Data Breaches Affect Valuable Information

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Data and security breaches do not just affect your business; they also have a direct impact on your customers and associates as well. Whether it is through stolen payment information, leaked passwords or a form of hacking, data breaches compromise the privacy of your customers and can potentially cause your business a loss of money and resources. According to a recent report, however, the cost of a data breach continues to decline for businesses. It is estimated that outsiders perpetrate 92 percent of breaches while seven percent involved multiple parties. These occur most often due to weak credentials, such as passwords that are easy to guess, or stolen login information from a database. Over half of all attacks involve some form of hacking. In order to prevent these attacks from happening to your business and consumers it is important to look into the security of your servers and information so that all of your vital data is protected at all times. You can learn more about data breaches and trends by reading through the infographic below.

Mobile Phone Theft: Unit Security and Identity Theft Combined

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Mobile phone theft is on the rise world wide. New handsets are a costly investment, and thieves can make a quick profit with a new model. However, your phone may contain a wealth of information that makes identity theft easy for anyone who may steal or find it. You may use your smartphone are  to access bank accounts, electronic mail, calendar and other sensitive accounts. Additionally, your personal contacts, addresses and photographs are stored within a phone's memory. If your device falls into the hands of another person, he or she can quickly learn private details that can be used to turn a simple phone theft into a far more lucrative looting.

HANOVER, GERMANY - MARCH 06: A visitor examines a Samsung smartphone with a Microsoft operating system on the first day of the CeBIT 2012 technology trade fair on March 6, 2012 in Hanover, Germany. CeBIT 2012, the world's largest information technology trade fair, will run from March 6-10, and advances in cloud computing and security are major features this year. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

To protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft if your phone becomes lost or stolen, it is important to properly protect your device. The foremost and easiest way to keep prying eyes out of your mobile's memory is to utilize password protection. You can lock the screen saver and keep your phone from making calls and texts or from opening applications without the proper numeric personal identification number (PIN). Some devices, including the iPhone, include the option to automatically wipe all data from the phone when the PIN is incorrectly entered multiple times. It is recommended that you have separate PINs for unlocking the screen and accessing the secure applications within it, as this provides an extra layer of security.

Also regarding applications, it is important to ensure that all programs on your smartphone are downloaded from an app store with a good reputation. While several programs are available for quick download via QR, or quick response, code, your best bet is to search for the program through your mobile device. Android Play Store applications are less stringently regulated than those in the iPhone App Store, and malware is rapidly increasing with some downloads for the platform. Be wary of programs that ask to verify your location, as these can potentially pinpoint your phone with a global positioning system.

Always keep your mobile phone and applications current. Security patches and operating system fixes are routinely included in updates, so it is in your best interest to have the most up-to-date version of all software on your handset. Usually, mobile updates are small, taking only a few minutes to complete. The slight inconvenience of restarting your phone is easily justified by the peace of mind that comes from knowing that its programs are free of security loopholes.

Be mindful of exactly what information you have stored on your mobile phone. Ensure that you have a back-up of your mobile data. It is easy to sync your device, and doing so can save you the hassle of recollecting contact numbers, photographs and passwords should your phone be stolen, memory wiped or otherwise compromised. Your application store saves information about your past downloads, making them available for installation without having to pay a second time, but personal data can be permanently deleted if a back-up has not been created.

by Jaye Ryan, a freelance writer who loves to write about mobile phones, smartphones and mobile technology for MobilePhones.org.uk.

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Top 8 Points On Google’s New Privacy Policy

March 1 has finally come, which means Google’s long talked-about new privacy policy is now in place. The rumors about the changes have been flying wildly since Google first announced them back in January, but the truth is that very few people have actually taken the time to learn what the new policy really means.  But since Google is now operating under the new policy, it’s more important than ever to understand how it will affect you.  

Below are the top eight points you should know about Google’s new privacy policy.

1. Google is not selling your personal data

When Google first announced these changes, there was a popular belief that the cloud service provider would begin selling user’s personal data.  However, this is simply a myth.  Google is not selling your information, or even sharing it, with anyone.

2. Google has simply consolidated its many privacy policies into one

The big change for the new privacy policy is actually quite simple.  Previously, Google had a distinct privacy policy for each of its many services.  Now, Google has one, giant policy for the majority of its services.  This change means a simpler, easier-to-understand privacy policy that applies to most of the Google platforms you use regularly.

3. Google now has a complete snapshot of your web presence

Since Google now has one all-encompassing privacy policy, it now has a complete snapshot of your internet activity.  Basically, this means Google can track your activity as one user across its many platforms, which enables it to put together a complete picture of you as a Google user.  Why is this important?  Google plans to use this information to improve its services.  To get a better idea of exactly what this means, you can use the Google Dashboard to see your activity across all Google platforms just like Google does.

4. You will soon see more personalization

A major component of the improved services is more personalization.  With its complete user picture, Google will soon get a better idea of who you are online - how and where you spend your time on the web, what you tend to look for, and what you usually find the most beneficial.  Google will use this information to give you more of what you like and less of what you don’t, therefore personalizing its services to suit your individual needs.  Examples of this personalization include automatic spelling corrections, suggested contact lists, better search results, and advertisements geared toward your interests.  You can even contribute to the personalization with tools like the Ads Preference Manager, which allows you to designate what kinds of ads you want to see.

5. Google’s platforms are now working together

Because most of Google’s platforms now share the same privacy policy, they are working together more than ever before.  This close integration allows for a smoother connection when working across multiple Google platforms, such as Gmail and Google Docs.  How will this connection actually affect you?  There are many ways, one of which is notifications.  With the changes in place, if you use Google Calendar to mark appointments and Google Maps to get to these appointments, you may now receive a notification indicating whether or not you’ll make it to the appointment on time.  This is because the two platforms can now share information with one another like you’re destination, the time you need to be there, you’re current location, and traffic conditions.

6. To experience more personalization and collaboration, you need to use more Google services

Google is able to offer this more personalized service because of the way it can now see your complete user data across all of its platforms.  To receive the most personalized services, as well as to get the most benefits from the increased collaboration between platforms, you need to use a variety of Google services on a regular basis.  This is because the more services you use, and the more often you use them, the more information about you Google will have to draw on when it comes to personalization.  Given this, Google Apps users, who tend to use the most Google platforms regularly, are likely to see the most changes in the shortest amount of time.

7. You can still use Google without having information tracked

These changes may be a lot for some people to take in, which is why there are ways you can still use Google services without having your information tracked.  Examples of tools that allow this are the “incognito window” in the Google Chrome web browser, which allows you to slip off Google’s radar, and “off the record” chat in Gmail.  Additionally, if you want to conduct a simple search or watch YouTube videos without Google noticing, you can easily sign out of your Google account.

8. Google will now be meeting your needs better and faster

Now that all of these changes are in place, you can expect Google to meet your needs better and faster.  From more personalized services to increased collaboration across platforms, the changes resulting from Google’s new privacy policy are all poised to improve your user experience.

Cloud Sherpas is a leading cloud service provider and was named the “Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year.” As one of the first Google Enterprise partners, Cloud Sherpas has migrated over one million users across a variety of industries from legacy, on-premise messaging systems to Google Apps, helping organizations adopt cloud computing to innovate and dramatically reduce their IT expenses. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cloud Sherpas has regional offices in locations including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin and Sydney, and has more Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists than any other partner in the world.

Computer 101: Google 2-Step Authentication for All your Google Accounts.

Everyone that have internet access or uses that internet regularly for gaming, research, business and many more have an email account, this email account can be a corporate or an organization based or the paid email accounts from different providers and the most common of all the free email account which is available everywhere in the internet. One such provider of free email accounts is Google.com which is a very big internet based company. They have a free email account service called the G MAIL or Google Mail, aside from that they also have a lot of free services being offered like blogger.com for creating your own personal blog in the internet. All this free account is link within the Google system, if you lo-gin to one account then you can access another by configuring a few option without typing a username and password again and again. This setup is very useful if you’re going to jump from one account to another within Google.

Now how do we use our email account? Well we use it for personal communication and transaction over the internet, some sensitive information has also been stored in our email. Now is this free email account really secure? Well yes they are secure because if not, in the first place no one will use them if they are not secure. The first level of security for these email services is the password. Yup that all important passwords, the things that we always keep forgetting is not used frequently or we have already to many password to memorize. Also the user name we used in combination with the all important password, the more complex the password the more secure it or the longer the password the more secure it also. Now nobody can access your accounts if they not know the username and password. But wait what if those two important information has been stolen form you? You say what, how they got my information?

Image via Wikipedia

Well every heard of the term hacking and Phishing? Simply put it, theses terms means to get or acquire in this case sensitive personal information from one account. There are many ways on how to implement this technique. One is using software another is using link from email send to your email accounts from some one you though you know. Please click the link to see a more details and historical explanation for Phishing and for hacking. To cut it short, rather that securing your email account with just the username and password why not use another layer of security. Well this is where the Google 2-step authentication process comes in for all Google accounts users. This process although will take longer to access your G mail account is very important in keeping your account safe. It will add another layer of security. When we log-in to our email account the first thing that we do is we put the username and the password then we wait for the contents to display on our screen.

But with added feature security the second step for verification or authentication is it will send a code to your very own personal phone, via text or voice call. And you will encode the code on the box provided to verify that you’re the real owner of that account. After verifying the code is correct it will proceed in displaying the content of your G mail account. Also there is an option on the verification process that the computer that you are using can be remembered for 30 days. This feature allows the user to enter the verification only once within 30 days for the same computer. This is very helpful if you are using your own laptop or PC we don’t have to type in that code every time we log-in to our G mail account. This second layer of protection is also very handy while we access our G mail accounts from public computers.

Now the next questions are how do we activate this G mail verification process? To activate the process on your G mail account please click the link provided, it is the official blog for Google Email protection.  For other email service pleas check if they provide for free accounts.