Two pieces of legislation before the United States Congress are intended, according to its supporters, to prevent Internet piracy and protect freedom and American jobs. The Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are legislative responses to these threats. Unfortunately, rather than protecting intellectual property and jobs, they would in fact impose bad regulations on American businesses and censor the Internet as we know it.
The stated goal of these bills is to stop copyright infringement by foreign web sites. According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other groups representing the music and film industries, piracy is rampant and is negatively affecting their businesses. They claim the only way to protect American jobs and businesses is with these measures.
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According to an announcement on January 11, 2012, after more than seven years of planning, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has initiated a process that could trigger a dramatic expansion of the Internet. Starting on January 12, 2012, ICANN will accept applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This might sound like a great idea, but it could also be fraught with trouble.
ICANN is the organization that manages and controls the top level domains of the Internet. They are the ones who make sure that we have .com, .gov, .org, .edu and 18 other gTLDs. This new announcement intends to expand the top level domains to anything you want, including companies and famous brands. There is an application process and $185,000 fee to request a name, so not everyone will apply.
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The amount of personal information compromised through data breaches was on the rise in 2011. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, about 30 million records were compromised in 2011 in 535 separate breaches in the United States. That’s up from 12.3 million in 2010. The numbers are much larger when viewed globally.
Most people assume that hackers using sophisticated techniques are to blame for all the data breaches. In most cases it’s the simple things that trip up organizations. Some don’t encrypt information inside databases. This was the case with Sony. Sensitive information is accessible on the Internet because someone left a server wide open. This was the case with the Texas Comptroller. People don’t take care of backup tapes or laptops and someone may steal them from a car. That has happened all too often.
It’s important for anyone keeping sensitive data to encrypt it. All current databases have built-in encryption, but someone has to implement it. All sensitive documents should be encrypted using a persistent security policy so the author can control who can access them. And make sure you don’t leave the keys (literally and figuratively) out so that anyone can easily come into your organization and steal something valuable.
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Hopefully you ate all of your Thanksgiving holiday food and are ready to start your holiday shopping with a bang. Based on reports I read over the weekend, Black Friday was a great success for the brick and mortar stores in the US.
A lot of people started their shopping at midnight last Friday or got up to get in line for bargains at 4:00am. As for me, I slept in on Friday morning and spent a great day with my family and friends.
Today is Cyber Monday and I think it’s a little easier on the feet and constitution than Black Friday. I would rather go online and go after all the bargains, rather than waiting in line and fighting all the crazy people out there.
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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and I was reflecting on some of the things I’m thankful for when doing business everyday. Of course I’m thankful for the great people I work with, my family for putting up with me and for all the customers that I can help. But I’m also thankful all the technology I use.
Sometimes using technology can be a real headache, especially when something doesn’t work and you have a deadline in 5 minutes. But most of the time, I’m amazed at how well things work. I remember the old days before using a computer, but I can’t think how we actually got things done.
We all use technology to work and play and a lot of it has made life easier. In many ways it’s given me more time to do what matters in my business. Here are a few people and things I’m thankful for that make business easier.
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