Cyber Insurance - a relatively new form of insurance to financially protect you from distruptions and/or attacks electronically. Don't laugh - connectivity its role in our processes from advertising to revenues to admin is as much a part of almost any business as that business's core product or service. Disruption or intentional hacking can cripple an organization. Like all technological advances, we have realized significant productivity gains, but there is a cost - one that is potentially devastating through loss of business, loss of data, or liability for data leakage and/or security negligence. Financial gurus who love to hedge any risk see this and cyber insurance seeks to capitalize on that and give you some modicum of mitigation in the event of a cyber disaster. With all of the news in the past 6 months (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/world/panetta-warns-of-dire-threat-of-cyberattack.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/cybersecurity-efforts-pentagon_n_2564588.html or http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21272613 as examples), you should investigate the cost/benefit analysis for your business.

 IMPORTANT: Zaxby locations have been the victims of hacking. Their PCI-mandated disclosure is below. From the disclsure, its impossible to say how long this has been going on and how far back they stored CC data, but if you've been to the Ocala locations in the past 6-12 months, we highly recommend monitoring your accounts and credit scores!

https://dataprivacyinformation.com/index_2.html

This article ( http://finance.yahoo.com/news/post-employee-economy-why-sky-141135515.html;_ylt=AoYCEuvPHTP03NPWyD2NNC.iuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQzZzI0YzI5BG1pdANGaW5hbmNlIEZQIEp1bWJvdHJvbiBMaXRlBHBrZwMxYzczY2I4NS1jMTJmLTNiMDUtYTM5Zi1jMTQwMjdkNTFhMDMEcG9zAzEEc2VjA2p1bWJvdHJvbgR2ZXIDMzYyZmQzMzAtYzlkMC0xMWUxLWJlY2YtMjZmMjc4NjgwMGU0;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3long been a mode of economic though - first time I came across it was in Robert Heinlen's novel For Us The Living.  Basically, the though runs that we have become so productive (I think RH said "infernally productive") that a "per-hour" wage was no longer a true measure of worth and that we (read your favorite goverment here) would "pay" to keep people unproductive and thus prices for non-commodity goods/services stable.  Much more to it of course, but it is a fascinating thought process that may have *some* merit...  

Though not directly related, the whole idea of remote working / always available and BYOD (bring-your-own-device) go hand-in-hand - the blurring of the line twixt home and work.  As barriers go down for this, there are several basic caveats on this general trend we advise our Clients to consider:

1. ONLY allow devices you have complete control over and unrestricted access to connect to your network.  Note this does not mean no email, IM or other "public path" data - just no direct data access to proprietary and confidential networks.
2. Carefully spell out what constitutes work and define how to track employee work done while not "at-work".  This is a VERY DELICATE area since a 2 minute phone conversation may-or-may-not be work but setting the policy can make it so as this points out: (http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120708/BUSINESS/207070348/Working-anytime-creates-overtime-problems?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cs)
3. Get with your attorney over such issues as Liability and Workers Compensation.  No attorneys here, but common sense dictates that while an occasional quick login remotely is not regular practice, working from home a day a week is and all of those issues come into place in the even of an accident or issue.
4. ALWAYS make employees understand its a privilege and not an absolute that they work from home.  KNOW that they are not as efficient (and possibly set up a pay structure that takes this into account) there since the very fact they are trying to balance work and home means they are not 100% at work.

This is still a highly dynamic subject whatever the pundits may say so proceed carefully and constantly reassess!

 WOW - its been a while since we posted, but the latest breach from a "big boy" makes Facebook's breach inevitable at some point and though the details and repercussion of the recent data breach for LinkedIn is more complicated than meets the eye (http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/240002698), YOU can do something today to help yourself not be the ultimate victim for what WILL happen again.  Even more importantly, it will help protect you from all of the undetected breaches which occur more often than anyone will admit.  Here's how:

 Major telcom carriers announced that they'll be providing broadband access to lower-income US residents for less than $10 per month; coupled with refurbished PC's at $150 and you're talking about a very generous and ambitious plan!  

 We're available almost any way these days - Skype, Facebook, EMail, Telephone, smoke signals, etc..  However, a new one that's caught our eye is Thumbtack.com.  It has a complete listing of services provided by local vendors and we're proud to say we're now in the Computer Services and Consulting area.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

 With the AuthToken of Google's Android device laid bare (see link below), that simply means that any data you sync from your Android phone *might* be hackable - though extremely unlikely...  

HOWEVER, for all of you who use a 3rd party (ActiveSync, etc.) technology to sync your mail, calendar, etc. to another source like your Corp. email provider, you are fine...  

For those dependent on Google and needing to keep your information private, here's another example of how the "Cloud" doesn't work for privacy!

  http://blogs.computerworld.com/18304/scary_android_security_hole_in_99_of_phones_panic

Finally - and especially when depending on a "Cloud" or 3rd-party application not in your control, get verification... see this: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216790/Researcher_Dropbox_misrepresents_security_features tp to convince you!

 If you are like so many small businesses (us included), you use some sort of "cloud application" in your business.  Whether its email (GMail,etc), your books/GL package (QuickBooks online), or just advertising through Facebook or other social/search media, if you are at all "in-touch", some portion of your business uses a large-centrally-accessible-yet-geographically-diverse application or service.

     Our only advice to you for what you "out/crowd-source" is to be darn-sure that if it does go down or if the information that application contains gets out, that it will not destroy your business by: A) Stopping a mission-critical function(s) or B) Disseminating confidential (either legally-confidential or just violating your customer/client confidence!) information.  The giants of this space are not immune - Facebook being the most recent victim/perpetrator (wonder how many friends, businesses, and relationships would be destroyed if FB ever REALLY lost data - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216609/Symantec_says_Facebook_site_leaked_information)

    However, lets look at some others recently:  Sony over the past several weeks, and lets not even start on retailers and credit card companies.  "Wait!"  you say, "These weren't Cloud/Outsource apps or providers!".  Well, lets take a look at what they all have in common: they are large geographically diverse applications that contain a virtual universe of personal data; they are touched by incredible amounts of hands in creating, maintaining, and destroying both the data itself - and also the code surrounding it; the code/application surrounding each "virtual universe" of data has common strengths and weaknesses and those weeknesses yield the whole enchilada.   "What about our own apps on our server(s) - why aren't those at risk?"  Confidential information is always at risk, but when locally hosted is not generally in plain view of, easily accessible to,  or even of interest to the estimated 2 billion internet users (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) currently out there.

      The purpose of this comparision is not to say "don't use large apps or services" - just don't make them the core of your business or personal life and make darn sure that A) Every bit of information on there you are ready for everyone to see and/or B) You have a backup plan if its lost!. 

 I just got a cup of coffee from an unnamed restaurant, and was stunned to find it was $1.84 pre-tax (and not a designer coffee or Starbucks)!  Since I did not have that much change, I paid with a debit card.  With a background in restaurant management before I settled into geek-hood, I immediately began analyzing this.

The Food-COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) for a cup of coffee is generally accepted to be ~$.05-$.12 per 8 ounces so this cup would be generously valued at $.24 to produce.   So far, we're good at a gross revenue of 83%.  But wait, its time to put it on the good-old credit card.... for the sake of argument lets say it doesn't matter about the question of credit vs/ debit card - we'll assume a transaction fee of $.25 and 2.2% transaction for a total of $.29.  That in turn means that the COGS just more than doubled to $.53 or 34%!!!  Of course they are not going to just eat that cost-of-credit - they have smart people who crank their averages (I know - I used to do it!) to figure out what those transaction-fees are going to be and then adjust their whole menu-mix accordingly - what that means is whether you pay cash-or-credit, you're paying for everyone else's credit purchases!

So the next time you order that cup-'o-joe, don't forget to mentally prepare yourself for the extra .25 for all of us using plastic - its not bad, but for small products, the transaction outweighs the product!