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May 16, 2010

Photocopiers: A new Identity Theft Threat

Filed under: network security — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 7:13 pm

Last month CBS News uncovered a warehouse full of copiers hiding personal information within the hard drives. Out of the four hard drives bought by CBS News Chief Corespondent Armen Keteyian, two were from the Buffalo NY Police Department (one had detailed information from the Sex Crimes Unit and the other from the Narcotics Unit in which a list of targets was found for a major drug raid.). Another machine featured A New York Construction Companies plans for a building near ground zero, pay stubs with employees names, addresses, and social security numbers; and $40,000 dollars in personal checks. The last one was the jackpot: a copier from Affinity Health Plan, a New York insurance company. In the hard drive had medical records-from drug prescriptions, to blood tests to highly personal diagnosis’s.

Since 2002 copiers have had a hard drive to store images of documents scanned into the machine. The hard drives can be filled with all sorts of information such as: tax information, birth certificates, death certificates, bank records, social security numbers – this makes them a hot spot for identity thieves.

In a study commissioned by Sharp in 2008 it was found that “54% of those polled had no clue that digital photocopiers store an image of what’s duplicated and that a majority believed running off returns on copiers or printers is a safe practice. When told of the security threat posed by unsecured hardware, however, two-thirds of the people surveyed said they were less likely to copy their financial information on a public digital photocopier.”

So what can we do this about this? Try to find out if your organizations (work, doctor, dentist, accountant) “scrubs” the hard drives of the copiers before they send to be returned at the end of their lease or when they are turned in to be recycled. Scrubbing refers to overriding the data on the hard drive making it unreadable. You have a right to know what they do with your personal information. Also try to use your own personal scanner and fax equipment if possible. Many home printers offer a copy fax option. Keep yourself protected and informed.

May 8, 2010

Small Business Solutions: Ten Tips to Help your Small Business make Big Business

Filed under: Cisco — Tags: , , , , , , — Administrator @ 9:35 pm

Businessman before a choiceWhen it comes to small business ownership-it’s the little things that make a big difference. Here are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business work more efficiently, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition.

1. Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees access the information and tools they need to keep ahead of competitors.
2. Deliver anytime, anywhere access to employees on the go. To stay productive on the move, your employees need to be able to reach the people and information they need—anywhere, anytime. With tools like virtual private networks (VPNs), your employees can work outside the office and still enjoy safe access to the business network.
3. Create effective business processes with partners. Some large companies make efficient, secure business processes a prerequisite for doing business with them. To meet the business needs of your partners, you need a secure, reliable network.
4. Make it easy to work together. Smooth collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. An intelligent network lets your business take advantage of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other technologies for easy collaboration.
5. Enable employees to take their phone systems wherever they go. Missed calls create project delays, wasted opportunities, and lost revenues. With a networked voice and data solution, your employees can have one phone number that rings simultaneously on multiple devices, so customers reach the right person the first time. Your staff can access all their communications from anywhere, checking for e-mail, voicemail, and faxes from just one inbox.
6. Streamline customer communications. Delivering fast, knowledgeable service is the best way to keep customers satisfied. Linking your network phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a great way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window with their records appears on an employee’s IP phone screen, computer screen, or both.
7. Reduce unproductive travel time. All too often, time spent on the road is time lost. A networked phone solution that offers video calls and Web conferencing can help reduce the time and expense of traveling to offsite meetings and training sessions. Instead of spending time traveling, you can use the time to get work done with technology.
8. Employ a managed service provider. Is managing a network the best use of your employees’ time? In some situations, it is advantageous to hire a managed service provider for network administration. Working with a managed service provider can free your IT staff to focus on other IT tasks and use their time more effectively.
9. Improve employee satisfaction. Aging phone systems and slow networks can frustrate your employees and annoy your customers. In some cases, an employee might become burned out and decide to move on. To help ensure that employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs a secure, reliable, and fast network.
10. Develop a long-term technology plan. The process of replacing obsolete hardware can interrupt your employees and bring the office to a standstill. You can minimize such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and working with your network vendor to deploy technology that matches them.

Cisco can help you with these tips with the powerful 500 series power driven for small businesses.  The ESW 500 Series are cost-effective, easy-to-use switches that provide the foundation of your small business network. It provides voice and data communications, voicemail, automated attendant, video, security, and wireless capabilities while integrating with existing desktop applications such as calendar, email, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs. This easy-to-use solution supports up to 32 users and provides flexible deployment options based on your needs, supporting a wide array of IP phones, public switched telephone network (PSTN) interfaces, and Internet connectivity.

As well as having a state of the art product line, Cisco also provides 0% on financing for 36 months enabling you to make a sound investment.  If you would like to know more about how Cisco can help you give us a call at (866) 441-7469.