The First Couple Years are Always The Hardest

As a serial entrepreneur and founder of a few startup companies I have seen firsthand the truth of this statement. While a lot of the stress in starting a company comes from simply wondering whether you will be able to drum up enough business to get into the black, a lot also comes from the process of building your infrastructure.

Most small businesses got into business because they had a competitive advantage and a set of strengths. Along with those set of strengths, however, also comes a set of weaknesses. Bob, the owner of Dandies Fix It Repair Shop, probably can’t design a website to advertise his business. On the other hand, Janet, the owner of Pickle Littles Web Continue Reading »

Identity Theft and Phishing is rampant these days! I’m sure you’ve received numerous emails from your long lost deceased Uncle Bob’s attorney who just happens to be managing the distribution of his estate and wants to send you 3.4 million dollars.

These days its important to be watching out for more than just suspicious emails. Because your computer most likely contains information such as passwords, banking account information, birthdays, etc. you should protect all access to your computer as well. You need to “harden” your operating system. Putting your operating system (Linux, Windows, etc.) through the school of hard knocks will ensure that it is closed to unauthorized access.

Completing a Google search for “windows xp hardening tips” turns up close to 1 million results. There are a ton of great solutions to harden (increase security) for your operating system. As I use Windows XP and Ubuntu the below tips are most relevant to users of those operating systems, though there is a lot of overlap from one operating system to another. While there is a plethora of different techniques, I’ve found that the following five techniques provides enough security to protect the average users computer. If you are hosting top level government secrets on your computer you’ll probably need to implement some extra security steps, but for the average home/business computer user these five steps will secure your computer sufficiently.

1. Always use a NON-ADMINISTRATOR account. Your computer will allow you to make a whole slew of extra security errors if you are logged in as an administrator. Change the administrator account so that the password is extra difficult and also ensure that the account is not named “administrator” or “admin”. Only use this account for necessary installation, etc. and then log back into a non-administrator account immediately thereafter.
2. Ensure strong password compliance. Use only passwords that are rated “100%” by The Password Meter in their password strength checker (http://www.passwordmeter.com/). To achieve this level of strength your password will most likely need Continue Reading »

Virus attacks are increasing in prevalence. Data/Identity theft is rampant. Computer crimes are becoming the preferred vehicle for white collar criminals.

But no worries… you sleep well at night because you’ve got anti virus software on all your workplace computers. You’ve installed firewall blockades at each point of network entry. You’ve even implemented policies requiring all of your employees to log off their workstations if they step away from their desks.

According to John Johnson, Security Focus contributor, you are sleeping on a bed of nails. In his article “Fortifying My Doghouse While Thieves Steal My Computer” he introduces several pivotal points of systems security analysis that infer such a good nights rest might not be granted… yet.

Systems Security Analysis

Step One:
Identify assets and the impact of their loss. If a computer is stolen are you just loosing the $500 it will cost to replace it or are you loosing more than that? Is their customer information stored therein? Is it private information that could be used in identity theft? Are you looking at multiple lawsuits for loosing such information? The point of this step is to get a good grasp on the true value of each asset. Go ahead and actually list out your assets and categorize them (as suggested by Johnson in his article) as either data, hardware, software, facilities, documentation, personnel or operations.

Step Two:
Develop security processes.Vital to this step is to engrave in your mind the following idea… “Security is a process, not a goal or the blame for not implementing enough protection.” One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to assume Continue Reading »

What are Software Requirement Specifications? Why should I write them up before developing software?

In one of my first entrepreneurial ventures I needed some software written. It was a pretty basic application. It needed to take an HTTP call from a cell phone provider text messaging system and translate it over to text we could display on a screen. We were one of the first to develop the idea… we called it TAGG. It later adopted the name “text to screen” which is now industry standard. While it might seem pretty straightforward how I have described the software, at the time of commissioning the project it wasn’t. We weren’t sure what exactly we wanted/needed and how to get it.

Thankfully the programmer I brought on as a partner was very experienced and was able to lead me and the other partners into the process without too much trouble. One HUGE mistake we made Continue Reading »

Get it While It’s Hot!

While I’m an avid user of Ubuntu Linux I must still admit that Microsoft creates some excellent products (and a smathering of not so excellent products). Windows is still the most prevalent OS in use and you must know how to use Microsoft products to be successful in today’s world.

That being said, who wants to pay for their products? What if you could get them free?

Microsoft currently has a FREE 1 year subscription available to their TechNet Plus program. TechNet Plus is a program that allows you to download FULL VERSION, NO TIME LIMIT, NO RESTRICTIONS software for testing/evaluation. The subscription lets you download their software and gives you the keys to enable it. You can use it as long as you want and even Continue Reading »