I found out today that I am an ethical person. That sounds like it is a statement I should have had a grasp on before. I do have a strong work ethic and I do what I can for the good of others. However, no matter what you think you would do you never know for sure until you are walking down the road and you find a suitcase of money. Do you turn it in for fear of being caught? You didn’t steal it. It isn’t y ours however.
Earlier this week one of my clients had a great deal of trouble with their network after a lightning storm. As it turned out one router managing a point to point fiber connection was dropping their VOIP and data about every 20-30 minutes. There were no outward signs and no log errors that gave it away. That is one of the joys of lightning. It can do really weird things.

About three days into the search through this campus network I was working after hours with some engineers from the company that provided transport services to rule out all their equipment. One of the engineers produced a page of scrap paper and diagramed out our network so we could get a good idea of where to look. Two days later after the problem was found and solved I was making some checks to verify the new equipment. Sitting on top of an ONS I saw our piece of paper with the diagram. I picked it up to throw it away and absently turned it over to look at the back. I stopped and my jaw hit the floor as I read the printing.

The engineer had obviously been working recently on a network transport issue for a large bank about 40 miles away. This particular piece of scrap held the audit results from the bank in question. It had the equipment serial numbers, user logins, passwords and use description. The names of all the routers and servers were there with their administrative logins. The computer that kept the syslog was in the list. As an engineer who has done penetration testing and security audits for over two decades I ran over in my mind how to enter and turn off logging, remove a low percentage from every account in the database, place it in an anonymous account, transfer it to another and then another, finally spread it to several smaller accounts. Then I would remove the access traces from the server and router and the secondary logs so that they all matched. … That is about as far as fantasy got before I took the 8 steps to the shredder. I held in my hands a method of untraceable millions between this paper and my experience and my first action was the shredder. Well there it is. It would be vain to tell you I am a good person but I now know. I am an ethical person. What would you do?

The first step is to understand the media and how it can help you and the second is to form a step by step plan to grow your base of followers and readers. The plan we worked out for this client started week one with growing the twitter following. This meant searching for people that were talking about them already and either responding to them,  re-tweeting them if it was helpful or making the decision to follow them. It is important not to just follow everyone that mentions you anywhere. This can quickly become unmanageable.

It is also important not to come across as an add agency. You should be personable and interesting. Post a variety of tweets about a variety of things that relate to your business, industry and area. The client in the example is a hotel group so they have an interest in tweeting about things to do in the area to keep customers there longer.  Later on in the next step we plan to use twitter contests and trivia about the business and area to build more followers. First though we have to have more to offer them. That is where the next strategy comes in.

This first week of growing we are going to add a blog to the toolbox the business has.  They have an active marketing director and manager that are used to sending our e-mail blasts and sales copy on a regular basis. They also have a food and beverage director that has an interest in fine wine and has written a column for the local paper. Their spa also puts out regular mailings and specials.  If each of these departments can contribute a paragraph or two each week the blog can be active and keep readers coming back. The recommendation here is to put up each article separately instead of one big weekly post. For example if you post upcoming events on Monday, Spa specials on Wednesday, Wine information on Friday, and wedding news on the weekend you can track the number of hits and know exactly which articles are drawing the readers in.  When each post is put up a tweet could be sent out mentioning the content of the new post with a link.

Finally for this first stage making sure that all these elements have links to the other elements will keep the reader in the clients sphere of information longer.

In the next post we will talk a bit about linking and twitter etiquette.

See you soon

Security and functionality are issues everyone in the modern, computer- dominated world has to deal with. There are things you just can’t live without. Some people settle for “good enough” and just keep whatever antivirus program that came with their computer and expect Windows Wordpad to be good enough for writing to aunt Edna. While it is true that you get what you pay for, there are some quite good and functional pieces of software that are free.

Antivirus:

If you don’t have a GOOD antivirus and malware program you will be seeing me (or another computer tech in your area) very soon. Just the act of having an antivirus doesn’t mean you are safe. Just like doctors there are good ones and bad ones. The health of your computer depends on having a good one. It is a good idea to watch sites that review these programs yearly to see who is keeping up with the latest viruses. Also look into who owns the websites hosting the reviews. You may be unwittingly reading a paid ad for the company that arranged the review.  I recommend AVG antivirus by Grisoft. The free personal version can be found at www.free.avg.com.

Firewall:

A firewall has almost nothing to do with preventing viruses. People seem to think that if their firewall is compromised they will get a virus. It is actually worse than that. It’s all about hackers.  The firewall protects you against active threats and probes. That can mean an automated attack from what is called a bot, or it can be from a hacker’s direct attempts. The proper implementation of a firewall sets up a protective wall between your computer or network and the outside world. If you use a cable modem and it is attached to a router, this is your router’s job. If you attach your computer directly to a cable modem with no router you need a firewall. Zone Alarm is a great program that has a free version at www.zonealarm.com.

Anti-malware:

Fake alert popups and hijackers are often not viruses by definition. Once installed they may not actually be a virus or bring viruses in, but they can be much more destructive to your ability to use the computer and control it. These are in a category called malware. They often enter your computer by popping up a message that you  might think came from your computer and trick you into clicking on it. A regular scan with an antimalware program is your only defense against these. There are two candidates here. Malwarebytes can be found at www.malwarebytes.com, and super antispyware can be found at www.superantispyware.com. Both have excellent free versions.

Media player:

Windows and Mac both come with media players that do a good job. Quite often , however, you will find codecs that need to be downloaded and different programs that are needed for other formats than the standard ones your built-in programs will play. The solution to this is the VLC Media Player found at www.videolan.org/vlc/. It is a very powerful program that is small and doesn’t take up all your attention with interface. It does a good job of just presenting the media to you.

Productivity:

For those of you in a college situation and on a budge,t this is probably the most important of the sections for your pocket book. All versions of Microsoft Office for windows and mac will set you back a pretty penny, even with student discounts. There is an open source and free option that will produce files in Microsoft Office format, is that is the office suite known as OpenOffice. OpenOffice is available at www.openoffice.org. I have heard from the occasional college professor that they don’t like OpenOffice because it isn’t exactly the same as the Microsoft product but when presented with documents created by OpenOffice these same professors couldn’t tell which documents were Microsoft and which ones weren’t. The OpenOffice suite gives you alternatives to Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint.

Choosing a smart phone today is like choosing a good pair of shoes. There are lots of considerations like style, functionality, fit, durability, expected lifespan and personality. Style and personality are closely related but you can share the same style with hundreds of people and accessorize to achieve your own personality.

I used several Palm PDAs until I moved to the Blackberry World Edition. I had not used a camera phone and decided it wasn’t as much of an issue for me as the expandability of the World Edition if I traveled to a country with a different phone network protocol. The World Edition would let me keep the same phone in this event. I could keep all my personal notes, contacts and apps and not have to change phones for travel. This aside, there are many things the Blackberry World Edition does not do. I chose to live without them.

I won’t get into reviews of phones here because if you are a fan,  for example,  of the iPhone, I am not going to change your mind just because where I live AT&T offers very little coverage. I like the iTouch so if the iPhone worked here as well as a Verizon phone I would probably get one. If you like the iPhone you will love the Droid. My wife uses it and I am tremendously impressed. It offers the same easy interface that the iPhone does without Apple’s proprietary control of apps so there is much more you can do with it.

Functionality, fit and durability matter. You should decide what you need a phone to do and make a minimum functionality list. Fit is important if you have a unique circumstance. For example, my choice of the World Edition based on travel flexibility goes to the fit of the product. Durability and expected lifespan are different issues. Durability can be addressed with protective cases and methods of use. Expected lifespan has to do with how long will it be before you are likely to want to upgrade to a better phone. You might be able to keep upgrading the software and apps on your existing choice. Once you have addressed your minimum set of requirements, look at your budget and see how much farther than the minimum can you afford. Do all this research before you talk to a salesman. Face it, how many times have you heard a salesman say “You don’t need to spend that much?”

That might be the title if I were reviewing Operating Systems or OS. I was asked just the other day which OS I preferred. Actually I was asked by a person that wasn’t aware that the difference was OS. They were Mac users who had no idea that a computer was a computer for the most part. To them the difference between Mac and PC was analogous to the difference between a Chevy truck and a UFO from the Pleiades.  I explained that I used to be a Mac user myself but had changed about when Mac OS7 was getting old because PCs passed them at that point in the capability to process graphics. I am a practical person who wants to use the right tool for the job. I am not opposed to Mac at all but in the modern world I can get a PC or a Mac that will do the same things and the PC will cost $500.00 and the Mac will cost $2500.00. It is tempting at this point to call the Mac a Yuppie luxury and a status symbol but then I realize that although I am very careful as an engineer and keep all my systems running without crashes and virus free, The majority of the basic users I know can’t. Mac at least gives you that. If you aren’t tech-educated then the Mac may just be for you. They surf the same web at the same speeds and spit out the same graphics as a much cheaper PC but if you can’t manage to not download that malware by clicking OK every time you see it maybe Mac is good for you.

Linux on the other hand is the best of both worlds for the techie. With Linux you can guarantee at least as good a virus protection as with Mac and it NEVER crashes. I mean NEVER! I have been able to crash it through my ability to do something stupid but I have also seen a version of Linux run a server for 5 years with (zero) 0 downtime. I mean that. ZERO! The only drawback is that you really do have to know how to configure and use it. Otherwise it would be the number one computer system out there.

I have started leaving my phone off when I need an actual day off. With the backlog of work that happens rarely. It seems that these times are separating those with real skills from those with just a piece of paper saying they had a class. I am not knocking a degree. As a matter of fact I think that the right degree is a shining example of your motivation and skill. That is why I am an alumni of Western Governer’s University where real certifiable skills are the benchmark for your grade.

This year I have experienced this same thing happening in a new form. At the hotel group I work for one of the office workers responded to a popup that looked very official. It looked like a cross between a Microsoft security popup and the AVR resident shield. It was, in fact, a phishing add for antivirus 2009. This malicious program uses a digital version of social engineering to fool people into installing it and then paying for the privilege. I didn’t realize at that point how easy people fell for that trick. I work with computers every day and if something doesn’t look right I stop and investigate.

I wrote a three page description of how this virus got in and included screen shots so everyone would avoid the problem. The next person who got the virus did so less than a week later with the warning letter still on the bulletin board beside her desk. A third person fell or the trick in another two weeks. This was just proof to me how little people paid attention to their surroundings. I think that in this modern age all office workers should at least study the A+ material. In the past office work meant thay could type and run a copier. In this day and age they must have database, spreadsheet and word processor experience. It surprises me how often I am called to build a spreadsheet for a sales or accounting app when it should be part of the education of the modern office worker.

In short a better education in modern tools and the focus to pay attention to your surroundings is a must. It is a shame that it is often overlooked.

Desktop Premium Edition includes the Kaspersky Internet Security Suite for malware and virus protection, Acronis’ True Image Home for disk backups, and the Acronis Disk Director disk management tool. The bundle is priced at $99.99.