Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.

March 2012

Innovations

— Lesa Carter

You receive an urgent message from an old

friend, or a relative. They are stuck in

"Madrid,Spain" after being robbed of their

passport and credit cards. They have an ur-

gent request: please wire them a couple

grand, so they can make their flight home.

What should you do?

In July of 2010, I got an email like this

from my niece. Humph, a clever new scam, I thought. I sent her a message letting her

know that she'd been hacked.

In December of 2011, I got another similar email, from a friend that I hadn't heard from

in years. Gave me another chuckle.

Last month, someone I know received a phone call, apparently from her granddaugh-ter. "Vicki" said she was in Mexico City, had gotten into some trouble, and needed

Grandma to wire her $3,000. Grandma might not have fallen for the email scam, but on the phone, Fake Vicki sounded just like Real Vicki. Off she went to the nearest Western Union office. Thank goodness for West-

ern Union.

A recent article in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/hacked/8673) describes a similar case. The "Madrid" email got sent to everyone in the victim's address book. What's more, all of their email history, going back 10 years, had been deleted. The attacker appar-ently used a guessed or stolen password.

(Continued on page 2)

Regardless of your operating style, iPhone,

Droid, or even Blackberry, there are a pleth-

ora of apps to help you do everything from

calculating your fuel efficiency, to filing your

taxes, to reading and storing files on the go.

What is a mobile app? It is a piece of software designed to run on Smart-phones and tablet computers to in-crease your abilities on the device. These programs are available to you through a distribution channel or app

store.

Did you know the American Dialect Society (www.americandialect.org), founded in 1889 and dedicated to the study of the English language, actually selected the word “App” as word of the year in 2010? Isn’t it pretty amaz-ing that software advances can spur the

expansion of the American Language?

Over 600,000 apps are now available for a variety of devices. The Apple iPhone, An-droid, BlackBerry, Windows mobile, and

more offer applications or mobile apps to assist you with every func-tion imaginable. Unfortunately, the wealth of apps may make it difficult to find what you need. Here are a few search terms you can use to find apps that can help you with the daily grind of running your busi-

ness.

“Expense”: There are many apps

to help you manage your expenses. For the iPhone, iXpenseIt simplifies daily expense tracking and budget-ing. In the Droid Market, you may

(Continued on page 2)

The app world: Productivity at your fingertips

Hacker’s Hacker’s Hacker’s Hacker’s Corner …Corner …Corner …Corner …

Hacker's Corner: “Stuck in Madrid”

BSSi2, www.bssi2.com, 847-551-4626, sbernstein@bssi2.com

The Lighter Side…

Classic Irish Story

In a court in Killarney, deep in Munster, Ireland, this con-versation is reported to have taken place: Lawyer: 'At the scene of the accident, Mr. O'Shea, did you tell the Garda officer that you had never felt better in your life?'

O'Shea the farmer: 'That's right, sir.'

Lawyer: 'Well then, Mr. O'Shea, how is it that you are now claiming you were seri-ously injured when my cli-ent's car hit your cart?'

O'Shea the farmer: 'When the Garda arrived, he went over to my horse, who had a broken leg, and shot him. Then he went over to Darcy, my dog, who was badly hurt, and shot him. Then the policeman came across the road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, 'How are you feeling?' I just thought under the circum-stances, it was a wise choice of words to say: 'I've never felt better in my life.'

That's one way to do it, which is why it's so important to use

secure passwords and change them frequently.

But that's not the only avenue of attack. A hacker may be able to gain access to your email address book without ever needing your password, using a technique known as "cross-site script-

ing". Suppose you are reading your email online, and you open a malicious website. That site could try to inject a piece of JavaScript code into your browser, that could sneak over to your email window, grab your contact list, and send it back to the at-

tacker, all happening behind the scenes.

Modern browsers have adopted "same origin" policies to pre-

vent extraneous scripts from running. And the larger email pro-viders such as AOL or GMail are constantly on the lookout for scripting vulnerabilities in their apps. But hackers are constantly

finding new ones.

Even if someone got their hands on your email address book, how would they get your Grandma's phone number? How do you explain the phone call from Fake Vicki? It's hard to say. Some people include phone numbers along with other contact info in their email address books. Or it could be social engi-neering, the oldest form of hacking. Someone who knew Real Vicki, and knew where her Grandma lived, could have

just looked up her number in the phone book.

Or Grandma's number could have been obtained through an app on Vicki's iPhone. As reported in February by Singapore developer/blogger Arun Thampi (http://mclov.in), the iPhone operating system gives any installed app full access to the phone's contact list by default, without requiring any special permission. This means that any iPhone app can send all of your saved contact info to a central server somewhere, and

many iPhone apps do exactly that.

It's another example of a trade-off between security and convenience. As described in the previous article, cell phone apps certainly add to our productivity. It saves time to have your contact info stored in your phone, and it promotes inter-connectivity to allow apps to share contact info with each other. But it also chips away at our privacy, and leaves us

more open to the scam artist.

(Continued from page 1)

Page 2

Innovations

like Expense Manager. Be sure to look at the list of features to

ensure the product encompasses all your needs.

“DropBox”: For file management, this organization has the

competition beat. Dropbox has an app on almost every plat-form including Apple, Blackberry and Android places. This handy program allows you to download, view, archive, and

share files in a flash.

“Shipping”: to track shipments, FedEx and UPS both have

(Continued from page 1) applications that are available across the board, for your tablet, iPad, Blackberry, Droid and more. These handy apps allow you to view/monitor shipments, track packages incoming or outgoing, and view exceptions or delays. You can even make notes and

create nicknames for a quick look at all your shipments.

Apple’s clever saying, “There’s an app for that” is becoming a well known remark on all platforms. Increase your productivity today with applications that mobilize your current responsibilities,

so you can be free from your desk chair a little more this week!

Thank goodness for Western Union. They took Grandma's three grand, but held off on actually complet-ing the transfer. When Grandma went back the next day, after talking to Real Vicki and realizing she'd been scammed, Western Union was waiting for her with the

cash.

“Stuck in Madrid”

The app world: Productivity at your fingertips

BSSi2, www.bssi2.com, 847-551-4626, sbernstein@bssi2.com

March 2012

Special Guest article courtesy of Allen Katz, independent agent for LegalShield

Each year, more and more people are becoming victims of

identity theft. In fact, the incident rate is doubling every two to three years. Banks and government officials are encouraging individuals and businesses to take steps now to reduce exposure to these crimes, which cost the average identity theft victim 175 hours of personal time and over $1,500 to correct. Here are 7 tips on things you can do to help minimize your

risk of identity theft:

1. Make it more difficult for criminals to get your Social Security number (SSN), your birth certificate, and all financial account information. Treat these like valuable jewelry. If you are not us-ing them, don't carry them around. Lock them up. If someone requests this information in person, email, mail or on a website, ask why. Be satisfied with the

response before sharing this information.

2. If your driver's license number is your SSN, change it. If the medical insurance card in your

wallet shows your SSN or that of another family member, ask the insurer to provide a card without the SSN. Alter-natively, carry a photocopy of the insurance card with the last 4 digits masked out, along with a medical emergency contact number so a family member could provide the last

four digits if necessary.

3. Be careful with outbound mail, being certain not to leave invoice payments in mailboxes where they could be pilfered. Consider the number of financial statements, loan and credit offers arriving in mailboxes. If you are interested in preventing the thefts that often lead to fraudu-lent acts, you should rent a PO Box or have a locking box at your home or business. Drop payment mailings off at a US Postal Service office or in steel USPS postal boxes.

Fighting Identity Theft Better yet, pay bills online using a secure website. Secure pages are identified as https://www..... instead of http://

www....

4. If you pay bills online or purchase items from secured

sites on the internet, it is best to use one credit card exclu-sively for web purchases. The credit card will provide greater personal protection against identity theft than a debit card, and by using one card for all online transac-tions, it will be easier to identify any fraudulent activity

that may arise.

5. Monitor your monthly credit card state-ments carefully. And at least once a year, request your credit file from the three major credit reporting bu-reaus. If you find any questionable charges on any of these documents, immediately notify the financial in-

stitution(s) concerned, as well as the fraud depart-

ments at the credit bureaus.

6. File complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (877-438-4338, www.consumer.gov/idtheft)

and with local law enforcement, including police, postal inspectors and Secret Service. Informing these groups is vitally important, especially since the Identity Theft Clearinghouse reports 60% of 2003 victims did not notify law enforcement of the theft perpetrated against

them.

7. Be sure to close any accounts you know or suspect to have been tampered with, and use the ID Theft Affidavit available from the Federal Trade Commission when dis-

puting new unauthorized accounts.

Make no mistake; an identity thief can compromise the quality of your life. It is no easy task to clear up identity theft issues. Your credit rating can be damaged for quite a while, and you will spend more time fighting this than you want. Stop it up front,

before you have endless sleepless nights.

or your management team may have the best intentions, taking a

physical copy of your data offsite daily may not regularly happen.

Automatic off-site solutions are far superior. Don’t take a chance with physical backup - there are just too many possible issues. An automatic off-site solution gives you the reliability of a daily backup on a set schedule, quick backup copies created with regular moni-toring to ensure completion, and the ability to check your backup files any time. This type of solution offers proactive recovery options as well. If all your computers and servers are damaged, you could be up and running on your laptops from a remote location in just a

matter of hours.

Give us a call today to ensure your company information is safely

backed up.

Be sure to test your backup solution at least a few times a

year to ensure that you have everything you need if disaster

strikes. Take a look at these tips and pitfalls.

The whole point of backing up your data is to create a duplicate of your information in another physical location (as far away as possible) so you can easily use it to restore your computer or network if necessary. Create a plan with your IT provider that spells out the steps necessary to recre-ate a work environment for your company, even if you have to use a substitute location. There are major differences be-tween the types of backup, and there are some huge pitfalls you can avoid right off the bat. For example, tape backup solutions allow you to back up your files and take them home. Unfortunately, this leaves your data vulnerable to (what we call in geek-speak) the human element. While you

Page 3

Backing up: Don’t lose it even if you don’t use it

— Allen Katz

— Lesa Carter

BSSi2, www.bssi2.com, 847-551-4626, sbernstein@bssi2.com

March 2012

35 Aztec Court

South Barrington, IL 60010

(847) 551-4626

www.bssi2.com

“We make all of your

computer problems go

away without the cost of

a full-time I.T. staff”

Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.Review twice, Implement once. Doing IT right the first time.

Inquiring Minds... — David Do

The biggest technology news last month belonged

to Facebook and their initial public offering (IPO). Ex-pected to raise $5 billion or more, it is the largest flotation for an Internet company ever. The estimated valuation of Facebook is between $75 and $100 billion, which puts the young com-pany's value stunningly ahead of Boe-

ing, the world's largest aircraft maker.

Facebook started eight years ago as a way for Harvard students to rate their classmates on their looks. Today Facebook has become one of the hottest Internet companies, stand-ing up to titans like Amazon, Apple

and Google.

With a virtual monopoly on social networking, Facebook certainly deserves the value that investors have placed on it. It has become the tool for young people, who are con-stantly on the go, to stay connected through a laptop or

smartphone. Its appeal only grows as more people join.

Facebook recently beat out Google's Okrut as the dominating social network carrier in Brazil. As more Brazilians wanted to connect with their friends from across the world, they switched in large numbers from Google's limited in-country network to Facebook's vast worldwide network that is soon to have 1 billion users. As Facebook gets to know more about its users, it seems likely that the stock value will rise over time. Researchers are constantly devising new ways to gather information from users. For example, this year Facebook encouraged its users to create an online history of their lives, through its new feature, Facebook Timeline. The company uses the information that they gather to target customers with well placed ads from local businesses as well as from large cor-

porations. They also use their social networking features to share recommendations from friends. These are the ways that Facebook can use what they know about their users to turn a

profit.

Although currently gliding on a wave of investor enthusiasm, there are concerns that Facebook may soon be a target of government regulators who want to ensure privacy protec-tion for consumers. Antitrust issues may be less of an issue for Facebook because of competitors like Google-Plus and the vast network of niche social media websites. Facebook's future seems to be bright and exciting

as it enters into the public ownership.

My son on vacation in Australia rubbing it in to the rest of us left work-ing in the states. Af-ter going skydiving.

My Adventuresome Son in the SunMy Adventuresome Son in the SunMy Adventuresome Son in the SunMy Adventuresome Son in the Sun