The Savvy CIO

People use laptops, smartphones, iPads and other mobile gadgets all the time everywhere they go. Maybe you’re one of them. Many companies are moving to notebooks instead of desktop computers and equipping employees with smartphones to enable increased mobility. Maybe you belong to such a company.

Do you know how secure your business information is when you connect to wireless Internet in your hotel or at the airport or hook up to free WiFi at a cafe? It can be very risky, but there are a few simple ways to protect yourself, your company and your clients. In a recent article about information security, Chris Drake from E-Commerce Times stresses educating yourself and your workforce about the best methods to keep yourself safe from hackers. He offers these suggestions:

For Wireless Internet Connections

• Stay off the free wireless Internet. If you do use it, go through a secure VPN connection with the latest encryption methods.
• Subscribe to a mobile broadband service and use the mobile Internet access card.
• If you are not using your wireless connection, turn it off. This will help regulate when you are actually connected.

Use the Right Hardware and Software

• If possible, use a “travel only” laptop that contains only the basics and not all your work history information.
• Access your email through the Web instead of through physical software.
• When you are done on the Internet, clear your browser history.
• Store everything on an approved network instead of on your local harddrive.
• Type in passwords instead of having your computer remember them.
• Equip your mobile device with “lojack-like” software. In the event of loss or theft, you will be able to wipe out the contents on your device.
• Install antivirus software on your laptop.
• Require two-factor authentication to access your system

Drake also cautions to always keep your belongings with you at all times. It only takes a minute of turning your back or leaving the table, and your laptop could be hacked or stolen. Thieves and cybercriminals look for any opportunity.

Don’t assume that your boss or the IT department have everything covered. Know what methods you have in place to protect yourself. How valuable is your company’s information to you and your job? Can you afford to take chances?

Running a business well takes specialized knowledge. Not only in the core service and marketplace of your business but increasingly in law, human resources, technology and more.

Most businesses don’t have the need to maintain a full-time lawyer, HR administrator or CIO. Typically these roles have either been outsourced or simply neglected.

In the last few years, this approach has changed, moving from “outsourcing” law or technology advice to retaining “virtual” advisors.

The change in wording is more than mere semantics; it reflects a change in focus. Outsourcing work focuses on the vendor. Your legal questions, HR needs or technology plans go into the queue of a company that performs the exact same actions for a hundred other businesses just like yours. Virtual assistance focuses on you and provides unique, on-demand assistance. A virtual advisor gets to know you and your business, providing expertise as an informed, long-term trusted advisor.

At Highland, we believe in the virtual model. While most small to medium size companies invest in IT-either full time staff or an outsourced firm-very few have the need or resources for high level technology planning in a full time CIO. As specialists in business technology, we provide the benefits of strategic technical thinking in a virtual role.

The benefits of long-term planning, disaster preparedness, and aligning technology with your business goals are immense. A virtual CIO gives business leaders confidence that IT is driven by business thinking and frees them to focus on other core tasks.

I don’t praise the value of a virtual CIO because it’s one of our services. Virtual arrangements are the smartest way I know for businesses to fill out their expertise. Highland retains a virtual HR department and a virtual lawyer. We practice what we preach.

Are there other specialized roles you’ve seen work well as virtual advisors? Have you experienced key benefits or drawbacks from this model? Share your comments below.

One of our techs installed a really nice graphics card in a computer in our office last week.

A few years ago, everyone would have been wondering if someone was sneaking in a bit of World of Warcraft over lunch. Normal office work just didn’t require that sort of  processing power.

Not anymore. Widescreen monitors with high resolutions are graphically intense, and fancy new website technologies like AJAX (that allow you to interact with only part of a webpage without refreshing the whole page—think Facebook, Gmail, Zimbra) can tax a PC graphically as well.

So our sluggish PC got a major graphics upgrade, in the form of a GeForce 9400 GT 1GB DDR2 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics Card.

I admit that’s a product name with gamer written all over it.

And be warned that getting the sleek, foreboding black and green box into your office might gain you a couple of curious stares. A backpack or a paper bag could be called for.

But even though the graphics card market still clearly targets the PC gamer, office PCs supporting large monitors or working in web applications can see a big productivity boost by using graphics cards with significant memory and processing power. Plus, the prices have dropped substantially in the last few years, and are easily under $75 for a good card.

So put some gamer gear to work in your office. You may be surprised at the difference.

Every now and then I like to browse the websites of other technology companies. Recently, as we’ve been putting the finishing touches on a brand new website launch (coming in June!), I’ve been doing it a lot more.

While I’ve come across sites both great and terrible, I have noticed a discouragingly common trend. Many technology companies are overly specialized in a particular type of technology.

The most common example is Microsoft, of course. Legion are the IT companies who display their “Microsoft Gold Partner” badge and the long list of Microsoft certifications their staff holds. Such specialization is a good thing if you need assistance with a piece of Microsoft technology. However, if you were to approach such a company with a business problem to be solved or goal to be achieved, you would undoubtedly receive a Microsoft-shaped solution.

But what if Microsoft’s offering is actually inferior or overly costly for your business issue? read more »

I use local rail to travel in and out of Chicago every day. While waiting for the train to leave the Chicago station each evening, my laptop often reports two or three Free Public Wi-Fi connections eager to accommodate my web browsing needs.

I never connect.

Setting up bogus “Free Public Wi-Fi” connections in heavily traveled areas is a common trick of hackers and other folk with less than kind intentions.

By broadcasting a fake “Free Public Wi-Fi” connection with a packet sniffer enabled, an attacker can see everything that a person who connects to their broadcast can see, including passwords.

Here are a few security tips for travelers in need of Wi-Fi:

read more »

I’ve spoken before about Mr. IT Fix It. Mr. IT Fix It is an outsourced technology consultant who gets paid for fixing your technology when it breaks.

Hiring a Mr. IT Fix It appears to be a good way to keep costs down as you only pay when you need his assistance. But this relationship can actually end up increasing your technology costs because no one is tending to the regular maintenance of your technology to prevent problems and reduce costs.

Which is cheaper: installing a new battery in a smoke detector or dealing with a house fire?

I know, an extreme example, but it illustrates the point.

Mr. IT Fix It makes almost nothing for installing a battery but can make a lot for putting out a fire. In contrast, a Managed IT team–paid a flat monthly fee–will gladly spend a lot less time and energy performing this kind of necessary, low-profile work because it means they (like you) won’t have to deal with a time-consuming crisis (during which, like you, they will not make any money).

In short, you want your outsourced IT to care for your technology as if they own it.

The key question: is your relationship (and compensation structure) with your outsourced IT treating them like Mr. IT Fix It or like Managed IT?

Here are five lessons learned from homeowners about how business leaders want their outsourced IT to behave.

read more »

In a typical arrangement, your outsourced IT technicians and consultant gets paid when things break. It doesn’t have to be this way, but this is still the predominant model. This arrangement is counterproductive and can breed distrust and frustration between you and your IT consultants.

What if instead of being rewarded (i.e. paid) when things break, your outsourced IT was rewarded for regular, preventative care and planning?

Consider the way we take care of our own homes:

read more »

The business world is waking up this month. Is your IT infrastructure ready to support the incoming upswing? How can you prepare while still being cautious about expenses?

We’ve collected our posts about how to perform your own IT assessment into a single, downloadable document. We cover the key issues involved in twelve types of critical technology, including common mistakes, best practices, and our recommendations from years in the IT trenches. The technology considered includes:

1. Malware and Anti-Virus
2. Firewalls
3. Content Filtering
4. Physical Network
5. Internet Connection
6. Email & Collaboration
7. Wireless Network
8. Data Backups
9. Data Repositories (including servers)
10. PCs
11. Printers
12. Remote Access

Download it. Copy it. Share it with a colleague or your IT guy.

We’re committed to seeing small businesses reap the real benefits of IT, instead of seeing IT as a cost center or necessary evil.

Click to download the guide here: Highland Solutions IT Assessment Guide.

This is part 12 of a series on IT Self-Assessment for small businesses. We’re providing information and guidelines for a simple IT check, giving you the ability to gain free insights into how your technology can serve your  business better. Each post covers a critical area of technology.

Remote Access

Function & Value

Remote access enables users to access programs and files stored on a PC or server in your office when they are not physically in the office. Remote access can allow for a flexible work schedule, cover mistakes when a file or task is forgotten, and help you accomplish an emergency weekend task without an emergency weekend commute.

There are two common ways to provide remote access: VPN (virtual private network) and Remote Desktop. A VPN uses a piece of software on an external PC to connect with a VPN concentrator (often a firewall) inside the office. Remote Desktop runs on an external PC and connects with appropriate credentials to a PC inside the office.

External access is required for most businesses, but it can pose significant risks to your network. Here are the most common problems and how to avoid them: read more »

This is part 11 of a series on IT Self-Assessment for small businesses. We’re providing information and guidelines for a simple IT check, giving you the ability to gain free insights into how your technology can serve your  business better. Each post covers a critical area of technology.

Infrastructure: Printers

Print easily and as cheaply as possible. That’s the bottom line with printers. Here are the three most common mistakes businesses make with printers, and how to fix them.

Common Problems

(1) Sharing printers off of PCs. When a printer is connected directly to a PC and then shared through the PC, it slows down printing and can affect the shared PCs performance. Anytime the PC is turned off, the printer is unavailable.

(2) Sharing printers off of a server. This creates similar problems and is unnecessary. Current printers have the processing power built in to handle virtually any print job you can send their way. There are some situations where sharing off of a print server is advantageous (see below).

(3) Using inkjet printers. To some extent, all printers are “cheap” and all ink is “expensive”, but inkjet printers are the worst of the lot. The low purchase price of the printer disguises the fact that over time inkjets are more expensive than laser printers. Similarly, printing black and white documents to a color printer wastes more expensive ink consumables.

read more »