Security Settings and Social Engineering

Epic hack in review…

Ok, one more post about password security and backing up information, and then I promise to leave the topic alone for a while.  This one’s important.  You may have heard last week about Mat Honan, a tech journalist who, at the hands of a dedicated 19 year old hacker, lost access to his Twitter, Google, Amazon, and Apple accounts.  The hacker then wiped out his Gmail (8 years’ worth), used his Twitter account to post hateful messages, and then was responsible for the remote wipe of his iPhone, iPad, and iMac.  Photos, email, documents, apps – gone.  All of it.

After figuring out what had happened, with the some help from the person who did it, Mat agreed to not press charges in exchange for a roadmap of how the hacker destroyed his digital world.  You can find the full article here.  Please take the time to read it.  Then take action.  The following are just a few of the steps you can take to make sure this doesn’t happen to you or your business:

• Use a different, secure password for each account (of course).  Take advantage of a password manager to help you keep track.  But this is only step one.  Matt had already done this, but it didn’t help him.
• Those security questions - the ones that ask for your grandmother’s first name or where you went to elementary school?  Use fake answers (ones you can remember, but others won’t be able to find by searching your digital footprint).
• For services that offer it, take advantage of enhanced security features like Google’s two factor authentication.  Yes, it’s a pain.  That’s the point.  It’s less of a pain than losing irreplaceable info, however, or reconstructing data/accounts.
• Don’t tie your accounts together.  Keep your Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, etc. accounts separate, and don’t allow them to interact with one another.  This includes apps that allow you to post to both Facebook and Twitter at the same time, for example.
• Back up your data.  Then back it up again.  Redundant backups, stored in different forms and different locations, help ensure that it won’t be lost forever.  Make sure that at least one of your backups is not reachable from the outside world via internet connection.  So by all means, back up your phone to your computer, and then back up your computer using an external drive, cloud storage, or even better – both.  Don’t forget your “cloud” data.  It needs to be backed up, too.  This is also a good opportunity to think twice about what information you’re storing in the cloud.  Does it really need to be there, or would an encrypted flash drive be a better option?  Read the terms of service for the cloud services you use – make sure it’s up to par for your data security needs.
• Don’t think that this can’t (or won’t) happen to you.  Though this is an example of a very dedicated hacker going after someone who had his name out there in the digital world, far too many people rely on “security through obscurity”.  Mat may have been a slightly bigger target than most, but not by much.
• Don’t place too much trust in any company to protect your stuff (even those you pay to use their services).  This wasn’t all Mat’s fault.  Remember that these businesses are just that, businesses.  They are there to make money for their shareholders.  This can lead to business decisions that may not always be in the best interest of securing your accounts.  It also means that there are other people who have the power to grant access to your account.  In this case the result was a hacker’s ability to use social engineering (read: smooth talking) to circumvent the security measures in place.  To their credit, Amazon, Twitter, and Apple have all taken action to change the flawed procedures that led to this hacker’s success.

It’s a rarity to be privy to the finer details of an attack such as this one.  Take advantage of the lessons learned in this case and use it as a great opportunity to review and improve the measures you currently in have in place to protect your information.

New Facebook Features

In this post, Blue Door Consulting’s Leah Van Rooy talks about the new features Facebook rolled out for business pages…

If you haven’t already heard, Facebook rolled out some new features for business pages yesterday.  You now have the ability to assign different levels of access to page admins and you can also schedule future posts within the Facebook platform. See details below:

Admin Access Levels

Business pages now have the ability to assign different levels of access to admins of the page. How may this be useful? If a company has one person doing monitoring, another posting daily status updates and someone else making page edits, this new feature will allow businesses to essentially provide different levels of “clearance” to each admin depending on his or her role. So the person in charge of placing Facebook ads for your company won’t automatically have access to change the profile picture and change page settings. It no longer has to be all or nothing. Facebook provided a chart that breaks down what access capabilities are associated with the 5 different admin levels. See below:

Scheduling Future Posts

The other feature rolled out by Facebook is the ability to create and schedule posts in advance. This was something businesses always had to use a third-party app to accomplish in the past. Now this capability is available directly on the Facebook platform! Simply create your post and instead of pushing the “Post” button, select the clock icon that is now visible on the bottom-left side of the status screen (see below). Click that button and schedule when you want the post to be published on your page’s timeline. Easy peasy!

If you have any questions about these new features, add your comment below, give me a call (920) 230-2583 or drop me an email (leah@bluedoorconsulting.com).

-       --   Leah

Save Early and Save Often

Exploring a world of information that should get the same [backup] love as the rest of your data…

How much data do you store in the cloud?  If you’re like most people, a lot more than you did 5 years ago, and probably a lot more than you realize.  Nearly every common online service stores data.  Social media accounts, web-based email and document storage, calendars, blogs, etc.  But is that data safe?  We all back up our data stored locally on our computers and servers (we do all back up that data regularly… right?), but what about all the stuff in the cloud?


Wait, wait.  It’s in the cloud.  Of course it’s safe.  It’s all backed up on redundant servers housed in big data centers, right?  Typically yes, that’s the case.  But according to online backup service Backupify, roughly one third of all online data loss is due to user error, stemming from a misplaced password or simply due to accidental deletion.  Beyond that, hackers, viruses, or legal issues can bring your online data down.  Occasionally, error on the side of online data storage providers can cause data loss.


For these reasons you may want to consider options for securing a backup of your cloud data.  For your Google data (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, etc.), BackupGoo and Spanning are a couple of options, both of which will work with Google Apps.  The aforementioned Backupify will do all that plus backup your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zoho, Flickr, Picasa, and Blogger data.


Prices and mileage vary, so be sure to pick the plan that suits you best.  Are you an occasional Facebook user with just a few photos uploaded?  There are “free” and “small” plans for you.  Have a small business that uses Google Apps and your whole life is reflected online?  There are more substantial plans as well.


Use an online service that isn’t covered here?  Do a quick search to see if there are tools out there that allow you to make a local copy of your data – even if it’s a manual process, it’s better than nothing, and it gives you somewhere to start rebuilding if the unthinkable happens and your data disappears.  Show your data some love!


If you’ve got a go-to backup service, hit the comments and let us know.

The Business Wisdom of Hall & Oates.

In this post, Matt Vanderlinden takes a second to consider the simple challenge of saying "no"...

Daryl Hall and John Oates have been writing music for a long time. Their first album, Whole Oats, came out way back in 1972. And while they’re known around the world for their string of monster pop hits, I just recently discovered that they have a real knack for personal productivity coaching.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about the prophetic lyrics of 1981’s “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).” Specifically, the last part of the song:

"Oh, I can't go for that, (No can do)Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no can do,Oh, I can't go for that, yeah, (No can do)No, no, no, no, no,
no." (Repeat to fade….)

While they may have totally guessed wrong in terms of fashion trends, as this picture clearly illustrates, they did accurately predict some of our modern-day struggles with simply saying “no.” It’s one of the hardest things to do in business. It’s certainly hard to say no to a customer. But it’s even more difficult to say no to the day-to-day activities in our businesses that may seem urgent, but actually aren’t important. There’s a big difference between urgent and important, but many times they get interpreted as meaning the same thing. Just remember, they don’t.

There’s a great article on the Harvard Business Review’s site by Tony Schwartz that talks about the necessity of saying no in order to give yourself time to reflect on what’s important, both personally and professionally. If you don’t take that time to reflect, you really can’t prioritize what’s important. If you don’t prioritize, you’ll be overcome by the urgent.

Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. Follow these practical steps to help you focus on what’s important:

1. Schedule the important things in your life on your calendar so you make time for them.


2. Take 15 to 20 minutes at the end of your day to take stock of what you accomplished, and to set the priorities for tomorrow.


3. When you start the day, do the most important thing on your list first.


4. Take a break after about 90 minutes of work to give you a chance to revitalize.

Check out the original article for more details on how saying “no” may be the best skill you could develop to become more productive.

P.S. For more insights from Hall and Oates, listen to “Rich Girl” for a nuanced interpretation of modern socio-economic policy, and “Private Eyes” for a brief explanation of the rise of police states. Enjoy!

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

“Seriously guys, I geek out over this stuff."...

It seems that some days my caffeine intake goes directly to the right side of my brain, leaving the left in blissful, dormant slumber. So I was skeptical when Kathleen A. Paris, Ph.D used the words “Periodic Table of” and “Visualization Methods” in the same phrase. As it turns out, this Periodic Table of Visualization is a real thing and it is a right-brainers dream come true.

View Table

The table above was developed by www.visual-literacy.org. Click on it to get a closer look.
Here are my favorite aspects:

It lists 100 ways to communicate your message.

That’s right, 100 ways to communicate. And, as you hover over each communication method, a handy visual graphic will pop up. You are probably familiar with many of the visualization methods represented, but this is a great reference to turn to for those lesser-used visuals that don’t boil up to the surface of your mind as often as they could, such as Mintzberg’s Organigraph or parameter rulers.

It’s organized.

The color-coding system divides the communication methods into groups of visualizations:

• Data
• Information
• Concept
• Strategy
• Metaphor
• Compound

Additionally, you can quickly and easily pick out which visualizations are procedural or structural and if they involve convergent or divergent thinking.

So, if you are a visual learner (or you are trying to communicate with someone who is) and your stumped on how to explain something, give this chart a try.

What Facebook is Really Trying to Tell Brands.

In this post, Matt Vanderlinden talks about the real message brands should be getting from Facebook...

You’d have to have been living in a yurt somewhere in the middle of Mongolia to have missed Facebook’s announcement about their new brand pages a few weeks ago. Who am I kidding? Your chances were still about 50/50 depending on your cell phone provider. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is the announcement was big, and there was a lot of talk about features and user interface changes. And immediately afterwards, the mad scramble to update images and adjust custom apps began.

But there was more to this than just new features and a slick new interface. Facebook is telling you to stop hard-selling people and get serious about genuine engagement with your customers.

In fact, they’re not even being subtle about it. On the new brand pages, they give you what is essentially a giant banner ad at the top of your page. But they specifically restrict you from putting any kind of call to action in it. You can’t promote your latest “deal” there. You can’t ask people to like or recommend your page. You can’t even put any contact information in there. So what do you do with it?

You’re going to need to be creative. You’re going to need to put something in there that tells your brand’s story, something that appeals to people enough to make them choose to like your page on their own.

In fact, the whole point of the new brand page is to tell engaging stories. Facebook’s enhanced the posts on brand pages so they’re larger and more eye-catching. You can now post company milestones to highlight big events in the life of your brand. You can even pin a post to the top of your timeline so it stands out…but only for a week at a time. Why? Because they want you to keep posting new things to keep your followers engaged.

The message right below all the glitz of features is that, when it comes down to it, you need to be focused on engagement. Your brand needs to be authentic, transparent, and you need to share who you are with your customers. That’s what builds relationships that last beyond discounts and deals. And Facebook, after all, is in the relationship business.

There’s a lot more that’s changed, and we’ll have more content that we’ll be posting soon that will get into the technical details that brands should be concerned about. In the meantime, feel free to explore these links to get a more detailed understanding of what we consider the most significant changes to be:

Facebook Timeline
Facebook Reach Generator
Facebook Premium
Facebook Best Practices
Facebook General Suggestions

Pinterest – love at first sight!

In this post, Leah Van Rooy will tell you about the new social media platform called Pinterest and why you are going to love it ...


Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest. You’ve heard the name all over the place, but what is it and why should you care?

From the moment I signed-up it was love at first sight -- sight, being the key word there.  Pinterest is all about visuals.  It is a virtual bulletin board for you to ‘pin’ all of your favorite things and inspirations. Think of it as the front of your refrigerator, full of the stuff you love (pictures of your family, recipes you want to try, pages ripped out of travel magazines of places you want to go, etc.).

Take a peek at my Pinterest account.  I’ve ‘pinned’ photos and videos to boards for home ideas, party inspirations, DIY projects, food, travel and more!

I confess I’m addicted to Pinterest. I know what you are thinking, “I’m already on Facebook, Twitter, and five other social media networks … I don’t have the time for another!” Believe me, you do. It’s sooo worth it! You are going to love Pinterest because…

1. You will find inspiration everywhere, from the Pinterest site to your favorite designer’s blog. Pinterest has a simple one-click tool that will capture that brilliant idea (wherever it may be) and ‘pin’ it on the board of your choice.
2. You can exchange ideas with your friends and family. For instance, if you are planning a wedding and your bridesmaids live in six different states, you can all share ideas on dress styles and color swatches. Or if your groom is looking for some ideas from his friends on what they would like to do when they get into town for the wedding, they can ‘pin’ different restaurants to try, golf courses to visit or comedy clubs to check out. 
3. You can de-clutter your mind by ‘pinning’ your ideas on the Pinterest site. This way, when you need that recipe or want to watch a movie from your ‘must see’ list, you will have them. No more looking for those torn-out magazine pages or scribbles on the back of napkins. Head to Pinterest and your ‘pins’ will be waiting for you.
4. You can ‘pin’ whenever the mood strikes – and if you don’t, no one is going to bother you. There is no social networking guilt.  Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest doesn’t have an unwritten expectation that you need to maintain relationships with others. In fact, you can be as antisocial as you want by turning off all notifications. But when you are feeling social, feel free to comment, ‘pin’ and ‘re-pin’ to your heart’s content.  Simply use Pinterest how and when you wish.

Over 12 million users (and counting) love Pinterest … and I’m sure you will too! 

-Leah

PS – Pinterest is still in beta testing, so if you need an “invite” to create an account let me know -- I can hook you up!