Posted by admin on April 9th, 2008 — Posted in Software For Life
Trends and industry analysts state that the efforts of the propagators will not relent. Last year marked the first ever mobile phone virus and Bluetooth technology, for example, compounds the threats to security. 35% of PCs in the US are infected while in China and India the rates hit 50%.
Experts in the field of security report the first virus was spread as early as 1981. Fred Cohen, however, wrote in his seminal paper that the first virus was conceived as an experiment on November 3rd, 1983. Since then viruses and malware have plagued and wreaked havoc among computer systems worldwide.
Risks through the Internet
With the advent of such communications advances like the Internet, mobile telephony and Bluetooth (a short range radio technology that simplifies wireless communication among devices such as computers and mobiles. It also aims at quickly and easily connect these devices to the Internet) computer viruses have spread at an alarming rate. The downside to such advances is that where before only a few computers would get infected, now thousands, if not millions, are at the mercy of virus authors.
Early Threats Disables 10% of Computers Infected
In 1987 a large network (ARPANET) used by universities and the US government was infected by a virus. Robert Morris, son of a computer security expert for the National Security Agency, sent malicious code through ARPANET, affecting about 10% of the connected computer hosts - at the time there were only 60,000 hosts connected to the network. The code reproduced itself and filtered through network computers; consequently, the size of the files filled computers’ memories, thus disabling numerous machines.
An alarming 66% of PCs today are Infected by Spyware and 35% are infected by viruses in the US.
Today, an estimated 1.21 billion people (Computer Industry Almanac) are connected to the Internet with millions of computer hosts connected chatting, exchange files, emails and communicating in general. Can you imagine how easy it is to spread a virus or malware?
One anti-spyware developer, reports that the infection rate of malicious spyware at companies is approximately at 7% and adware appears on an incredible 52% of machines. 3 to 5% of enterprise machines had keyloggers. At homes, the percentages are much higher. The same anti-spyware developer reports that 66% of the PCs scanned by its online tool were found to be infected with an average of 25 spyware entities each. If one were to define cookies as spyware than the rate will shoot up to 88%! Adware was found on 64% of the machines. Viruses and Trojans, reports the company, were found on 7% and 19% of the machines respectively.
According to Panda Software, over 50% of PCs in India and China, for example are infected with a virus. In the US and the UK, the rate is 35%. All in all, this means that many people still remain without active protection today.
Anti-virus is not enough?
In a study performed by security firm Checkbridge, the company ran 2 million email messages through three famous email scanners. None of the programs tested caught all the viruses. The success rates of the scanners varied from 97% to 64%. The CEO of Checkbridge also states that in many cases using two scanners at the same time does not guarantee pinpointing all the viruses all of the time. Similarly, many computer experts report that using two or three anti-spyware programs usually manages to delete 95%+ of spyware.
The Pillars of Security
How can you protect your system and your data in the midst of so many threats to security coming from so many different sources?
Just think, malware (malicious code) has been around for almost 25 years already. Every year, millions of people and businesses lose substantial sums of money in terms of lost and, many times, irrecoverable data. To top it all, some viruses hog system resources and Internet connections making it impossible to work or play. And this does not include the frustration and anger at not being able to pinpoint the source of the problem.
One of the very first steps to protecting your PC is to make sure that the operating system (OS) is updated. This is critical as OS manufacturers such as Microsoft Windows update security features of their products continuously to cover any potential and actual loopholes.
Secondly you should have an updated anti-virus software running on your system. Make sure to choose one of the better ones on the market today - a few dollars wont break you but a virus will. Make sure that the anti-virus software is updated frequently (sometimes even daily if needs be) with fixes to the actual engine and to the database files that contain the latest cures against new viruses, worms and Trojans. The anti-virus software must have the ability of scanning email and files as they are downloaded from the Internet to help prevent malware reaching your system.
Many users are using a third component for their home and/or computer system security - processlibrary.com. This website is a free resource library containing a comprehensive description of over 3000 that may be running on your computer. Searching for the processes is similar to using a search engine - type in the process name and processlibrary.com returns the full description including information on security threat levels if any and ways on removing the malicious code.
You should also consider installing firewall software. A good system prevents unauthorised use and access to your computer from external sources (e.g. hackers or hijackers) plus giving you additional protection against the more common Trojans and worms. A firewall on its own will not get rid of the virus problem but when used in conjunction with your OS updates, anti-virus software and processlibrary.com information, it will give you deeper system security and protection.
A fourth component for security is processlibrary.com and the Windows Task Manager. Processlibrary.com is a free website gives you information on any and all of the processes that you may be running at the moment. With this information you can immediately identify any possible new threats that may have infiltrated into your system. Processlibrary.com definitions will help you cover that window of time until your preferred anti-virus and anti-spyware software vendors update their scanners. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to call up the Windows Task Manager to help you identify most of the processes running on your computer. When identified just search the process within the processlibrary.com database and you’ll have an exact definition and advice on what to do.
Fighting Spyware, Adware and Other Forms of Malware
In some cases, it is not that easy to realise that spyware and related forms of malware are installed on your system.
In other cases, you will almost immediately notice changes to your web browser that you didn’t make. These changes include toolbars that you didn’t want installed, different homepage settings or changes to your security settings and favourites list.
Other signs of spyware include advert pop-ups which are not related to the website being viewed at the time. Many such adverts usually relate to pornography or emoticons or performance/security optimizers and are not displayed as they are usually shown on legitimate adverts. Adverts may also appear when you are not surfing the web. Spyware is not only annoying but it slows your system performance, causes start-up time to increase, hogs your Internet connection and on occasion will lead to system crashes.
You should install an anti-spyware software package. There are some good ones on the market and many experts go as far as suggesting installing two or three since any single package may not be powerful enough to find all the entries and changes to your registry and other files made by spyware. Such malware is installed like any other application on your system thus leaving traces of itself on the registry files of and other places with your system. Anti-spyware works by looking for these traces and deleting them.
Also beware of what you download from the Internet. Make sure that the sources that you download stuff from are know to you - and even here you have to pay extreme attention. For example, not all companies who claim their software contains adware are really offering adware only! There’s always the possibility that there is spyware disguised in the program. Make sure that you read privacy policies and licence agreements. Also firewalls should help you greatly in the fight against spyware and malware.
Kevin James Vella is the Public Relations Manager of Uniblue Systems Ltd, a global software developer. Kevin’s passion for writing and ICT has seen him publishing several articles on personal technology, software, electronic commerce and online marketing.
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Posted by admin on March 24th, 2008 — Posted in Software For Life
Consultants are persons rendering help to others by enabling them to make profits or making them learn from their own experiences. In case an organization has little or no knowledge or experience or expertise in Strategic Planning then a consultant’s help may be sought. It may also be that planning needs to be carried out on an urgent basis, so a consultant is required. It might also happen that the key members are continuously disagreeing upon various issues of planning and there is the need for a Strategic Planning Consultant to step in by providing expertise or facilitation skills to help the members come to a consensus. The very employing of a consultant often gives credibility to plans. Besides, a consultant has an objective perspective and is free from any bias about the organization’s past and present concerns.
Strategic Planning consultants have many applications in many different industries. Professional associates like lawyers, facilitators, trainers, fundraisers, accountants and others may provide consultants. Non-profit organizations may also hire Strategic Planning Consultants.
Though the consultant is there for helping out in the entire planning process, organization members must not become completely dependent on the consultant’s services. Again, instead of getting the consultant sanctioning recommendations by signing, it is advisable if the professional expert hired as a consultant is directly involved in implementing worthwhile recommendations.
One must not go by the fees of the consultants. Expertise should be the judging criteria.
Proper help and guidance must be provided to the Strategic Planning Consultant regarding the organization and its activities beforehand.
Strategic Planning provides detailed information on strategic planning , non-profit strategic planning, strategic business planning, strategic media planning and more. Strategic Planning is affiliated with Strategy Games.
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Posted by admin on March 21st, 2008 — Posted in Software For Life
During the years of our consulting practice, which comes back to East Europe in mid 1990th and then continues in the USA, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Oceania, Germany, Canada - we would like to orient you - business owner, IT director or software programmer. Selection process can take several months and you may end up with non-Microsoft solution. We will give you our Microsoft Business Solutions products serving point of view.
• Small, midsize or large business. In our opinion - this was the to-be-or-not-to-be question of late 1990th when if you are public corporation you had to stick to rich functionality ERP: SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials. When SQL database platforms dropped in the price and Microsoft SQL Server is available for all the budget options - you can stake on midmarket ERP solution to serve even large company
• Great Plains, Navision or Axapta. Great Plains was purchased with the acquisition of Great Plains Software, Navision and Axapta were products of Navision Software and opened the European door for Microsoft. Again - this is what we see from our experience serving clients in these areas and this might not be official Microsoft positioning. We have no intention to do official product positioning here in this small article. Great Plains is popular in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Poland, Middle East, Pakistan, UK, Oceania, Latin America (in Brazil Navision seems to be officially promoted). Navision has very strong position in Europe, plus it has very matured market in the USA due to 1990th marketing efforts of Navision Software. We also see that Microsoft promotes Navision on the so-called emerging markets: Russia, Brazil (where it tries to compete with Microsiga and other local ERPs). Axapta is new ERP and it is targeted to large businesses and so we would say that it has rich functionality and can be considered as alternative bid to Oracle, SAP or PeopleSoft
• ERP Selection Advises. When you select corporate ERP you should think about product life cycle. If product is in the phase out mode - you definitely don’t want to do new purchase and implementation. On the other hand - if product doesn’t have reliable vendor behind and is very innovative - you should also apply portion of conservatism.
• Industries. We are confident in all the products: GP, Navision and Axapta to automate these industries: Aerospace & Defense, Pharmaceutical, Healthcare & Hospitals, Insurance, Textile, Apparels, Services, Placement & Recruiting, Apparels, Beverages, Logistics & Transportation, Food, Restaurants Supply Chain Management, Gold & Mining, Jewelry, Consignment, Wholesale & Retail, Advertising & Publishing
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision, Axapta to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Europe and Latin America
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Posted by admin on March 19th, 2008 — Posted in Software For Life
Outsourcing to India is now more about high quality rather than cost. Indian companies are fast scaling up to match or surpass international quality standards and are ensuring that they stay ahead through stable quality systems and continuous quality improvement.
The Indian BPO industry, which previously relied on its cost effectiveness to attract customers, is now under an entirely different dictatorship. Quality is the new buzzword and is dominating business processes and services like never before. Ninety percent of ITES-BPO companies now have specialized quality departments that are responsible for ensuring accurate, reliable services to their customers. The spotlight in Indian centers is now focused on ensuring standards of quality that are at par with, if not superior to their counterparts abroad.
Defining Quality
Quality departments have a straightforward approach to identifying the areas that require quality control. The first step is the identification of parameters that are ‘critical to quality’. These parameters almost always include the client’s requirements and expectations. Other key factors like accuracy, productivity and turnaround time are also outlined.
Most companies are now also following the process approach. The process approach is a description of the linkages between all the activities that work towards meeting the finest quality standards that have been identified by prevalent quality norms and the client’s expectations.
The Indian Advantage
The Indian advantage lies primarily in the educational and technical qualifications of the personnel, who are often more qualified than the people working in the parent locations. A survey conducted in 2002 by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) showed that an India based ITES-BPO center in the banking and financial service sector, performs better than a UK or US based facility on significant factors such as the number of correct transactions/total umber of transactions, total satisfaction factor, number of transactions per hour and the average speed of answers.
The ITES-BPO industries are most sensitive to incorporating internationally accepted standards of quality assurance. The NASSCOM survey also found that 50 percent of Indian companies have implemented varied levels of ISO (The International Organisation for Standardization, which conceives sets of quality management standards) such as ISO 9002, ISO 9001, ISO 9001:2000, ISO 9001:2001.
The survey also says that 45 percent of Indian service providers have certifications like Six Sigma (a disciplined, statistical quality control method that measures the number of defects compared to the opportunities to make defects) and CMMI ( Capabilty Maturity Model Integration - which is a process improvement method that provides a set of best practices that address productivity, performance, costs, and customer satisfaction.). Moreover, a lot of organizations are upgrading their quality standards to from the ISE 9000 to the new ISO 9000:2000, and from the CMM framework to the new CMMI framework.
Quality Lapses - People and Industries
Despite superior performance levels and accreditation from international bodies, India still remains at a disadvantage when it comes to certifications for quality professionals. There are little or no certifications for quality professionals in India, and those that are available are either US or UK based. Although most companies make their employees undergo the processes for these certifications, the lack of an indigenous certification body is being felt, especially due to the scarcity of training centres for quality assurance and control. The only two popular certifications in the ITES industry are the ‘Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) and the Certified Software Test Engineer (CSTE). Both these certifications are offered by the Quality Assurance Institute, which is again, an international body. But these too are largely considered inadequate by most authorities.
Another major problem concerning industries like the customer contact center industry which relies on verbal one-on-one communication, is the use of incorrect accents and grammar. Quality lapses are felt strongly because of misunderstandings or the customer’s inability to understand Indian accents. Efforts are being made to improve the quality standards in these areas by deploying specific bodies that evaluate prospective employees on English speaking abilities such as accent, grammar, fluency and overall communication skills. The international standard in contact center operations - the COPC certification is now in great demand among Indian contact centres. While six of the top 25 players already have COPC certifications, 12 more companies are in the process of being certified.
Efforts towards Improving Quality
The frenetic pace, with which Indian players are moving towards achieving internationally recognized quality control standards, largely arises out of the awareness that the BPO industries cannot sustain themselves on the advantages of lower costs and English speaking abilities alone. The importance of consistency, low error rates and customer satisfaction has never been felt as strongly as right now.
Naturally, governing bodies like NASSCOM are holding no bars in its efforts to improve quality regulation. By the end of 2004, it plans to introduce a common certification programme across India for aspiring candidates, in terms of the skills and knowledge required by the BPO industry.
Another significant move towards ensuring quality is NASSCOM’s initiative towards controlling issues like copyright infringement. It plans to formulate a comprehensive draft proposal to ensure information security and data privacy. The proposal will also emphasize the need for internal checks and continuous quality reviews, both by the internal senior management team as well as by the client team.
NASSCOM also plans to create a common yardstick for BPO organizations. Attempts to create such a yardstick are being made by Carnegie Mellon University which is involved in developing E-SCM or the E-Services Capability Model. This model is extremely useful for clients who are selecting a suitable service provider, as it allows them to compare the capabilities of different service providers, and also compare issues associated with the initiation and completion of the project.
The concept of benchmarking is also beginning to be used more regularly. Benchmarking is a continuous process of assessing and comparing an organization’s performance with a recognized industry leader. This is especially useful in knowing where a particular company stands in relation to its competitors. It also makes it easier to identify which areas need more attention in terms of quality control.
The Quality Assurance Institute holds various training programmes in Six Sigma, COPC Implementation and Support and non-certified skills like maintaining customer satisfaction, people management, service levels and transaction monitoring.
For a company, ignoring quality now means certain extinction. Quality therefore, is no longer an option, it is the only choice.
For more reading on outsourcing, log on to http://www.outsource2india.com
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