OK - this one is simple. Just like you wouldn't trust anyone with your passwords, don't trust any machine or device that you don't explicitly own. A little background... I was traveling this past week for business and I happened upon a machine billed as a 'rapid charger' for your mobile device. I took notice of the 12 cables of varying connectors protruding from the front of it and thought to myself, "Hmm... I wonder what they're connected to on the other side?" And as I was completing that thought I immediately jumped to, "Nope - I wouldn't trust this…
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In honor of National Cyber Security Awareness Month this article is going to talk about how you can easily mitigate cyber risks to your work and personal accounts by simply creating and managing good passwords. We as users must remember that we are the biggest problem. But with a few small changes to our habits, we can make it better. In a previous post we talked about how to mitigate account exposure from a hack by using good passwords. And don't reuse them. Reusing your password means that if one of your accounts has been compromised then all of your…
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I covered in my last installment, how converging your voice and data networks allows you to take full advantage of the benefits VoIP telephony offers. This can be a tricky road, but one very worth the trip. In this post, I'll talk more specifically about some security details you should consider while weighing your decision to go to VoIP and how to mitigate those concerns. Converged Network Security Implications A converged network can create security problems unheard of in the legacy, voice-only telecom world. Traditionally, calls are sent and received over closed, circuit-switched networks. Security and performance concerns are minimal in that…
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VoIP for Small Businesses For years, small businesses have eyed larger companies' advanced telephony capabilities with envy. Call centers with features that integrate with customer account information systems, leverage time-based call flows and use shortened numbers for internal dialing have been reserved for only the biggest companies. The small guys can't afford it, and customer service often suffers. This doesn't have to be true! An affordable option for small companies to "look big" and behave responsively is to embrace Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. VoIP is a good way to cut costs and add flexibility to your business’s telephony capabilities. It…
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For those tech savvy readers out there, isn't it a blessing and a curse to be your family's on-demand help desk for trivial computer issues? On one hand it's great to be able to perform Harry Potter-caliber wizardry to fix that pesky printer because your mother-in-law somehow deleted its driver or be able to recover lost data because you knew Office had an auto-recover feature that your brother wasn't aware of. Ah, but all good things eventually do come to an end and there inevitably comes a time when you have to deliver some less-than-wanted news. I had the misfortune…
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