A Quick Lesson In E-mail Etiquette…

Even seasoned e-mail users step over the lines of e-mail etiquette from time to time. If Dear Abby were around, here are 5 tips she would have for sending e-mails:

1. Don’t send large attachments unless requested. Large attachments can cause e-mail problems for the recipient. Wherever possible try to zip or compress attachments.

2. Make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date. Here’s another problem with attachments: they are vehicles for viruses. You’ll quickly lose friends and customers if you send them documents full of viruses!

3. Don’t write in ALL CAPS. It’s the online equivalent of yelling.

4. When sending an e-mail to a group, use the BCC (blind carbon copy) field instead of the To field. By copying everyone in the same e-mail, you are publicizing their e-mail address to everyone else on the list. In some cases, this might be appropriate, but many people are very private about their personal e-mail address and will be annoyed by your lack of discretion.

5. NEVER send personal or confidential information by e-mail. Once you hit “send,” you lose all control over where that message ends up. This goes double for credit card numbers, bank accounts, and passwords to secure websites, as well as personal information about other people.

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10 Easy Ways To Protect Your Laptop From Being Stolen

Laptops are becoming a hot ticket item for thieves looking for an easy hit. When your laptop gets stolen, you lose a lot more than your computer and the cost of purchasing a replacement; you lose your documents, photos, e-mails, and database files. That is why it makes sense to take these simple steps to protect it.

1. Don’t let it out of your sight. Wi-Fi hotspots like coffee shops can be distracting and are prime hangouts for laptop thieves. Don’t leave it on a table to get a refill, and don’t put it on the floor behind your chair.
2. Don’t leave it on the seat of your car. Hide it under the seat or in the trunk or you could end up with a stolen laptop AND a broken car window.
3. Don’t leave it in your hotel room. If it doesn’t fit in the hotel room’s safe, take it with you or ask hotel management to lock it up.
4. Don’t advertise your laptop by keeping it in a computer bag. Instead, carry it in a briefcase, backpack, or large handbag.
5. Carve your name into the plastic shell.. This will make it less attractive for resale and may deter thieves.
6. Write your laptop’s serial number down and store it safely. It will help the police recover your laptop if it is stolen.
7. Get a laptop alarm. One alarm, TrackIT, offers a portable, two-piece anti-theft system that uses a keychain and a miniature receiver with a sonic alarm. TrackIT’s siren will sound when separated more than 40 feet (12 meters) from the transmitter on your keychain. This proximity alarm will protect against security check-in theft, distraction theft, and ordinary carelessness.
8. Get a laptop cable lock. For around $50, you can purchase a cable and lock that will anchor your laptop to a heavy desk or piece of furniture and prevent it from being stolen by grab-and-run thieves when it is our of your sight.
9. Get a tracking device installed. Computrace or CyberAngel can be purchased for about $60 a year and will track your laptop’s location using a stealthy piece of tracking software if it is stolen. Many even offer a guarantee.
10. Encrypt your files. A start up password will not protect someone from accessing your data since many thieves know how to bypass it. To protect your personal information from identity theft, use a program like BestCrypt or PC Encrypt to secure your personal information.

And finally, don’t forget to back up your files and keep a copy of the backup in a separate location away from your laptop. Having a back up disk in your computer bag is no good if it gets stolen with your laptop.

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What are your employees really doing?

You Won’t BELIEVE
What They’re Doing At Work…

A Survey of Over 400 IT Managers Reveals  What Employees Are REALLY Doing During Work Hours…And You Won’t Believe What They Discovered!

According to a survey conducted by 8e6 Technologies (www.8e6.com), employees are using company computers, Internet access, e-mail, and other resources to conduct hours of non-work related activities.  Some of these activities simply waste time, like day trading and monitoring eBay bids. However, many of the activities are downright malicious and threaten their employers’ existence and security.

Just look at some of these outrageous real-life stories collected from IT Managers polled:

• One employee was caught running a gambling website and acting as a bookie for his co-workers.
• To bypass the company’s web filter, one employee was caught using his desktop computer as an FTP server for the other employees. He had downloaded and saved over 300G of material.
• One employee was busted for giving away confidential information such as price lists, contracts, and software code for application development.
• Another employee was busted for having a side business stealing and selling company inventory on eBay.
• One woman was caught running an online outcall service from her desk.
• One employee was caught renting the corporate IP address to hacker friends to generate DOS attacks.

(more…)

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