The federal government’s Red Flag Rule requires all businesses that are potential identity theft targets develop plans to spot red flags and prevent theft. How can you comply? Regulations designed to minimize identity theft went into effect in June of 2010. Are you complying with them? The federal government’s so-called “Red Flag Rule” requires all businesses that are potential identity-theft targets develop plans to spot red flags and prevent theft. Red flags include suspicious photo IDs, unverifiable addresses and Social Security numbers, and questionable account activity, to name just a few. While many companies think the Red Flag Rule only applies to financial institutions, it actually applies to all creditors — with creditors being defined as “businesses or organizations that regularly provide goods and services first and allow customers to pay later,” according to a Frequently Asked Questions guide prepared by the Federal Trade Commission, which will enforce the Red Flag Rule. In other words, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, you’re a creditor — and the Red Flag Rule applies to you. How can you comply?  You’ll need to have a written policy that specifically addresses how you will prevent and handle identity theft. Other recommendations include data encryption, annual updates of your written policy, and staff training. While this may seem onerous, you don’t want to ignore the legislation. Fines are $3,500 per violation — and the threat of a lawsuit from customers whose identity has been stolen. Related articles Do You Comply with the FTC’s Red Flag Fule?

While many companies think the federal Red Flag Rule applies only financial institutions, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, it applies to you, too. Regulations designed to minimize identity theft went into effect in June of 2010. Are you complying with them? The federal government’s so-called “Red Flag Rule” requires all businesses that are potential identity-theft targets develop plans to spot red flags and prevent theft. Red flags include suspicious photo IDs, unverifiable addresses and Social Security numbers, and questionable account activity, to name just a few. While many companies think the Red Flag Rule only applies to financial institutions, it actually applies to all creditors — with creditors being defined as “businesses or organizations that regularly provide goods and services first and allow customers to pay later,” according to a Frequently Asked Questions guide prepared by the Federal Trade Commission, which will enforce the Red Flag Rule. In other words, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, you’re a creditor — and the Red Flag Rule applies to you. How can you comply?  You’ll need to have a written policy that specifically addresses how you will prevent and handle identity theft. Other recommendations include data encryption, annual updates of your written policy, and staff training. While this may seem onerous, you don’t want to ignore the legislation. Fines are $3,500 per violation — and the threat of a lawsuit from customers whose identity has been stolen. Related articles Do You Comply with the FTC’s Red Flag Fule? Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule: A How-To Guide for Business

To comply with the federal government’s Red Flag Rule, you’ll need to have a written policy that specifically addresses how you will prevent and handle identity theft — and more. Regulations designed to minimize identity theft went into effect in June of 2010. Are you complying with them? The federal government’s so-called “Red Flag Rule” requires all businesses that are potential identity-theft targets develop plans to spot red flags and prevent theft. Red flags include suspicious photo IDs, unverifiable addresses and Social Security numbers, and questionable account activity, to name just a few. While many companies think the Red Flag Rule only applies to financial institutions, it actually applies to all creditors — with creditors being defined as “businesses or organizations that regularly provide goods and services first and allow customers to pay later,” according to a Frequently Asked Questions guide prepared by the Federal Trade Commission, which will enforce the Red Flag Rule. In other words, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, you’re a creditor — and the Red Flag Rule applies to you. How can you comply?  You’ll need to have a written policy that specifically addresses how you will prevent and handle identity theft. Other recommendations include data encryption, annual updates of your written policy, and staff training. While this may seem onerous, you don’t want to ignore the legislation. Fines are $3,500 per violation — and the threat of a lawsuit from customers whose identity has been stolen. Related articles Do You Comply with the FTC’s Red Flag Fule?

Tired of having Excel convert what you type into active hyperlinks? You can make it stop. Read more.

A lot of press has been given to green computing lately, much of it talking about green data centers. While you may applaud the fact that Dell, Google, HP and others are putting plans into action to reduce energy consumption, you may have a lot of trouble identifying with the whole ‘data center’ discussion.

Since its initial launch as a microblogging service in 2006, Twitter has taken the World Wide Web by storm, and if there’s ever a popularity contest among social networking platforms, Twitter would most likely be the winner. On its own, Twitter is a great service for connecting with people. However, without the third party tools, it wouldn’t be as phenomenal as it is today. There are countless Twitter tools and apps available today. Here’s a list of six that are sure to be useful and effective in building relationships with your Twitter followers. The first section introduces some basic tools, which you can skip if you’re already a Twitter expert. The second section describes tools that you may not have previously heard of, but are worth checking out since they can boost visibility, traffic, and clients. The Basics Link Shorteners – Most Tweets (posts) on Twitter are not the usual “what I had for lunch” Tweets, but are more often people sharing links of articles, videos, photos, and more. Sharing links is a great way to help people better understand your field of interest and expertise while also helping them discover great content online. However, many links are very long, and do not fit within Twitter’s 140-character limit – so as the term implies, a link shortener shortens a specific link/URL. Try sites like Bit.ly , TinyURL and tr.im to easily condense your very long URLs into just 15-20 characters, leaving you room to comment.In addition to the practical need of shorter URLs, a majority of these tools also provide useful tracking reports so you can monitor the number of people who clicked on your links, which were the most popular, the dates when people clicked them, as well as give you an idea which topics are the most popular with your Twitter community. TweetMeme – That ever-present gray and green “re-tweet” logo enables readers to quickly re-post or “re-tweet” your post to their own Twitter followers. TweetMeme is a wonderful means to encourage your audience to spread the news about your status, tips, and words of wisdom.Like link shorteners, TweetMeme also tracks your links as they pass through the Twitterverse, and shows the total number of times your link was re-tweeted. Aside from helping you determine the popularity of given topics, it also lets the feisty competitor in us compare the success of our posts versus others and even ourselves. TwitPic – This is one of the numerous tools that let you take pictures with your mobile phone and post them directly on Twitter. Other similar tools are: TwitGoo , img.ly and yfrog . These tools are also usually integrated into whatever Twitter mobile application you’re using. You can also obtain statistics to monitor responses on your pictures. You can still also opt to link your followers to a Flickr account, Facebook page, or a web page that displays your pictures. Cast your Twitter net even farther… There are a lot of nifty Twitter applications out there that will help you create a solid and engaged community. When you’re ready to take your Twitter skills to the next level, below are three tools to get you started. TweetSwell – This great app allows you to create Twitter-based polls, wherein each reply doubles as a tweet and helps the poll become viral. TweetSwell  can also help maintain your brand identity by ensuring that your poll pages are synchronized with your custom-made Twitter layout. Similar apps are: Twtpoll and TwtSurvey . TwtVite – Somewhat related to Eventbrite , TwtVite enables you to use Twitter to get together in the real world. Check out the animated video to get a feel for how it works. For an actual example, read this case study about a Milwaukee bar owner who used TwtVite in hosting the biggest Tweetup in the Midwest . TwtQpon – Online coupons offer small businesses a fantastic opportunity to drive lots of new and repeat clients. This app creates online coupons that can be published on Twitter and many other social network sites. While apps such as Groupon and Living Social can also make online coupons, TwtQpon is specifically designed for social networks.

Sometimes websites use fonts that are too small or otherwise difficult to read. Learn how to set up Firefox to display all webpages with a specific font and size of your choosing.   Read more

If you’ve seen a popup window warning you that your computer may be infected with a virus, think twice before clicking on it — you might be getting duped into spending money on malware. Security firm McAfee has published a report early in the year showing that up to a million people worldwide fall victim to so-called “scareware” each year. Scareware, or rogueware, is software that poses as legitimate security software but in reality are dupes to steal credit card information from users, or even worse are Trojan Horses to spread malware. Scareware is distributed primarily through the Internet via malicious websites that pop out windows that fool users into thinking their system may be infected. Users who click on the popup windows are redirected to a website which encourages them to buy fake security software online. Scareware are especially dangerous as it hits users in many ways: by duping them out of their money, injecting viruses or other forms of malware into their system, or even holding them ransom — for instance, by taking over users’ systems then demanding more payment to free the data stored in the infected computer. It’s a good thing that there are many ways to protect your system against scareware. One is using security software from legitimate and well established software vendors — through their legitimate sales channels. Another is by being prudent with offers and downloads when online. For a small business there are other ways such as blocking or filtering these malicious websites to ensure the security of the entire business. If you want to find out more about these solutions to protect small business networks — let us know. We offer managed security services for small business that can protect against online threats.

Sorting lists of names by last name is easy if they are listed in a LAST, FIRST order. But what if the names are in FIRST LAST order? This tip explains features in Word that make this possible. Read more.

Businesses experience problems or complications all the time. These may range anywhere from natural calamities to accidents to hardware and equipment malfunctions, among many others. They can slow down your business or seriously hamper your operations. Most probably, you have this covered, and you may already have a disaster recovery plan. The question is: when did you last update it? As you know, businesses continually evolve and go through changes. Changes in the market constantly dictate changes to your products, services, systems, and processes. The same is true of your disaster recovery plan, and if you don’t keep up with these changes and plan for them in your disaster recovering plan, it’s almost as bad as having no plan at all. Especially with the expanding proliferation of technology around us, the way we do business constantly changes, and the way we address problems must adjust as well. You no longer can rely on the same plan you had years ago since your technology environment has most likely changed significantly since then. As a result, it’s a good idea to review and update your disaster contingency plan periodically – especially when your business goes through a drastic change. It’s also a good plan to give your plan a dry run to identify what works and what doesn’t. Better to find that out now than after a disaster happens and it’s too late to adjust the plan. It’s a constant process to keep your disaster recovery plan updated and relevant, and this process should be integrated into how you go about your business. Need help and advice? Contact us and we’ll assist you in developing and implementing a flexible plan that keeps your business safe today – and tomorrow.