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Viruses, spam, spyware and other malware cost small businesses billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, stolen identities and IT support costs.
What small businesses need to understand is that these gremlins are easy to avoid when common sense and some simple precautions are applied. And avoid is the key word; your strategy should be to stay as far away from these things in the first place so that you dont have to experience the lost time and cost associated with cleaning up the mess they leave.
So how can a small business avoid viruses, spam, and spyware?
The following is a list of 10 best practices for small businesses:
1. Use antivirus software that is automatically updated on all machines

2. Use a hosted spam filtering service that filters the spam before it ever makes it to your local network
3. Make sure employees know that you have a policy that work computers are only to be used for work purposes
4. Dont give your business email address to a non-business source
5. Dont forward jokes, chain mail, etc. to other employees
6. Never open an attachment from an unknown source
7. Never open an attachment with an unknown file extension
8. Dont download free toolbars, shopping assistants, weather bug, etc. on your work computer
9. Never give your information or download information from an unknown site
10. Never update banking or other sensitive personal information using a link sent to you via email ” always navigate directly to the site and log in there.
As you can see, most of these tips dont require you to buy anything or use any special technology. Viruses, spam and spyware prey on human nature ” curiosity, laziness, etc. ” to get past technology-based defences, so you must educate yourself and your employees to know what to avoid.
One last tip: if you do feel like you have a virus or something else attacking your computer, unplug it from your network immediately. The last thing you want to do is give it to everyone else in your office ” thats when things get really expensive.

Business Success Tips: Using New Technology To Help Improve Your Restaurant

We are living in an age of vast technological advances. Cars are parking themselves, sheeps are being cloned, and households can be controlled by a remote control. Your business needs to be updated with technology or you’ll be left behind. If you are in business, we have a suggestion for you to help put some pep in your step.

With all the great technologies being developed today, a business doesn’t need to spend a great amount of time on the basic operational and record-keeping needs. A point-of-sales system (POS) is a computer software and hardware network that can immediately record sales as they are occurring.

What an efficient Restaurant POS system can do for you

This advanced system affords a business “real time” updates of their inventory and better leverage in future business plans based on sales. Here’s what your business can benefit from using POS systems:

- Automatically record sales. You may have been wondering why there is a deviation from using books. Well this will not be a problem for long. A business cannot put a price on impeccably accurate sales tracking.

- Often a business will implement sales and other promotions to invite customer intrigue. This can cause you a whole year of headache if items, prices and dates are not accurately logged. POS systems can process these automatically, so the tracking and calculations will not become an area of confusion and frustration.

- A small to medium-sized business owner (or owners) may not be able to be present at all times. This can create high anxiety for the owner and disarray for the business. POS systems basically runs the inventory and sales tracking portion of the business for you at all times whether you are present or absent.

- For a small to medium-sized business owner with multiple locations, maintaining consistency can become a concern. Prices may or may not vary depending on location, but the number of customers and their demands usually will differ. Using a POS system will enable a business owner to keep track of multiple stores’ inventories and affords the possibility of accounting for meeting different demands and product.

- Along with the period of new technologies so is the hassle of having them all. Tools and devices that come separately can be costly and confusing; a progressive POS system will offer many business tools in one package.

- A good POS system will not only help track inventory and pricing, but will give more time for the owner and his staff to concentrate more towards the the business and customer needs, and generating revenue. Finding the root of a miscalculation and in remedying the problem can cause a great amount of time; this will not be an issue with a business that institutes a POS system.

It is deniable that our works and lives are more convenient and easier when using wireless. We can work anywhere and that is why wireless networks are becoming so popular. Especially if you have broadband Internet access, a wireless router can give you instant communication with the world.

Imagine you are sitting by the pool and enjoying chatting through the Internet. Or lounging in the Jacuzzi listening to your MP3 collection is appealing to us all. Unfortunately, many, or even most, wireless units don’t come with security features already functioning. This may not seem like a big issue to someone who is simply setting up a home network, but there are a number of potential problems you should consider.

Identity theft seems to be the most serious problem. If your network is unsecured, the personal data on your wireless electronic equipment is also unsecured. The order you just placed for a book at Amazon may have given your contact and payment information to an unscrupulous hacker! Nearly every town in which “WiFi” is common will have “War Drivers” and “War Chalkers” at work. These are people who walk or drive around town with wireless equipment, searching for unsecured networks. The “Chalkers” then live up their name, marking curbs and other public items with chalk so that others can more easily find and exploit your network.

In fact, not all “War Drivers” are hackers, of course. Many just want to use your network for free, but the risk is high if you don’t learn how to protect yourself. You can usually find quite a bit of free information as to how to secure your network at the website of your router’s manufacturer, or by doing a search in a search engine for a phrase like “secure home wireless.”

In addition, there are also your neighbors who may find your network by accident and enjoy nosing into your activities and using your Internet access at will, slowing down your network speed in the process.

Even many businesses use cheap, home-use quality equipment for their company networks. With the poor security often found on small business networks, anyone with a basic knowledge of wireless can access sensitive company and customer data.

It is highly recommended that you hire service companies to secure your network for you, or else you will have to bear with a risk of being exploited. A search of your local yellow pages or an inquiry at your neighborhood computer store should yield professional help and get your private data private again.