http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/20120203/NEWS01/202030308

We wanted to do something special for you this year for Christmas. As we sat and explored ideas, the most personal thing we could think of was to do some type of “video” for you. One thing lead to another and we decided to “sing” for you. Believe me – I use the word “sing” very loosely. Anyhow, we revised the words to this popular Christmas song, we scheduled temps to come in and assist with the office while we were “recording”. We even had to have assistance to run the recorder. The recording is very “UNPROFESSIONAL”, but it comes from our hearts. We wish all of you a very merry christmas and a prosperous, safe and healthy 2012.

We appreciate you….

Thank you.

P.S. We also have a number of people hiding in the video…so unfortunately you will not see their pretty faces.

Enjoy….

BSSI Team sings our version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas"

If you want to hear some excellent singing, check out this video of the “Christmas Food Court Flash Mob – Hallelujah Chorus”!

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

For example, if you want to reach the HR managers at companies in a certain geographic area, simply go to LinkedIn and follow these steps:

1. Set up an account and connect with your clients, friends and vendors. The more “connected” you are online, the easier it will be to get introduced to new prospects.

2. Click on the “Advanced Search” link located near the main search form.

3. Customize your search by entering in the industries, title, location and keywords that would be related to the prospect you are looking to find. For example, you could enter “HR” or “Human Resources Manager” in the title search, and then narrow your results down using the “Postal Code” lookup and “Within X Miles” setting.

4. Unless you want a particular industry, leave that area unchecked.

5. When the list comes up, do a sort by “Relationship” so that those with the closest relationship to you or your contacts are ranked towards the top. If you find someone you want to connect with, look for people YOU know who can introduce you.

For starters, go to Google Maps and search on your name to see if they have a picture of your home mapped out. If so, you can request to be removed. Next, set up a Google alert for your name (and company name if you’re a business owner). Google will e-mail you any time something is posted about you with a link so you can keep an eye on reviews, photos, etc. Next, go to www.Spokeo.com and search on yourself – you might be shocked at how much information is posted about you, your home, your income and personal life. You can request to be removed from this site by going to www.spokeo.com/privacy.

While it’s not uncommon for employees to waste a bit of work time on relatively harmless activities, such as shopping or visiting a favorite sports site, times have changed; employers are learning the hard way that employee use or abuse of a company’s Internet system can lead to significant liability and time wasted if not monitored.

For example, one business owner (who will remain nameless) shared that they received a panicked phone call from the office while traveling. The police had shown up and arrested one of their staff for soliciting a minor online. Since he was doing this during work hours from the office, that’s where the police showed up to arrest him – clearly a PR nightmare. And stories like this are happening EVERYWHERE.

Then there’s the wasted time. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are addictive. If your employees are constantly “plugged in” to those sites, they won’t be nearly as productive at work as they should be.

Protecting your company requires two simple steps at a minimum. The first is to have a written company policy that details what employees can and can’t do with company resources or during company hours. Next, you’ll want to have a content filtering system in place that will enforce your policy by automatically “policing” your company e-mail and Internet usage, blocking sites and content you don’t want your employees to access without hindering their ability to work online.

Online porn hunters are the latest target. Visitors to certain web sites are led to believe they can download a free video player when in fact they are installing malicious code onto their Macs.

Once the users authorize the transaction, the hackers can redirect the users future browsing to fraudulent web sites and possibly steal the user’s information or passwords. Sometimes they simply send ads for other pornographic web sites. This results in thousands of dollars in income for the criminals.

While you may think that Macs are essentially more secure than PCs because they are built better, security experts would argue differently. They believe that the Mac is actually no more secure than a PC. In fact, they note that the relatively low number of viruses, exploits and other cyber attacks directed at Mac users is due to Apple’s relatively small share of the computer market.

“I don’t think that the Mac OS is more secure than Windows — I think it is safer than Windows because there are less people trying to attack it. There is a big difference,” Natalie Lambert, a senior analyst at Forrester Research recently shared with MacNewsWorld.

With that said, the fact remains that for every single attack on a Mac, there are at least 100 attacks on Windows-based systems.

So what should you do if you own a Mac? Use the same safe online surfing practices as PC users, keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, never open strange e-mails from unknown sources, and only verify user names and passwords by phone with your bank or other financial institutions.

o Use a passcode
Although it’s not 100% hacker-proof, it will block unauthorized users from accessing your information.

o Consider enabling automatic data erasing
You can configure your iPad to erase your data after 10 failed passcode attempts. Clearly this is not a good solution for anyone who constantly forgets a password or those who have kids who might try to endlessly log in to use your iPad.

o Sign up for MobileMe
As mentioned opposite, this software will allow you to locate a lost iPad and, if it’s not recoverable, you can remotely wipe the device of your private information. (This service will soon be replaced by Apple Inc with a service called iCloud.)

o Limit its capabilities
You can set your iPad to restrict certain functions such as access to Safari, YouTube, installing applications and explicit media content using a passcode. In the corporate world, an IT administrator could set these restrictions for company owned devices. At home, you can use this to restrict what your children can do with your iPad.

o Install software updates
As with all software, make sure you have the latest security updates and patches installed to protect against hackers and viruses.

o Only connect to trusted WiFi networks
Public WiFis are open territory for hackers and identity thieves. Whenever you connect, make sure it’s a legitimate, secure connection.

Each month, Robin Robins, owner of Technology Marketing Toolkit, Inc. and publisher of Marketing Strategy Brief, features a client who has been successful in its marketing implementation. BSSI was selected based on their results in generating new business through one email campaign that generated more than $109,000 in revenue last year. BSSI has proven that with creative marketing, hard work and follow through, companies can succeed during tougher economic times.

“IT is a competitive field,” said Diana Spurgus, President of BSSI. “We count on creative marketing strategies, backed with our exceptional IT service and support, to recruit and retain customers.”

In addition to a feature in the nationally-distributed Marketing Strategy Brief, Diana received a poster acknowledging this award and a $500 American Express gift card as part of the award.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by industry peers for my work,” said Diana. “The award and the successful marketing campaigns show that BSSI is a leader in the IT industry.”

About BSSI
Founded in 1997, BSSI is a leading information technology solution provider serving a wide spectrum of businesses and organizations. BSSI is a facilitator of and an advocate for the success of your organization through the use of technology by managing your vendors, reducing cost and risk, and giving you a competitive advantage. To see if you qualify for a free 101 Problem Prevention Network Assessment, contact BSSI at 740-681-9753 or visit www.BSSI.biz/assessment

Epsilon was in charge of maintaining the e-mail databases and campaigns of some of the largest corporations in the country, including 1-800 Flowers, Best Buy, Walgreens, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, and more. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’ve received multiple “apology” e-mails from these vendors.

While some said the breach didn’t cause a whole lot of damage, we disagree. Essentially, these cyber criminals now have the ability to invent highly sophisticated phishing attacks by creating e-mail offers that look like legitimate promotions coming from companies they (the people whose e-mail addresses were stolen) buy from and trust.

And though it’s already common for cyber thieves to impersonate credible organizations with what appears to be legitimate e-mail messages that seek to verify account information, this recent breach of security allows cyber thieves to be smarter and even more targeted with their scams.

Two Key Lessons

First, you need to be a lot more wary of e-mail promotions and communications that ask you to provide your credit card information or to validate your account information (username, password, social security number, etc.). No valid company will ever ask you to send important, confidential information in that manner.

Second, this breach serves as a warning to all businesses that they must have the MOST up-to-date security systems in place for their computer network, especially if you handle client data such as credit cards, bank accounts, social security numbers, passwords, client lists and more. Epsilon has responded to the security breach, apologizing to all of those affected, but the damage is done to their organization, not to mention their clients.

That’s why we urge all of our clients to enroll in our ITEZ Care Program. This service allows us to monitor your network’s anti-virus, firewall and security settings to make sure your network is fully protected against these damaging events.

You Can’t Control Your Brand: You can only INFLUENCE it. I actually thought this insight was very powerful. If you think about it, your ‘brand’ is formulated in the mind of your customer. It’s the feeling they get when they think of your company, product or service; but since the CUSTOMER generates the feeling, only they get to decide what that association is. To that end, your brand is the sum total of everything you do. For example, you eat at a restaurant where the food is outstanding but the bathrooms are dirty, the waiter is rude and they get your drink order wrong…twice. Unfortunately, the food may not be enough to get you to come back again.

An Important Question You Should Know The Answer To: As business owners we spend YEARS perfecting our services, working on our operations and building our business – yet most of us only spend minutes thinking about what message we want to portray to the marketplace. During this interview, David posed the following idea: “What question do you want to be the answer to?” For us, it is “What company can just make our computers work in a productive and secure way, be there when I need them, answer the phones with a live person, do the right thing even when no one is looking, is personable and can talk in a simple to understand language?”

Marketing Is Not A Department: Most people think marketing is just about web sites, brochures and postcards. Not so. Marketing should infiltrate every aspect of your business. To that end, make a list of every touch point you have with your customers and prospects and ask yourself, “Am I being INTENTIONAL about how we interact with our clients to make sure we are fulfilling our brand promise?” That would include often overlooked areas like how you answer the phone, or what you print on the invoices you send out.

Being “Good” Is Not Good Enough…Anymore: With SO many choices, being “good” at what you do is no longer an advantage in the marketplace – it’s the entry point to doing business. Think of how many “good” restaurants you go to, or how many “good” stores you frequent. Chances are they deliver a satisfactory product or service, but not one that blows you away. In order to truly win the hearts (and wallets!) of our clients, we have to work on being outstanding.