The SMB Minute Aaron and Tim discuss technology and computing important to Small and Medium Businesses.

Over the past several days I’ve been getting more Facebook spam.  Below are 2 examples.  Facebook and pretty much any other place will not send you links that do not come from their domain.  Even if the link looks safe, don’t trust it.  Instead go to your web browser of choice and type in the name of the site yourself, or use the bookmark/favorite you’ve been using.  If the site has a security update or is wanting more information, chances are after you login they will ask for it.  Remember if it seems fishy or not quite right, don’t do it, contact your computer guy or a reliable friend.

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Posted under Information/Advisories

Given the recent problems with the T-mobile Sidekick, I am reminded that we have lots of data in the cloud.  Be it data with Google, Amazon, Flickr, LinkedIn, Snapfish, etc.  While the cloud is a great convenience for storage and  sharing, it begs the question; how do I back up my information?

Lifehacker has a nice article, including links, to tools for backing up some of the data you may have stored in the cloud.  http://lifehacker.com/5335553/free-tools-to-back-up-your-online-accounts.

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Posted under Misc, Podcasts

HP announced yesterday they would be recalling about 70,000 Lithium-ion batteries. Details on the announcement can be found here and here. Please go check your HP and Compaq laptops and get them replaced. There is a fire hazard associated with this recall.

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Posted under Information/Advisories

Throughout our SMB Minute episodes you have heard Tim and me talk about disaster recovery, mitigation, preparedness, and other such terms. Not only are the terms applicable in the technology sector, but they also pertain to other aspects of life. Take, for example, my ill-fated bike ride this weekend. Now, I’ll preface this with nobody got hurt (other than my pride) and it almost resulted in a long walk home.

This past weekend was the warmest in months so I took advantage of it and dusted off the road bike. Tires pumped, extra tube, CO2, water, cell phone… check. Not 5 miles in I hit some glass. Nothing like hearing a “phhhsssssss” from the back tire. Yep. Flatter than a pancake. Great time to test my disaster recovery plan! Pulled off the wheel, removed the tire, removed the tube, checked for objects in the tire, loaded a new tube, reseated the tire on the wheel, attached CO2, and tire is filled! Awesome! Plan was successful. Well, not quite. As with all disaster recovery, check and double check your work. On inspection of my lightening fast (ok, painfully slow) tire change I noticed the glass not only punctured my tire but also sliced it open. The tube was puffed out through the break. If I had tried to ride it, it may have lasted anywhere from a few feet to a few miles. But I wasn’t about to take that chance. If it were to blow again I may not be as fortunate and get hurt or cause a wreck. Disaster Recovery Plan B: Call to the wife and I’ve got air conditioned shuttle service.

Now, you’re thinking great (or awful) story, but what does that have to do with my business and disaster recovery? Think of the cut tire as a machine that has gone down. Now, on my ride I assume I will get a flat so I carry a spare tube or two and a way to change and inflate it. In the small/medium business world we expect systems to fail so we make (and test) backup systems. My comfort level for my system down time may be a few hours or a few days. My comfort level for a pleasure ride is such that I’ll carry a spare tube, but I’m not going to attempt to carry, or have available, a spare wheel or tire. If this were a bike race or a critical system which needs absolute (or close to) uptime then my plan would be different.

Take Away
Know your risk. Know your limits. Have a plan. Then learn from the experience. Would I have done anything different? No, probably not. Though if I couldn’t have reached my wife for a ride I would have had to move further into my plan. Lucky for me the bike shop 4 blocks away was open. A 4 block walk sure beats a 5 mile one.

Posted under Misc

We recently took the kids to Disney for my birthday. Doing so kept the arguments about who’s birthday we should go on to a minimum, but I digress. Upon arriving we discovered Disney gives patrons a button to wear proclaiming to the world it’s your birthday. I put the button on and promptly forgot about it. A short while later, a Disney cast member wished me happy birthday. Then random strangers did the same. It felt nice so I started wishing others with the button a happy birthday.

Now, to pull it all together for you;

• a simple idea (wishing people a happy birthday if they have a special pin on will make them feel welcome and enjoy their stay)
• a little training (if you see someone with the pin, wish them happy birthday)
• some reinforcement (employees see management doing it)

Now you have a park full of employees wishing guests happy birthday. It catches on and the guests start wishing each other happy birthday. People are happy, enjoying their stay. Therefore they are likely to spend more money while at the park. More money, more profit … well, you see where we’re headed.

Sometimes a small idea can have big results.

Posted under Podcasts

In this episode Aaron Myers and Tim Krabec invited Anthony Gartner of Securabit in for a discussion on updating your computer.  The audio is a bit on the bad side, I will apologize in advance.

This episode continues the series on The SMB Minute Episode4 — 5 Simple Things to help secure your computer.

– Tim Krabec

Posted under Podcasts

Part 2 of our interview with Michael Santarcangelo. This was recorded after we finish the “official” podcast, but the information was good enough we released it as part 2. Sorry about the audio in places, Aaron was having connection issues and Tim had a cold. Please send your feedback to smbminute@gmail.com

Episode 5

Posted under Podcasts

Here are the 5 simple things anyone can do to help make their computer more secure and less vulnerable to data loss. These are the 5 basic things that can save you time, money and keep you from getting frustrated. As we delve into these topic with greater detail it will become clear to you why you need to do each and every one of these on both your home and office computers. It will also become clear why some preventative measures and spending some money upfront can save you a great deal in the future.

1.  Update operating System and Applications

2.  Firewall

3. Anti-virus and other protection

4. Regular backups

5. Non-administrative user with good password

Tim Krabec & Aaron Myers

Episode 4

Posted under Podcasts

The difficulty in keeping up with your passwords can seem a daunting task so for this post I wanted to share a great, free, open source program to use to do just that. The program is called KeePass.

So, what is KeePass? From their site…

“KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).”

I’ve been using this program for the last few years and love it. It is a native Microsoft Windows program but others have ported it to a multitude of operating systems including MacOSX, Palm, WindowCE, PocketPC, Linux, Blackberry and more. So what this means is, you set-up one master password linked to this one file. You share this encrypted file among all your systems (including your smart phone) and you have all your usernames, passwords and associated websites all at your fingertips. Neat, huh?

I’m very much looking forward to their 2.0 release which is currently in beta. The added features (like sharing a password database and having it sync and merge changes) look like they could be a big help.

Find KeePass for Windows here and its Mac version here.

Posted under Information/Advisories

In this Episode Aaron and Tim interview Michael Santarcangelo The Security Catalyst Securitycatalyst.com, author http://www.intothebreach.com/.  We have a few copies of the book to give away.  I will be announcing how to win one of my copies shortly.

Interview MP3
– Tim Krabec

Posted under Podcasts