Archive for the ‘Best Practices’ Category

Executives-be sure your CPA saw this article

One of my best clients, a CPA firm, forwarded a quick article from the AICPA—American Institute of CPA’s—called “Four Fast and Easy Tech Fixes.” Be sure your CPA sees it.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Technology on March 3rd, 2010.

Tags: professionals, read, recommendations

Two crucial pieces of advice for executives

My wife and I were traveling a little over a week ago when we got a phone call that one of our immediate relatives dropped dead from a heart attack. He was standing in line at the pharmacy to get medicine his doctor just prescribed for “heart burn” and collapsed, unconscious, and his heart was no longer pumping blood. Simply put: he died.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on February 24th, 2010.

Tags: danger, IT security procedures, recommendations

How much should IT security cost in 2010?

Often, after a company has an IT security breach, IT professionals blame the breach on their limited IT budget. They cannot replace a 12 year old desktop, much less focus on upgrading their old corporate anti-virus package from the 2006 version.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on February 17th, 2010.

Tags: IT Security, Keep Your Network Safe, Relating to IT Professionals

Is IT security pushed to the back burner?

Due to a number of problems in organizations, IT security too often gets pushed to the back burner. After a breach happens, IT often blames management, and management often blames IT. A wise friend told me many times, “It is not about fixing the blame; it is about fixing the problem.”

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on February 10th, 2010.

Tags: computer security, IT Security, professionals, Working With IT People

Online safety not a priority for families?

I’m having a revelation in my career—home users care more about other issues than they care about IT security. Can this be true?

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on January 27th, 2010.

Tags: computer security, protect, recommendations, secure

Banks suggest you dedicate one PC for online banking

USA Today reports that the American Bankers Association (ABA) recommends small and mid-sized businesses dedicate a computer to use only for online banking, and avoid using any other computers for online banking. While this may sound good, it can create headaches in practice.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Save time, Technology on January 20th, 2010.

Tags: computer security, network security, professionals, recommendations

When you outsource IT, stop paying them by the hour!

To help ensure your IT projects are finished on time and in budget, pay IT outsourcing a flat fee. Do you realize that when you pay outsourced IT companies by the hour, unless you put some other restraints in place, you basically reward them for taking longer?

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices on January 13th, 2010.

Tags: professionals, recommendations, Working With IT People

How to know if your IT professionals are good

Executives often want me to answer the question, “How good are my IT professionals” be they in-house employees or outsourced IT professionals. The first thing I say is, “If the IT professional is like a knight in shining armor, riding his horse in to save the day every time there is a problem, that’s not the best situation at all.”

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Save time on January 6th, 2010.

Tags: IT Network Teams, Managing IT Professionals, recommendations, Working With IT People

Pros and cons of “In the cloud” computing

A client wrote me recently asking about a plain English explanation of what the term “in the cloud” is all about and the pros and cons. They are probably using some services “in the cloud” already and don’t realize it.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Technology on December 30th, 2009.

Tags: computer security, Internet, professionals

Are your employees still using single monitors?

Microsoft’s research shows that worker productivity increases from 9% to 50%: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, Save time, Technology on December 23rd, 2009.