MFP Copier Blog

In many ways, the war between hackers and victims has moved into a more farcical position in the past few years, with fraudsters finding ways to break into the most heavily guarded and protected systems, stealing information and causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage around the globe each year. Some researchers have forecast the total number of financial losses to breach the $1 trillion mark within the very near future, and the fact that the public and private sectors have not yet started to slow the spread is disheartening at best.

Now, before diving into the darkly humorous aspects of the modern cybercrime arena, it is important to point out that there will always be hackers who target well-protected systems and are so sophisticated that they achieve the breach regardless of what defenses are in place. As many experts have long asserted, there is no silver bullet in the cyber security arena, just ways to minimize risk and mitigate threats as proactively and comprehensively as possible.

On the flip side of that coin, though, sophisticated attackers that can break encryption or takeover systems in military departments of governments are few and far between. In many ways, the average business owner should not even concern themselves with those types of attacks simply because the more common and likely threats are far more dangerous and voluminous, and will absolutely challenge the company's mettle soon if they have not already.

The vast majority of data breaches have been tied back to missteps taken by employees or negligence on behalf of decision-makers, while a high rate are also caused by malware that could be avoided altogether with the right type of training and security investment. At the end of the day, those companies that have the most sound protective practices in place, such as email encryption, data center controls and network defenses, will often be able to stay completely outside the purview of the common hacker.
Now, if anyone needed more evidence that the cyber war has become a farce, here is another example of how serious matters have become, and just how unprepared some of the most prestigious entities in the world remain.

Iron Dome Blunder
Brian Krebs, writing for his blog KrebsonSecurity, recently reported that the Iron Dome defense system that is used by Israel to protect itself from missile attacks has been hacked. Yes, one of the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world - and one that is relied upon to protect the millions of citizens within Israel's borders - was breached.
According to the expert, the attacks, which are just beginning to hit the presses now following a study from a threat intelligence company, are believed to have taken place back in 2011 and 2012, while those who conducted the report affirmed that the thieves likely originated in China. Right now, officials are in agreement that three defense contractors involved in managing and controlling the Iron Dome system were victimized, while the attackers stole proprietary information.

The same old targets were found to be present in the investigation, and Krebs stated that the intelligence firm's authors believe the hackers were using relatively simple tactics to break into Word documents, emails, spread sheets and more.

"Once the actors established a foothold in the victim's network, they are usually able to compromise local and domain privileged accounts, which then allow them to move laterally on the network and infect additional systems," the authors explained, according to Krebs. "The actors acquire the credentials of the local administrator accounts by using hash dumping tools. They can also use common local administrator account credentials to infect other systems with Trojans. They may also run hash dumping tools on Domain Controllers, which compromises most if not all of the password hashes being used in the network. The actors can also deploy keystroke loggers on user systems, which captured passwords to other non-Windows devices on the network."

In Krebs' story on this matter, other common outcomes were found to be involved, such as the contractors and Israeli officials pointing fingers at one another, and a serious breach not being detected for years.

Lesson learned, yet?
Although the average business owner or health care organization decision-maker might not be all that interested in weapons defense systems, the point to take away from this story is that even the most sensitive and sophisticated technologies continue to be hacked unnecessarily. As Krebs had noted, much of the information was stolen through email accounts and file sharing systems, which are not all that difficult to defend against less-sophisticated attacks such as this one.

The time is now to begin using email encryption, data security and other defenses, while boosting training and awareness among staff members can have a positive impact as well.

David Bailey is Senior Vice President at Protected Trust. 

Protected Trust is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel. I urge members and readers to visit their site to see their full line of products and services.  More and more we need to provide well rounded strategic solutions for our customers. Protected Trust offers some unique solutions that can help us in our day to day efforts. Check them out here.

Shares of stock in Google, Inc. begin trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange at around $100 per share in one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings of the year. It is estimated that the IPO raised a total of $1.66 billion, the third highest ever for an IPO.

Nothing fancy from me this week.  Posted below is all of the awesome threads from ten years ago!  Enjoy

ricoh 2035eSP

          8/13/04 12:53 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          has anyone had troubles with the finishers on these new out of the box? i've got one that won't take a duplex copy through the finisher. is there a mode or an update that i don't have that would fix it?

 

Ricoh Aficio 4006 Transfer Belt Trouble

          8/16/04 12:20 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          The transport belt keeps running forward, I have changed the belt cleaned the rollers etc any ideas? I am running out of hair!!

 

RE: Document Server vs Canon's Mailboxes

          8/13/04 7:15 PM

 

          Reply by jswinberlin

          If all goes well, I have attached a document that I found here earlier showing what Canon is saying about Ricoh's Document Server. However, this looks like old info because they say the Document server is only available on the 1022 with the addition of a

 

RE: Ricoh Wide Format Marketing

          8/17/04 8:01 AM

 

          Reply by Color1

          dealer.  It doesn't matter that this guy already has Xerox and Oce.  John, you are right on the money all Ricoh cares about is moving boxes.  One thing they had better consider is the image after the sell.  I had the opportunity to sell a machine to someone

 

Copiers Need Security, Too

          8/17/04 8:16 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Sharp and Xerox offer functions to electronically "shred" data stored on copier hard disks after copy jobs are complete. Other features that are available are firewalls and security options between fax and networking functions, improved auditing of user

 

RE: ricoh 2035eSP

          8/16/04 7:58 PM

 

          Reply by Ted

          We've had 3 880's go bad.  We tried to fix them, Ricoh came in and got involved, and they say they don't know what is wrong, no fix available.  They ended uup shipping us 3 new finishers as replacements.  They were not ordered at the same time, over a

 

RE: Firmware Issues That Need To Be Resolved

          8/18/04 6:51 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          company into the red in a very short period of time. As for the Memory Card Explorer for XP 1.00 issue: I can't help you there. It loaded up just fine on my Dell Laptops. I did hear from Ricoh that this software doesn't work right with some computers

 

RE: Firmware Issues That Need To Be Resolved

          8/18/04 8:06 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          , "Z" is only needed to reinsert the s/n in an memory cleared machine. I read all the "readme"s first before I upgrade any firmware. As to Ricohs Explorer program, in some cases, expecially on laptops, you need to modily the memory area so the program can

 

RE: Firmware Issues That Need To Be Resolved

          8/18/04 9:22 PM

 

          Reply by John Roof

          Paducah is about the size of 100,000 but unfortunately we also have a Gestetner dealer, a Lanier Dealer, and we are both Ricoh & Savin.  As for the SM being literate, I know he has been servicing copiers for the last 20 years, but he is better at analog

 

HELP with ZFOLD

          8/18/04 7:29 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

Ricoh say's officially the z-fold option and 3 hole punch can not be used together but unofficially they say that it can. They say the problem is that there may be some variance on the 3 hole punch when z-folding. I need this function for an application

 

RE: Posting Current Rates

          8/11/04 6:36 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          I think its a good idea, just to keep everyone sharp. I am sure the leasing companies do not want to see thier rate sheets posted. Lets keep it to a format like this with no attachments. How bout everyone else?

 

RE: Posting Current Rates

          8/12/04 8:08 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          I am still fairly new to P4P, is this site strictly for independent Ricoh dealers or is it comprised of Savin, Ikon etc?

 

RE: Posting Current Rates

          8/12/04 9:02 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Wes: This site is comprised of all Ricoh Family Group members from around the world. Lanier, RBS, IKON, Independent Ricoh, Nashuatec, Gestetner, Savin, etc........ I am with an independent Ricoh dealer.

 

RE: What the deal withthe new faxes?

          8/13/04 8:37 PM

 

          Reply by Deanw

          The Ricoh 1170L has the same feature set as the Samsung 560. We have been selling the Samsung 560 for a while. It's an okay fax but two problems are - toner yield - samsung says 3k but it doesn't get anywhere near that (ricoh says 4500 - I wonder about

 

RE: Type 2018 Fax problems

          8/14/04 1:39 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

Ricoh just issued a bulletin (B620-003) detailing this problem. Symtoms include Black stripes when imagi is rotated; Fax option not detected and/or SC820. An IC on the FCU is to blame. Replace the FCU.

 

RE: What the deal withthe new faxes?

          8/16/04 10:31 PM

 

          Reply by John Roof

          Word is that Ricoh is putting their label on Brother products and selling them for twice the price of what Brother is.  The new faxes look similar to the Brother 4100 series on the SOHO market.  I'm used to seeing the Function Key or User Tools for setup

 

RE: 240W User Poll

          8/17/04 11:36 PM

 

          Reply by v-tec

          by the fuser lamp cycling on and off. Xerox 2510 series were louder, and would make florescence lights flicker

 

RE: What the deal withthe new faxes?

          8/18/04 6:29 PM

 

          Reply by jswinberlin

          the cause.  Maybe dual access or memory although the Samsungs have 2MB and the Ricoh's I believe a little more.  We're going to try one of the Ricoh's and put it side by side with the Samsung.  Another problem with the Samsungs is multi-page feeding.

 

-=Good Selling=-

For someone like me, who has been a copier geek for all of my copier career, the insight I received the other day from Steve Behm, Vice President Sales, Americas, about the pending upgrade of DocuWare 6.6 was awesome. 

As many of you may know, I’m a big fan of when Dealers can diversify their “click” portfolio by adding products and services.  Partnering with DocuWare is a tremendous way to kick-start your Professional Services Portfolio with the DocuWare platform.

Thus, I’d like to walk you through 5 really cool new features for DocuWare 6.6.

1. Released earlier this year, their 6.5 was the first version of a remodeled look of DocuWare.  6.6 now with a more intuitive interface, adds new features that end users are looking for such as quick searches and saved searches along with continued integration with various business lines of software.
2. Native EML support, even for Google mail. 
3. Full integration with MS Outlook for storing email – lets you easily locate any email you ever sent or received.
4. Enhancing their Intelligent Indexing Service which increases performance, think of it as “intelligent data capture” DocuWare can capture the variable pieces of data, and supply that to business lines of applications.
5. A high performance interface graphical interface lets the user develop their own simple to complex workflows for routing and stamping documents.

Steve and I talked more about additional features:

What is the Paper Scan App?

PaperScan which was already available for iPhone is now available for Android. The App makes it seamless to use a smartphone for mobile scanning. For example, while at a restaurant, you can take a picture of your receipt, upload to DocuWare to quickly process your expenses, and toss the receipt. No need to keep the paper copy.

All of us need to remember that DocuWare is not just for scanning documents, but also for creating workflows that can enhance a business process. An easy to use interface lets you modify them as needed.

DocuWare will also allow you to search and print documents at the MFP. This is an awesome feature that resonates with all us that are still selling imaging equipment!

While I’m not an expert with Document Management Platforms, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  Need to know more about Docuware, then pay them a visit here.

-=Good Selling=-

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 has been anything but static, as regulators have pushed to keep this piece of legislation relevant to the threats of the current and forthcoming marketplaces. Medical organizations have often faced an uphill battle when trying to manage all of the requirements involved in HIPAA, but this is largely an achievable initiative when decision-makers are making sound choices by way of policy, support and guidance.

Some examples of recent changes include the Omnibus Rule that governs the interactions between service providers and health care companies, while amendments can quickly force covered entities into a tough spot. The regulations as they stand today are very comprehensive, and might be the tightest of all with respect to data management governance coming from the government.

Rather than trying to handle all of the various complexities within HIPAA without any type of support, organizations are increasingly turning to managed service providers - especially those from which they get IT solutions - to meet and sustain compliance with the evolving regulations. Additionally, HIPAA is not the only set of statutes that health care providers must oblige, as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 also contains some challenging requirements.

Failure to comply with these and other statutes can result in significant issues, ranging from crippling fines and sanctions to severely damaged reputations in the eyes of current and future patients. The costs of protecting patient data through HIPAA email and data center security services, as well as general compliance support, will almost always be far lower than the price of being called out for noncompliance or, even worse, falling victim to a major breach.

OCR's new plans
McDermott, Will and Emery recently published a statement that explained how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for HIPAA audits, will be moving past Phase 1 and toward Phase 2 in the coming months,. Whereas the Phase 1 audit stage only involve compliance checks for covered entities, the law firm stated that this next line of investigation will look at both health care providers and their business associates.

The results of the first line of audits conducted last year were less than desirable from the health care provider's perspective, with 89 percent of the 115 entities reviewed having at least one problem with respect to compliance. The authors of the study also noted that while health care providers represented roughly 53 percent of all companies investigated, they accounted for a disproportionate rate of the violations.

Whereas one might think that Phase 2 is still plenty of time away, this is simply not the case, as it will begin soon. Additionally, the OCR has already announced the basics of its plan to get these audits underway and completed in a timely fashion.

"OCR has randomly selected a pool of 550–800 covered entities through the National Provider Identifier database and America's Health Insurance Plans' databases of health plans and health care clearinghouses," McDermott, Will and Emery explained. "OCR will issue a mandatory pre-audit screening survey to the pool of covered entities this summer. The survey will address organization size measures, location, services and contact information. Based on the responses, the agency will select approximately 350 covered entities, including 232 health care providers, 109 health plans and 9 health care clearinghouses, for Phase 2 Audits. OCR intends to select a wide range of covered entities and will conduct the audits between October 2014 and June 2015."

Considerations for the coming months
Health care providers should not allow themselves to become frozen and concerned about the Phase 2 audits, but must rather take a proactive and comprehensive approach to eradicating infractions before they become an issue. One of the best areas to begin internal investigations is the system in place that governs and manages communications and data within the corporate framework.

Health care providers need to remember that all types of communications and technologies used to share, generate and control data will be covered under HIPAA by definition, and these items can be a bit trickier to gain a full handle on when the entity falls behind the curve. These include everything from emails and file transfer systems to Voice over Internet Protocol phone systems and personally owned devices that are used for work purposes.

In many ways, health care providers that already have tight, centrally managed frameworks in place will not have much of an issue preparing for the next round of audits, but now is the right time to conduct internal investigations to be sure that all matters have been reconciled.

By partnering with an expert provider of solutions such as HIPAA email tools and data center management services, medical organizations will be in the clear.

David Bailey is Senior Vice President at Protected Trust. 

Protected Trust is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel. I urge members and readers to visit their site to see their full line of products and services.  More and more we need to provide well rounded strategic solutions for our customers. Protected Trust offers some unique solutions that can help us in our day to day efforts. Check them out here.

-=Good Selling=-

I'm going to Baltimore again this year for BTA East Annual Grand Slam Event! 

I'll be bringing the wife along again this year, since it's a rather short ride from Central New Jersey.  We'll be driving in Saturday morning and we'll look to relax get ready for an exciting of day baseball because the NY Yankees will be playing the Orioles at 1:05PM.  Can't wait to tell the wife, she'll be so excited to see her Yankees!

The real event starts on Monday at noon, and I'm positive that this years event will be just as awesome as last years. 

I'm looking forward to these Educational Sessions:

The Shifting Office Technology Industry
Robert Palmer, chief analyst, BPO Research, and managing partner, BPO Media

3D — The New Wild West of Printing
Mark Mathews, president, Airwolf3D

Benchmarked Sales & The Future of Selling Excellence
Steve Rolla, partner, Pros Elite Group

Five New Ideas Using Technology to Secure Net New C-Level Meetings
Kate Kingston, founder and president, Kingston Training Group (KTG)

Service Delivery Structure: What Works & Why?
Ken Staubitz, national sales manager, BEI Services

I'm also excited about the opportunity to network with many of the vendors, the speakers, and the dealers.  The BTA events are the best of class for many reasons. But, what I like best is the format that they use.

The event is held in one large room with tables across the center for attendees. In the front of the room is where you'll hear from the speakers and then around the walls is where all of vendors will show their stuff!  It's 45 minutes or so of sessions and then a 30 minute break (gosh I love those breaks) between each session.

Thus, if you've got some time, I recommend you attend the event for the awesome Educational Sessions, the networking, the Vendors, the Door Prizes and then take in the Orioles game for Tuesday night.

Hope to see many of you there!! Click here to register or view details!

-=Good Selling=-

Scientists speaking at a news conference on natural disasters raise the alarm that the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, Canary Islands, could erupt at any time, sending a 250 km². rock crashing into the Atlantic Ocean and producing a tsunami that could devastate the Atlantic's coastline, within hours. Very little seismological monitoring of the volcano is being carried out.

Note from Art:  Hmm, 10 years later and nothing, glad I didn't pack the bags! 

Document Server vs Canon's Mailboxes

          8/5/04 5:35 PM

 

          Topic by Old Glory

          I'm curious how others are illustrating the differences between Ricoh's Document Server and Canon's Mailbox. It would be great if we could get responses from reps that lean more to Canon as well as those who are Ricoh competing with Canon.

 

Ricoh ft-4415

          8/6/04 10:28 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Getting light copies. If I add toner manually it will get dark for a few copies. The toner motor is actually moving. I think the toner motor is bad. I just wanted to know if there's anything else that would cause this. What are the quirks of this...

 

Done Deal, Ricoh buys Hitachi Printing Division!

          8/9/04 6:47 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Ricoh to buy Hitachi printing unit Monday August 9, 1:56 pm ET NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Ricoh Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:7752.T - News), Japan's second largest office machine maker, on Monday said it has agreed to buy a printing unit of Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo

 

Canon U.S.A. Launches The DR-3080cii,

          8/3/04 9:16 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

Canon U.S.A. Launches The DR-3080cii, Next Generation High-Speed, Color Duplex Scanner Built Upon Powerful DR-3080C Legacy, New Compact Desktop Unit Now Offers Duplex Color Scanning and USB 2.0/SCSI III Interfaces for Increased Connectivity LAKE SUCCESS

 

Used Xerox Systems

          8/4/04 9:18 PM

 

          Topic by Color1

          Since the new digital 240W has been launched I have had a couple of instances where they were also considering a Xerox system in the $15,000 range.  Does anyone have any idea of which model this may be?  Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

bmops

p4p newbie

 

Aficio 1015/1113...SP simulation codes?

          8/5/04 7:29 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

 

 

Industry Analysts Report on 2238 v IR3200

          8/6/04 7:23 PM

 

          Topic by Boston Mike

CanoniR3200w/fiery vs Ricoh 2238C Document (August 2004)

 

RE: Kyocera KM2030 vs Aficio 2018

          8/2/04 8:50 AM

 

          Reply by merlin

          AS A RICOH/KYOCERA SALESMAN, THE KM2030 IS NOT A GOOD MACHINE. IT'S HARD TO USED BECAUSE OF NO TOUCH PANEL, SLOW DUPLEX, VERY POOR INTERNAL FINISHER. IN THE 3 YEARS WE HAVE BEEN SELLING KM I ONLY HAVE SOLD 3.I STEER MY CUSTOMERS AWAY FROM THE 2030. I CAN

 

RE: 2238 Color Toner Yields

          8/2/04 8:54 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          G'Day all. You will get your yield based on the figures given by Ricoh. However it is important to understand the issues with coverage. Also bear in mind that coverage to useage are not proportional. A square block of colour on a page 100x100=1000, if

 

RE: Scanning documents

          8/3/04 12:57 PM

 

          Reply by Neal

          sounds like an auto dealership? we've dealt with one trying to use our systems. no luck. depending their volumes you'd be able to place one of the Ricoh scanners to do the job.

 

RE: Scanning documents

          8/3/04 9:57 PM

 

          Reply by v-tec

          Even the Ricoh scanners only go up to 11x17.

 

RE: toshiba sc 2 controller new in box

          8/3/04 11:41 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Gregg - you had posted awhile ago about Minolta toner. I need some for a DI250. Please call me at 812-424-5736 or bsipes@vanausdall.com. thanks Brad Sipes

 

RE: Scanning documents

          8/4/04 12:58 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Thanks for the input.  It looks like Canon makes a scanner that will handle this.

 

RE: bluetooth printing

          8/5/04 10:08 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          there is software from Ricoh for our Bluetooth card. Making it print would be just like any other, select print, and go. Can anyone else clarify and add? Thanx

 

RE: New 31 PPM color

          8/5/04 10:27 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          I have been putting the new 3131 through it's paces and have shown to several customers. Overall print quality is excellent - different from 6513 but obviously true 8 bit color. Should be a good fit to compete with Canon 1180 - ie. good print quality

 

RE: eCabinet ppt overview for show

          8/6/04 5:10 PM

 

          Reply by dmurrah

          Art, Attached is a presentation we used to win a deal here in Memphis for ecabinet, Doculex and ricoh scanners. This document has been archived, please send me an email in order to purchase. art@p4photel.com Future.Electronics_Presentation_Final.ppt

 

bluetooth printing

          8/5/04 7:56 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          This new customer has no real network. So our salesman get the great idea to sell them a bluetooth option for their new Aficio 2232. This is my first experience with bluetooth and I can't find much documentation on it from Ricoh. I know the customer has

 

Could be the start of something BIG w/KYO

          8/5/04 8:37 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          throughout an organization so that content can be put to work quickly and efficiently, said Michael Pietrunti, senior vice president, marketing and technical services for Kyocera Mita America. This initiative will allow us to continue our rapid U.S. growth

 

US Sales down 1.4%, is Salereno on the Hot Seat?

          8/9/04 6:51 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Japan Ricoh Q1 to June net profit up 11 pct on strong printer, copier sales , 08.03.04, 9:53 AM ET TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Ricoh Co Ltd, Japan's second-largest maker of office equipment, reported its first quarter to June net profit rose 11 pct to 24.8 bln

 

New e-STUDIOtm230 And e-STUDIO280

          8/1/04 10:34 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. Offers Advanced Features And Impressive Image Quality In New e-STUDIOtm230 And e-STUDIO280 New Multifunction Devices Are TABS First To Offer 100 Percent Toner Recycling IRVINE, Calif., (July 28, 2004)  Toshiba

 

Monster garage video

          8/2/04 5:54 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Hi, when i start streaming the video, it starts off fine with Ricoh in the lead, but then suddenly the video ends, before the first test is over. Anyone got the full length video for me? I laughed my ass off, would really appreciate if anyone could give

 

MFP Product of the Year

          8/4/04 4:21 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          platforms, and reiterates Ricohs ability to provide both high performance and efficient products that meet the demands of todays workplace, said Hede Nonaka, vice president of Marketing for Ricoh. We would especially like to thank Frank Cannata and the

 

RE: Leads in California

          8/5/04 7:25 AM

 

          Reply by Boston Mike

          a Series C round of funding led by WK Technology Fund OPPORTUNITIES company expected to make purchases to support... - accelerating engineering, sales and marketing efforts potential opportunity to provide - sales training programs - software and systems

 

RE: Used Xerox Systems

          8/5/04 9:04 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          It's the refurbished 8830, I have seen them here in Jersey. I have kicked butt every single time. Xerox maintenance is out of whack, and they are talking six weeks for delivery after the order is signed. Do a search on the 8830 here. I have posted the

 

RE: Used Xerox Systems

          8/5/04 10:41 PM

 

          Reply by v-tec

Xerox service and parts are very high.

 

RE: Smartnet monitor password

          8/6/04 10:01 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Thanks for the reply Bob. That is the info I have relayed to the customer. However, I know the reset method of which you speak and it is the long way around. This from Ricoh "One of the easiest ways to reset the NIB / NIC of your MFP or printer is to use

 

RE: Booklet Finisher

          8/8/04 5:26 AM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Depends what machine and how much money you want to spend. You could use a Ricoh box with an SR90 booklet maker. This will do exactly as you want. Otherwise you're stuck. As well as being a firmware limitation you'll also find you need to staple as the

 

-=Good Selling=-

 

Boardroom executives have had to be exceptionally agile when developing and releasing new forms of security controls for their information technology and communications frameworks, especially as the frequency of damage associated with breaches continue to rise. Although data center security and network protection have become the two most commonly discussed matters in these conversations, email, text messaging and other direct communications must be covered as well.

There has been a wealth of major security breaches that were immediately traced back to errant emails containing sensitive information, especially in the health care and government sectors, while securing these communications is not all that hard. Email encryption has been around for years, and firms that offer these products and specialize in major compliance statutes such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act can ensure that sensitive information does not get leaked through these channels.
The trick is to combine sound policies and training with exceptional security software and services before a major threat strikes, as trying to bounce back from one of these events will almost always be more costly - both financially and operationally - than a proactive defense. Additionally, a breach does not have to occur to cause problems for a government agency or health care provider, with noncompliance resulting in weighty audits that strain several departments, hurt reputation and can result in high fines and sanctions.

For example, noncompliance with HIPAA can result in fines reaching $1.5 million a year and, considering the immense competition taking place in this sector, that can be enough to significantly hinder the bottom line at the end of each year. It is no longer necessary to just wait and pray that a breach or compliance audit does not strike because businesses can easily gain the resources and support they need through proven and reliable managed service providers without too much strain on budget.

Problems in Washington
McClatchy DC recently reported that members of Congress have become concerned about the Central Intelligence Agency's email snooping programs, specifically because of whistleblower communications falling into the wrong hands. Following the National Security Agency's PRISM/Edward Snowden controversy, many lawmakers have been a bit more involved in investigating the nation's intelligence community, trying to make sure members therein are not overstepping their jurisdiction.

For obvious reasons, this is a much more difficult task that most security efforts, especially considering the immense experience and resourcefulness of the CIA and NSA when it comes to sneakily stealing information from various entities. According to the news provider, the CIA managed to steal an email that was sent by a whistleblower to Congress, potentially hindering the sender's intention to uncover wrongdoings.

It goes without saying that the United States has not always been on the right side of the road when it comes to spying, with reports indicating that the nation has now spied on allies such as Germany unnecessarily. Now, the source explained that Senators, led by Ron Wyden of the Intelligence Committee, have asserted their concerns with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a letter.

"If whistleblower communications with Inspectors General or with Congress are routinely monitored and conveyed to agency leadership, it would defeat the ability to make protected disclosures confidentially, which is especially important in an intelligence community context," the letter read, according to McClatchy DC.

What this means
For the average business in the U.S., the CIA and NSA are not necessarily major concerns when compared to hackers and other types of online threats that put data and communications at risk of exposure. However, the time has come for organizations to become a bit more vigilant in the face of widespread spying and hacking incidents, regardless of which parties might be trying to break into the information.

This truly begins with email security, as hackers have become increasingly focused upon these relatively rudimentary types of communications specifically because of the common lack of control and encryption. Not only are email users failing to adequately protect each of the messages sent with encryption and other defenses, they are also not covering the access management component as stringently as most would hope.

In health care, this is simply unacceptable, as such a wide breadth of sensitive patient information travels through email services and file sharing environments every day. Remember, hackers will always look for the vulnerability in systems that can serve as an entry point, meaning that well-defended systems on a comprehensive level will generally yield a much smaller level of risk.

Use HIPAA email and encryption services, along with data center defense systems offered by reliable providers, to avoid these issues and many more, and do not relent on the mission to identify every vulnerability and shore up security, as the next major breach is right around the corner.

David Bailey is Senior Vice President at Protected Trust. 

Protected Trust is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel. I urge members and readers to visit their site to see their full line of products and services.  More and more we need to provide well rounded strategic solutions for our customers. Protected Trust offers some unique solutions that can help us in our day to day efforts. Check them out here.

-=Good Selling=-

What exactly does a Cold Call mean?

To me, it's the first contact with a potential prospect by either a phone call or stop in.

Funny, I was looking for some images on google for "cold call" and ninety-nine percent of those images are for people making a phone call!  Going on site and good old fashioned knocking on doors is also cold calling. 

It seems there are those that think Cold Calling is Dead, and I'm thinking that person or people who believe that Cold Calling is dead were really not that good at honing their sales skills.  Now, do any of us enjoy looking at a client in our database, recognizing that you've called them for four years and you've gained no ground in getting through to the Decision Maker?

Yeah, just what I thought, the answer is NO!

However, you can make cold calling fun!  What I do, is to put on my ultra happy as every to call you mode.  Through the tone of my voice, I'm projecting that I'm delighted that I 've called XYZ company. I then ask if the person I'm speaking to can help me.  Sometimes I'll even tell them that I'm a first time caller to their company. Point is to have fun and be upbeat!

1)  Performing a cold call in the field can help you see if the company is expanding and or embracing technology. Sometimes you can't get that message from a phone call.

2) When I'm motivated or need to make some additional bucks (same thing, right), all I have to do is pick up the phone and I can roll through 40-50 accounts.  Can't do that with email or the on-site cold call.

3) Every now and then you'll run into Mr. or Mrs. Decision Maker when you perform and on-site cold call.  That's key, they can now place a face with the name and you can get a good feel if they require a follow up.

4) When times are tough, the tough get going.  Meaning, you've made the phone calls, and you've turned up a goose egg.  Change it up, and plan 10 or 15 in person visits to new prospects. 

5) You just never know what you'll turn up.  I've always stated that even when times are bad and you got nothing going on, that each new day brings a new opportunity. Winners make things happen and losers wait for things to happen.  Getting in the car and performing cold calls is a great way to break a sales slump.  Just DO IT!

Sales is what you make of it, orders will never come to you. You need to work for those orders, if you work hard and put in the time the orders will come.  Cold calling is a tool to me, as a hammer is to a Carpenter. I need to cold call in order to get me everything I want.

-=Good Selling=-

Just a few days ago, I attended a webinar from GE. The theme of the webinar was to inform GE partners more about social selling techniques. 

Since I'm an avid fan of social media, I thought the time would be well spent to hear what Mike Kunkle had to say. Hey, you can always teach and old dog new tricks right? Or, is it, that you can't teach and old dog new tricks. Well, screw it, I sure leaned an awesome technique and I'm an OLD DOG!

Mike was an awesome presenter!  Much of the information that he presented was information and processes that I'm already doing with LinkedIn.  However, there were two items that caught my attention.

#1  Never end send a canned invite message to connect with someone.  Mike suggested that you personalize each one.  You'll have more people connect with you that way.

#2 Here's the Biggie!!. PAY IT Forward....., what!  Mike suggested that an excellent way to stay connected and add value with your existing accounts is to Pay it Forward. Paying it Forward means to help your customers with their business by promoting them to your social network. 

Gosh Dang!  That was an excellent idea! Usually when I'm cruising through LinkedIn, I see many of my customers posts or comments. In the past I would either like their posts or even comment. But now, I'm going to Pay it Forward.

It will take a little bit of work, however I think the effort will be worth ever penny of it.  As soon as I get the first rainy weekend of the summer, I'm going to put 100 accounts into a spreadsheet. Then every day, I will post three Pay it Forwards with a tight little message and the link for that account. Hey, it may result in some business for them or it may not, but who the heck else is going to do that for them!

I can only hope that as I start this campaign that they might do the same for me. I don't expect them to, I want to do this for them for trusting me and the company I work for.  I did three of them tonight, and if you're connected with me on LinkedIn you should be able to see them!!! 

-=Good Selling=-