Beware of a new online swindle circulating the net these days – a notice or invoice sent to would-be victims indicating a need to pay a registration fee to be seen on a search engine.

As more and more people are becoming increasingly conscious about online scams, it’s expected that scammers and fraudsters need to step up their game and look for better ways to fool people into falling for their swindles.

One new tactic these unscrupulous people have employed involves a notice or invoice sent to would-be victims indicating a need to pay a registration fee to be seen on a search engine. The price isn’t very high, less than $100, for a year’s “registration”. The notice claims that without the registration your website will be significantly more difficult to locate through search engines. It also sends you a deadline date indicating that the offer expires soon.

The fact is, there is no such thing as an online “registration” for your website to be viewable in search engines. It’s still plain old SEO that gets you listed and seen, and no registration, much less a registration fee, is needed to be included in search engine search results. Cases have been filed against several companies caught sending such invoices.

If you want your website to be marketed correctly, it’s best to consult legitimate internet marketing and SEO companies. They’ll give you all the right advice and they’ll have the tools and skills to market your website properly. As for these “offers”, the best thing is to delete them on sight. Don’t click on the links, as these also flag your email as a target for more spam and scams to be sent your way.

If you are looking to increase your website’s online visibility, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss a detailed and customized program SEO program that works for you.

When you acquire equipment for your businesses, you can deduct the entire cost in a single year, thanks to a tax break that’s been extended through the end of 2011.

In the past, business equipment such as computers and machinery had to be deducted over a number of years. Then a new tax code provision was enacted to help spur economic growth.

That provision, called Section 179, allowed taxpayers to deduct the cost of equipment as an expense rather than requiring the cost of the property to be capitalized and depreciated. In other words, single-year deductions were permitted—much to the benefit of small and medium businesses.

The Section 179 deduction started out at $25,000, increased to $125,000 then $250,000, and finally ended up at $500,000. And many assets qualify for the tax break, including computers, software, office machines and furniture, manufacturing equipment, and vehicles that weigh more than 6,000 pounds.

How does it work? Lets’ say you have a $600,000 profit and don’t want to pay taxes on that entire amount. At the same time, you need new computer equipment. You can buy that new equipment for $500,000 and only owe taxes on $100,000 of your profits.

Section 179 was set to expire at the end of 2010, but it’s now been extended. The Tax Relief Act of 2010, signed on 12/17/10, allows business owners to take Section 179 deductions through the 2011 tax year.

That means 2011 is a great year to consider purchasing equipment, because the immediate writeoff helps businesses such as yours keep more cash free for other purposes. “There is a big advantage to having that cash flow right away,” says Abe Schneier, a senior manager at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. “Even in the best of times, it is hard for many small businesses to borrow money for any sizeable investment.”

Related articles: Equipment eligible for the Section 179 deduction

It looks like gone are the days when employees can safely transfer files using the ever reliable USB device. According to various reports, there is an increasing number of malware attacks targeting USB devices. Small businesses should be very wary of using USB drives, without considering security parameters to prevent these malware threats.

A USB device is indeed a useful, economical way to transfer data. In fact, according to Gartner IT research and advisory company, there were roughly 222 million USB devices shipped in 2009. However, a recent study shows that though USB devices are a convenient means of transferring information, they can also serve as channels to transmit potential threats. In fact, 25% of malware these days is built to spread via USB devices.

Most small businesses particularly are utilizing USB drives for the convenience they bring. But as consumers become more technically savvy about malicious attacks via email and other modes, cyber offenders are now shifting to USB devices to spread malware. Moreover, they want an easier and faster way of hacking into secured computers, making malware distribution via USB devices a viable option.

Being a small to medium-sized business, your company might also be at risk for the following reasons:

• Outdated operating systems. Newer versions of operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7 definitely provide more security against malware-infected USB devices. If you’re still running on Windows XP, contact us immediately and we will update your operating system to avoid unwillingly sharing your confidential business information to servers across the globe. We will ensure that you have the latest version of Windows, Macintosh, or whatever OS your company uses.
• Insufficient security knowledge. Not all employees are familiar with malware attacks via USB devices. Some may even plug a misplaced flash drive into their work PC, hoping to find its rightful owner—without knowing that it contains a script that can search sales record and or contact list. As your IT service provider, we will help you implement security guidelines against unsafe USB use to prevent potential malware attacks that can ultimately harm your business operations.
• No other options to share information. Most small businesses solely rely on USB devices to share data with their employees. While it is convenient, using them on a daily basis can be unreliable and risky. Talk to us about cloud-based solutions and other better and more secure methods to share and store files.

We believe that USB-spread malware is even more perilous than email and other means of transmitting malware.  That’s why companies, no matter how big or small, should take this alarming issue seriously. Contact us soon and let us help you protect your business from any would-be malware attacks.

According to a new study released by security firm Dasent, the number of malware-infested websites has increased to 1.2 million in 2010, from 560,000 in 2009.

Dasient, a company specializing in combating malware on websites, has released a new report claiming that over 1.2 million websites were found to be infected by malware in the third quarter of 2009, more than double the number during same period last year.

These infected websites are especially dangerous since, unlike other forms of malware vectors, they don’t require the user to click on a link or open an attachment. They infect users through “drive-by-downloads” or by just visiting the infected website. Hackers take advantage of the dynamic and interactive features of today’s modern websites and social networking sites to deliver their payload.

Other dangerous forms of infected websites are those hosting fake antivirus scams, which fool users into downloading malware posing as legitimate antivirus software, as well as malvertisements, which pose as legitimate advertisements but instead are malware vectors.

With the growing threat of malware, how confident are you that your systems are safe? Contact us today and find out how we can help.

Today, the latest trend for mobile workers is gadgets or services that read text-based correspondence in a human-like voice while on the road, and in some cases even allow the user to reply.

Technology continues to bring out the best in modern inventors today. Mobile devices are updated every few years, and many apps are developed and added to these gadgets, mostly with the purpose of making life easier and perhaps more fun for the users. These days, in addition to desktop computers and laptops, you can get work done with the use of your iPhones, Android, Blackberry, and many other smartphones and mobile devices.

However, the increase in the capabilities of mobile devices to include texting and other conveniences has also increased the number of vehicular accidents. As a result, many states have passed laws demanding that drivers only use cellphones that have “hands-free” devices like the Bluetooth and ear buds.

The latest trend in mobile working is gadgets or services that use text-to-speech technology to read your text-based correspondence in a human-like voice, and in some cases, even allows you to reply verbally, attaching the reply as an audio clip or transcribed back into text before sending. Examples of these apps are the DriveSafe.ly by iSpeech.Org and the Text’nDrive app for Blackberry or iPhone.

These tools can be very handy while on the road, and may seem to be good solutions to making workers more effective – but there are still safety concerns. According to Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst from London, Ontario, “While these new apps hold the promise of maintaining productivity while on the go, they ignore the basic fact that even hands-free communication at the wheel can be a dangerous proposition.”

Scott Steinberg, CEO and lead technology analyst for TechSavvy Global in Seattle, Washington agrees with Levy on safety concerns, but says, “. . . this is better than holding the phone up to your ear, which also may be illegal in your state, and certainly safer than texting or emailing while driving.” Steinberg adds that these apps do a “pretty good job … That said, hearing your emails is fine, but those who send out replies will still need to double-check messages if they’ve been transcribed into text to ensure it’s accurate.”

While these apps can certainly help you and your employees be more productive, we should always remember that any action taken while driving, even if it’s just talking on the phone with a hands-free kit, is distracting. Perhaps the best policy is to wait until you get to your destination. It’s safer, and you can focus solely on your work.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.