Lock Up
Your Servers!
Jason Appel,
Security Practice Manager, Sage Computer

One aspect often overlooked when securing our information is physical security. The goal of physical security is to control who can walk up to the information and touch it. The idea is to prevent unwanted information disclosure, loss, or corruption, the same as when securing the information across the network or from the internet. The difference is that physical security deals with the “real world".

For most of us, this doesn't mean training your Chihuahua as an attack dog or outfitting your employees with dark shades, cheap suits and sleeve microphones; it simply means using some common sense.

Before we can take measures to physically secure our information, we need to know what type of information needs to be protected. There is no need to post armed guards around your product catalog after it's been published: it's meant to be seen by others. Before it's published could be a different story as you may not want your competition getting a sneak peek. In other words, we need to classify our information.

While there are many excellent information classification schemes, they all boil down to one question: who needs to have what level of access. The rest is deciding how to limit access to just those people. With this in mind, there is one common sense step we can take to beef up our physical security in the typical small office. Lock it up.

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19th Annual Business and
Technology Expo

ARRC Technology invites our valued clients and friends to attend the 19th Annual Bakersfield Business and Technology Expo, Tuesday October 27 at the Rabobank Convention Center. This is the largest business to business showcase in our area with 130 booths and over 1400 attendees. This event is a great place to check out local business as well as stop by and visit the ARRC Technology booth and see what's new.

We will receive a limited number of tickets available for our valued clients and friends to attend. Contact Ginger Riley today 661-843-5412 or email her directly ginger@arrc.com  to reserve your tickets.

How to Boost your Creativity at Work
reprinted with permission from HP Small Business Center

When you think of “creativity”, you might immediately think of artists, musicians or designers. But the fact is that creativity is a useful tool in all sorts of occupations, from accounting to engineering to teaching. Creativity is the fuel for new products, systems, and better ways of getting work done.

According to Dr. Warren Bennis, a respected American scholar, organizational consultant and an expert in the field of leadership studies, “The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive. And the leaders of those organizations will be those who find ways both to retain their talented and independent-minded staffs and to set them free to do their best, most imaginative work . . . In a truly creative collaboration, work is pleasure, and the only rules and procedures are those that advance the common cause.”

The value of developing and encouraging creativity in the workplace is clear. But how can you boost your creative contributions? Here are a few techniques you may want to try.

This isn't another lecture about minding your e-mail manners. This is a story about a new subset of e-mail etiquette. Call it wireless politeness.

An increasing number of e-mail messages are being received on small, wireless devices with limited screen space — devices such as Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. Being polite is still important. But so are a number of other considerations, including brevity, diction and consideration for bandwidth.

Reader Terri Thornton aptly sums up the frustration with today's wireless transmissions. "I hate checking my e-mail and having the subject line be so long that it scrolls forever until I can figure out what the topic is, or whether it's important," says Thornton, a Cincinnati marketing executive. "Worse is the one-word subject line that says nothing and you have to open it to find out what it is and discover it's 30 lines of nothing."

So what is the etiquette for sending e-mail messages to and from wireless devices? Here are seven tips.

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Terms such as surveillance, undercover and covert conjure up images typically seen in a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie. These days, however, there are practical yet affordable surveillance applications and equipment businesses can use to creatively save time and money.

Practical Application #1: “Eyes” for Blind Areas in a Business or for Off-hours.

Picture the typical car dealership with vehicles spanning several rows and often around corners. If some cars are located out of the front desk’s view, a monitoring system can allow employees to multitask more effectively between office paperwork and customer visits. This same dealer could also utilize a camera system to record customers visiting the dealership when closed. If employees recognize a shopper, they can possibly turn missed opportunities into sales.

In addition, businesses selling easy-to-grab and easy-to-hide items, can utilize video surveillance to help alert them when customers enter blind spots. Employees are then able to assist customers while possibly reducing shoplifting concerns.

Practical Application #2: Cameras with Audio Triggers

Consider again the car dealership above – it is possible to have a camera directed on a particular model that is being sold. Whenever someone walks into the camera’s scope, it triggers an audio announcing all of the vehicle’s attributes. This audio feature can be utilized during closed hours, or signage can welcome customers to hear the pitch without talking to a sales person.

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