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Your Child’s Mobile Apps are giving their Information to Companies

November 6, 2013 by

According to a recent report released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade, many of the mobile apps geared towards children in the Google Play and Apple App stores are sharing information, like device ID, geolocation, phone numbers, and more, with third parties, ad networks, and analytics companies. Worst of all, this is all going on in secret, without first notifying parents or asking for permission before download.

Scary, isn’t it?

“In fact, our study shows that kids’ apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents,” said  FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “All of the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job.”

Some more Scary Statistics

  1. 60%, or 235 of all surveyed apps collected device IDs. The majority of these apps then sent this information to an advertising network, analytics company, or other third party.
  2. 17% of the apps reviewed allow kids to make purchases without a parent’s permission.
  3. 58% of the apps reviewed contained advertising, while only 15% disclosed this fact prior to download.

In response to the alarming information above, the FTC is launching an investigation of the offending companies to see if they may be violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) or the Federal Trade Commission Act.

“This report reveals widespread disregard for children’s privacy rules,” said American University Prof. Kathryn Montgomery. “In the rapidly growing children’s mobile market, companies are seizing on new ways to target children, unleashing a growing arsenal of interactive techniques, including geo-location and use of personal contact data. It is clear that there is an urgent need for the FTC to update its COPPA regulations and to engage in ongoing enforcement.”

So parents, please doubled check everything your child has access to, even on their phone!

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Source: Mobile apps for kids collecting and sharing information with third parties

Filed Under: IT industry

Google Apps Break With New Microsoft Office

August 15, 2013 by

When it comes to updating your software, newer is always better, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case with Microsoft Office 2013. To be clear there are some great changes that have been made to the software. Microsoft Office 2013 is using a model called ‘click-to-run’ which will stream the application to you instead of storing a huge file on your computer.

Some of the benefits of a click-to-run model are:

  • Quick installation
  • Automatic software updates
  • Virtualized (this will eliminate the risk of getting a virus)

While there are many benefits to using this type of model, the virtualized Microsoft Office presents a problem when it comes to using add-ons. Because the programs are being hosted in the cloud, the add-ons do not have a place to secure themselves to, causing them to break.

At the moment, Google Apps outlook Sync Tool (GAOST) does not work with the click-to-run model. As great as GAOST is, the only way to continue using it is to not update to the newest version of Microsoft Office or to use the web based interface for Outlook, which undermines the purpose of actually using outlook.

Over time, this will get worse, not better. It may be best to leave GAOST behind like the older versions of Microsoft Office.

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses in Baltimore and the surrounding area, businesses like yours, with the expert information technology support they need to not only survive, but thrive. Our disaster recovery services help ensure your vital business data is kept safe and secure, providing you with a peace of mind that is unequalled.

Did you know that 43% of companies that experience major data loss never recover? 51% close within 2 years. Don’t let this happen to you. Pick up the phone, call Working Nets today, and stop playing Russian roulette with your business.

If you have any questions about cloud computing, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , , ,

Acceptable Internet Use While At Work

July 25, 2013 by

Much concern has been raised by many business owners, about how to handle inappropriate Internet use at work. Frankly, business owners probably aren’t concerned enough. Let’s look at some interesting statistics. Now mind you. these statistics are from 2006, but I think we can safely presume the situation hasn’t gotten any better:

Stats are from the LocalTel Business Content Web Filter site.

  • 64% of employees admit to using the Internet for personal interest during working hours.
  • 70% of all pornography traffic occurs during the nine-to-five work day.
  • 60% of all online purchases are made during working hours.
  • 37% of at-work internet users in the US had visited an X-rated Web Site from work.
  • 37% of employees report searching for jobs online at work.
  • 27% of Fortune 500 companies have defended themselves from claims of sexual harassment stemming from inappropriate e-mails and Internet use.

All this results in an estimated 30% – 40% loss of productivity. And this doesn’t even consider the effect of the bandwidth spent on this and other things like streaming audio, which could impact even the performance of the users who are trying to use the Internet for business purposes.

In cases where employees download pirated software, music or videos, the businesses could be found liable – even if they didn’t know about it.

And that’s not even to mention the lawsuits that can be brought, particularly if the material is sexual in nature, against the company if a hostile workplace suit is brought.

Bottom line: You need to protect your business.

How? Well, there are a number of components to this, and technical solutions can play an important part of it. But the most important piece, and the one that most businesses – especially small businesses – don’t do, is to put an Internet Acceptable Use Policy in place. This is a policy that explains what is and is not acceptable, and the consequences of non-compliance. If the employees don’t have such a policy, they can always claim they didn’t know it wasn’t okay. Click here for some sample policies.

Once the policy is made available, there are technologies that can be put into place to help monitor and safeguard access. Systems can be as rigid or flexible as the company feels appropriate, while still being protected from inappropriate use.

Keep your business safe!

Disaster Recovery Services from Working Nets in Baltimore, Maryland

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed. Our disaster recovery services help ensure your vital business data is kept safe and secure!

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #8: The 7 Deadly Sins of Backup and Recovery

July 18, 2013 by

Over the next several weeks, we will outline some of the most common disaster recovery mistake companies make, mistakes that could have disastrous outcomes. We like to call these the 7 Deadly Sins of Backup and Recovery. The first of these disaster recovery sins is backing up only your data.

This is a fairly common mistake. Many business owners believe they need only back up their business data. However, this could not be further from the truth. Everything needs protection, not just user data. Disaster recover processes should also include backups for operating system layers and applications. This allows users to quickly recover and restore everything.

With so many patches and updates layered into most operating systems, a full rebuild is close to impractical, not to mention risky. This assumes that you can find the optical media, locate the license keys, and apply patches in the right sequence.

Do the right thing and back up your operating system, applications, and critical business data. Taking the time to backup everything now ensures it is there when you need it in the future.

Disaster Recovery Services in Baltimore, Maryland

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses in Baltimore and the surrounding area, businesses like yours, with the expert information technology support they need to not only survive, but thrive. Our disaster recovery services help ensure your vital business data is kept safe and secure, providing you with a peace of mind that is unequalled.

Did you know that 43% of companies that experience major data loss never recover? 51% close within 2 years. Don’t let this happen to you. Pick up the phone, call Working Nets today, and stop playing Russian roulette with your business.

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Sources:

The 7 deadly sins of backup and recovery

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Benefits of Outsourced IT Services

June 28, 2013 by

If you are reading this blog, the smart money says that you, like many small business owners today, are faced with a difficult IT challenge that you are unsure how to address. This problem may be beyond the capabilities of your current IT staff, or your company might not actually have dedicated IT personnel to begin with. In either situation, there are many reasons why you might wish to hire another company to manage your IT services. Luckily, we have decided to save you some time by listing a few of the benefits of outsourced IT services below:

  • Affordability: You might think it would be more expensive to outsource your IT needs, but you can actually save money through outsourcing. When you turn to an IT professional such as Working Nets, you get exactly what you pay for. There is no need to interview and hire each employee and provide him or her with benefits, promotion opportunities, or other incentives. Instead, you pay a comparatively cheaper fee to have another company to employ the best people it can and handle whatever IT services you need, ranging from email services, to disaster recovery, to virus protection.

  • Expertise: IT companies specialize in fulfilling your IT needs. You spend enough of your time trying to run your company already. Why waste even a fraction of that time on managing your IT services when an outside company can address everything you need? Companies like Working Nets ensure they select the very best from a pool of highly talented applicants to tackle even the toughest of IT problems you might have. We then are able to apply our expertise to creating IT solutions tailored to whatever issue you may be having.

  • Disaster recovery: Have you ever heard the expression “Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”? Although it normally applies to jackets, it can also apply to disaster recovery services. One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing IT services is the ability to backup your important data at an external location. An unfortunate downside to our technologically-dependant world is that even our best technology can fail us at the worst of times. By storing your data with Working Nets you ensure that your data is kept secure and regularly tested to prevent failure.

 

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed. We provide many services, including systems setup and support, data security, disaster recovery, computer network analysis, equipment purchase consulting, network design and configuration, general troubleshooting, and spyware and virus protection. We are standing by to help you on any issue you may have!

 

If you have any questions about the benefits of outsourced IT services, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: Computer Security Baltimore, IT industry, IT services Tagged With: ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #6: Failed Backups Almost Ruined Toy Story 2

June 14, 2013 by

The lack of a proper Disaster Recovery plan can affect anyone, not just small mom-and-pop stores or IT companies. Poor disaster recovery can even affect Woody, Buzz, and the rest of those lovable toys from the Pixar movie Toy Story.

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #6: Failed Backups Almost Ruined Toy Story 2

“[Larry Cutler] was in that directory and happened to be talking about installing a fix to Woody or Woody’s hat. He looked at the directory and it had like 40 files, and he looked again and it had four files,” said Oren Jacob, former Chief Technical Officer of Pixar. “Then we saw sequences start to vanish as well and we were like, ‘Oh my god.’ I grabbed the phone…‘unplug the machine!’”

Jacob recounts that disastrous day when someone executed an incorrect command on the servers where all the movie’s files were stored. Two months and hundreds of hours of work was deleted in a matter of seconds.

  1. The good news: Pixar had a backup system in place.
  2. The bad news: The backups were not continuously tested and had been failing for a month prior to the fateful day when the movie was deleted.

Fortunately, like most Pixar movies, this story has a happy ending. By a stroke of luck, Supervising Technical Director Galyn Susman had been working on the film at home and had the entire movie stored on her personal computer.

“She and I just stood up and walked out, back to her Volvo, drove across the bridge, got the machine, got some blankets, I hugged it with seatbelts, across the back seat,” said Jacob. “Drove at like 35 with blinking lights on, hoping to get a police escort. No cops saw us, so it didn’t help us.”

“Eight people met us with a plywood sheet out in the parking lot and, like a sedan carrying the Pharaoh, walked it into the machine room,” added Jacob.

Disaster Recovery Services from Working Nets in Baltimore, Maryland

If it can happen to a big company like Pixar, it can happen to you. This is why it is so important to have a disaster recovery plan in place. This is why you should trust the IT professionals at Working Nets. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support they needed.

Our disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept safe and secure!

If you have any questions about Disaster Recovery, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Source:

How Pixar’s Toy Story 2 was deleted twice, once by technology and again for its own good

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Small Business Tips: Outsource IT Services to Save Money

May 24, 2013 by

As a small business owner, you have one major obstacle: money. You have the drive and the willingness to go toe-to-toe with the big boys, but your wallet doesn’t quite have the same fight in it. Fortunately, there are several ways to enjoy the same benefits as those big businesses, but for a fraction of the price. The best way to do this is to Outsource IT Services.

Small Business Tips: Outsource IT Services to Save Money

  1. No In-House Employees: When you outsource IT services, you do not have to hire, train, and pay an in-house employee. Everything is handled off-site for much less than the salary of a full-time IT specialist.
  2. Proactive Support: Maintenance is the key to keeping your network up and running. Outsourced IT support helps catch problems before they occur, minimizing downtime and keeping your business productive.
  3. IT Experts: Outsourcing your IT services allows you to utilize a team of IT experts for less than you would pay a single in-house employee.
  4. Focus on Your Business: Business owners should focus on business, not IT. Let your outsourced IT services provider focus on IT while you focus on growing your business.
  5. Reinvest in Your Business: Outsourcing your IT services allows you to invest the funds that would otherwise be used to pay an in-house employee into another area of your business.
  6. New Technologies: Outsourced IT assessment and IT purchasing assistance services help your business find the right solutions for your hardware and software needs.

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

At Working Nets, we provide top-notch IT services to companies of all shapes and sizes, companies like yours that don’t need a full-time, in-house IT employee. Our services include: System Setup & Support, Security & Disaster Preparedness, Managed Services Program, Guidance with Equipment Purchases, Network Design and Configuration, Troubleshooting, and Virus/Spyware Protection.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Google’s Gmail and Google Apps are down!

April 17, 2013 by

Update: As of about 10:15 am, things seem to be coming back online for Google Apps and Gmail.

 

Since about 8:00 am today, Google’s Gmail and Google Apps for Business mail are down. Twitter is abuzz with it. It’s beginning to show up in the search engines.

 

Note that it doesn’t seem to be affecting everyone, but many are complaining about it. Stay tuned – we’ll keep you posted.

Filed Under: Community Service, IT industry Tagged With: ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #2: What do Ants and Disaster Recovery have in Common?

April 12, 2013 by

According to the “2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey,” 50% of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have no disaster recovery plan in place.  Of the businesses, that do have a disaster recovery plan in place, 80% don’t have a reliable backup solution. So what’s keeping 80% of businesses from protecting their critical data? Well, at least 41% of SMBs just do not think it is important.

Let’s take a look at another company that didn’t think disaster recovery was important…

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #2: What do Ants and Disaster Recovery have in Common?

In 2007, a photographer in Thailand noticed a trail of ants. He followed this trail only to discover the ants had made their home in his external hard drive. So, the photographer did what anyone would do. He grabbed his bottle of ant spray and sprayed his pesky hard drive inhabitants.

The ants didn’t make it, and neither did the drive or the data.

Unfortunately, the photographer did not have any sort of disaster recovery plan in place and, as a result, lost all of his important business data.

Baltimore Disaster Recovery Services

At Working Nets, we were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support. We know computer and network performance is crucial to the success of your business. This is why we offer disaster recovery services to help protect your vital business data.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: , ,

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #1: Manhattan Investment Firm springs a Leak

March 27, 2013 by

If you have ever visited our blog before, you have probably noticed that we put a huge emphasis on disaster preparedness and disaster recovery. Why? Well, because it is that important. Of companies that experience major data loss, 51% close within 2 years, while 43% never recover.

If you want to prevent your company from becoming another statistic, you need to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

Disaster Recovery Horror Story #1: Manhattan Investment Firm springs a Leak

About 10 years ago, one Manhattan-based investment firm decided it was time they toyed around with the notion of implementing a disaster preparedness & disaster recovery plan. This investment firm had recently had issues following 9/11 and the New York City blackout. They didn’t want to get caught off-guard again.

The investment firm had no disaster preparedness & disaster recovery plan in place. They did backup their data, but they stored these tapes onsite. They were content with this system. Why not? It had worked for them for years. And after weighing their disaster recovery options, the investment firm decided that they were okay with their current backup system.

Three months later, a water main burst in the street outside their building. Everything was ruined, including the backup tapes.

This company, like so many others, was unable to recover and was forced to close its doors for good…

Baltimore Disaster Preparedness & Disaster Recovery Services

At Working Nets, we know computer and network performance is crucial to success. We were founded to provide small businesses, like yours, with expert information technology support. That is why we offer disaster preparedness and disaster recovery services to help assure that your vital business data is kept secure if disaster strikes.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today!

Welcome to Working Nets – your virtual IT Department!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Filed Under: IT industry Tagged With: ,
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