Ultimate Cosmic Power Itty Bitty Mobile Device

With the technology of business running faster and faster, and becoming more and more mobile, with laptops, flash drives, and now tablet computers and even cell phones; that are more powerful than the first computers I worked on 15 years ago. The problem many businesses run into is that their IT policies do not keep up with their technology devices or practices, and many people don't realize that mobile devices are as susceptible to attack and in many instances more so as they are mobile, and the largest targets now for unethical hackers, because why break into a building or steal equipment, when I can just wirelessly walk past you and and clone your phone and all it's content, or your ipad that more and more companies are keeping sensitive data through email, or files people are taking to work on at home. Or the hacker at the coffee shop, or your favorite wifi public hotspot that has security to protect the businesses, but claims no responsibility for anyone who chooses to use it.
By and large I find that few people realize or think about securing the ipad, or iphone and how many people buy into the fallacy and I get the dumbfounded look on their face and then they say "I thought Mac's couldn't get viruses, or be hacked?" or my personal favorite "It's a phone, not a computer?".  To which I have to slap them in the face and reply "It's a computer, a very small computer, it stores data, and is electronic and has the ability to network, and are made by...wait for it....computer companies!. There are viruses and hacks a plenty. Unless you secure it, they will come.".
Another problem that people don't realize how much business sensitive data they carry with them, or by their employees, and as fewer businesses, especially small businesses provide a company phone, but let people use their own phone. Now they are at the mercy of an outside source, which many times is not included nor even thought of as a side note in IT procedures and policies, for securing them, only about a quarter of the cell phones and ipads I find even have an antivirus program on them, much less VPN, or any type of secure connection. If you would like a good antivirus for your phone, I would highly recommend "Lookout", available for all Apple and Android devices.
Needless to say even if unwittingly any business related information stored on employees device, will still fall under the compliance regulations and liability of the business, and therefore any fines or violations that may be associated.
Adding an antivirus is only the first step though, you also have to look, are your employees "Jailbreaking", or opening the iOS on their Apple products that leaves holes in SSH security and creates a larger playing field and removes all the safe guards Apple puts to give security to the Apple device, that many people don't realize are there, but will become the companies problem. Also setting up VPN for any accounts receiving from business emails that may contain any sensitive business data, including client files, budgetary items, or even a potentially damaging memo or joke. If it was received through a company email address, it is considered part of the business, and falls under the compliance thereof.
The newest thing in mobile technology is cloud services all of which vary in security and efficiency of use, but many of which automatically sync and store data like iCloud for most Apple products, and while mostly secure, it now puts your company information in a third parties hands that is not associated with your IT policies and procedures or behind any security barriers you may have. And the same with many other services like Dropbox, The Box or even secure ones like Mozy, most their privacy policies exclude them from compliance regulation, unless you pay for an enterprise or premium service where they include security compliance, but are often expensive and not commonly found on most people's phones that automatically back up to the cloud.
The opportunities and power of mobile computing and even the cloud are powerful tools that I highly encourage to be used and utilized, they create a way for businesses to flourish and thrive in a faster world of business climate. But they are also a new door for threats that must be recognized and are a common oversight I have noticed made, which could potentially damage the integrity and pocketbooks of any business, but especially small business.

Cyber Deals Monday

As my wife picked up the pieces at Walmart after the insanity from Thursday Night and Black Friday, I chuckled to myself...only for a moment as the deals from Cyber Monday have struck. I have been inundated with requests for what I think are the best tech deals out there. To this I make the continuous reply of, "42"...minutes. Or rather that is how long a consumer tech deal lasts. Computers and technology change and adapt so quickly that there is no such thing as a great deal unless something is absolutely free and even then it is up for debate.

The reasoning behind this is that odds are if you're getting a great deal it is because they are clearing inventory for the next biggest better thing, that you wish you would have waited to buy, that is technology. That is why I say, find out what you need, buy at a moderate price and be happy for a while till your necessities increase or you have a wad of cash that has to be spent (unless you want to give it to me). It amazes me that people all but beat malign and become wild savages over technology that the day after they bought it are like...if I would have waited a day, I could have gotten the newest thing for a little more! My wife was recanting some of the war stories of her fellow Walmart employees, even having one customer cling to pallet of goods, and spitting on the employee when they asked them to move so they could open the stuff to sell! Then someone was verbally abusive to my wife the next day when she was marking it all down an additional amount, saying "I stood in line and fought to get this stuff, just to have you mark it down?". Yes, welcome to the world of commerce, and it is the same in the tech world. You get exactly what you pay for, you want a deal call a Partner company, like me for Cisco and Microsoft, I get great deals...because I spend alot of money with those companies, and have contracts that provide the upgrades etc. They give me great deals because the money from me for them is not on the product, but in the service contracts I buy, for replacements and software upgrades, and then I can pass the savings on to my customers.

So the moral of the story is, if you need tech, just go buy it at a reasonable price and feel good knowing it is yours...no matter what you do it will be replaced in 6 months.

A Wonderful Day in the World of Networking!

Welcome to A Guy Named Eric's blog, on this I will provide a forum for my customers and for now the general public to post any Networking, Security, Routing, and really anything that you think might stump the chump. I will also post on here interesting and informative articles. I will specify in the title how geeky on the Geek scale you have to have in order to understand any posts. I'm not out to confuse but to inform. I am open to most any computer question, and will do my best to find the answer. Also if you know the answer a
nd would like to kindly comment to contribute I say more power to you. After all that is what this forum is for, and though I have an impressive expanse of knowledge, it is much like Wikipedia in that some stuff still needs references, and some stuff, some guy told me that his second cousins' pig Felma told him. Yeah, it happens. I try to test most theories, but even I only have so much time and so much resources. to start with, I thought we'd take you back to the days of yore and let Issac Asimov share his favorite iPad'sh device. Thanks for visiting and feel free to contribute however you can, ask a question, answer a question, become wise in the ways of networking.