One of the simplest yet most powerful pieces of advice for good IT security is to use strong passwords. A strong password should draw from as many keys on the keyboard as possible, with at least three different factors:

1. How long is your password?
2. How many different types of characters (lower case, upper case, numbers, punctuation, spaces, etc.) are in your password?
3. How many different characters are in it? Be as random as possible! Replacing letters with similar looking numbers (O=0, 5-S, 3=E, etc.) can be an easy and memorable way to boost security.

With a strong enough password, hackers won’t be cracking into any of your accounts any time soon. Unfortunately, some sites place limitations on what characters can and cannot be used in a password— this may be an indication that their personal security infrastructure is somehow lacking. Major players like Google, MSN, Facebook, and Twitter all allow you to use anything you want in your password. So remember: a little creativity on the keyboard can lead to long term security success.

Just a few years ago, Microsoft looked like a real contender in the mobile-phone market. Windows Mobile accounted for about one quarter of all Smartphones as recently as 2004, and it was gaining ground. Then Apple and BlackBerry left the software giant in the dust. on February 16, at the wireless industry conference in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled its latest effort to get back into the game: the renamed Windows Phone operating system.
Microsoft needs to be a player in the Smartphone market. Tasks once done on personal computers, are migrating to mobile devices. iPhone, Blackberry, and other phones have become the preferred way to read e-mail, check out Facebook or catch up on the news. Total shipments of Smartphones will more than double between 2009 and 2013, so Microsoft’s new mobile software has to be different to convince their customers that they are going to fundamentally change direction and regain share.

Windows Phone is much improved and has the advantage of easily handling word processing and spreadsheets sent from PCs. It will also be more integrated with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console and Zune music player, so users can share music and videos among their Microsoft devices. But that won’t solve another challenge the company faces in attracting customers: independent software developers who create new applications for mobile phones have mostly ignored Microsoft and focused instead on the iPhone and Google-backed Android phones. Developers have cooked up more than 140,000 apps for the iPhone alone. There are about 800 available in Microsoft’s online mobile store, though the company estimates 20,000 applications will ultimately run on its new operating system.

Microsoft has begun working more closely with hardware partners, such as HTC and LG, to share engineering resources and better customize their software to their particular phones. They also plan to reduce the number of hardware partners from 58 at the end of 2008 to between a half dozen and a dozen to gain more control over hardware and make sure the total experience is consistent and better.

Microsoft may look like they’re caught in a box right now, but analysts say not to underestimate their potential. They have a lot of funding, they have terrific engineering resources, and the game is not over.

When you select a block of text, Word assumes a lot. If you drag the mouse down, it automatically selects all of the text to the right of the cursor. Similarly, if you drag the mouse up, Word selects all the text to the left of the cursor. What if you want to select text moving up or down without selecting text to the right or left or the cursor? Fortunately, you can force Word to select a vertical block of text–ignoring the text to the right or the left–if you know the right keystroke.
To customize the selection area, position the cursor at the beginning (or end) of the block you want to select. Then, hold down the [Alt] key and drag your mouse up or down and right or left to select just the block you want—without Word’s interfering assumptions.
For a quick glimpse of what you can do, just click anywhere in the middle of some text, hold down the [Alt] key, and make a small circle with your mouse. By using the [Alt] key while dragging your mouse, you can customize the shape and size of the selected block of text—it’s up to you, not Word!

Yesterday I brought you Elizabeth Bowman’s tips on inbox management, here’s what she has to say about messages themselves:

Put a hooking key statement in the subject line. First impressions matter! And be specific– don’t send messages with subjects like QUESTION, IMPORTANT, or PLEASE RESPOND without including something specific.

If the entirety of your message can be conveyed by a subject line, do so! Just be sure to end the line with EOM (”end of message”). It’s like the e-mail equivalent of texting.

The body of your e-mail should begin with a quick statement of purpose. If you’re asking questions or making requests, be sure to separate each of them with bullets or a line of space.

If your messages seem too long or start covering too many topics, don’t be afraid to use several shorter e-mails to get the point across.

Always include a signature line with your contact information. Just be sure the information is up to date!

Slow down! Avoid typos, double check attachments, and review your to: and cc: fields.

Finally, six quick tips that will immediately improve how well your e-mail works for you:

1. Set rules to automatically filter messages.
2. Use categories and flags to highlight important messages.
3. Turn off automated mail checking.
4. Eliminate noisy alerts and popups that interrupt and distract you.
5. Move messages directly into your calendar.
6. Remove yourself from unnecessary mailing lists.

With these tips in place, 2010 will surely prove to be a tidy and productive year!

E-Mail has become an essential and unavoidable force in everyday business communication—billions of pieces are sent every week in the US alone. But it is far too easy to become overwhelmed with the contents of your inbox when you receive hundreds of messages per week, if not per day. Here are some indispensable tips inspired by professional organizer Elizabeth Bowman to make sure you are in control of your e-mail, and not the other way around:

When dealing with e-mail, be proactive not reactive.

• Forbid yourself from checking messages at inappropriate times like as soon as you wake up or in the middle of the night. Remember work/life balance!
• Limit the number of ways you receive information: services now exist to have both physical mail and voice mail become e-mail attachments to unite all your most important communication in one forum.

Take three steps to prioritize when to read and respond to messages:

1. Delete what’s unnecessary: spam, mailing lists, messages with attachments (save the file elsewhere and ditch the note)
2. Delegate tasks & responses. If you have staff who can deal with a message in a more timely and effective manner than you, don’t be afraid to pass it along. The “forward” button is your friend.
3. Decide your next step: if responding to a message will take you less than two minutes, don’t put it off till later. If it will take longer, set aside time on your calendar to respond. Set an appointment with yourself.

Messages in your inbox should fall into four specific folders:

1. Needs a response
2. Requires taking action (non-email)
3. Waiting for a response
4. Read & review (newsletters, mailing lists, etc.)

• Create a schedule for checking e-mail. Turn off automatic receipt and the distractions it creates. Instead, pick regular times each day devoted to checking and responding to messages. If people are expecting a more immediate response, don’t be afraid to set an auto-response to explain your schedule.

Check back soon for part 2 with Elizabeth’s tips on writing effective e-mail!

A recent study on laptop failure rates from SquareTrade, a PC warranty services provider, had some unsettling results: one in three laptops is likely to catastrophically fail within three years. But not all laptops are created equal, and some are more reliable than others. Here are the results among top manufacturers, from worst to best:

9. HP: They may be the laptop market share leader, but nearly 26% of their units failed within the three year study.

8. Gateway: The Acer subsidiary didn’t fare much better, with a failure rate of 23.5%

7. Acer: At #3 in overall sales, Gateway’s parent company was only marginally more reliable at 23.3%

6. Lenovo: A 21% failure rate from the Chinese-owned giant isn’t what you’d call inspiring.

5. Dell: Make fun of their ads and criticize their business practices all you want, but the oft maligned 2^nd place manufacturer was found to be more reliable than their top competitors, coming in at 18.3%.

4. Apple: They’re hip, attractive, innovative, and popular, but Mac Books aren’t immortal. Their 17.4% failure rate puts them in the middle of the pack.

3. Sony: Sony Vaio laptops aren’t cheap, but you get what you pay for with only a 16.8% incidence of crashing.

2. Toshiba: In recent years, they’ve lowered price without sacrificing quality: only a 15.7% chance of becoming a doorstop.

1. Asus: While not quite as much of a household name as many of the PC makers on this list, the quietly dominant Taiwanese company produces components for HP and Apple, and their own units experienced the lowest failure rate of all, edging out Toshiba with a healthy 15.6%.

Source: http://www.squaretrade.com, 2009

As computers become faster and more powerful, a single desktop PC possesses resources far greater than what’s necessary to keep a single user productive. That means lots of gigabytes and kilowatts simply going to waste. Through the process of virtualization, a company can turn a single PC into many “virtual desktops” for multiple users.  It was recently announced that a Silicon Valley firm specializing in large virtualization projects will provide over 30,000 virtual desktops to India’s government employee health insurance program. The project will unify thousands of hospitals, clinics, and insurance offices while creating one of the largest medical databases in the world, all at a 75% savings on hardware and a 90% savings on electricity.

Virtualization requires specialized software and a piece of hardware known as a thin client that connects a user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the shared computer. On top of the cost savings, a virtualized system is less susceptible to network security threats and the amount of energy and materials saved make virtualization one of the greenest decisions a business can make.

Virtualization isn’t just for clients as massive as the Indian government, it can revolutionize how any business manages its IT budget and resources. When you work with Responza’s experts to manage your IT, virtualization is just one of the many cutting edge options we offer to save money, eliminate stress, and just make IT work better.

Consumers and businesses have only begun to grasp the reality of cloud computing, with online apps like Google Docs, Salesforce and Twitter. Responza specializes in Cloud Infrastructure services like virtualization, but I forsee a future with much more. It leads me to wonder just how this technology will shape the future of IT.

Not so long ago, in a land not so far away, massive computing power was only available to the big corporations like IBM. Mainframe computers cost upwards of a million bucks, far too expensive for a mom and pop shop. Technology has come a long way since then. Now, even the smallest organization can leverage ten times the computing power for a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, however, IT management is still an expensive investment. Small businesses can’t afford to employ an entire IT department to manage this technology.

Responza’s founder, Lance Becker, has often attributed the company’s raison d’etre to providing that CIO-level of IT strategy for small businesses. We provide a corporate sized IT department for small businesses, for much less than it would take to employ one IT guy. Cloud based services run a similar route, in that sense- taking a large portion of IT “off the racks” and putting it “into the clouds”. Security concerns have slowed progress in some aspects, but the technology is already revolutionizing IT, saving businesses thousands of dollars each quarter.

What about jobs?

Your typical IT guy may feel threatened by this change in the industry- and rightly so. In-house IT jobs may soon be replaced with automated NOCs and online apps. If your IT guy wants job security, a serious re-tooling may need to take place. It’s a sad, but necessary change. The IT infrastructure is becoming more and more complicated, so really, it’s going to take more than just one IT guy to manage your infrastructure anyway.

The Silver Lining

There are several advantages to using cloud computing. You can do more with less: more applications, more availability, and more scalability with less money spent on desktops, servers, and energy. According to Richard Marcello, president of Unisys, cloud computing will produce new business models and enable startups to compete with enterprise companies. That should be great news for any small business.

My perspective is admittedly limited, but I’m curious to see how cloud computing changes the IT industry. How do you think cloud computing will affect your business? Please feel free to leave you comments below.

Spyware, the sneaky, unwanted bits of junk that lurk in the corners of your hard drive observing your behaviors and slowing down system performance, has become a serious problem in modern computing. A study by prominent security firm Webroot found that 80 percent of business computers are infected with pieces of spyware. It is not uncommon for techs to find dozens of types of spyware on a single system! Some infections become so numerous and severe that the only remedy is a costly system wipe or even complete replacement. What’s worse, most spyware generates bothersome pop-up ads while using the web and more malevolent varieties can even result in identity theft.

For the most part, this pain and expense is unnecessary. While over 80% of businesses install antivirus protection on their systems, only 43% have implemented a credible form of spyware production. Most spyware sneaks onto systems through spam e-mail and questionable websites with flashy banner ads (we’ve all seen “you’re our 1 millionth visitor! Click here to claim your prize!”). After a few years of observing such sneaky tricks, most internet users are too savvy to fall into the traps, but it still happens—mostly during employees’ personal use of internet resources.

If employers want to substantially reduce the impact of spyware on their companies, in addition to blocking spam, they should publish and enforce an acceptable use policy for employee internet access. Two-thirds of large companies actively monitor email and Internet use by their employees, but not many small businesses do. If you find your systems weighed down with the burden of spyware, network security and monitoring packages like those available through Responza can diagnose and cleanse your resources and make sure they stay spy free.

Every business needs a plan for comprehensive disaster recovery. But plan development is neither quick nor cheap, and many entrepreneurs try to succeed without one. It’s best to have a complete plan, though it’s better to have a few crucial pieces in place than nothing at all. If a power surge blows out a server, could you recover? Even a basic online backup system could ease some of the pain. If the thought of developing a disaster plan leaves you overwhelmed, Responza can help. A small investment now can save money or even your entire business down the road.

The most common business disaster is data loss brought on by causes like human error, hardware failure, natural disasters, and theft. But it’s easy to recover with a backup solution in place. Here are a few steps to ensure you find the right one for your company’s needs:

1. Know your data. What do you have, where is it, and what is most important?
2. Consider your backup options. Are they offsite, secure, and available 24/7?
3. When outsourcing backup, choose a provider like Responza that offers constant security, monitoring, and support.
4. Do a run-through of the recovery process. Backup is nothing without recovery, so make sure you’re familiar with how to retrieve your files.
5. Review data regularly. Anything new to add to your backups?

In an emergency, things you take for granted like accessible contact information and reliable communication methods could disappear. If a storm took out your telecom or made your office inaccessible, could you stay in business?

1. Decide how to continue intercompany communication beyond your office. Cell phones are most common, but also be aware of web services like instant messaging and Gmail.
2. Make arrangements for incoming calls. Consider a Voice over IP (VoIP) system that will make forwarding office lines to other numbers possible.
3. Create contact lists that aren’t tied to your servers. Upload them to a secure public website or just make an old fashioned paper copy.

Even the best laid disaster plans will crumble if your staff isn’t on board and well informed.

1. Identify the most critical business functions to restore and decide who will handle the restoration.
2. Specifically designate an alternate work site, whether a different office space or simply having everyone work from home.
3. Make sure each employee has a complete version of your disaster plan available to them at all times and review it regularly.

Crisis management is not a question of if you will need a plan, but when you will need it. But with a little foresight and some help from the IT disaster pros at Responza, you’ll have nothing to fear.