Why Electronic Greeting Cards Are Bad
Electronic greetings cards are a fad that, sadly, has not yet passed and is still quite popular. These things are bad for several reasons, which I’ll outline in today’s post.
Microsoft Office 2007 Document Compatibility
If you’ve purchased Microsoft Office recently, you got version 2007 (unless you’re on a Macintosh). Office 2007 represents a “great leap forward” according to some (in Microsoft marketing), but from my perspective, it’s a lot of change, and a lot higher system requirements for not a lot of new, useful features. One of the “feature” […]
You Can Never Have Too Much Memory
This will be a short post on the virtues of keeping your computer hardware current. Even today, I still see older computers which would be perfectly capable of doing their job, but because of a lack of enough memory, they grind along at a glacial pace, causing significant employee productivity loss. How can you tell […]
Using Microsoft Outlook to Access Other Users’ Mailboxes
If you have a Microsoft Exchange server at your business, Microsoft Outlook has the ability to access more than one mailbox at a time. This is a useful feature if multiple users need to share access to the same email address, or if someone needs to cover another person’s email (when an auto-responder won’t suffice) […]
What is “Unified Threat Management?”
“Unified Threat Management” is a buzzphrase (that is, a few buzzwords strung together) heard a lot in networking and network security. Essentially, this is something (usually a device) which combines several network security services, including email filtering, web content filtering, firewalling, intrusion detection/prevention, and others. A UTM device can provide other services as well, such […]
What is Defense in Depth, and Why Should Small Businesses Care?
“Defense in Depth.” This is a fundamental principle of information security. Essentially it means that you add layers of security so you don’t rely on a single point of failure in your security model. For instance, if you have a hardware firewall for your network, you also run a software firewall on your desktop computers. […]
So, How Do I Drop Those Administrative Rights, Anyway?
Note: While some of the content in this post is dated and no longer applicable, the principles and techniques remain valid as of late 2014. If you’ve read my previous post on why administrative rights over your computer are a bad thing and you are motivated to do something about it, you might ask “just […]
Why You Do NOT Want Administrative Rights on Your Computer
One of the absolutely most effective ways to shield yourself from viruses and spyware is to not log on to your computer as an administrator. As soon as I say this, I usually encounter some resistance, because users think that giving up admin rights equates to giving up power. In a way, you are, but […]
Zeus Botnet Self-Destructs
Last week, I posted an article explaining why security is everyone’s concern. Today I came across another article which underscores this. The Zeus botnet apparently self-destructed last month, effectively rendering 100,000 computers across the Internet non-functional.
We Don’t Have Anything Anyone Else Would Want
When I first mention information security to a client, particularly a small business, non-profit, or educational institution, I frequently get a response like this: “Nobody is interested in our network.” “We don’t have anything that anyone would want.” “Our systems aren’t that important.” “No one would steal my account/password/login.” “Why would someone want to hack […]