Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2016 – www.newbizminn.com

January 2016 The Monthly Resource Guide For Startup Businesses

Need Help Filing Business Tax Returns? Startup-Friendly Accountants Are on Page 16.

Fireproof? Protecting Your Business

You’ve Worked Hard to Launch Your Business. Have You Taken Steps to Protect What You’ve Built? These Experts Offer Their Solutions: Bob Weiss, Computer Integration Technologies, Inc. (CIT); Cindy O’Donovan and Julie Tschida, Right4 Your Business; Kenneth Kunkle, Kunkle Law PLC; and Steve Emmer, ADT Security Systems. Page 4.

Special Report

From the Publisher: Most new businesses take care of the obvious when they launch. They’ve got a banker, web designer, CPA etc. But they often forget to take steps to protect their business from the unexpected dangers lurking around the corner.

To examine this topic for our readers, New Business Minnesota approached this team of experts to write about the latest trends and strategies: Bob Weiss, Computer Integration Technologies, Inc. (CIT); Cindy O’Donovan and Julie Tschida, Right4 Your Business; Kenneth Kunkle, Kunkle Law PLC; and Steve Emmer, ADT Security Systems.

New Business Minnesota will feature these experts in an interactive workshop in the coming months. For more information and to RSVP go to: www.newstartupmeetup.com.

Fireproof? Protecting Your Business

By Steve EmmerADT Security Systems

The only thing worse than no se-curity for your business, it’s hav-ing a false sense of security. That

false sense will numb you to the real risks you face. It will allow you to justify doing nothing or doing half measures on the cheap.

The end result is that your property and financial records and critical cus-tomer and employee information remain exposed to theft. All because business owners think they had the risk covered or dismissed the risk entirely.

Here are some common examples – excuses – I’ve heard over the years from business owners who don’t fully appreci-ate their security risks:

• “Hey, I’m on the 6th floor.” – They lock their door when then leave each day and think that they are secure. What they forget is that there are cleaning crews there after hours, along with appoint-ment-only businesses that are open at all hours, and construction crews and contractors building space out for new tenants or remodeling other parts of the building.

ADT has plenty of videos of thefts by low-paid cleaning crews. Without that video evidence you’d never know who the perpetrators were. They expect sus-picious looking thieves, not the normal looking people who clean their office ev-ery night.

• “I have nothing of value a thief would want.” – What they forget is thieves don’t want to pawn the five-year-old computers. They want the customer information with credit card numbers that are on those computers. They aren’t motivated by petty cash in a desk drawer.

They want your business check book and company credit card statements.

If you have a copier in the office, they can make a copy of the bank or credit card statement and leave the original be-

hind so you’ll never know. Or they may just take the hard drive from your copier (Yes, many copiers store digital copies of everything) and see if they can strike data gold.

• “I don’t have to worry. I have insur-ance.” – Many insurance companies re-quire that you have a security system in place. They might not pay a claim if you didn’t meet the requirement.

Unfortunately, the real damage is not the lost equipment or cash. The damage comes when you have to notify custom-ers their information had been stolen. Look at the nightmare Target Corp. has been dealing with. I’ll bet think they would have preferred losing millions in cash to having to tell customers that the credit card data was hacked.

The more protections you put up the better. If something goes wrong, your customers will judge you by the precau-tions you took to protect them. Negli-gence is harder to forgive.

• “We’re in a safe area. Nothing has ever happened here before.” Denial never rests. Criminals come from all over and in all shapes and sizes. And – surprise! – they have cars. Finding new territory is not hard. If you don’t have a security system, there is little to discourage them from looking around. Most business owners who think the area is safe are go-ing by gut feeling, not police reports or insurance statistics.

• “The building owner provides secu-rity.” – You can’t outsource your security. Your landlord may only be interested in keeping the front door monitored. If you have losses from theft, will the owner pay you? No way. When the only thing be-tween your office and the next is a sheet-rock wall, you need to take responsibility

Don’t Let a False Sense of Security Keep You from an Honest Risk Assessment and Finding Affordable, Effective Solutions.

A Good Security System Should Protect Business, Employees and Customers

ADT - Continued on Next Page

for your own security.Know Your Risk and Manage ItWe ask all of our clients to first do

their own risk assessment. If you walked in to your office or shop after a break in, what’s the first thing you would check? What are you most concerned about los-ing? How would you replace it? How long would it take you to be up and running again? How would this impact your busi-ness, employees or customers?

That assessment will help us put to-gether a plan that fits your needs, start-ing with perimeter security: alarms, card and door access, controlled access point, intercoms, motion, intrusion and glass detectors, etc.

While the alarm is still important, the newer options involving internet and mobile technology have created a whole new dimension of business security. It now includes monitoring the heat and air conditioning, tracking employee per-formance and productivity, ensuring em-ployee safety, control of what equipment is on or off, real time notification of who is coming and going, and monitoring locked doors and windows and more.

And just about everything mentioned above you can monitor and interact with from you smart phone.

Security systems like we have at ADT are increasingly becoming tools for man-aging the business. As a new business owner who may be thinking about secu-rity issues, keep in mind that eight of 10 small businesses will have security sys-tems of some sort that go beyond mere locks on the door. You’re not alone in wanting protection.

Work With ProsWith so many options, it is critical

that you work with a professional secu-rity company that truly understands bur-glars, robbers and employees who steal.

Business owners who try and set up a video surveillance system themselves don’t know the best place for cameras. They’ll buy a package of 12 cameras at a discount store and place them so they all have the same field of view, or capture strong shadows instead of faces.

I know of an owner who had $10,000 in cash stolen. All his DIY security sys-tem did was record a great video of a guy walking around robbing him blind. Often times the DIY owner puts in an obvious place the DVR that records the security video feed. Smart crooks take the DVR along with haul.

For less than $299, he could have de-terred the guy from getting in the front window, and at the very least, detected when he entered. After that he came to ADT and we designed a new system for him that secured all his points of entry. All three of his shops now have the same system.

Trends and changesFor ADT, the biggest change in the

last few years has been our Pulse system, an internet-based overlay of your intru-sion system…on steroids. Using a smart phone, tablet or any device with internet access, Pulse can remotely arm and dis-arm your security system.

Pulse can also remotely control other things, such as turn on the heat or the coffee before you get to the office. That means that from home you can see if the coffee machine was left on.

Security used to be something you didn’t really interact with much beyond arming and disarming it. Now you can use it every day to check in or perform actions. One ADT client lives in New Or-leans and has a store in Eden Prairie. He used to have to fly in and check things out on occasion. Now, with Pulse, the cli-ent uses a phone to see the cleanliness of the stock room, who is opening and clos-ing and if the alarm is armed or not.

Conclusion

When you are considering a security

system, look at all the risks and select the solutions with the best ROI for you. ADT has been doing this for 139 years. It’s all we do. Look for warrantees and guaran-tees. Ask about the average number of years customers have been with them. ADT’s average is eight years. The indus-try average is less than three years. That matters.

Find out how many monitoring sta-tions are looking out for your location. More is better. We always have a live ADT person involved in monitoring. Some companies outsource monitoring to another company. The dealer does the install and isn’t involved anymore. Look for a company that will build a relation-ship with you, check in with you, and most importantly, keep your business secure.

NBM

Steve Emmer is in small business sales for ADT Security, which provides se-curity solutions from alarms, intrusion protection, camera systems and remote systems for small and medium size businesses. He can be reached at (651) 600-0764 or semmer@adt.com. www.

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2016 – www.newbizminn.com

Call To Action

Call or E-mail Steve for a Free Business Risk Evaluation and Pulse Demonstration. All New Business Minnesota readers who sign up with an ADT Pulse Solution will receive a $100 instant savings off of the ADT List Price. semmer@adt.com or (651) 600-0764.

By Dr. Julie Tschida and Cindy O’Donovan

Right 4 Your Business

When most people think about how to best protect their business, they often overlook one of the most im-

portant assets: their employees, the ones who interact with customers, potential customers and suppliers, and generate revenue.

Without the right people, success will be elusive. Large businesses can afford to keep professionals on staff dedicated to meeting their human resource (HR) needs. Small busi-ness owners, on the other hand, have limited resources and often attempt to manage their human resources by themselves, sometimes only after issues negatively impact the busi-ness.

Organizations succeed through the per-formance of their people. There are many practices that can positively influence results. Some small businesses disregard strategies for managing employees that lead to high perfor-mance because they assume only bigger com-panies need and can afford them. We hear comments like, “I’m just a small company in White Bear Lake.” However, every business can benefit from applying proven manage-ment methods.

The Human Resources function is way beyond payroll and benefits administration, which is about transactions. At Right4 Your Business, a business advisory and HR con-sulting firm, we focus on transformation. Our goal is to help business owners get results by managing their human resources in the most effective ways.

With over 25 years of professional expe-rience in large and small organizations, ad-vanced degrees in management, teaching HR and owning our own business, we are equipped to advise business owners how to at-tain their objectives by leveraging their people assets.

Good People – Good ProfitsHiring the right people is the most impor-

tant thing you can do for your business. If you hire the wrong people, fail to retain the right talent or struggle with high turnover, your business is at risk. Even if your business is not struggling, chances are some employees are disengaged and not performing at peak levels.

Some studies have suggested that up to 67 percent of the workforce is disengaged in

their work. What percent of your workforce is disengaged? If you can shift your employ-ees’ engagement a few percentage points in the right direction, it can significantly improve the overall performance of the company.

In our new book “Tune In and Tune Up: Simple and Low Cost Ways to Increase Profit-ability Through People,” we offer realistic and affordable ways to turn up the dial on employ-ee engagement and productivity.

The book addresses many of the people is-sues organizations face. Assessing the culture, providing meaningful work, finding and keep-ing the right people and designing the struc-ture, processes, and teams that lead to a high performing workplace are included. The book contains ideas for managing change, inspiring innovation, continuously improving, and how to weave them into the organization’s fabric.

Written in 12 chapters, it is designed to be used as how-to book that allows owners and managers to zero in on specific chapters that meet their immediate needs. Some readers may pick a topic each month and spend a year fine-tuning the organization.

The book isn’t just information—it offers plans for action. The first chapter, for example, is “Culture,” what it is and why it is impor-tant. Employees want to feel they are part of something bigger or are creating something of value.

They need social connections to be fully engaged and be their most productive. In a supportive culture, they will feel they can grow personally and professionally and are more likely to stay and excel in their jobs. Less turnover protects the bottom line in terms of business continuity and money spent on rehir-

Right4 Your Business Continued on Next Page

The Right Processes for Hiring, Firing, Motivating Employees Can Protect Your Bottom Line.

Managing HR Is Key to Protecting Your Biggest Asset

Cindy O’Donovan and Julile Tschida, Right4 Your Business

ing and training replacements. We include 14 ways to improve the culture

of a small business. At the end of each chapter, we provide a summary, a goal setting and ac-tion planning template, and offer action steps to make change. Each chapter ends with an easy to use checklist that increases account-ability to take action.

Process is KingHuman Resource professionals also work

to protect your business by ensuring risks are managed. Key areas involve issues such as compliance with employment laws, negli-gent hiring, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), workers’ compensation, wrongful termination and more. An important way to manage risks is having effective processes in place. We be-lieve “process plus people equals purpose.” In other words, when business owners have the right people and the right processes in place, they can fulfill their purpose while mitigating risk.

Managing risk and being in compliance with state and federal laws is not scary and complicated with the right tools in place. But, too many business owners try to wing it on HR issues and do not have the processes and tools that can save them time, money, and ef-fort.

When we first work with a company, we look at their existing processes, what serves them well and what doesn’t. We focus on fill-ing the gaps between their current state and desired future state.

For example, we worked with the owner of a food company. The company had significant hiring challenges and they were constantly having problems finding workers, despite be-ing a few blocks from a large high school. They tried every avenue for posting open jobs but stated they “couldn’t find anyone.”

We determined that the process was doomed from the start. The criteria used for describing the job qualifications actually eliminated most of the prospects. They were requesting skills and a work history that were not really necessary for the positions, thereby eliminating the few people who applied in the first place.

This is a fairly common problem. We have seen positions that needlessly required a GPA of 3.5 and above, a specific background or ex-perience level, when in reality, these qualifica-tions were not essential to perform the tasks

of the job. One employer was seeking five to 10 years’ experience on a particular software program that was only four years old!

Another challenge organizations face that influences their hiring is the inherent biases and assumptions of those involved in the pro-cess.

One owner wouldn’t consider candidates who didn’t answer a question the way they wanted. Another wouldn’t consider anyone who was unemployed. Some avoid older workers because “they will be short timers” and “don’t know anything about technology” or young people because “they’ll be on Face-book all day.”

These preconceived ideas lead to missing out on eligible candidates and could lead to al-legations of discrimination. As the available workforce pool shrinks and becomes more di-verse, it is even more important for businesses to set aside biases and assumptions.

Hiring is just one example of the many pro-cesses we help organizations improve. Some-times, it is necessary to terminate employees. These situations are never pleasant or easy, but following a solid termination process is neces-sary to protect your business and your reputa-tion.

If you fire too slowly, there may be many unhappy coworkers who have to endure the problem employee while morale and pro-ductivity suffer. Some might even quit before the termination hap-pens. On the other hand, if you fire too quickly, you may en-counter legal action that can distract you from achieving your goals and result in significant costs in terms of time and money.

Our goal is to work with clients to establish processes and develop practices that get them the results they want while reducing risks to the business.

ConclusionSmall business own-

ers are experts in their fields and industries, but are not always ex-perts in diagnosing the real problems involving HR issues. They know there is a problem, but it is not always clear ex-actly what the problem is or the root causes of it.

We bring a perspec-

tive they don’t have. They are so close to the problem that it is difficult for them to see the issues and often, they helped create the pro-cess involved.

In working with small business owners, we have found they need a trusted advisor to help them leverage opportunities to improve and solve problems by providing them with viable and targeted solutions. We pride ourselves on helping organizations improve profitability by using effective management practices and prevent problems from occurring. When is-sues arise, we quickly we get to the root causes of the problems and offer practical solutions to resolve them expediently.

Protect your business--don’t wait until a problem surfaces. Incorporate practices that will increase profits through employee perfor-mance. Call us. We can help you grow your business and save you from spending money to hire attorneys to defend your organization after a problem has occurred.

No matter the size of your company, HR expertise is needed at some level. It is part of the necessary investment in people, just as important as investments in other parts of the business.

NBM

Dr. Julie Tschida (Right), owner of Right4 Your Business, has a Doctorate in Management, an M.A. in Organization Leadership, a B.A. in Human Resource Management and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification. In addition to more than 25 years’ experience as a leader in large and small organizations, she has been a business coach and advisor and teaches HR and busi-ness courses at Concordia University St. Paul and Anoka-Ramsey Community College. She can be reached at (651) 269-1144 or jtschida@right4yourbusiness.com

Cindy O’Donovan, owner of Right4 Your Business, has a M.A. in Leadership and Management, a B.A. in Organizational Commu-nications and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification. She has more than 25 years in large and small or-ganizations in a variety of roles including recruitment, workforce development, operations management, customer service, and as a coach and mentor. She can be reached at (651) 295-1843 or codonovan@right4yourbusiness.com

Call To Action

Call today for a free initial consultation or to schedule an event. They are ac-cepting pre-orders for their book “Tune In and Tune Up: Simple and Low Cost Ways to Increase Profitability Through People,” which will be available soon through Amazon.com

Kunkle Law Continued on Next Page

Use Trademark to Protect Your Business, Brand

Trademark Prevents Competitors from Encroaching on the Brand Value You Have Created.

By Kenneth Kunkle Kunkle Law PLC

With my new clients at Kunkle Law, PLC, I always emphasize how impor-tant it is to have the right protections

in place to keep their company safe and help it grow. Your trademark is an important part

that, and represents all your hard work and investment to get clients and con-

sumers to immediately recognize the quality your brand represents.

Taking full advantage of this re-quires knowledge and experience in trademark law, so that you can de-termine what needs to be protected today, what can wait a while, and what isn’t worth it.

A trademark is part of the brand that associates goods or services with a particular busi-ness. It can include your logo, business name, product name, slogans, and even the look and smell of your products. From

a legal perspective, trademarks are a form of consumer pro-tection that reflect a business’ goodwill and serve to identify

the source of products. When customers and potential custom-

ers see your brand, they should think about you and no one else.

The granting of trademark rights is also meant to help you prevent illegal use by other businesses that want to poach your customers and clients by us-ing a short-cut to make themselves seem related to your established and respected brand.

How do I get a trademark? All you have to do is begin using the “mark” as a way of identifying a spe-

cific product or service in a way that consumers will associate that name with your product. This might be right for you if there

isn’t much competition and you have no plans to expand to other

markets. No one else in your local area can use

your common law trademark, but someone in a nearby city may also have a right to use it.

However, for most of my clients, the better solu-tion is to register a federal trademark, which has a more in-depth review process and affords you broader protection across state lines. Knowing what kind of protection is right for you takes an experienced lawyer taking the time to work with you in order to get to know you and your business objectives.

What are the benefits of registration? Registering a trademark with the federal trade-

mark office (and in some cases the state), provides several benefits to trademark owners. These ben-efits include:

• nationwide notice of the trademark owner’s claim and a presumption of valid ownership;

• the right to sue in federal court, with the pos-sibility of collecting additional damages and legal fees from infringers; and

• ability to file registration with U.S. Customs Service to prevent others from importing infring-ing goods.

A common problem I encounter is business owners who attempt to register trademarks online by themselves. After all, it seems easy and cheap. The problem is that they may be doing more harm than good since there is no assurance that the fil-ing has been done correctly.

For example, I’ve seen businesses who attempt to register a trademark, only to learn that the mark has been in use by someone else for years.

Others put together applications, and then learn that they have applied for a trademark that isn’t eligible for protection yet. While others mis-identify or are overly broad (or narrow) in identi-fying the scope of products or services that their business provides.

While in their minds, they’re fully protected; chances are they aren’t, but they won’t find out un-til a problem pops-up and by then it may be too late.

If you don’t handle trademark registration properly, and defend it, you could lose it entirely.

That’s the main reason for working with a law-yer who focuses on trademark law. There are gen-eral business attorneys who dabble in trademark law and cheap online services that give you the

impression your trademark is well protected. However, trademark protection involves

more than filling out a form online. Done right, you gain a valuable business asset and also protect yourself from competitors who want to take advantage of what you have cre-ated.

Selecting your Mark When you are deciding on a trademark, I

strongly recommend you to choose a name, tag line or logo that has the strongest potential for trademark protection. A strong trademark is distinctive and distinguishes you from your competitors – the more distinctive, the stron-ger the mark.

For example, if your tag line for a bottled milk product is “good milk,” you may not be able to register it because it’s too generic. You want something unique. For example, instead of just using the word “chips”, Pringles® chose a fanciful name which can be better enforced because it is distinctive.

Trademark Opinions Many new business owners I meet aren’t

sure if they need to do anything with their trademark at the early stage of their devel-opment, which is a valid question. Money is often tight in the beginning of a new venture, but making the right decisions early is still im-portant.

Consider the case of a new manufacturer that is ready to launch their first product and have invested $20,000 for a product that will carry their logo and tag line. Printing labels, manufacturing and shipping these products without knowing if they can get trademark protection (or at least that they are not infring-ing on someone else’s trademark) places their whole investment at risk if someone shows up claiming their trademark was violated.

Informal OpinionsIf there is an urgent need to launch the

product, a business can get an informal trade-mark opinion, which is a quick review of the marketplace to find any obvious problems. For these, I look through existing registrations and investigate other competitors in the space.

These informal opinions can be helpful in

assessing whether a mark can be registered or at least how strong the mark is in comparison to others. Unfortunately, an informal trade-mark opinion isn’t as strong as a formal one, and will not necessarily protect you in the event another party claims you have purpose-fully infringed their trademark. However, it will provide at least a basic review of the most obvious problems.

Formal OpinionsFormal opinions are similar to informal

opinions, except that they are typically based on a much larger amount of research into potential conflicting trademarks. The benefit of the formal opinion, besides being much more exhaustive, is that it be used in court to defend against a claim that you intentionally infringed on someone else’s trademark.

Business NameIt’s a common misconception that regis-

tering your business with the Secretary of State is the same as registering a trademark. Your business name on file with the state is just a name and no more. It doesn’t become a trademark until you start holding it out to the public. This registration only protects against someone starting a business with the exact same name, not against others selling prod-ucts or services with that name.

In many cases, the legal name of a business is very different from its products. A good example is the Subway® sandwich franchise, which is owned by a company named Doctor’s Associates Inc. The legal name has nothing to do with submarine sandwiches but is named this because one of the founders planned to pay for his medical degree from his restau-rant earnings. Understandably, Subway® is now thoroughly trademarked throughout the world.

A good trademark attorney can help navi-gate through issues like this, by working with you to identify what is and what is not a trade-mark, and by helping you to prioritize poten-tial trademark issues to determine if the marks are solid, identify what needs to be registered immediately and what can wait.

Enforcement

If you find someone using your trademark and you don’t defend it, you could lose it. Once you have trademark rights, you are ob-ligated to enforce them, or risk that the mark will no longer distinguish your business from your competitors. Trademark violations need an immediate response - letting it slide only works against you and is the first step toward your mark becoming generic. Who now re-members the companies that owned the now generic brand names “escalator,” “aspirin,” and “zipper?”

Domain NamesFor most businesses, their website and so-

cial media presence are critically important. If you conduct business online, you need to give serious consideration to obtaining a federal trademark registration.

If someone sets up a domain name similar to your trademarks in order to confuse, it can be easier to resolve with a federal registra-tion. When domain names are in dispute, one option is to use the arbitration process called the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Policy (UDRP) to force an infringing party to transfer a URL that infringes your trademark. These are technical hearings so I recommend hiring an attorney for a case like this.

For a small investment, I also recommend the additional protection of getting common variations of your website’s URL, including close combinations, common misspellings, and other top-level domains like .net, .biz, .org. and others.

Buying or Selling Your BusinessBuying or selling your company are events

that should trigger a trademark audit. Consid-er the repercussions of buying a company and then finding out that the brand is unprotected or may already infringe on another compa-ny’s trademark. You should identify a list of trademark and copyright assets to maximize the value of your business and ensure that you know what you’re buying.

ConclusionWhen evaluating, managing or protecting

your brands, I strongly recommend working with an attorney who focuses on trademark law so you will have the assurance that the protections you need are in place. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

NBMKenneth Kunkle is the owner of Kunkle Law PLC, a boutique law firm concentrating on trademark, copyright, and entertainment law matters for small to medium sized businesses. He can be reached at (612) 414-3113 or Kenneth@kunklelaw.com www.kunklelaw.com

Call To Action

For more information on trademark, copyright, and entertainment law matters go to www.kunklelaw.com Call today for an initial trademark consultation. (612) 414-3113.

By Bob WeissComputer Integration Technologies, Inc. (CIT)

Hackers, code crackers and cyber criminals of all stripes want your data. More precisely, they want to make money off your data, ei-

ther by gaining access to your financial resources or selling it to other crooks in online markets.

The urgency and need to protect your office com-puter, laptop and home computer has never been greater. Last year, the cost of cybercrimes of all kinds in the U.S. was in excess of $400 billion. It is a very profitable line of work that is constantly evolving and expanding.

As the senior cyber security engineer with Com-puter Integration Technologies (CIT), which provides IT solution for businesses of all sizes, I’ve been in the thick of this battle, helping companies implement software, hardware and training solutions.

This is a problem that you need to continually ad-dress both for your business and for your home.

Email Is Weak LinkMost people have reasonably good security in place

from a perimeter standpoint. Most computers have firewalls and have malware/virus protection running programs like Norton Antivirus and Spyware Remov-al that does regular scans and is updated frequently.

Although firewalls do a good job of preventing at-tacks from the outside, they aren’t the weak link.

Of all successful breaches, 95 percent start as an email. Most of them gain access because someone lets them in with a simple click.

That’s how the now infamous data breach at Target happened. The corporation had the most sophisti-cated cyber security measures in place, making a suc-cessful assault nearly impossible.

But that that level of security didn’t extend to the ranks of their suppliers. The breach was successful be-cause of an email sent to an HVAC vendor in Ohio who was tricked into providing passwords needed to get past Target’s firewall and onto its network where they could do almost anything they wanted.

The lesson you should take from security breaches like Target’s is that you are only as secure as your least secure vendor or supplier and your least attentive em-ployee. Or you, yourself.

Most small business owners don’t think they’re

likely targets because they are small. But small companies are being targeted because they are of-ten the easiest way to break into a big-ger, better protected company.

PhishingPhishing is one of the most

common techniques for gain-ing access. An email arrives looking like it came from a major bank or ship-ping company. It has their logo, their fonts and looks like the real deal.

The email says there is a problem with an account and they have to take action. A link is provided, but it takes them to a fake login page where the unsuspecting person gives up their password.

Another approach is to have an email with an attachment – often a pdf file – that has malicious program embedded in it. When you open it, the program launches, giving them remote access to your computer. They can see everything you’re doing. And they can run the computer just as if they were sitting in front of it.

If you receive a suspicious email, leave it alone. If you’re not sure, send it to www.virustotal.com. It is a great free service that detects viruses, worms, trojans and all kinds of malware.

It’s important to understand the end game of the cyber criminals. They all want data. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you have anything of val-ue, all data has a value to them.

One bad guy may only collect user IDs and passwords and sell that to an-other bad guy who has a different goal.

PasswordsUsing hugely powerful computers

to grind away at all possible password combinations, they break yours down

Cyber Criminals Put Every Business at Risk

Computer Integration Technologies Continued on Next Page

Protecting Your Computers, Network Requires Defensive Measures and Well-Trained Employee.

and sell it. If you have a seven-letter password, they

can break it in less than five minutes. Pass-words of fewer than 10 characters might take a day. The simpler and easier a password is for you to remember, the easier it is for them to crack. Longer passwords are better.

A 12-character, lower-case password would take about three years to break. In-clude a single capital letter and it will take 12,000 years. Including symbols or numbers geometrically increases the security.

Pass phrases are becoming a good alter-native to passwords. They are both long and easy to remember. The pass phrase “lass-iecomehomenow” -- all lower case -- beats the short and complex password “$sale%12”.

Of course if the hackers just send you a nice email, you might unwittingly give them what they want and save all that letter crunching.

I use two-factor authentication for things like Google, Facebook and my Amazon ac-count. Enter the username (I avoid using my email address if possible) and enter the pass-word. An app sends a message to my smart-phone and I have to confirm. Very secure.

Another mystery to most people I consult with is why medical records seem to be so important to the data thieves. On the black market, they are 10 times more valuable than credit card information.

The reason is that medical records are so very complete, making it easy to create a fake identity with a full back story. They’ll know about your moles, tattoos, next of kin, social security numbers, and more. They can be-come you.

In recent years, ransomware has hit com-puter owners hard. Once the bad guys infect your computer through email or a website you may have visited. Your computer will

lock up and you’ll be invited to pay fees as high as $1,000 to have it set free.

This blackmailers actually offer “customer service.” If you have trouble unlocking, they have tech people who will help. How consid-erate.

Vulnerability AssessmentThe first thing we do for our new clients

is a vulnerability assessment. Part of that in-cludes sitting outside their system so we can see it the way an attacker would. Then we mimic an attack and document how their de-fenses work.

And we do it from inside the system as well to uncover vulnerabilities like open file sharing with no authentication required or the presence of expired operating systems like Windows XP within the system.

We make recommendations for the best way to fix the weaknesses we find and look at procedures and training for employees.

It is becoming more common for com-panies to send security surveys to their sup-pliers, this is often called a Vulnerability As-sessment Request. They want proof you are secure and can be trusted.

If you run credit cards through your computer, you have to prove Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance by completing a questionnaire on technical issues and then pass an online security check.

Since the software needed for these as-sessments can cost upwards of $15,000 and in-house IT staff is already focused on other priorities, companies rely on Computer Inte-gration Technologies’ expertise to complete the assessments.

Some of our clients get six or seven such requests a year. The assessment we do can often be used to satisfy other assessment re-

quests they get.Another big security compliance regula-

tions is HIPPA for medical records. Most big medical organizations already have outstand-ing compliance and procedures in place, but smaller practices need to conform as well and they often don’t know if they are doing it right. With fines of $25,000 per instance, they need the help of Computer Integration Tech-nologies Inc. (CIT).

HIPPA sets a minimum security standard. We try to get our clients to a higher standard. For example, HIPPA requires patient infor-mation to be encrypted only during trans-mission from end to end, but not in storage. We advise clients to have it always encrypted.

If patient information is on a laptop, every-thing on the laptop, even the operating system, needs to be encrypted.

Training and documentation are extreme-ly important for maintaining security. After our initial assessment, we provide all the doc-umentation to maintain the process and offer cybersecurity awareness training for all their employees.

We also review how employees are using the internet professionally and personally. We have a managed services product for control-ling internet access. It can keep employees from going to sites where malware lurks.

ConclusionStrong security protections require ev-

eryone in the organization to be part of the solution. The right technology solutions have to be in place and constantly updated. And you need to constantly be alert for your weak links, whether it’s the new hire who isn’t fully adjusted or the executive who likes to take shortcuts.

The bad guys aren’t going to rest and nei-ther can you.

NBM

Reprinted with Permission Courtesy of New Business Minnesota ©2016 – www.newbizminn.com

Bob Weiss is a senior cyber security engineer with Computer Integration Technologies, Inc. (CIT), which pro-vides a one-stop IT solution for busi-nesses of all sizes to keep their tech-nology up-to-date, up-to-speed and secure. He can be reached at (651) 255-5780 or sales@cit-net.com www.cit-net.com

Call To Action

For more useful information on how to secure your business or home computer environment, check out Bob Weiss’ blog at www.cit-net.com/security.