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Archive for July, 2009

Ideas After RMISC 2009 PCI Panel

July 31st, 2009
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Today I participated in a very interesting pci panel at ISSA Denver RMISC 2009 conference in Denver.  In fact, even our pre-panel discussion was quite fun: we planned to hit such subjects as checklist mentality vs risk mentality, prescriptive compliance versus outcome-based compliance, PCI for various sizes of organizations and even PCI compliance in virtualized environments.

At start,it was peace to notice that majority the audience agreed that PCI was helpful for their organizations in cases where they wanted to jumpstart their security program, but were not sure how.  Most people also agreed that PCI helped them get executive attention and much-needed budget to implement the security controls they knew they needed to have. No surprises here.

However, at some point in the discussion I started to realize that the desire of some organizations to do “compliance first” and to treat PCI as a “blind” checklist as well as their desire to just focus on achieving compliance and not at all on security was due to the fact that the pressure on them “to be secure” was much weaker compared to the pressure “to be PCI compliant.”

In original works,those organizations who deal with a journey to “we just need to get the auditor/assessor off our backs” fear their auditors more than they fear the hackers (uhu, Russian, Chinese and Romanian combined :-) ); at least, their decision-makers seem to. Those same decision makes also likely think that it is much simpler to measure when they are PCI compliant (=when the QSA leaves with a ‘PCI OK’ report) compared to when they are “secure enough” (=when nothing bad happens for a long time DURING WHICH they are not asleep at the wheel…); thus, in their minds,  compliance seems like a “cheap substitute” for security.

When this discussion began, lots of the audience members pointed out that PCI compliance projects were initiated by the finance departments or even directly by the CFO.  At the same time, most of the security projects at their organizations were initiated by the IT departments (or their IT security sub-departments).It goes without saying that CFO has much more of a CEOs ear, unlike some unnamed security manager down in the trenches.

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Protect yourself from Mac Spyware

July 30th, 2009
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Spyware is no longer a problem just for PC users running Windows. Learn more about the new Spyware designed to infect Mac, and how to protect your computer from intruders

Fortunately for the Mac users, the Adware and Spyware industry is still, as of 2005, heavily focused on the PC users. Adware and Spyware developers are exceptionally found of targeting PC users through DILLs and ActiveX controls, and can therefore, only attack computers running Windows. This does not mean that Mac users are completely blessed from Spyware and Adware.

There are several Spyware and Adware software capable of infesting Mac, and every Mac user should take a look at the Adware and Spyware removal programs available for mac. In 2005, Symantec caused a lot of hullabaloo in the Macintosh community when they warned the mac users about how the OS X operating system was rapidly becoming a target for virus developers and hackers. Symantec cautioned computer users not to relay on their mac alone to safe guard them from spyware infestations.

You can no longer assume that you mac is immune from viruses and spyware. The call for for free mac spyware removal programs available online are growing at full speed, and we will optimistically see a lot of antivirus software for macintosh on the Internet in the near future. Since Spyware is still a smaller problem for mac users, the number of available free mac spyware removal programs is currently much smaller than the number of antivirus 2009 macintosh for PC.

When you single out amid the available free mac spyware removal programs you should ideally pick one that is able of scanning and removing both spyware and adware from your macintosh. A high-quality free mac spyware removal program will as well as be able to alert you every time an attempt to place spyware or adware on your macintosh is made. You should also ideally have the option to set the free mac spyware removal program to automatically block all such attempts without bothering you. Some of the free mac spyware removal programs will also defend your mac from a number of types of remote administration type applications. For maximal protection, you should combine your free mac spyware removal program with a good personal Firewall.

A new Spyware program intended to onslaught mac computers would almost certainly spread rather slowly, since only about three per cent of systems in use today are using Apple Macintosh OS X. If a mac infected with spyware, or any other type of Malware, tries to spread the malicious software to a new computer, it will find a non-mac computer in 97 percent of the time. What everyone fears is therefore a hybrid Spyware capable of infecting Mac OS as well as Microsoft Windows. If, or might as well when, such a crossbred is invented it can spread extremely rapidly. Since many mac users still believe that their mac is immune to virus and spyware attacks, a lot of mac computers will become infected. All Apple macintosh users are therefore, advised to take advantage of the ready for use free mac spyware removal programs as soon as possible. One such program is available at http://macscan.securemac.com/

When you have installed your macintosh spyware protection , it is also important that you perform regular updates to make sure that you are protected from new types of spyware. Preferably choose a free mac spyware removal program that you can set to automatically search for updates and download them as soon as they are available. Check the fine print when you choose your free mac spyware removal program. A free mac spyware removal program where the regular updates cost a lot of money will soon turn out to be a very expensive “free” program. Some free mac spyware removal programs do not allow you to get updates, or will limit the total of updates, until you have purchased a non-free version of the free mac spyware removal program.

New forms of malicious Spyware and Adware are constantly created and in order to protect your computer from infestations you must choose a high-quality program and keep it updated. Supportcave.com offer a selected number of the very best antivirus 2009 macintosh programs available for immediate online download

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Spam Emails, Phishing Emails and Viruses That Could Hurt You and Your Business

July 29th, 2009
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Think twice before opening e-mails from unknown senders, especially if you’re using a computer from the office where all your important files are saved. Millions of computer users and restaruant owners are getting infected, spoofed, and tricked by spam e-mails every year, forcing them to pay hefty fees for cleaning and restoring their computer POS systems back to normal.

Here are the 3 computer dangers you should keep away from:

1. Hijacking and spoofed e-mails. Spammers has a new technology that easily allows them to fool you by making it appear as though their spam e-mails are coming from YOUR computer. This could result in having your Internet connection terminated or put on hold by your Internet Service Provider(ISP) – without you even knowing it. A good spam blocking software blocks inbound spam as well as unauthorized outbound spam from your serves. That’s why it would be a better idea to install one for your own protection.

2. Spam e-mails with viruses attached to them. Accidentally or intentionally opening an e-mail from an unknown sender can cause you several of problems. Most of these unknown senders are the spammers who merrily speard their virus-infected e-mails and waits for the unlucky person to open it and/or download its content. This can cause your computer to slow down, identity theft, loose data, endless popping of unapproved sites or even crashes the system! What’s worst is that the personal data collected from your PC can be uploaded to the internet without your consent and use it to comit crime.

3. Phishing spam. Also called phishing scam. The attempt to acquire personal information of an individual either to steal money from their bacnk accounts or use the money to spend it online shops without the owners knowledge. A phishing spam e-mail sends some kind of fraudulent notification or warning to an individual asking for his or her online bank account, social security numbers, passwords, and credit card information. To be able to make someone believe that their spam e-mail is from a trusted website, phishing sites copies the exact same look of the authentic website..

So what can we do about this?

First and foremost, install a sam blocking software as this will be your first line of defense, and make sure it’s a good one.

Many retail business owner over look into this, so their restaruant POS system is the one who suffers the most.

Next, you want to make sure you don’t get on a spammers list in the first place. Once you’re on a spammer’s list, it’s impossible to get off; and changing your e-mail address can be a major inconvenience especially if you rely on it to stay in touch with important business and personal contacts.

Here’s a couple of ways you can do to reduce the chances of your e-mail address getting on a spammer’s list:

1. Use a disposable e-mail address.

Using a free e-mail address like with Yahoo or Gmail can reduce the chance of ending up on a spammer’s list. Use this when subscribing or shopping online to avoid your main e-mail address from ending up on their broadcast list.

2. Pay attention to check boxes that automatically opt you in.

Make sure you don’t check on the box that says “Yes! I want to receive offers from third party companies.” when you go shopping online. Chances are, your e-mail address can (and will) be sold to every online advertiser.

3. Don’t post your main e-mail address in public places like your website or blog.

Spammers uses a special program that can collect e-mail addresses from web sites without your permission. If you want to post an e-mail address on your home page, use “info@” and have all replies forwarded to a folder in your in-box that won’t interfere with your main address.

4. Refrain yourself from replying on obvious spam e-mails.

Replying or clicking a link on a bogus opt-out link in an obvious spam e-mail signals that your e-mail address is active, and more spam will follow.

The only time it is safe to click or reply to the e-mail is when the message was sent from a company you know or do business with (for example, a company that you purchase from or a newsletter you subscribed to).

For more information or to have a local POS professional serving the restaurant industry and your location see more information at POS-For-Restaurants.com.

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How To Optimize Your Site: Page Title

July 28th, 2009
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Among all the effort you put into optimizing your site, you should never, never forget on-page SEO. What does this mean? Page titles, page metadata, headings, body text, internal links, off-page link and image alt tags are the elements that count in on-page SEO. Here we are going to discuss how to choose the best title for your page.

The titles of your pages are one of the most important things in the on-page SEO.  They are the very first element in the head section of your site. And what has always counted for Google is prominence. And this goes for the elements in your code too. That is why your title carries so much weight for Googlebot. Another reason why you should put effort in thinking of proper titles is that Google actually uses your page’s title for its SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). So when you rank with a page for a keyword – the page title is displayed. Also, browsers display the title at the top bar of their window. Thus, a proper title makes it easier to navigate.
In order to have a good title, you need to think of phrases. Prominence and density are the two things you should stick to when thinking of your phrases. The keyword you want to focus on should have the most prominence in your title – it should be in first or second position. It should also exist more than once in your title. But do not push this too far – twice is enough, or Google might think of you for a spammer. You should also think of a call to action phrase – a one that provokes the user (the words “free”, “just now”, “cheap” or just ordinary verbs like “subscribe”, “get” usually do the trick). As for the top bar, you want a title that clearly distinguishes your site from the others, so if an user has multiple tabs open, he can easily go back to your site. Usually this is your brand’s name. But remember – your pages must not have identical titles! Search engines consider these pages to most likely have same content.
Do not write too long titles. The title should be written in proper grammar and should contain about 60-65 characters. Some browsers limit the title’s length, so a longer title would be cut out by this kind of a browser. A long title also decreases the density of your most important keywords.
Of course, the above are not strict rules, but just advice. Doing all this in one title is nearly impossible, but try out different combinations and see what serves you best. You can see some examples at these pages for apartments, villas and hotels in Bulgaria.

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URL optimization with mod_rewrite

July 28th, 2009
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As an experienced developer should know, a commercial site without search engine optimization is not a site at all. Beside keyword and metadata optimization and all other stuff you do for your site, you shouldn’t miss one of the most important things about optimization – the URLs. URLs play a huge role in optimization, because they are the first thing that a search engine checks when crawling. If the URL refers to the keyword that is searched, the site’s main topic is considered to be related with this keyword.

The most important part of the URL is the domain name. This is because Google, Yahoo, Alexa and the rest of the search engines give much value to prominence. And the most promiment part of a web address would be the domain name. After choosing your domain name precisely, the next step is to optimize your site’s structure. The first way to do that is if your site is a static one – you should organize your files into directories. Think of your structure as a tree – imagine if your domain name was the stem of a tree, directories were the branches, and the file names – the leaves. So, you should put your main files into different directories with their directory names set to your keyword. And your file name should contain that particular keyword too. If your directory contains several files that share similar topics, set your directory name to a common word for all of the files. The second way to optimize your URL and also the way that is used for dynamic sites is to use a great function that Apache provides – mod_rewrite. You can see how it works at Apache’s official site. In simple words, what mod_rewrite does is to get the new URL and convert it to a normal URL. However, the new URL is what users and search engines see. So if your real URL is yourdomain.com/script.php?category=135&product=237, your rewritten URL could look like yourdomain.com/categoryname/productname/. Isn’t that great? Examples of pages using mod_rewrite are these pages about apartments, villas and hotels in Bulgaria. Look at the URLs. Do you think these are real directories?

 

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Learn Spanish Software Examination

July 28th, 2009
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With the high unemployment rate, people need to find a way to make their resumes look better. Many people are having a hard time finding a job because there are less opportunities for job employment. The easiest way to make your resume look better is to learn spanish.

 

When looking for a learn spanish software that is right for you, you need to think about a few different things. Many people want a learn spanish software that teaches them the language very fast. They also expect the software to be very fun and exciting to use.

 

Maybe you are wondering why you should buy a software and not get lessons. If you get spanish lessons, it is going to cost you a lot more than a software would. This way of teaching is similar to how you were taught in high school. If you couldn’t learn spanish fluently in high school, you are going to have a hard time learning it with lessons. However, there is also a problem with some softwares on the market as well.

 

You would think that every software would be fun, however, this is not the case. There are many people that believe Rosetta Stone is a very boring software. It is nearly impossible to learn a language if you are falling asleep. You may have thought that Rosetta Stone would teach you the language at a fast pace. Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone has been noted as being a slow paced language software. This is a huge problem for many people that want to learn spanish right away.

 

Rocket Spanish is a learn spanish software that makes it very fun and easy to learn the language. This software costs $100, and it is worth every penny. I used the Rocket Spanish software to help myself learn spanish, and I am very glad that I chose this software. I have been visiting many different spanish speaking countries, and it is great to be fluent in spanish. I suggest that you buy Rocket Spanish if you want to learn spanish as soon as possible.

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Download Movies Like a Champ

July 28th, 2009
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Remember when you had to hurry to Blockbuster on a Friday night in order to make sure all the good movies weren’t taken.  Gone are those days because the download movies online are now available just a click away.

The really great part of downloading movies is that you can then do whatever you want with them, including burning them to DVDs or watching them on your computer.  

Look no further than this site to download movies.  All you have to is visit the recommended site, sign up for the low fee and download movies to your heart’s content.

The site I researched and finally discovered is by far the best site on the planet! Once you have an account set up with one of them you will be able to gain access to millions of them.  Because of the way the tech guy built the site’s infrastructure and set up their server you get maximum speed on your downloads. 

Become a member and get loads of free tools.  We have facility to creat easy dvds of your favourite movies, keep you updated with latest movies and also have newsletter section that keeps you to inform whenever your movie available on our website. We also have other tools to help with other things like music & games.  

These guys know what you want and that’s fast easy downloads at the push of a button.  So they setup their site navigation to accomplish this goal as well if you have any problems their customer service is top-notch.  We have an excellent FAQ section as well as great tutorials so if you are looking to download movies , you found the right site!

As I mentioned briefly before there’s a ton of selection of music and video games.  You can start playing your favorite music in your iPod, and all the top video games for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 in a matter of moments.

Music,games and movies are all in one site.  The multiple transfers and networks are there to ensure you don’t get bogged down by some slow connection.  If there is a bad connection it can easily select the next user in the list so you get the fast download you want. The free tools section is there to ensure you can use your membership to the fullest extent you desire. 

Signup today and start downloading movies immediately because there’s no lines no waiting like you regularly get at your local video store.

Why do you wait then? Hurry up.  Go ahead, to download movies, music and games and start enjoying all  from one site.  Please don’t forget to  explain to your friends.

You’re now in the exclusive club with all the cool kids because you can download movies on your terms, on-demand and exactly the way you want to.

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Why You Need To Use A Registry Cleaner With Microsoft Windows

July 27th, 2009
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If you are running any of the Windows operating systems then you will need a registry cleaner eventually. A computer’s registry is a place where the operating system’s settings are stored in a database. When you are doing normal tasks or just simply turning on the computer will cause the operating systems and all your programs to write entries in your registry.

As you can see the registry will grow very quickly over a short period time. Old entries, broken shortcuts and removed programs leave junk behind in the registry. If this is not cleaned out periodically, a computer will slow down and eventually become relatively useless.

Whatever you do before you change any of your settings or any programs, you should back up your registry and create a recovery disk. This is something that you should do before you make any big changes to your computer. If you do not and something goes wrong, it could end up being a costly mistake.

Once you have taken the proper precautions, you can do one more thing and close all the running programs. Programs write to the registry the entire time that they are running, so you want everything to be closed. And this is gentle reminder to close those programs that are represented by the icons in the system tray on the lower right corner.

After following these steps, you will be ready to start the registry cleaner. Start the program and get up, go to kitchen and make a sandwich. Seriously, whatever you do you do not want to accidently start any programs by moving a mouse around. There is not much point in closing all the programs to only end up opening one during the cleaner.

Once the cleaner is finished, you will be surprised how long the list of corrupted entries is, especially if this is the first time you have used the cleaner. The thing to remember here is not to choose the option that allows the program to clean, repair or delete all entries automatically. Look for the option that will repair only the entries that are safe to the computer. If you want to repair the remaining entries than research what programs are affected and how they will affected.

A registry cleaner is a necessity for Microsoft Windows users. Some people use it recklessly and some are afraid of it. Follow directions and a registry cleaner will give you the speed you need.

Learn more about how to get a safe and dependable registry cleaner for Microsoft and other options to improve computer performance by visiting http://www.webreview4u.com

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Want To Update Drivers? Read A Driver Robot Review

July 26th, 2009
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A lot have been said about driver updates and it’s through these driver robot reviews that a lot of people are very much aware today that it is important and imperative to update the drivers aside from updating the anti-virus applications and other applications as well. With an outdated driver, for example, for a monitor, there might be other new applications or new PC games that won’t run. It is really very important that a PC user should update his drivers once in a while and it has to be done automatically so there would be no memory lapses and anything like that and you know what that means. Sometimes, people can be so pre-occupied that they forgot to do other important things. So, what is the solution for this type of problem? You need a driver robot to help you automatically update your drivers without constantly reminding yourself.

Today, there are lots of driver robots that you can see from the Internet and they are in downloadable forms. According to some Driver Robot reviews, it is not difficult to find out which one is best for your needs because they can all be reliable when it comes to updating drivers. However, you still have to read some more customer reviews so you can personally choose the one which you think corresponds to your needs, whether they are user-friendly to you or not and of course, you also have to consider the cost.

So, what do you intend to do next? As what have been said, read some more reviews first like a Driver Robot review. In that way, you can come down to selective options, you can come down to either the top 5 or the top 3 so you can have a better choice. You need to do this because it is for a fact that some of the driver robot software can work for others but may not work for you or vice-versa.

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Keyword Elite Helps Keyword Selection

July 26th, 2009
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If you are just starting a website, it is important to recognize that keyword research will make you or break you. Many people start websites, and they don’t do keyword research. They end up choosing keywords that have too many competitors, and they never make it to the first page. There is an amazing software called keyword elite which will help you find the keywords that you should use.

 

With keyword elite, you plug in a keyword that you would want to rank well for. Then, the software will generate thousands of different keywords that are similar to the one you chose originally. You will be able to analyze the new keywords and find out how much search volume they get. It is important that you select keywords that get searched a lot, but they must be low in competition.

 

I have been using keyword elite to find my keywords for a long time now. I am very glad that I decided to spend the money to get the software. If I didn’t buy keyword elite, I would have chosen the wrong keywords and my business would have failed. Since I was smart in the beginning and chose the right keywords, I am now making good money online.

 

You have to realize that keyword research is not the only thing that needs to be done to your website. If you want high rankings in search engines, you have to focus on getting high quality backlinks. However, you should take into consideration that some keywords will be hard to rank for, and some will be easy. Since there are a ton of keywords out there, you have a great shot at finding some that will make you a lot of money.

 

Making money online is very easy, if you know what you are doing. There are some people that pass up keyword research, but you definitely should not. The keyword elite software will help you out a lot with finding the right keywords. You may not realize it now, but in the future you will realize how important it is to have traffic that converts into sales. If you get yourself to rank for buying keywords, then you will get a lot of sales.

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