Filed under: Computers | Tags: meetings, note-taking, pen-computing, sales force, tablet pc, tablets
Tablet PCs have been around for a number of years now. Very few people seem to use them, mostly because tablets cost more than your average laptop. We believe the tablet has a great place in business and it can help you and your staff be more productive. (more…)
Filed under: Cell phones, Telecommunications, VOIP | Tags: smart phones; integration; unified communications; call-forwarding
Get Smart!
Smart phones are everywhere. Seems every time somebody deems a phone to be “smart” it’s because it has some sort of integration into the rest of the world (beyond the phone line) – the web, email, the enterprise – all cool stuff to be sure. But the one key piece of intelligence they all overlook is integration with PHONES! Yeah – phones. The ones back at the office on the “system” – likely a PBX and Voicemail system that connects to the outside world via good old “land lines”. Other than being able to program a speed dial button on the office phone, there’s very little that’s been done to make the ubiquitous cellphone a part of the office phones. That’s not very smart. But you can make them smarter.
Filed under: Security, Telecommunications, VOIP | Tags: hacking, pbx, Security, vishing, VOIP
Do you have a Voice Over IP phone system? If so, how much thought have you put to securing your phones? Too often businesses just have systems installed and pay no attention to the security concerns. It’s just a phone? What’s the big deal?
Recently, an article by IDG details what the big deal is. A new type of attack is on the rise and it can be a huge threat to your customers and to your reputation. The attack exploits gaps in the security of some Voice Over IP Implementations and lets the attacker gain access to your system. This access can then be used to call your customers or publish one of your phone numbers that they control access to. This gives them the appearance of being from your company and they abuse the trusted relationship between you and your customer to gain key information such as passwords, account numbers, and more. The customer thinks they are talking to one of your staff, when actually they are handing the information over to criminals.
When this happens, your customers can lose a great deal of money and any trust in your organization. A good reputation is one of the most difficult things to build and takes years, but it can be lost in an instant. Other hard costs are possible as well. Businesses might be held liable for these losses as well. Depending on the type of attack, the company could faces thousands in long-distance calling charges as well.
(more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized
This week, we have seen a rash of e-mails pretending to be from a user’s network administrator and encouraging them to update their computer or their e-mail by clicking on a link. The end-user sees that the e-mail comes from net-admin@yourdomain.com or something similar and thinks, “That must be valid. It’s from my e-mail domain.”
DON’T CLICK ON IT!
(more…)
Today, we provide the voice of an expert in the field of Telecommunications. Clem Wyman has been running Valulink for the last 9 years providing communications solutions to customers across the country. Valulink is a close partner of The Alexander Group and so we are always interested to hear his opinion.
This post includes Clem’s answer to the question, “What kind of phone service is the best for customers?” His answer is not a simple one, but it provides a lot of insight that I think can help you evaluate if you need to change service and what makes sense for you company. Here’s Clem’s answer to the question:
(more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized
This article is for all the businesses who have bought into the hype and put their data or business applications in a data center. This isn’t a bad idea, but it isn’t the solution to keeping your services and data safe. It’s just a part of the solution. Today, we’re going to look at a variety of data center incidents (just from the last week) and see what they mean for your business. If you don’t know what a data center is or why you might want to use one, then you don’t need to read this (but you may want to contact us to discuss why you might want to do so).
Data centers exist to provide two ways to safeguard critical data and server applications for companies at a monthly fee. First, the offer geographical separation. The data center is not at your office. It is somewhere else. This means that it offers redundancy in case you have major power, telco, or other problems that may take your office offline. Second, data centers invest in tons of very impressive features that most individual businesses can’t afford to make sure servers stay up and running. Data centers have multiply redundant and diverse internet connections, they have advanced power grids with stacks of batteries to power everything until the enormous generators kick in. They have specially designed air-conditioning systems, and security that the CIA would appreciate. All offered at a reasonable monthly fee.If you have information in a data center (or if you have ever thought about putting servers in one), you’ve had the “ooh” and “aaaahhh” tour where the data center demonstrates all of this really impressive technology so as to assure you that there’s no way you could possibly afford all of this stuff on your own, and that your servers won’t survive without it.
(more…)
