Tag Archives: Lower Manhattan

About 606 days ago Computer Security

Anonymous Plans ‘Day of Vengeance’ for Saturday

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As if they haven’t received enough attention this year, the hacker group Anonymous is planning to hold a special “Day of Vengeance” in several cities around the U.S. on Saturday, reports CNET.  READ MORE »

About 1907 days ago E-Commerce

Video Streaming: Business in Living Color

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Sierra Snowboards is a small ski supply store with about 30 employees. Located in Sacramento, Calif., it also does business on the Internet through its website, sierrasnowboards.com. The company began a live streaming webcam in the store in mid-2007 as an experiment, and started using it to do a weekly online giveaway drawing among the online members currently viewing the stream. It quickly turned out to be a real boon to the company’s Internet business. “We started online video streaming from the store eight or nine months ago,” says Sierra Snowboards store manager Jared Snelson, “and our online membership — and sales — have been rising ever since.” Businesses have been using video streaming internally for years, for Web conferencing, in-house training, and face-to-face strategy meetings. But there generally haven’t been good enough reasons to justify the cost of expensive hosting solutions for streaming video to multiple viewers. Live video streams, sometimes called IPTV or IP-based video, have not been considered part of the usual business plan. Making video streaming accessible The technology has also, in the past, been quite complex, requiring highly trained (therefore highly paid) tech workers to implement. It generally took deep pockets to offer a live video stream, so it’s not been available to small and medium sized companies. Just in the last couple years, however, very affordable video stream hosts have sprung up, bringing these formerly high-ticket tools to even very small companies and changing the rules. “The quality of IPTV and streaming broadcast continues to increase while the cost continues to drop,” says Sandeep Agrawal, group marketing manager for IPTV at Sun Microsystems. At last year’s Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan, Sun Microsystems launched its new IP-based video delivery server platform, the Sun Streaming System, capable of handling up to 160,000 simultaneous, unique video streams with a price of less than $50 per stream for a complete video headend. Sun also walks the talk, by using video streaming to bring round table discussions, seminars, and educational sessions to the general public. “It is now possible for small and medium-sized businesses that already administer some form of virtual communities or social networks,” says Agrawal, “to also include streaming video to enhance the users experience, both with personalized content and targeted advertising.” There are many companies now offering video stream hosting for a low monthly fee. But if even the lower priced video stream solutions are more than you can handle, real results can be achieved even using one of the free streaming video services, like UStream.tv or Mogulus.com. Using a simple webcam on UStream, Sierra Snowboards discovered that live video streaming brings more value to its business. Engage customers with video “The live cam on UStream gives our online shoppers a real chance to engage with the store and personalize their experience,” says Snelson. “They get to see that we aren’t just a website, but a full service store, giving them more confidence to shop with us.” The stream seems to be a great success. Instead of weekly, the drawings for a new snowboard or other merchandise now happen five days a week, and if the number of registered members signed onto the video stream goes over 500, then Sierra Snowboards adds an extra prize to the mix. This encourages members to get their friends and family to sign on, join up, and become regular viewers. And it has paid off – recently, the company gave away a new snowboard and added in the bindings when the viewers topped 500. Snelson says this happens quite often now. There are likely many ways of building your business via live streaming, even if it’s just a variation of advertising. The idea of using live streaming video to engage with customers may indeed be an idea whose time has come. Advances in computing technology have brought the price of broadcasting on the Internet way down, and the increasing ubiquity of broadband is creating a public hungry to use it. And no geeks required.

About 4158 days ago Data Security

Creating a Cyberdefense

E-Strategies Worried that terrorists might attack U.S. computer systems next? A few simple precautions will go a long way toward protecting your company. Even before last September’s terrorist attacks, the law firm of Lewis and Roca LLP was hypercautious about safeguarding its sensitive digital documents. In fact, compared with other small companies in the law firm’s home city of Phoenix and other law firms nationwide, Lewis and Roca seemed not just security-conscious but, well, a tad security-paranoid. For instance, accessing the firm’s sophisticated client extranet had always required using a tool that constantly generated new personal-access numbers. And the firm’s network automatically logged off users whose keyboards were idle for more than 60 minutes. But that was before September 11. Afterward, like their counterparts at other businesses nationwide, Lewis and Roca executives worried even more about the possibility of unseen intruders infiltrating their computer systems. So the 51-year-old firm, which also maintains branch offices in Tucson and Las Vegas, immediately had an in-house team focus more closely on reviewing the firm’s entire data-protection arsenal. The law firm’s biggest priority, of course, is protecting the physical safety of its 350 employees, says chief operating officer Robert S. McCormick. To that end, Lewis and Roca has increased surveillance and security in all its buildings. But shielding its confidential records from theft, damage, or deletion also remains what McCormick calls a top “ethical and legal responsibility.” Lewis and Roca is far from alone in reconsidering its whole spectrum of data security. And under the circumstances, the firm is hardly overreacting. “Right now I don’t think it’s possible to be too worried” about safeguarding records, says Weston Nicolls, a former National Security Agency executive who is chief information security officer at Telenisus Corp., a provider of managed Internet infrastructure services based in Chicago. Nicolls’s concerns are shared by Michael A. Vatis, director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. In a report released just after September 11, Vatis warned that attacks on U.S. computers were “extremely likely” as part of larger, coordinated terrorist actions launched in retaliation for U.S. military strikes. Federal officials apparently agree. Three days after the September terrorist attacks, the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center issued a formal advisory warning of possible vigilante activity online. A few weeks later, the Bush administration appointed longtime White House counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke to the newly created job of cyberspace security adviser. Clarke has repeatedly warned Congress and U.S. businesses about the potential for a “digital Pearl Harbor” in which distant assailants would invade and damage the country’s computer networks and telecommunications systems. The good news is that there were no reports of widespread cyberterrorism in the weeks immediately following the suicide hijackings. But as the Dartmouth report points out, previous political conflicts — for instance, clashes between India and Pakistan — have led to “cyberattacks” in those countries. So as U.S. military action continues overseas, Americans need to be highly alert for a possible new wave of virtual warfare, with both distant and domestic hackers trying to deface or crash Web sites, disseminate computer viruses, and break into vulnerable networks to steal, corrupt, or delete information. Osama bin Laden’s shadowy, computer-literate followers aren’t the only potential assailants. “Even more likely are cyberattacks by sympathizers of the terrorists, hackers with general anti-U.S. or anti-allied sentiments, and thrill seekers lacking any political motivation,” the Dartmouth report warns. In other words, companies should consider cyberterrorism not just possible but probable. They should also prepare accordingly, just as a California company might plan its response to an earthquake or a power failure and an East Coast business might protect its systems and data against a likely blizzard or hurricane. That means taking stock now to determine what’s sufficiently safeguarded and what’s still vulnerable — and having an IT staffer or outsourcer make corrections immediately. “Once you’re attacked is not the time to think about how to respond,” says Mark Schertler, vice-president of networking and security services at Primitive Logic Inc., a consulting firm in Sausalito, Calif. “You should have a recovery plan in place. You should have discrete and diverse service providers so that if one gets attacked, you can still operate. And if you’re relying on the Internet for revenue, you should have redundant sources to connect to it.” What’s the minimum computer protection for small businesses? For starters, virus-scanning programs. Self-installed software that detects and stops both viruses and worms can cost as little as $100. Once the software is installed, companies should assign someone to update the protection programs at least once a week — but preferably daily — to protect against the latest nasty attack. “It’s like an arms race,” says Schertler. “New viruses are coming out all the time.” A second must-have: a firewall, or shield, between the company’s internal systems and the Internet, to prevent unauthorized intrusions. The cost for that ranges from less than $50 for a home-based business to thousands of dollars for large companies with many remote users and massive amounts of confidential or valuable information. Next, companies of all sizes should regularly back up all systems. Small companies may be able to get by with weekly backups; businesses of, say, $10 million or more in annual revenues should invest in technology that will take a data snapshot daily. Both should stash the stored data off-site. (Nicolls of Telenisus suggests using a bank vault.) Every company should also make plans to run its networks from another location if necessary. Growing companies may also want to invest in a virtual private network (VPN), which provides far-flung employees, business partners, customers, and vendors with a secure tunnel into a business’s internal computer system. They should also add security software to their road warriors’ portable equipment, such as laptops and personal digital assistants. (See ” Laptop Insecurity,” Inc, March 15, 2001.) Users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system may want to consider upgrading to the new Windows XP operating system for its built-in firewall, enhanced virus protection, and capability for encrypting files both on the desktop and in transit over the Internet. For businesses of all sizes, Primitive Logic’s Schertler, who like Nicolls is a former NSA official, recommends two other security precautions that together cost precisely nothing. First, require employees to use “strong passwords,” made-up phrases that would-be intruders can’t guess or decipher, by running programs that automatically test passwords with common words or names. “Mix up letters and symbols to create something you wouldn’t find in a dictionary,” says Schertler, something like “drB613Jzx.” Second, assign someone on staff to act as your in-house point person for software-vendor updates. That way, your company will get regular reminders about such things as upgrades and patches, which crop up over time. Some security breaches, particularly those on Web sites, happen simply because nobody has the responsibility for retrieving the remedy for a security hole. Lewis and Roca already had many of those precautions in place. But after the terrorist attacks, the firm looked even harder for potential weak spots. Its in-house security team renewed its interest in how the firm controlled access to its systems, including its public Web site and client extranet. Team members also reviewed the firm’s virus-scanning capability, as well as its plans for preserving digital records during a natural — or terrorist-caused — disaster. In direct response to the World Trade Center attack, they even researched ways to salvage paper records. “The pictures of legal documents floating through the streets of lower Manhattan made us aware that recovery of electronic data alone may not be sufficient,” says chief operating officer McCormick. “We may want to consider technologies that will provide us with electronic images of our paper documents and files.” At the same time, the law firm, like many other small businesses, realizes its security-improvement process will never be finished. “It’s fluid, it’s evolving,” McCormick says. “We’re learning new things day by day as the situation changes.” In fact, on the day McCormick made those comments, his firm had just launched a new security initiative to investigate ways to monitor incoming mail for evidence of explosives, anthrax spores, or other potentially deadly materials. The firm also advised employees about ways to protect and preserve data on their own home computers, as well as ways to secure office E-mail and voice mail. Yet despite widespread concern about cyberterrorism, the FBI’s data indicate that most security problems originate within a company’s walls, either by accident or by design. For that reason, experts also recommend that companies monitor their networks for unauthorized remote access, set alarms to indicate large deletions of files, and remove ex-employees’ access to computer, E-mail, and even voice-mail systems as soon as they’re out the door. As security expert Nicolls puts it, “Unfortunately, people can still screw up the very best technology you can buy.” Anne Stuart is a senior writer at Inc. Computer and Internet Security Resources COMPUTER SECURITY WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center www.nipc.gov CERT Coordination Center, Carnegie Mellon University (Funded by U.S. Department of Defense) www.cert.org The System Administration, Networking, and Security Institute www.sans.org COMPUTER SECURITY INFORMATION AND TRAINING Computer Security Institute www.gocsi.com FREE TIPS ON PREVENTING SECURITY PROBLEMS AND CYBERTERRORISM ATTACKS Telenisus Corp. www.telenisus.com REPORT PREDICTING CYBERATTACKS DURING THE U.S. WAR ON TERRORISM The Institute for Security Technology Studies, Dartmouth College www.ists.dartmouth.edu/ISTS/counterterrorism/cyber_attacks.htm Hands On 48 Hours: How do you eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks? Siamak Farah, CEO of InfoStreet, a $1.8-million developer of corporate intranets in Tarzana, Calif., wants his 15 staffers to take initiatives and run with them — as opposed to waiting for a manager’s approval. So in early 2000 he inaugurated “the 48-hour rule.” “If an employee comes up with an idea or proposal and submits it to his or her superior, the superior has two working days to respond,” he explains. If a manager doesn’t respond within 48 hours, then the employee can proceed under the assumption that the manager has granted approval. Farah says the rule has “done wonders” for decision making and initiative taking. And what if, perchance, a manager is away for two days? Nothing changes. Absentees must delegate the decision making to a second-in-command. –Ilan Mochari The Whole New Business Catalog Inc Query: How Do I Get to the Next Level? Best of the Net: B-School Brains Creating a Cyberdefense Stop the Net, I Want to Get Off Let’s Make A Deal The Unkindest Cut of All Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4219 days ago Business Software

With a Little Help from My Friends

E-Strategies Rug seller Bob Shallenberger found software that lets his small business act like an industry giant without spending giant fees. The year: 1995. The setting: a classic loft building in lower Manhattan occupied by retailer ABC Carpet & Home. Bob Shallenberger, a rug retailer from St. Louis, stood on the ABC showroom floor and watched as a customer approached a salesclerk. “I like the style of this red rug,” the customer said, “but do you have it in a four-by-six, in blue?” The clerk disappeared for a couple of minutes, then returned with a thumbs-up. The clerk had used ABC’s computer not only to confirm that the store carried the rug but also to pinpoint the rug’s exact location. Shallenberger could hardly believe his eyes. Back then, Shallenberger, general manager of Rug World Oriental Rugs, in St. Louis, could only dream of such efficiency. His oriental-carpet retail business, with 1995 sales of just $350,000, could never match the resources of ABC, then a $100-million company. “If you’re a rug guy, they’re mecca,” Shallenberger says of ABC. But today Shallenberger, 31, enjoys a computer system with ABC-like efficiency, and then some. What’s more, he didn’t spend a fortune to get it. Instead, he mined his contacts in the rug business until he struck gold: a custom program with an industry pedigree, for just a few thousand dollars. Now, instead of staggering back in awe, Shallenberger is sitting pretty. “It’s wholly empowering,” he says. “We’re in the game now. Before we were in the minors. We’re not in the minors anymore.” Like Shallenberger, many CEOs at growing businesses dream of someday harnessing the power of big-company computer systems. Often those dreams are never realized, because the CEOs assume — correctly — that they can’t afford the big, third-party software packages their industry’s giants run. But some tech-savvy CEOs tailor off-the-shelf applications like Lotus Notes to create their own, semicustom software. MAGIC CARPET RIDE: “I can do in eight hours what used to take me three days,” says Bob Shallenberger. But Shallenberger is no techie, and he doesn’t write his own code. He likes to discuss tech decisions with his CEO buddies. Their advice is free, he points out, and “probably more accurate than some guy trying to sell us things.” So when he wanted to match ABC’s software, he talked to rug-industry people. Shahab Etessami, a former rug wholesaler who wrote the software Shallenberger now uses, says that “probably 90%” of the people in the rug industry start a software purchase by simply asking other people in the business which software they use and where they got it. Shallenberger is a rug-industry veteran, having started with Rug World back in his college days in 1991 as a part-time salesperson and delivery man. He quickly advanced to become Rug World’s store manager, head of retail operations, showroom manager, and finally general manager. When, in 1993, Rug World’s owner, Cy Tavazo, moved to New York City to source rugs, Shallenberger was left in day-to-day control of the St. Louis shop. Two years later Shallenberger took an ownership stake in it as well. Shallenberger’s interest in becoming Rug World’s computer expert was strictly sales driven. Back in his rug-schlepping days, the company had no computers and kept its books in giant ledgers. Rugs lay stacked 100 deep in the store, organized only by size without regard to color or pattern. Salespeople kept information about their customers on index cards. Shallenberger spent hours upon hours figuring out which suppliers needed to be paid, which customers needed to pay up, and which rugs were where. Without computers, Shallenberger figured, there was a limit to how big Rug World could grow. “We weren’t going to get over a million, maybe a million two,” he says. Then, in 1994, Shallenberger was literally jolted into making a change when he was hurt in a serious car crash. “I broke my hip, a bunch of ribs, part of my head, and my collarbone,” he says. “I wasn’t able to do anything for a while.” Bedridden, Shallenberger bought himself a Macintosh Centris 610 and began loading data — rug size, color, supplier name, country of origin, and price — into a spreadsheet. Not everyone’s idea of rest and recuperation, perhaps, but “there’s only so much Oprah and Donahue you can watch,” says Shallenberger. The spreadsheet was a useful first step but not much more. It couldn’t share data with other programs, so Shallenberger would still need to write Rug World’s invoices by hand. “It was a complete nightmare,” he remembers. The next step came the following year, in 1995, when Shallenberger made his pivotal visit to New York City. There he witnessed ABC Carpet’s rug locator in action, an event that shoved him to the next level. Upon returning to St. Louis, he telephoned software programmers large and small, hoping to find someone who could build him an ABC-like program at an affordable price. With each call, he explained the byzantine workings of his business: Rug World either accepts rugs on consignment or purchases them outright. Each rug is unique, but some appear similar. Sometimes the company orders rugs over and over in different sizes; other times, rugs are special-ordered. Often, the company sends five rugs to an interior designer, but the designer sells only one and returns the others. Customers frequently take a rug home to try it out with their furnishings, only to return it later. During phone call after phone call Shallenberger explained that he needed software to handle all those options. Several vendors offered Shallenberger subsets of their large, multifunction programs. But using their software would have required Rug World to adapt its business to the vendors’ technology, instead of vice versa. Others, who in Shallenberger’s words “semiunderstood” what he wanted, offered to charge “ungodly outrageous” sums — again, his words — of $50,000, $100,000, and even $350,000 to create a custom program. “I was totally bummed and completely frustrated,” he says. In that frame of mind, Shallenberger began to think that with his small-company resources, he would never be able to match the likes of ABC. But that idea quickly led him to another possibility. Maybe, just maybe, a solution could be found among the small rug companies, the hundreds of wholesalers with whom Rug World owner Cy Tavazo dealt in New York City. After all, Shallenberger reasoned, who understands the technology needs of one small rug business better than another small rug business? An inspired Shallenberger riffled through the three-ring binder in which Rug World kept its wholesalers’ invoices. He found 10 that seemed generated by computer. He asked Tavazo to visit the showrooms of those 10 wholesalers, observe their operations, and ask questions. “He [Tavazo] didn’t know anything about computers,” Shallenberger says. “He didn’t know what he was asking, but people respected him enough to listen.” To avoid the technical discussion he wouldn’t have understood, Tavazo simply told the wholesalers, “If you think you have some answers for us, call Bob in St. Louis.” Three people did. The first suggested a solution that essentially duplicated what Shallenberger had already done with his Mac spreadsheet. The second offered to share a system then being developed but added that the software would not be ready for another two years. The third caller was Etessami, who was with Computerized Office Corp. His background was perfect for Shallenberger’s needs. Etessami and his family owned a rug wholesaler, Moussa Etessami & Sons. Etessami, who had studied computer programming, had already written a program to manage his family business’s inventory. In 1984 he had started Computerized Office Corp. to license his software to other rug companies. Shallenberger spent hours upon hours figuring out which suppliers needed to be paid, which customers needed to pay up, and which rugs were where. Without the help of computers, there was a limit to how big his company could grow. “We weren’t going to get over a million, maybe a million two,” he says. Etessami offered to license his software to Shallenberger for $3,500 — pocket change compared with the fees charged by the St. Louis programmers. “At first I thought there was something wrong,” Shallenberger says. “It wasn’t going to work, or he would go out of business. But I talked to him for a while, and I felt comfortable.” Etessami had grown up in the rug business, and he understood how Rug World operated. “He wasn’t going to require me to change everything,” Shallenberger says. Etessami defends his low-fee business model. He deals almost exclusively with rug companies, he explains, starting with the same basic program and modifying it for each customer. To enter a new vertical market, he says, would take him a year, “and the charge is not going to be a few thousand, but 10 times more.” At first Shallenberger, whose only computer experience was with Macs, was nervous about working with Etessami’s program, which was originally written to run on DOS-based PCs. Over a period of three months, Etessami customized his program for Rug World, overnighting diskettes to Shallenberger. Shallenberger then tested them on his computer and made sure he could get invoice forms, checks, and ledger reports to line up with his printer. Etessami fiddled and tweaked until everything matched. Then Shallenberger spent two more months gingerly entering data on all his rugs, customers, and suppliers. Finally, in October 1996, he flipped the switch. Success: Shallenberger’s computer showed him an inventory of the rugs he had on hand, those he’d ordered, and those being tested in customers’ homes. The software recorded Rug World’s monthly sales. It flagged those rugs that came in on consignment and generated a check for the consignor when the rugs were sold. “I was relieved and enlightened,” Shallenberger says. “It was like, ‘My savior is here.” Still, he kept the paper ledgers current for another year and a half. In the years since, Etessami and Shallenberger have collaborated at least 100 times on what they now call the Rug Program. They’ve improved transaction histories for customers and suppliers, added a mailing-list function, customized reports for inventory losses and extras, and more. And they’ve done all the work over the telephone. Though the two have met at rug shows, Etessami has never visited Rug World. Rather than charging Shallenberger separately for each new improvement, Etessami charges Rug World a low monthly support fee. What’s more, when one of Etessami’s clients requests a software change, he’ll often share that change with his other clients. That way, the costs — and benefits — of keeping the Rug Program up-to-date are spread out over nearly 100 rug companies. “This program is the feedback of many, many people,” Etessami says. Recently, Shallenberger asked Etessami to add a feature for calculating the percentage of sales coming from repeat customers. “In a slowing economy, I want to market smarter, more efficiently, before sales go down,” Shallenberger says. Etessami pounded out a few more lines of code, and a day later Shallenberger had his answer: repeat business from interior designers represented nearly 40% of his revenues. Shallenberger subsequently beefed up his marketing to the interior designers. The Rug Program’s main drawback is that it still uses the DOS interface, while the rest of the PC industry has long since moved on to Windows point-and-click. “I would like to be able to use a mouse,” Shallenberger says. “Everything has to be Windows eventually.” Still, Shallenberger says he’s satisfied with the program. For one, Rug World’s annual revenues have passed that million-dollar milestone, the point at which Shallenberger feared manual systems would leave his company stalled. But more than that, the system has streamlined his operations and saved him time. “I can do in eight hours what used to take me three days,” Shallenberger says. “If I want to know how many rugs I have from supplier X, and what I owe them, I can do it in 30 seconds — unless the printer hasn’t warmed up.” And time, as Shallenberger likes to remind himself, is the only commodity you can’t make more of. Jill Hecht Maxwell is a reporter at Inc. Hands On Messing Around? Workplace whoopee has remained a hot topic since the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth, which makes it easier for employees to file sexual-harassment lawsuits even if they can’t show significant job-related consequences. While the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has not seen a big jump in harassment claims, the amount paid by employers to plaintiffs as a result of those claims reached an all-time high of $54.6 million in 2000. Enter the consensual relationship agreement, a legal document pioneered by the employment law firm Littler Mendelson, in San Francisco, helps companies shield themselves from potential litigation. The “love contract” requires romantic partners to acknowledge that their liaison is voluntary and to state that they are familiar with the company’s sexual-harassment policy. –Tahl Raz The Whole New Business Catalog Where, Oh, Where to Begin With a Little Help from My Friends You Just Don’t Get It The Talking Cure Board Stiff Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.