Posts for February 2012

Friday Donut tip: Google search tips

Every Friday afternoon we're going to bring you a great business IT tip. From nuggets of information that make repetitive tasks easier to simple ways to banish business technology annoyances, we’re here to help.

If there’s something you’d like help with, send an email to [email protected] or leave a comment on this post. We’ll try and cover it in a future IT Donut tip.

Google search tips to find what you need

There’s a reason Google is the world’s biggest search engine. And that’s because it’s pretty good at doing what it does. Most times, you can tap a few words into the Google homepage and it comes up trumps – no matter whether you want a dog on a skateboard or the UK’s population growth rate.

But sometimes, Google doesn’t perform. And that’s when knowing some Google search tips can reveal what you’re looking for.

Google search tips: use operators

One of the best ways to home in on the results you need is to start using operators. Entering these special codes into the Google search box tells Google how to restrict its search results. Here are some key operators:

• Putting quotation marks (“”) around a phrase means Google will only show results containing that exact phrase. This is a good way to find remove similar but irrelevant phrases from your results, or when you’re looking for something very specific, like a particular product.

Try it: search for “Illy espresso medium roast” to find a particular type of Illy coffee.

• Putting a minus sign (-) before a word means Google will only show results that don’t contain that word. This is useful when the term you’re searching for has several different meanings.

Try it: search for Illy -coffee to find about Illy the place or Illy the rapper.

• Putting a tilde (~) before a word means Google will also search for related terms. For instance, ~school might also search for pages containing words like college or university. This is really helpful when you need to broaden your search, but you don’t quite know which words to use.

Try it: look at the difference between results for coffee and ~coffee.

• Using site: lets you restrict search results to a particular website. Just enter site: followed by the address of the website, then enter your search terms. Google will only search pages on that particular website. It’s a lifesaver if you can’t find what you need on a website, but you know it’s there.

For instance, a search for income tax bands 2011-2012 using the HMRC website’s own search box returns no results (yes, really). But if you put the same search term into Google and restrict it to pages on the HMRC website, you can find exactly what you’re looking for.

(The exact phrase to enter into Google is: income tax bands 2011-2012 site:hmrc.gov.uk)

There are lots of other Google search operators you can experiment with. Read about them on Google’s help pages, or see this handy infographic. You can also use the advanced search page to access similar Google search tips without having to remember specific operators.

Leave a comment to share your favourite Google search tips or let us know if we’ve helped you.

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Survey reveals small business owners' optimism about 2012

Our recent survey attracted almost 700 respondents – all hoping to win a Dell Vostro laptop. Many congratulations to the lucky winner — Cyd Smith of C S Accounting Services in Tyne & Wear.

This was a competition with strings attached. We asked you to share your views on the current business climate and about your plans for 2012. And the results paint a very interesting picture.

Today’s small firms, it seems, have a positive outlook for 2012.

Top-line results reveal that almost half of small businesses think things will improve in 2012, one third are planning to invest in new job roles and cloud computing technology, the majority are planning to spend more on marketing and just three per cent expect to make redundancies this year.

But what’s fascinating is that small firms are doing this by themselves. They say that they don’t expect government help and most are not looking to borrow money from their banks.

Small business owners speak out

Let’s take a look at the results. The first thing to note is that 82 per cent of respondents describe themselves as SMEs or sole traders with a turnover of less than £2 million. Respondents are fairly evenly scattered from across the UK.

Crucially, most of our respondents (63 per cent) are owners, founders or managing directors. A further 22 per cent describe themselves as either directors or managers. So these findings come straight from the horse’s mouth.

A number of questions were designed to take the temperature of business confidence among small firms. And the results are encouraging. Only three per cent, for instance, say they expect to make redundancies this year. Ten per cent are unsure. But the vast majority — 87 per cent — do not expect to have to lay off staff.

Another positive indicator concerns marketing spend. 51 per cent of respondents expect to spend more on marketing in 2012. Just nine per cent plan to cut their marketing budgets.

Next we asked — “In general, how do you view the economic outlook for your business in 2012 compared to 2011?” Only 16 per cent think things will be worse. Almost half (48 per cent) think things will be better.

Support for small firms

The thorny question of support for small firms shows that entrepreneurs are determined to succeed, with or without help from government or the banks. Two-thirds of respondents (67 per cent) say they won’t be asking their banks for finance. And only five per cent plan to approach their banks for new funding this year.

What about government support? We asked respondents to choose the statement that best matched their view on government support. These are the results:

• 45 per cent agree that “we do not expect the government to support our business and sector in 2012”.
• 28 per cent agree that “government is unlikely to do enough to support our business and sector in 2012”.
• 22 per cent agree that “the government will do what it can in the current economic climate”.
• Just five per cent agree that “private businesses should work to offer support rather than the government”.

Investment plans

Small business owners are fairly cautious about recruiting new staff, although one third (34 per cent) say they are planning to invest in new job roles in 2012. More respondents, however, are sure that they will not be creating new positions (44 per cent).

The number of respondents planning to employ young people via training schemes, internships and apprenticeships is a little underwhelming. A fifth of respondents say they plan to take on new young recruits (21 per cent) but most are either unsure (12 per cent), considering it (24 per cent), or definitely not recruiting young people (43 per cent).

The majority of SME respondents (60 per cent) plan to invest in technology in 2012. And the message is loud and clear — cloud computing, virtualisation, outsourcing IT and mobile working are likely to get the lion’s share of investment.

Overseas expansion is less significant. The survey shows that 19 per cent of respondents are already trading overseas. But most respondents only trade in the UK and plan to keep it that way (62 per cent). Just nine per cent are planning to start trading overseas in 2012.

Optimism for 2012

Overall, this survey highlights a good deal of optimism among small businesses as they face the year ahead. We are planning to conduct another survey later in 2012. Please take the time to respond and help us to give UK small business owners a voice.

I need a new computer with Windows 98

My business provides IT support to its clients. And increasingly, IT support isn’t just technology support; it’s business support. That’s because using IT as a strategic asset can set your company apart from its competitors, bringing you more sales and boosting your profits.

That’s the mantra I stick by and use as the yardstick for all my conversations with clients. Good IT will result in good business.

Not quite a straightforward upgrade

So, you can imagine my surprise when a new enquiry came in from someone who said they needed to update their IT equipment. On the surface it was a straightforward job: new computers, a server and updated software.

However, it turned out not to be quite as simple as I first thought.

Things took an unexpected turn when this potential client told me that the new computers had to run Windows 98. Yes, Windows 98, which was released nearly 14 years ago. It’s so old that Microsoft even stopped providing support for it in 2006.

When I pressed them on this, the conversation went something like this:

Me: “Why do you need to run Windows 98?”

Potential customer: “Well, we have this invoicing software that was set up for us years ago.”

Me: “Ok...”

Potential customer: “The guy who set it up doesn’t work here anymore.”

Me: “I think I see where this is going.”

Potential customer: “It only works on Windows 98 computers. We have a Windows XP machine but that won’t run the software, and our Windows 98 machines are dropping like flies.”
Me [after thinking for a moment]: “I think the key issue here is to look at the software and sort it out first, rather than try to just keep Windows 98 running indefinitely.”

Bespoke software can cause problems

This business was facing is an issue I see all too often. That’s software, written or installed by an individual (not an off the shelf product) which is ‘bespoke’.

It’s great for the first year or two, while the person that installed it is around and able to help. But 15 years later (yes, they said they’ve been using it for about 15 years!) it becomes a problem because the installer or designer is no longer around.

My plan in this case is to check out the software properly before making any further suggestions. I guess it’s probably some kind of customised spreadsheet or perhaps a bespoke database.

However, the key point is that this software is hindering the company’s ability to use IT effectively. It’s stopping them from being efficient, productive and responsive to new orders.

The lesson for us all is clear. It’s vital to get advice from IT professionals who understand your business and its needs both now and in the future.

Technical people are fantastic. They can do magic things to fix software or resuscitate a dying PC. But it’s my experience that they often fail to consider the needs of your business. When you’re looking at a big investment in new software and equipment, they are far more important.

• What to ask when choosing an IT support company
• How to avoid problems with software developers
• Do you really need custom software?

Craig Sharp is MD of Abussi.

How hackers target your passwords

When you enter a gym’s locker room, there are hundreds of lockers. Each has its own combination lock. Without giving it too much thought, you open your locker using the combination only you know, which is the same combination you provided when you signed up at the gym.

Similarly, a password is a shared secret between a user and a service. When the user wants to connect to the service, they identify themselves with their username and prove that identity with the password.

The service checks the password. If it matches, the user is allowed to access the service.

We can think of the service as the locker, the username as the locker’s number and the password as the lock’s combination.

Problems occur, of course, if someone else has your combination. It could be that you use a very popular combination, or someone saw you using the same combination on your bag.

Alternatively, it could be that someone broke into the gym and saw the list of locks and combinations. Let’s take a look at these aspects in the virtual world.  

How hackers break your passwords

On the internet, some passwords are more common than others. Hackers use lists of the most common passwords to increase their chance of guessing a user’s password quickly. The hacker tools used to guess these passwords are called crackers. Two types of crackers exist - online and offline:

• Online crackers use trial and error to break into a service, testing different passwords until the right one is found. The speed at which they can test passwords is limited by the speed at which the service accepts and handles requests. In many cases, online crackers can only try a few passwords because most services lock accounts after a certain number of incorrect passwords have been entered.
• Offline crackers are used when passwords are stolen from an online service, but are stored in a digested format. This means the service stores a mathematical transformation of the password rather than the password itself – it’s an extra security precaution.  An offline cracker repeatedly chooses different passwords, transforms them to their digested format and compares them to the list. Offline crackers can run incredibly fast, depending on the power of the computer running the cracker.

To reduce the effectiveness of offline crackers, many services add a step to the process called salting. Using a salt, a different digest is created each time, even if the password is the same. So although salted passwords are not completely hack-proof, they’re much harder to guess.

How to secure passwords in your business

So, that’s how passwords get cracked. Now, how do you stop that happening to your business?

On an individual level, always use strong passwords – and don’t use the same password on different websites. Think about what information the password is protecting. You want a really strong one for your online banking, PayPal and other online services you consider sensitive.

Use a really strong password for your email too, as getting access here can allow a hacker to wreak havoc by resetting your passwords on lots of other sites.

In your business, it’s important to realise that you can’t trust your users to choose strong passwords themselves. If you give them the choice, they’ll simply choose weak passwords.  In fact, two years ago a database containing 32 million passwords was leaked to the web. Analysis of these passwords showed that 20% of users chose the same passwords from a pool of 5,000 words.

It’s up to you – or your IT administrator - to keep the passwords secure. Here’s how

• Enforce strong password policies. Force passwords to have a minimum length, ban common passwords and require a mix of characters (digits, letters, uppercase, lowercase, etc).
• Make sure passwords are not transmitted in the clear. Passwords are vulnerable to interception if they’re transmitted across networks or the internet. Always use encryption, or use a technique that ensures the password itself never travels through the network.
• Don’t store passwords in plain text. Doing so means that if a hacker breaks into your systems, they can just grab and make off with your passwords. Salt and digest a password before storing to the database.
• Detect and block brute force attacks. Put obstacles in the way to stop online crackers trying lots of different passwords for user accounts. Use CAPTCHAs and restrict the number of times people can retry their passwords.
• Force people to change passwords regularly. Many businesses require users to change passwords every couple of months, or when they suspect an account has been compromised.
• Allow and encourage passphrases instead of passwords. That means using sentences instead of passwords. Although that may be longer, they’re easier to remember. And because they’re longer, they’re more difficult to break.

Implementing many of these precautions will require help from your IT staff or IT supplier. But if you’re going to maintain the security of your systems and website, it’s vital you think carefully about enforcing a strong password policy.

• When did you last change your password?
• Five key website security checks
• Keeping your data safe

Noa Bar-Yosef is Senior Security Strategist at Imperva.

Information is the lifeblood of business, so why don't small companies protect it?

Information is the lifeblood of a business. Without it, everything else you need to make a business tick - like sales, customers or profit – stalls permanently. So making that information easily accessible is vital.

As it’s so important, you’d expect the information to be easily available to the people who need it, and protected from those who don’t. However, the reality is different: at last year’s IP Expo, 60% of people surveyed by my company City Lifeline said they had lost access to their company’s IT system following an unexpected incident. Oops.

In 40% of these cases systems were down for six hours or more, bringing the business to a halt for an entire working day. Just think of all the things your business uses IT for in just one day. Imagine not being able to access your email, check customer documents or view essential data.

Losing access to your data hurts your pocket too. Symantec’s 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey found that losing access to data and electronic communication systems costs small companies an average of £7,500 a day in lost business and productivity.

Prepare for the very worst

Unplanned downtime can stem from something as innocent as a workman cutting through a power cable or as sinister as a malicious cyber attack. Whatever the cause, they all have one thing in common: the element of surprise.

The best business owners not only prepare for the things that are going to happen, but also for things that could happen. “I didn’t know it was going to happen,” is not much of an excuse when faced with an angry customer or an office full of staff who can’t get their work done.

If your business’s information is adequately backed-up, the chances are good that your IT systems will be working by the end of the day. But if not, the consequences can be disastrous.  In a worst case scenario the lost data can never be recovered, and neither can the business.

Some research suggests up to 70% of small businesses that lose data in a major incident are forced to shut within a year. Yet the Symantec report mentioned above also shows that less than half of smaller businesses bother to back up data every week. A mere 23% take daily backups.

Risks are part of business, but...

Taking the odd risk is part and parcel of being in business, but risking the safety of your information is equivalent to cutting off your oxygen supply. Huge corporations often have the money, expertise and resources to escape from a tricky IT gaffe. Quite often, smaller businesses do not.

This vulnerability makes investing in off-site data backup vital. It only takes a one-off incident to disable access to your IT systems. And it only takes one major incident to cripple your business forever.

If you lack the time and resources to create a backup strategy from scratch, it may be worth working with an IT supplier which can store your data securely in a different location. Some suppliers operate or have space in colocation data centres, highly secure buildings specifically designed to keep your information safe. (The company I work for, City Lifeline, offers colocation services.)

Do your business justice by investing in your information in the same way you would invest in a new computer or member of staff. Your information is key to your company’s viability, so return the favour and look after it just as well.

• Continuity planning and backup options
• Find the right backup methods
• Five mistakes you may be making with your IT security

Roger Keenan is MD of City Lifeline.