Any achievement, contribution or project involvement may become your strong personal brand asset.
Don’t be afraid to share your achievements creating more online presence. As an example, LinkedIn allows you to add your certifications and sites like this one let you add your license and get a profile page on the site
Blog interviews are by far the most efficient way to get control over your name search results and get established as a niche influencer. It’s not easy if you are just starting out, but here are a few tips to help:
Did I miss anything?
Branding Photo via Shutterstock
1. Project Information Tracking: One of the basic features of Evernote is the ability to create an endless number of notebooks. By creating a notebook for each project I’m working on, or Client I’m working with, I have the ability to save valuable information in the form of notes, which include items I’ve created myself, clipped from the web or added via email. Once a notebook is created, I can share all, or some, of it’s content with other team members or my clients so that they have access to important information about the project.
2. Researching and Brainstorming: How often have you had a great idea you wanted to jot down so you wouldn’t forget it or seen a new idea that inspires you? Or maybe you came across a tidbit of information on the web that you want to use to develop an idea for your business. No matter where your inspiration comes from, with Evernote you can quickly jot down ideas, or add via voice memo, using your PC, smartphone or tablet. You can also take a quick picture and save it to your notebook or use the web clipper add-on tool to save an online article or section of an article. Evernote tag and category features allows you to catalog your notes for quick and easy access through search.
3. Keeping Track of Expenditures: I know I’m not alone when it comes to struggling to keep track of business expenses and receipts. With Evernote, I take a quick picture of my receipts while I’m traveling and save as a note in a notebook created for that trip or meeting. You can also easily save emailed receipts into Evernote with the email add-on tool. One simple ‘click’ and it automatically saves your email as a note. If you’re more into scanning, you can use the Scansnap Evernote Edition scanner to automatically scan items to your notebooks.
4. Training and Managing Business Processes: Being that it’s 2014, I am truly hoping that no business out there is still using a large black binder to catalog all their business processes and training guides.  In Evernote you can create training or process notebooks for every area of your business and keep them all in one place to share with your team members. As processes change, or need to be updated, the entire team can lend a hand to make those changes directly in the notebook for all to see. This can save you valuable time in answering the same questions over and over to different members of your team, as the resource is always live and available to them for referring to.
5. Traveling: Â There are lots of apps out there that help you to organize travel and Evernote is another perfect solution. Keep your electronic boarding passes, trip itinerary, confirmation numbers, hotel and transportation phone numbers and all other information you need in a notebook for your trip and access it quickly from your smartphone or tablet. Meeting a lot of new people on your trip? Try snapping images of their business cards and saving to your notebook or try Evernote Hello, a add-on tool that helps you remember people you meet and the interactions you have with them.
6. Showing Off Your Portfolio: Every have that experience of running into the potential client that shows great interest in what you do and wish you had your portfolio available at the click of a button to show them? Now you can! Keep a portfolio notebook and save notes that consist of your media kit, product sales sheets, work examples and references and quickly show them and share them with that person right on the spot!
7. Meetings: While they can be a huge drag on productivity, meetings are one aspect of business that will never go away. So to make them more productive, come organized and ready to go! Keep a notebook for each meeting and save your agendas, meeting notes and any other assets that you’ll need to reference during the meeting. Instead of wasting time fumbling around looking for things, you’ll have everything in that one electronic notebook to review and share with the team.
8. Managing and Sharing Social Media: Evernote gives you the ability to ‘share’ any of your notes to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+. Just connect your accounts and sharing is a simple click.
If you are a Hootsuite user, then you will love the integration it has with Evernote. Adding the app to Hootsuite allows you to see all of your notes on the dashboard for quick sharing. To see more ways you can use Evernote with Hootsuite, watch this video from Steve Dotto.
9. Create and Manage Task Lists: This is a feature I use a lot - both in my business and personal life. If you have a task that involves a number of steps to be completed or has a number of different individuals taking on different portions, you can create a simple task list in Evernote, complete with check boxes and all the notes you need to get the task done. It’s a great way to track what needs to be done and what has been done!
As you can see, Evernote can help you become more productive and organized in nearly every aspect of your small business - and really, this is just a small peek at what it can do for you. The basic app is free to download on your computer and mobile devices or you can upgrade to the premium plan for $45/year and unlock a number of additional cool features.
Now is the time to take control and realize the full potential of Evernote. Give just one or two of these ideas a try and I’m sure you’ll see a huge boost in productivity.
The new "Blackphone" smartphone may have only debuted at last week's Mobile World Congress but concerns are already being raised that it will be targeted by hackers and the NSA.
Spanish start-up Geeksphone, Silent Circle and Pretty Good Privacy announced the Blackphone at the technology exhibition in Barcelona last week, with STMicro later demonstrating its own security-focused smartphone, the Boeing Black.
Blackphone though grabbed most the attention as it is a new Android-based smartphone which is able to encrypt texts, voice calls and video chats.
The phone asks for a password and PIN when booting up, and then guides the user through the additional security options. But what is arguably most interesting about the 4.7-inch Android device, which will start from around £375 (US6 $629) when it debuts in June, is that it comes minus the usual array of pre-installed Android apps.
Instead, it runs the PrivatOS operating system, and features Silent Circle apps for anonymous search and private browsing, VPN from Disconnect and secure cloud file storage from Spideroak. It also has a remote-wipe and device recovery tool.
With users also able to restrict which apps can use their data, the phone has been publicly promoted as the “world's first smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users.â€
Speaking shortly after the announcement, Stephen Bonner, a partner in KPMG's information protection and business resilience team, warned that the phone could be a ‘red flag' to criminals.
“The new stealth ‘black phones' target privacy-sensitive customers who want to hide below the radar of the growing surveillance of mobile communications. Yet privacy shouldn't be limited to a select few handsets for individuals who have something to hide; privacy should be default for all,†he said in an email to journalists.
“By owning a ‘blackphone' a user could become a target as it acts as a red flag to criminals, highlighting that there's something to hide,†he added.
“As the devices attract and house high value data, attackers will be inclined to break in - it's a bit like carrying family photos in a security van full of gold, when the van is targeted and raided the gold will not only vanish but the photos will probably go too, it's better for the photos to just be kept at home where nobody will look twice.â€
However, Bonner noted that as the device is targeted specifically as government agencies, most businesses would be better off doing more mundane security tasks, such as improving application and endpoint security of their mobile devices.
“Some of the threats these type of products aim to protect against aren't realistic for most users. They might be a cool gadget for wannabe James Bonds but business users need to worry a lot more about the applications on their device and the end-to-end protections they have in place."
Despite the announcement, some concerns have been raised on how secure the new Android phone really is. Writing for CITEWorld, Matt Weinberger said that hackers will likely be able to unearth zero-day vulnerabilities.
“Blackphone primarily secures data at the application level, which means that a dedicated hacker could take advantage of any given zero-day vulnerability [previously undiscovered flaw in the code] to get into your data,†he said. This essentially means that everything except the apps - including the internal hardware which communicates with phone masts - could be targeted.Â
“Your phone's basebandâ€"the device that handles negotiation with cell towers and other messy stuffâ€"is essentially a black box, with its own CPU and operating system,â€Â explained ITProPortal's Sebastian Anthony. “The baseband has complete, low-level access to your microphoneâ€"access that the Blackphone cannot mitigate against. If the NSA really wants to tap your phone, that is probably the attack vector that it would use.â€
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In an email exchange with SCMagazineUK.com, Webroot security intelligence director Grayson Milbourne said that the smartphone is, however, perhaps a sign that smartphone security is coming into focus.
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“Blackphone is designed with security first. It is built on Google's Android OS and takes advantage of encryption to keep data on the phone safe. In addition to keeping contacts and SMS messages encrypted on the device, it also offers anonymous browsing and additional data access controls.
“The phone's security might be overkill for the average consumer, and I think Blackphone will be marketed towards security firms and companies who need the extra level of data security and it's great to see a company develop a phone where security of data is the primary goal.â€
Marketing automation is the system and process that enables businesses to automate, in full or part, the repetitive tasks in their marketing and sales processes. These tasks could include follow-up emails, videos or a survey and are often triggered when the customer takes some form of action that the business wants that will lead to a result.
One of the greatest examples of solid execution of  marketing automation comes from Amazon.com. They have taken the online shopping experience to a completely new level by creating automated processes that not only handle our current purchases but entice us to buy even more.
In a recent article I wrote on ClicZ, I outlined three things Amazon can teach the everday business owner about marketing automation, including:
Check out the full article here to discover more about marketing automation and steps you can take to improve you sales processes.
If you work in a small business, odds are that you are going to pay more for health insurance for yourself and your family in the coming years. That’s because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed the way insurers are allowed to price health insurance on the small business market.
Under the “adjusted community rating†rules put in place by the new law, insurers cannot charge healthier workers less for health insurance than they charge sicker workers the way they can charge better drivers less for auto insurance than they charge worse drivers. Moreover, while the new rules permit insurers to charge older people and smokers more than younger people and non-smokers, the allowable differentials are smaller than what insurers have tended to charge in the past.
The Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported (PDF) last week that the adjusted community rating rule will raise health insurance premiums on nearly two-thirds of the 17 million small business workers receiving coverage in the “fully-insured small group health market.â€
These rate increases are the inevitable result of efforts to reduce the cost of insurance for less healthy workers. If insurers can’t charge businesses with older and sicker workers as much as they used to, then the companies with younger and healthier workers will have to pay more. The CMS’s analysts figured out that 65 percent of small businesses have paid lower-than-average premiums in the past and so will face cost increases, while 35 percent paid higher-than-average premiums previously and will get a price break.
How much those premiums will rise is less clear from the report. The CMS identified only one organization that has analyzed the effect of the adjusted community rating on the cost of small business health insurance premiums nationally. That company, Oliver Wyman, estimates (PDF) that small businesses will spend 20 percent more in the fifth year of the new law as a result of changes to the adjusted community rating rule, and rules on guaranteed issue and insurance renewal combined.
Because the CMS does not expect the guarantee or the renewal changes to affect premium rates, the Oliver Wyman finding suggests that small business health insurance premiums will be 20 percent higher than they otherwise would have been because of the ACA community rating rule.
That’s a sizeable increase. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that premiums for individual coverage in small businesses averaged $5,683 annually in 2013, and premiums for family coverage averaged $15,581.
Workers will end up bearing a sizable chunk of this bill. Most economists believe that business owners will pass the increase in health insurance premiums on to their employees by reducing raises because business owners generally respond to increases in benefits costs in this way.
But even if small business owners don’t ask workers to pay for a higher fraction of health insurance premiums in response to the ACA-induced price increases, many workers will still be hit by the price increase. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports employees at businesses with between 3 and 199 employees already pay an average of 16 percent of the cost of individual health insurance premiums and 36 percent of the cost of family premiums.
Cost Photo via Shutterstock
If you work in a small business, odds are that you are going to pay more for health insurance for yourself and your family in the coming years. That’s because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed the way insurers are allowed to price health insurance on the small business market.
Under the “adjusted community rating†rules put in place by the new law, insurers cannot charge healthier workers less for health insurance than they charge sicker workers the way they can charge better drivers less for auto insurance than they charge worse drivers. Moreover, while the new rules permit insurers to charge older people and smokers more than younger people and non-smokers, the allowable differentials are smaller than what insurers have tended to charge in the past.
The Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported (PDF) last week that the adjusted community rating rule will raise health insurance premiums on nearly two-thirds of the 17 million small business workers receiving coverage in the “fully-insured small group health market.â€
These rate increases are the inevitable result of efforts to reduce the cost of insurance for less healthy workers. If insurers can’t charge businesses with older and sicker workers as much as they used to, then the companies with younger and healthier workers will have to pay more. The CMS’s analysts figured out that 65 percent of small businesses have paid lower-than-average premiums in the past and so will face cost increases, while 35 percent paid higher-than-average premiums previously and will get a price break.
How much those premiums will rise is less clear from the report. The CMS identified only one organization that has analyzed the effect of the adjusted community rating on the cost of small business health insurance premiums nationally. That company, Oliver Wyman, estimates (PDF) that small businesses will spend 20 percent more in the fifth year of the new law as a result of changes to the adjusted community rating rule, and rules on guaranteed issue and insurance renewal combined.
Because the CMS does not expect the guarantee or the renewal changes to affect premium rates, the Oliver Wyman finding suggests that small business health insurance premiums will be 20 percent higher than they otherwise would have been because of the ACA community rating rule.
That’s a sizeable increase. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that premiums for individual coverage in small businesses averaged $5,683 annually in 2013, and premiums for family coverage averaged $15,581.
Workers will end up bearing a sizable chunk of this bill. Most economists believe that business owners will pass the increase in health insurance premiums on to their employees by reducing raises because business owners generally respond to increases in benefits costs in this way.
But even if small business owners don’t ask workers to pay for a higher fraction of health insurance premiums in response to the ACA-induced price increases, many workers will still be hit by the price increase. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports employees at businesses with between 3 and 199 employees already pay an average of 16 percent of the cost of individual health insurance premiums and 36 percent of the cost of family premiums.
Cost Photo via Shutterstock
Light in your office or in your brick and mortar store may have a lot more impact on your business than you realize.
In fact, bright light helps market products, but it may have a very different effect on decisions in the workplace, a study says.
Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management say evidence suggests that sunny days tend to make people more optimistic and full of well-being.
However, seemingly contradictory data shows sunny days can also intensify the depressed outlook already present in people who are prone to depression.
In a summary of the study’s findings Red Orbit reports:
The team asked participants to rate a range of things, including the spiciness of chicken-wing sauce, the aggressiveness of a fictional character, how attractive someone was, their feelings about specific words, and the taste of two juices. During the experiment the participants were placed under different light settings.
The researchers wrote in the Journal of Consumer Psychology that under bright lights, the participants’ emotions were more intense. They saw that in brighter rooms the volunteers wanted spicier chicken wing sauce, thought the fictional character was more aggressive, found women more attractive, felt better about positive words and worse about negative ones, and drank more of the “favorable†juice of the two.
So, to review, what researchers found was not that subjects were more positive under bright lights. Rather, the conclusion seems to indicate that brighter lighting conditions bring out more intense emotions.
And, researchers say there are some practical business conclusions that can be drawn from all this.
For example, one researcher suggests that when marketing products with a high emotional impact â€" say flowers, engagement rings etc. â€" higher light levels might make sense.
On the other hand, researchers say, in an office environment where important business decisions are being made, you may not want people on an emotional tear.
Instead, consider turning down the lighting level in your business office to mellow things out.
Knowing the effect light levels have on your customers, clients and employers gives you a great advantage.
Studying the environments that make your customers more willing to buy and your workers better able to make good decisions should make managing your entire business much easier in the long run.
Light levels: Shutterstock
This Thursday, March 6, 2014, we will be holding a complimentary webinar about financing your business. Â The focus will be on women business owners, but men are invited, too. Â Will you join us?
The event coincides with Biz2Credit.com releasing its second annual report analyzing women’s small business financing and growth challenges.  Last year’s report compared loan approval rates of male-owned and female-owned companies. It found that credit scores, cost structures and other factors hindered women entrepreneurs in their attempts to secure financing.Â
Yours truly (Anita Campbell, Publisher of Small Business Trends), will be hosting and moderating the event. Â Panelists include:
