The Tech Salon

One of the things on my holiday wish list is that entrepreneurs and small business owners safeguard their companies’ data through valid backups and be assured they can successfully restore data in the event of an emergency, theft, or accident. For the record, that is two things.

Many, many people tell me they want to make sure their data is safe but they do not have time or resources to do so.  This is especially the case when it does not always seem to contribute to the bottom line. However, as a friend of mine is so fond of saying, “you cannot NOT afford to make it happen.”

I know this is not the sexist of topics but take a second to think about losing all of your business data. What would you do?  How would you recover? Could you recover?  Would you recover?

This is overwhelming to think about, is it not? Let us briefly outline a solution and break it into small steps.  Here are a few tips to get started:

• Give yourself a date for putting plan in place
• State the goal for wanting to put backup and restore processes in place
• Identify what machine(s) and/or  network(s) to backup
• Determine when you want to schedule backups

In each of these steps there are several other steps that are needed but creating the plan is crucial. CRUCIAL.

Anyone who has worked with computers for a while knows it is not a matter of if you will lose data, but a matter of when you will lose it.  The best thing is to be prepared when the time comes.

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So, you are hanging out at the local Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts waiting to meet with a client. Naturally you are checking your email, Facebook, Twitter, in addition to uploading a few photos to Flickr and checking out your Basecamp account. What you don’t know is that the 16-year-old kid sitting across the room is doing the same thing. I don’t mean he is checking his sites, I mean he is checking your sites and your information.

Firesheep, a new Firefox extension, allows anyone with it to “hack” into an unsecured HTTP address that is accessed by other people on the same network. Basically, if you log into Facebook on a network, all someone else has to do is be on the same network and double click on your name/picture and he or she will log into your account as well. Scary isn’t it?

Here is a 30 second video to demonstrate how easily it all works in real time:

As you may have noticed from the video, it does not matter what browser you are using to browse the web with, they can still gain access to your accounts.

Now that you know you are at some potentially serious risk just by grabbing some coffee and getting on the internet for a few minutes, how do you protect yourself from getting hacked at your local coffee shop? Luckily, Zscaler, a cloud security company, has developed a Firefox extension to let you know when someone is using this technology on your network. Blacksheep doesn’t actually stop them from being able to access your accounts, however, it simply let’s you know when someone on the network is using Firesheep so you can take caution as needed. Firesheep is not the solution to the problem. According to Butler, “An attacker can easily hide from “Blacksheep” by VPNing themselves or by using another tool instead of Firesheep. This is not a solution.”

According to an article by Andrew Vonnagy, the ways you can minimize your risks are “On Wi-Fi Networks, coupling dynamic key encryption with broadcast traffic filtering, peer-to-peer blocking, wireless ARP proxy, and disabling gratuitous ARP on the router will help minimize the risk… On wired networks, enabling DHCP snooping and ARP inspection features can help minimize the risk.” The only real fix for this according to Vonnagy, is for the content and service providers to properly implement the security into their products and services.

While most of these security solutions are sure to be way over your head, you can at least install the Firefox extension and be aware of what sites you are using while on public networks. Write a letter or email or tweet to your favorite service or content provider and tell them you want better security!

The app currently only recognizes certain websites, but anyone can write a new script for a specific site. The list of current websites that Firesheep works with by default is:

• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Amazon
• Basecamp
• bit.ly
• Cisco
• CNET
• Dropbox (they fixed it!)
• Enom
• Evernote
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Github
• Google
• HackerNews
• Harvest
• Windows Live
• NY Times
• Pivotal Tracker
• Slicehost
• tumblr
• Twitter
• WordPress
• Yahoo
• Yelp

Sources:

TechCrunch

Mashable

Revolution WiFi

CNET

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(Note:  This is not a new or an exciting topic, but it’s one of those things that has to be done.)

Business Continuity is the area of focus this week for The Tech Salon.   For small- to mid-sized businesses it is crucial to the survival of the business.  Yet many small- to mid- sized and SOHOs (small-office, home office) businesses operate without data backups and recovery plans.

Over the years, I have talked to many business owners and know that many business backup their data  but they do not have a data recovery plan or process and do not know if they can recover in the event of an emergency.  As one of my Facebook friends commented last week “small biz owners may not understand that ‘recovery‘ or restore is a process.”  So, I am here to tell you that recovery is a process and you need to know if you can recovery your data.

According to Wikipedia, business continuity is the  ” activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. These activities include many daily chores such as project management, system backups, change control, and help desk. Business Continuity is not something implemented at the time of a disaster; Business Continuity refers to those activities performed daily to maintain service, consistency, and recoverability.”

The take away is that you have to plan to recover your data if something bad happens.  You have to backup, then you have to run tests periodically to see if you can recover your data.  End of story.

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In part two of TCE (Taking Care of Email), I will offer a few thoughts for you to consider as you gain control over your email.  These are things that work for me.  However, the key for you is to find a system that works for you; one that makes your life easier.  The goal here is to get you to think about how you process email and make changes that save you time and stress.

As you think about how you would like to manage your email more effectively and efficiently, here are a few things to think about.

1.  Slow down to speed up.

When one feels overwhelmed by one’s inbox, spending more time processing email does not make you feel less overwhelmed.  Slow down, think about what type of email you are receiving and whether you really need it or need to act upon it

2.  Use one application to manage multiple email accounts.

Currently, I have at least eight (8) email accounts (truly a long story) and my goal is to reduce that number to three.  Six of the eight are sent to my personal Gmail account, which filters all of them into separate folders based on the email account name.  I also have additional sub-folders that filter based on topics and individuals.

In terms of business, I have a separate account that I log into and sub-categorize emails based on topics and individuals.  At some point, I will add my business account to my personal Gmail account but the reason I have not is because Google does not allow for multiple signature.  I know it is a matter of time.  In fact, I have sent an email requesting that feature.

Microsoft Outlook also has the ability to manage multiple email accounts.  The nice thing about Outlook is that you can create multiple signatures.

3.  Use email filters and folders

I cannot reiterate this enough.  I filter most of my messages.  The most important ones go to my inbox so that when I check my email I will act on those immediately, if necessary.  I also should state that I generally do not filter messages from friends and family, even though some of those messages contain jokes and the like I generally process them immediately when I review email.

In addition, I created a folder called “For Deletion,” which I have found to be extremely helpful.  I put a lot of email I receive from email lists I have signed up over the years. It is mostly email that I call “for information purposes only.”  I scan this folder once a day.  I delete its contents at the end of the week.

4.  Disable alerts and set aside specific time to respond to email

Disable your email alerts.  You do not need to know every time you get an email as this can be very distracting especially if you feel the need to read or act upon each email you receive. My suggestion is to set aside time to check your email and respond to the most important things.  I am scheduled to check email three times a day and I send myself a reminder.  Of course there are times I check it more than three times a day.

5.  Unsubscribe to any lists or groups

I am always thinking about whether I need to receive an email or not, especially from many of the lists to which I have subscribed.  If not, I remove myself.  My thinking is that I can always decide to subscribe again.  There have been very few, if any, lists to which I have “re-subscribed.”

6.  Use the “4 Ds of Decision-Making” to process email: Delegate, Delete, Delay or Do.

For every piece of email, ask “Can I delegate, delete, delay, or do?”

If you can quickly respond, that is, do something with it; try to complete it in five minutes or less.  Otherwise you should delay your response.  For messages I delay, I either add to my tasks list or flag. When more time is available, I review them and complete the required task or response.

Managing email is an ongoing process.  However, to manage it effectively and efficiently as possible, you need to create a system that works for you and your schedule.

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In May of this year (2010), I was on vacation with a friend.  Actually, she was out of the office because she was working the whole time.  One of her comments was “Email is the worst invention ever!”  Interestingly enough, I was so relaxed that I ignored the comment because for me that is not true.  I also recognized that I am biased in favor of it because I have been using it for 20 years now.

Email can be a pain but once you put systems and processes in place it is very manageable.  My friend uttered the statement about email several times and I felt her pain.  As a techie, I wanted to help her solve her problem.   So, I tentatively ventured to ask more details.

I found out that she gets at least 400 emails a day.  Given her position and the work she does on a global scale, it was very plausible.  The question (at least for me) was why was she looking at them or, at least, looking at most of them.  She felt they were all important and that her staff was too new to handle them properly.   From my perspective, all of those messages could not be important.  As my father said to me years ago, “If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.”

Over the course of the trip, we talked more and more about how she could better manage her inbox.  To be fair, I talked about how she could better manage her inbox.   As I relayed some suggestions, I could see her rethinking how to management her inbox more effectively.

As a result, I have developed a number of concrete suggestions that I think may be helpful.  As you rethink how to “cope” with your email, I would recommend you develop a mantra, especially when you feel overwhelmed by your inbox.  I have many but my favorite is “slow down to speed up.”  This is courtesy of Daniel Grissom, sales coach and author of “STEP UP! How to WIN MORE and Lose Less in BUSINESS!” I worked with Daniel several years ago and this is one of the things he would say to me all the time.  I love it!  It made me feel less guilty when I took the time to organize, not only my technology, but my life.

Tomorrow, I will give you a few things to consider when gaining control over your email in part two of TCE: Taking Care of Email.

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Recently, I have been focused on ramping up my business to help small businesses move into the cloud computing space.  However, I have taken a detour to make users aware of the Facebook privacy issues.  Users want their technology to work. They accept a small amount of inconvenience and are often slow to anger about the feature rich” (i.e. bugs) products they have to endure.   However, many people who have become aware of the Facebook opt-out policy have told me that the policy seems deceitful, especially since many of them really enjoy Facebook even if they are just lurking in the background.  I admit that I am disappointed Facebook has been slow to respond to the privacy issues.  I wonder if there will be dramatic improvement in the latest round of privacy setting.  I do not think the changes will be significant; “smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors, my friend” as one of my colleagues used to say.    Personally, I would love to see all the settings change to opt-in rather than remain opt-out.  All relationships, even on-line ones, allow for us to opt-in.  I wonder how all of this will affect Facebook as they approach their 500 millionth registered user.

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I am often asked “What does the Tech Salon do?”   One of my standard responses is “We do technology.”   As you can imagine such an answer brings on a myriad of reactions, nonverbal as well as verbal.  We deliver technical solutions that are easy to understand and allow you to do what you do best.

Over the years many clients have told me they do not want to be techies but felt that many of the technical solutions that are proposed require them or their staff to spend an inordinate amount of time maintaining and supporting their systems.  On more than one occasion, they express frustrations over loss of focus on their core business.

The Tech Salon understands this frustration and seeks to do things differently.  We create customized cutting-edge solutions that focus on helping you get work done and minimize disruptions.  We also help you create a multi-year strategy to keep up with technological changes.  It is no longer an option of whether you are going to do an “upgrade”, it is a matter of when and to what.

Every year, there are many new products and services available.  How and when do you choose? Wouldn’t it be nice to call a trusted advisor and strategist to decipher all of the buzzing?  Now you can.

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