Banning USB Flash Drives From The Workplace
September 28, 2008
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Over he last few years there has been an increase in the sales figures for USB flash drives.
Manufacturers now produce drives as small as a tie clip or a small keychain figurine.
You read that correctly – a computer storage device that you can wear as a tie accessory. In addition to the size becoming small, so too has the price, so many people can afford (or already own) them.
Because of their popularity, and the security issues they present, many workplaces are banning employees from using them at the office.
Using a USB drive is one of the easiest ways for a rogue employee to steal company information. Some companies have even gone so far as to disable the USB ports on all company computers that employees access.
While this might seem a little extreme, some companies feel they have to take these steps to protect their information. Some businesses have given USB drives to their employees for promotional purposes, but still have not allowed employees to use them within the company offices.
Because the drives come in many different shapes and designs, some businesses have decided it necessary to disable USB ports, since a supervisor might simply look at someone’s keychain and think that little attachment is cute. But that little attachment could ruin the entire company.
There are potentially a number of harmful effects that these USB drives can have on a company’s business, through the theft of company documents and information.
Even if employees were only using their USB drives for approved company business, what happens if they keep the drive in their purse or on a key chain, and then lose it? All of the information would be lost and available to anyone who finds or steals the flash drive. In a sense, carrying around a flash drive is just like carrying around your social security number or birth certificate. If you lose it, you are vulnerable to fraud.
For most people, USB flash drives are a convenience that have allowed the easy transfer of files between computers, and cheap portable storage. They can also be valuable as a means of backup, in the event you lose information due to a virus or hardware failure. Given the increasing capacity and decreasing prices of the drives, it’s easy to see why this is an attractive solution.
Admittedly, businesses that ban or restrict the use of the flash drives are sending a bit of a mixed message. Judicious use of USB flash drives can make it vastly easier for an employee to conduct company business during travels.
For example, employees can make presentations using files on the flash drive, and rather than carrying along a laptop with a lot of company information, they just take the flash drive with only the files they need.
USB flash drive technology continues to evolve, however. Some drives are now including on-board encryption, and other security measures, including biometric (fingerprint) security. It remains to be seen whether this will lead to a change in attitude or policy at those companies that have taken a restrictive view of USB flash drives in the workplace.
An Abundance of Pyramid Schemes
September 18, 2008
Have you ever wished that you could do away with the hassle of commuting and office politics and work from home using your computer? You might be a candidate for that type of career choice, but you should be aware of some important issues before you jump in head first.
Not every company or job-related website contains only legitimate offers, and increasing numbers of people have become frustrated after learning that they are actually asked to pay money just to start working online.
And the solicitations you receive in your email inbox tend to arrive quickly, but the money just never appears. Keep in mind that you should never be asked to pay for the privilege of working online. Additionally, you should be paid promptly for the work you do.
One recurring problem that always seems to be showing its ugly head is the pyramid scheme.
For example, you might receive an email invitation to join a particular program free of charge, and then have the opportunity to earn money from individuals who you sign up. This sounds like a great and easy way to make money.
In truth, for most people it turns out to be a nightmare. After you sign up, you’ll have to take some further action like “upgrade to a gold member” (or something similar) by buying certain products or books, regardless of whether you want or need them, and whether or not the products are actually good ones.
Once you buy the products, you are instructed you can now make money from those people who are under you in the set-up, but only once those individuals buy the products themselves. Now you’re in the midst of the “scheme” part of the pyramid scheme.
So, to make back twenty dollars, you might have to spend sixty or eighty dollars. And you might not even make back those twenty dollars, since there is no guarantee that anyone under you in the structure is going to buy anything.
So it seems like there are two choices: you could simply wait until your pyramid scheme disintegrates and you’ll learn a costly (but perhaps valuable) lesson, or you could stay away from the scheme entirely, and save your efforts for a legitimate way to earn money.
Yes, you can find jobs that will let you work from home!
There are companies out there which pay for the kinds of work you can do at home; you just have to know how to find them, and how to tell if those companies are on the level. One thing to remember is that legitimate companies already have people working for them, and you’ll be able to find a number of people who’ve had good experiences with that particular company.
With a little bit of searching, you’ll be able to find websites that give details and information about companies that offer genuine work at home opportunities.
Your first line of defense, however, should be to keep in mind the old adage that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. And if it’s so easy to make money, why isn’t everyone doing it?
The advertisements you see and the emails you receive, all touting the newest get rich plan, are not going to contain all of the details or “fine print”. In fact, sometimes, after you sign up, you’ll receive additional emails or correspondence informing you when others are joining “under you”.
This information, even it it’s true, is the tease to try to get you to “upgrade” by buying the products they’re trying to sell. Remember that you’ll have to be counting on other people to buy as well before you’ll see any money.
Armed with this knowledge, it should be relatively easy to spot (and avoid!) these types of pyramid schemes.
If you look at programs that don’t promise lots of money for little or no work, then you’re much more likely to find legitimate opportunities for working at home.
Finding Your Perfect Work (Working from Home)
A Look At What Caused Skype To Shut Down
September 2, 2008
Skype has become one of the most popular and widely used communications services on the Internet. Individuals who have Skype accounts can “call” other users over the Internet, and actually talk to one another out loud using standard microphones plugged into their computers.
Skype(TM): The Definitive Guide
For a small fee, traditional telephone calls from standard landlines can be received and routed to a Skype user through their Skype account. The toll rates for traditional calls through Skype are generally much cheaper than the rates for standard calls, and computer-to-computer calls between Skype users are free.
This pricing structure is one of the things that has made Skype especially popular. However, in 2007 (August 16 and 17, to be exact), Skype was forced to temporarily shut its service down due to a system crash. This article gives a brief look at what caused the system to shut down.
One of the most significant factors that lead to the crash was a security update that occurred on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Microsoft periodically sends security updates to Windows users, and for many users the update process runs in the background, so that users are sometimes unaware when an update occurs.
In order for the security updates to be fully installed and operational on Windows, the user needs to restart their computer. According to some reports that came out of Skype, there was an unusually high amount of Internet traffic on the days in question and it seemed that nearly all of their users were rebooting their computers at approximately the same time, and then attempting to log into the Skype service. This rush of activity is certainly a key factor in understanding what caused Skype to shut down.
Another related issue in explaining what caused Skype to shut down was the fact that there was certain code in the underlying Skype program, and the particular code was written in such a way as to cause Skype to shut down when it detected an excessive amount of activity. It’s not entirely clear how this coding error made its way into the software product, but almost immediately after it was discovered, Skype took steps to remedy the error so that a similar system crash wouldn’t happen again.
To be precise, Skype described the error that caused the system failure as being a “deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software.” The algorithm was explained to be an interaction that facilitated a connection between the Skype network and the client that the individual Skype user has to connect with. Given the outcome (that being the system-wide outage), some commentators have stated that Skype was simply unprepared for this particular type of error.
There are several other factors that contribute to the cause of the Skype shutdown. One of the more significant issues is the sheer number of users that have begun using Skype in recent years. The additional load on the Skype servers and infrastructure would have made it much more likely that any coding error or other latent problem would eventually be exposed, with significant results.
Just how popular has Skype become in recent years? During the first part 2006, there were under 100,000,000 Skype user accounts (in the U.S. and worldwide). Fast forward to July 2007, and that number has more than doubled, with more than 220,000,000 users worldwide.
On average, there are roughly 9,000,000 users logged into the service at any given time. With those kinds of usage numbers, and the bandwidth and infrastructure costs that go along with them, it’s easy to see how the success of the service itself could have led to the system outage.
For now, it appears that Skype has fixed all of the original coding issues that led to the system outage. They are certainly working hard to make sure that a similar outage does not happen again.
