The Browser Wars Take No Prisoners

By Carl Weiss

Those of us who can remember back to the start of the Internet will recall the initial clash of titans as Netscape, one of the web’s first commercially viable web browsers, duked it out with Microsoft.  Even 

Netscape logo 2005–2007, still used in some portals (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

though Microsoft was a Johnny-come-lately in the browser game, IE eventually chipped away at Netscape’s dominance, largely due to its virtual monopoly in the PC operating system market.  It also helped that Microsoft gave away IE with virtually every copy of Windows 95 that it sold, whereas Netscape charged for its browser.  This resulted in AOL, who had acquired Netscape in 1998, filing a lawsuit against Microsoft.  While the suit was settled in AOL’s favor in 2004 for $750 million, it was a case of Netscape winning the battle and losing the war, since by then IE was the clear market leader. By 2007, IE owned 77% of the browser market, compared to Firefox with16% and Netscape six tenths of one percent.

However, this overwhelming victory did not lead to a cessation of hostilities.  In the intervening five years, this technological cold war became hot again as a new player entered the fray. While Microsoft rested on its laurels, with a full five years passing between the release of IE 6 and 7, Google Chrome made its presence known in a big way.  Released in December of 2008, Chrome amassed 37% of the worldwide browser market by 2013.  It did this in part due to the fact that it is fast, secure and stable.  It also introduced a lot of features, such as form auto fill, full screen mode and drag and drop tabs.  More importantly Chrome has also been designed to sync between PC’s, smartphones and tablets.

Of course, that didn’t mean that Microsoft was going to take the emergence of a dynamic competitor like 

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft lying down.  In fact, it was the allure of the emerging mobile computing market that made Microsoft take a leap of faith with the development of Windows 8.  A radical departure from its long line of operating systems, Windows 8 has been seen as so radical a departure from anything that has come before.  In fact, it is so different that Technology Review remarked that,

“Windows 8 is a computer science masterpiece trapped inside a user interface kerfuffle. Microsoft’s new operating system for phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and servers brims with innovative technologies, bold ideas, and visual elegance. The system’s radical new interface, called Modern, is a pleasure to use on phones and tablets. And although that interface fares poorly on today’s larger desktop computer screens, Windows 8 probably won’t damage the company’s standing in corporate America. It might even shore up its eroding presence on residential desktops and laptops by offering a user experience that’s new, fun, and different from anything offered by Apple and Google.”

Of course, not everyone sees Windows 8 in a positive light, including the European Union, which recently fined Microsoft $733 million for denying users in the EU their choice of web browser.  An article in asiantribune.com points out that,

“Microsoft used to give its users the opportunity to choose the web browser, when they installed Windows 7 operating system, in line with an agreement reached with the European Union in 2011. According to European Commission, however, between May 2011 and July 2012, over 15 million EU customers were not given that opportunity, owing to what Microsoft classified as a ‘technical glitch’ made by its software engineering team.”

Most used web browser in country or dependency as of July 2011, according to Statcounter: Blue: Microsoft Internet Explorer Orange: Mozilla Firefox Green: Google Chrome Red: Opera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Glitch or not, Microsoft’s actions and the resulting fine harken back to the original browser war with 

Netscape.  This comes as little surprise to those in the know, since according to statistics from StatCounter, Internet Explorer is still dominant in North America with 39% of the browser market.  However, Google Chrome is the big dog in exotic locales such as Europe, South America and Asia.  And Mozilla’s Firefox is still a contender, with 16% of the US market, 28% of the European market and 18% of markets in Asia, South America and Africa.

Microsoft is also not averse to firing a few shots across the bows of competitors, as Google found out it was pulled into a patent lawsuit that could lead to a ban of Google Maps in Germany.

According to Florian Muller of FOSS Patents, “Microsoft’s EP0845124 patent in Europe is for a “computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor” and was issued in 1996. The issue was discussed in a regional court in Munich today and as Mueller notes, it doesn’t look like Google was able to convince the judge “that the patent is highly probable to be invalidated at the end of a parallel nullity proceeding.”

Image via CrunchBase

Should Microsoft win the injunction, Google would be forced to shut down its mapping service in Germany

 on both PC and mobile networks.  It could also be ordered to stop selling Chrome in Germany unless it blocks German users from accessing Google Maps.

While the outcome of the latest iteration of the browser wars is anything but certain, the battle for the hearts and minds of the web surfing public is so lucrative that this clash of the titans could result in total domination for one of the combatants.  Or, it could leave the door open to yet another up and comer who realizes that with the superpowers engaged in a take-no-prisoners brand of all out warfare, this is the perfect time to stage a palace coup.

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group and owner of Jacksonville Video.  You can also hear him live on Blog Talk Radio every Tuesday at 4pm Eastern.

Getting Gamed

by Carl Weiss

Would you give your eight year old a credit card?  Of course not.  But that is what in essence has happened to many parents who allowed their children to play “free” game apps online, only to discover the following month that they had been billed hundreds or even thousands of dollars. 

In a recent blog by ctwatchdog.com, “C.W. of Simsbury said he was stunned in March when he discovered that his eight year old son ran up more than $7,600 in four days playing games, free games like Dragonvale and Tiny Tower – games that encourage children to use real money to purchase virtual objects to make the games more fun.”

Fun was not the word that C.W. used when he complained to his credit card company, who subsequently deleted the charges and refused to pay the app developer.  He was lucky, but many other parents were not.  Parents from as far away as Australia have felt the sting of these unauthorized charges.  What many parents do not realize is that many of these "free games" have been designed to hook the child into playing the game, only to create anxiety for the child which can only be relieved by clicking on links that authorize payment.  Furthermore, the language used online to elicit payment is frequently confusing or even misleading. 

In a televised interview produced by the Australian Broadcast Corporation, Elise Davidson from the consumer group ACCAN states that the wording on some games is confusing. “It’s not really clear that you are spending real money.”    

Worst of all, instead of insisting on more stringent rules, including default parental consent in order to make a purchase, the interview goes on to explain that the companies who profit from these games, including Apple which owns iTunes, put the onus back on the parents' shoulders.  Meanwhile, app developers are free to exploit the psychological vulnerabilities inherent in youngsters.

Mark Textor, MD, explains it this way: “They're games, yes, but they're seen to be addictive games which are monetized, and those three together spell, well, this is gambling for infants.”

And this is one game that parents are not likely to win, especially when companies like Apple have designed all their devices to work using the same password.  Since Apple introduced in-app purchasing, developers have seen a quantum leap in profitability.  Consumers on the other hand have been seeing red, since this system has led to a blank check purchasing mechanism that puts a parent at risk of their children making any number of purchases using everything from iPhones, to iPads, iPods and even Apple TV.  And while Apple says that parents can enable restrictions on their devices to prevent access to specific features, for many this is seen as too little too late.

If you are a parent who wants to avoid getting gamed, go to this blog on iappkids.com to learn how to disable in-app purchases and avoid sticker shock the next time your credit card bill arrives.

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group and Jacksonville Video Production.  He can also be heard live every week at 4pm Eastern on Blog Talk Radio.

With Two You get Malware

By Carl Weiss

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Internet, a major wave of cybercrime reared its ugly head this month.  This time it wasn’t inspired by teenage pranksters on the prowl.  Nor was it the Russian mob trying to break into financial institutions once again.  No this time the culprits were state-sponsored hackers who wore military uniforms and lived in military barracks.  What I’m talking about is the latest hack attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army which came to light to the nation at large on Monday, March 11, when Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national security adviser stated in a speech in New York City,

“Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyberintrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale. The international community cannot tolerate such activity from any country.” (Click here to read the slate.com blog.)

While this may have been news to the masses, to those in the know, this public revelation came as nothing new.  Everyone in the administration from the Department of Defense to Congress has for some time been portraying China as a menace to both national security and business interests who have been methodically stripped of intellectual property in a series of overt attacks that Top US officials admitted posed a greater potential threat then Al Qaeda. 

In a quote from the LA Times, “Mandiant Corp., a U.S. computer security firm based in Alexandria, Va., said in a report last month that it had traced an epidemic of attacks on dozens of U.S. and Canadian companies to an office building in Shanghai occupied by an espionage unit of the People's Liberation Army.”

Unlike many hackers who get a vicarious thrill from penetrating computer networks, what makes this hacking unusual is that many of the Chinese hackers are conscripts who are forced to work long hours for low pay.  This has caused several disaffected hackers to post blogs lamenting the conditions under which they work.  It has also led Mandiant and reporters to track down the nexus of hacking activity to an office building in Shanghai occupied by an espionage unit of the People’s Liberation Army.

“Richard Bejtlich, Mandiant's security chief, said posts written by the blogger, who called himself "Rocy Bird," provided the most detailed first-person account known to date of life inside the hacking establishment. The hacker, whose real family name is Wang, posted some 625 entries between 2006 and 2009. "Fate has made me feel that I am imprisoned," he wrote in his first entry on Sina.com. "I want to escape."

Los Angeles Times reporters tracked down Wang and his blog through an email address that was listed in a published 2006 paper about hacking. A coauthor of the paper was Mei Qiang, identified by Mandiant as a key hacker who operated under the alias "Super Hard" in Unit 61398.

One of many Chinese military units linked to hacking, Unit 61398 falls under the People's Liberation Army's General Staff 3rd Department, 2nd Bureau, which is roughly equivalent to the U.S. National Security Agency.” 

What makes this current iteration of hacking so troubling is its sheer scope.  Where most hacking collectives specialize in homing in on certain high value targets, Unit 613898 has been implicated in attacks on hundreds of American companies, including cyber security firms and government defense contractors.  They have also purportedly gained access to the networks of a company that helps in the operation of the US utility grid.

More troubling still is the fact that this is only the tip of the cyber espionage iceberg.  How far have these hackers gotten?  A recent article by the Washington Poststates that, “Start asking security experts which powerful Washington institutions have been penetrated by Chinese cyberspies,” report my colleagues Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima, “and this is the usual answer: almost all of them.”

Known targets have included everything from Washington law firms, news organizations and think tanks, to the Federal Reserve, embassies, congressional offices and even the White House.  The attacks have become so wide spread and commonplace that it has led some to lament that, “If you aren’t being hacked by the Chinese, then you probably don’t matter.”

What’s more troubling still is the lack of response from the federal government to these overt attacks.  A March 3 article in theNew York Times, points out that, “No one in the administration argues that the United States should respond with cyber- or physical retaliation for the theft of secrets. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has made clear that would be dealt with in criminal courts, though the prosecutions of cybertheft by foreign sources have been few.” 

While some have tried to get the government involved in the defense of private corporate networks, some of which control everything from the Internet and cellphone networks to financial institutions, the Administration has been busy trying to put the onus on private industry.

“We are in a race against time,” Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of homeland security, said last week. “Most of the infrastructure is in private hands. The government is not going to be able to manage this like the air traffic control system. We’re going to have to enlist a large number of independent actors.”

That this trend is a growing menace is all too clear. The potential for a technological Pearl Harbor is an all too real and present danger.  When you consider that there are no fewer than a dozen countries including Iran that are developing offensive cyberweapons designed to cause catastrophic failure in key elements of the US infrastructure, most cyber security experts agree that time is not on our side. 

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.   You can listen to Carl live every Tuesday at 4pm Central on BlogTalkRadio.

Crash Course on Copyrights

by Carl Weiss

If you work the web you need to be cognizant about copyright issues.  What most people who publish blogs and social posts online do not realize is that for the most part, the writer relinquishes all rights to the publisher when it comes to online publications.  That's right, Virginia, all the blogs, social posts and tweets you sent out to the Internet now belong to the folks at Google and Twitter and Facebook.  Add to this the fact that you can still be held liable for copyright infringement or even sued for libel on anything you post online and this adds up to double indemnity for everyone concerned.

Who Owns What Online?

To make matters worse, there is recent legislation that even makes you liable for everything from illicitly  copying music and videos from the Internet to unlocking your cellphone.  As of the publication of this blog it is still illegal for you to unlock any phone bought after January 2013 so that you can use it on another cellphone network.  This move actually contravenes laws created back in 2006 and 2010 that permitted cellphone users to unlock their own phones.  

A recent article from the Bangor Daily News states, " Following a recent pitch from the wireless industry, the library determined in its most recent review that consumers no longer need the exception. Carriers say they unlock users’ phones under many conditions, and customers can find phones that are unlocked from the start. The wireless industry, meanwhile, insists that preventing users from unlocking their phones is an important protection of its business model, under which wireless providers subsidize the purchase of phones when customers sign up for a lengthy service contract.

But why should the government guarantee the viability of that business model — especially at the threat of criminal penalty? And why should copyright law be misused to do it? The industry has other tools available, beginning with hefty penalties for breaking a contract, to make the costs and benefits of these arrangements explicit to consumers. If the business model is indeed viable, companies should flourish under those conditions, as they did during the years in which mobile customers had the Library of Congress’s permission to unlock their phones.

In response to an online petition, R. David Edelman, President Barack Obama’s senior adviser for Internet, innovation and privacy, announced that the White House would support “narrow legislative fixes” to change the phone-unlocking policy permanently. “Neither criminal law nor technological locks,” he wrote, “should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.” What, though, about those who want to pay an early-termination fee to break their service agreements? Or those who want to use their phones on different networks while abroad without asking for permission? We can’t think of a good reason why they should be subject to the threat of criminal sanction for unlocking their devices. Neither, we trust, will Congress as it examines the issue."

The Bigger They Are...

Don't feel bad, because many of the biggest online companies in the world have been dragged into the 

Image via CrunchBase

copyright infringement fracas, including Google, which has had to defend itself from lawsuits involving everything from multinational conglomerates to European nations.  Everyone from the Author's Guild to Viacom to Germany have sued Google in the past with mixed results.  Google won over Viacom when the judge ruled that the US based YouTube was protected under copyright law.  They also won the suit filed against them in Germany which concerned the use and display of thumbnail images that popped up as mixed media in Google searches. However they weren't so lucky when they were forced to settle the lawsuit with the Author's Guild to the tune of $125 million.

Google has settled the class action litigation entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., which alleged that Google Book Search, including the company’s practice of scanning books to distribute them online, violated the copyrights of publishers and authors. Subject to final court approval, the settlement calls for Google to pay $125 million to litigants and clears the way for Google to continue scanning books. It also establishes some novel services and distribution mechanisms for the future.

The plaintiffs suing Google included The Authors Guild (and individual authors) and the Association of American Publishers, which includes The McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster. The plaintiffs claimed that Google’s plan to scan and distribute part of all of copyrighted books online, without the explicit permission of the authors and publishers, was a violation of US copyright law.

Now that the cases have been tentatively settled, a “Book Rights Registry” is being created “to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees.” That will be funded by Google’s $125 million settlement payment.

Back to Basics

While lawsuits against major online players continues to rear their ugly heads from time to time, this dilemma is almost as old as the World Wide Web itself.  In fact back in 1998 the Digital Millenium Copyright Act  was passed that created a safe harbor for online service providers by shielding them from their own acts of direct copyright infringement as well as shielding them from liability for infringement caused by others on their network.  

An excerpt from Wikipedia concerning the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act states that, "The 1998 DMCA was the U.S. implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) directive to “maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information”^[1] when updating copyright norms for the digital age. In the context of Internet intermediaries, OCILLA attempts to strike this balance by immunizing OSP’s for copyright liability stemming from their own acts of direct copyright infringement (as primary infringers of copyright), as well as from the acts of their users (as secondary infringers of copyright), provided that OSP’s comply with two general requirements protecting the rights of authors.

First, the OSP must “adopt and reasonably implement a policy” of addressing and terminating accounts of users who are found to be “repeat infringers.” Second, the OSP must accommodate and not interfere with “standard technical measures.” OSPs may qualify for one or more of the Section 512 safe harbors under § 512(a)-(d), for immunity from copyright liability stemming from: transmitting, caching, storing, or linking  to infringing material. An OSP who complies with the requirements for a given safe harbor is not liable for money damages, but may still be ordered by a court to perform specific actions such as disabling access to infringing material.

In addition to the two general requirements listed above, all four safe harbors impose additional 

Image via CrunchBase

requirements for immunity. The safe harbor for storage of infringing material under § 512(c) is the most commonly encountered because it immunizes OSPs such as YouTube that might inadvertently host infringing material uploaded by users."

While OCILLA’s passage clearly represented a victory for telecom groups over powerful copyright interests who wanted service providers to be held liable for the acts of their users, the copyright owners as it turned out obtained valuable concessions. In addition to the general and specific preconditions on the created immunity, OCILLA requires online service providers seeking an immunity to designate an agent to whom notices of copyright infringement can be sent, as well as disclosing information about users who are purportedly violate the letter of the law. The OSP also agrees to remove repeat offenders and to receive no direct financial benefit from the presence of infringed material.  

This latter inclusion is a spinoff from the 2001 lawsuit in which A&M Records sued Napster.  Started by 18-year-old college student Shawn Fanning, If you will recall, Napster allowed users to download digital music from other user's machines.    Unlike many other peer-to-peer services, Napster not only created a list of indexed user files, they directly profited from the service.  In essence Napster made money by allowing others to virtually strip mine songs from other sites without paying the musicians who created them or the labels that produced them a fee.  As a result, music industry revenues took a precipitous fall and have not truly recovered since.

Watching the Watchers

With the prevalence of file sharing sites and software, it isn't only the music industry that is effected.  The motion picture industry and television networks have also found fault with the Internet.  So much so that last week the Copyright Alert System was launched.  

Created by the recording and film industry, it essentially deputizes copyright holders who stealthily monitor peer-to-peer networks for illegal sharing of movies, TV shows, and music. When they notice material is being illegally shared, they contact the crook's ISP, which in turn will send a warning message to the subscriber. After six strikes, the ISP will do more than spam you; it can choose to slow your access speed, temporarily downgrade you to a lower-tier service, or automatically direct you to a special landing page until you contact them or complete an online education program.
Read more

While the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America insist that they aren't out to persecute offenders, appealing any alleged violations will cost the accused a minimum of $35. That the CAS is targeted toward consumers and not major criminal elements is apparent when you consider the fact that cybercriminals have the ability to mask the origin of their act of piracy.  So what the CAS amounts to in the eyes of many watchdog groups is nothing short of online vigilantism.

What this and other online copyright legislation mean to you and I is that we all need to watch our P's and Q's. Other legislation like the 2012 Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) also provided search engines, online advertising companies and payment processors with the ability to sever ties with accused copyright violators at will. CAS even provides online service providers with the ability to slow a user's access speed, or automatically direct perceived violators to a landing page until contacted by the purported offender.

An article on Business Insider entitled The Dumbest Examples of Online Copyright Law Enforcement, states that, " In the last several years, the DMCA's notice and takedown provisions have been used by less than scrupulous parties to bully websites into removing competitor content which, more often than not, did not infringe any of the parties' rights. For example:

·         "Paranormalist" Uri Geller got YouTube to remove a video of a 1993 PBS piece that Geller did not own which debunked the psychic's special abilities. The poster's YouTube account was also suspended.

·         Competitors of dancer/model/actress Elizabeth "Sky" Ordonez registered the trademark ELIZABETH SKY and got Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to take down the actress' pages based on nonsense claims of trademark infringement.

·         Most recently, Warner Bros. admitted that it did not bother to confirm whether a slew of content that it asked cyberlocker website Hotfile.com to take down actually infringed on its copyrights. (In a rare show of support for its users, the content publisher sued Warner Bros. for violating the DMCA by making a false take-down request.)

In each of the above cases, the innocent parties were ultimately successful in getting their content back online but only after having had their content down for, at minimum, the two week period that the DMCA sets out for takedown counter-notices.  In the above example, Elizabeth Sky was awarded $78,000 for damage caused to her "online presence."  Of course, the above examples made the news because the victims had the resources to get lawyers and fight back. When it comes to young startups, such successful outcomes are far less likely.  Now enter SOPA, the newest, biggest bully in the yard."

While there is no question that online piracy and other forms of digital copyright infringement are a serious and costly blight to businesses large and small, it seems that government has provided industry with just the kind of clout that many Internet advocates believe target consumers to the detriment of all concerned.  

Carl Weiss is president of WSquared Media Group, a digital marketing agency located in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is also owner of Jacksonville Video.  You can hear Carl live at 4pm Eastern every Tuesday on Blog Talk Radio.

Twick or Tweet - Twitter Gets Hacked

by Hector Cisneros

You may have read that Twitter was recently hacked.  This should come as no surprise to many since, LinkedIn, Facebook and even Microsoft's have been hit in recent months.  In this blog we will look at the inherent vulnerabilities of all social networks, as well as what can happen should your account get compromised.  We will also discuss how reduce vulnerabilities  on social sites and what you need to do to do, when it's your turn to answer the question, “Twick or Tweet?"

The Wild, Wild Web

With the advent of social networking the World Wide Web has created a revolution in connectivity that provides information to and on the masses. However with the benefits of widespread connecting have come the flip side of the coin. Criminals, con artist and other black hatters are exploiting the same openness that this connecting has wrought.

Criminals routinely exploit social nets in two ways: The first is by means of specialized hacker code designed to gain access to or install itself on an unsuspecting user's  computer, tablet or smart phone. The second means of exploitation is the use of social interaction to gain a persons trust in order to glean personal information. This is achieved by interacting and engaging with the victim as if they were a friend, family member or coworker.  In many cases these two techniques are used together to gain access or control of the unsuspecting users' internet connected device.

Social Nets are Not as Free as You Might Think

The cost of these kinds of exploitation does not come cheap. Cost can be measured as lost revenue for a business and it’s advertisers. A loss of a subscriber also costs money.  Acquiring new subscribers and retaining them is always a major cost to any businesses. Fraud prevention and security costs are high and fraud recovery costs can't easily be measured. The annual cost to the world at large is in the billions. It's often hard to get accurate statistics because most of the fraud is tracked by category, (mobile, viruses, Trojans, phishing, drive by, website impersonation, etc.…) and most don’t combine their statistic preferring to list them separately.  Reported Internet scams in the USA topped 485 million in 2010. The last worldwide figures I found were with NBCNews.com which reported 2.6 billion in 2004. That article also went on to say that, annual increases were coming in at 700 million dollars a year. That would put the worldwide fraud cost at approximately 6 billion dollars in 2013.

A 2011 ComScore report estimated that anywhere from 2.7 to 10.1% was the worldwide website fraud rate. The article went on further to point out that if we assume a 6% average rate that 72 million users are at risk of becoming fraud victims’ in the USA  alone.

Who’s Getting Hacked?

The sad and scary reality today is that anyone can be hacked. Any company, any bank, any government agency and any individual's data and identity can be stolen. The FBI and the NSA recently announced a security breach of their own site. Several large banking institutions internet accounts were recently compromised. This post was written because several of the largest social media networks were recently hacked. Several prominent corporate subscriber passwords were stolen and their account pages were altered. The bigger the organization the greater the chance of them being attacked. As far as individuals go, the elderly are targeted more often than young. These scams are widespread and vary in style, breath and persistence.

Long list of vulnerabilities and attacks

The FBI’s counterintelligence agency provides a long list of tactics used to compromise a person’s sensitive and financial information. Tactics can include baiting, click-jacking, cross-site scripting, doxing, elicitation, pharming, phising, phreaking and many other scams. A great article to read regarding the detail of these methods is “Internet Social Networking Risk” provided by the FBI.

Is There a Solution?

The problem is so extensive that to combat it will require a whole new mindset for all internet users. Businesses will have to implement employee education programs to teach employee how to be safe and vigilant internet users. Counter hacker software will have to be improved and be adopted more readily. Currently most smart phones and tablets are not protected with any kind of malware protection. Users will have to learn to be smarter internet user by creating better passwords and by engaging in smarter surfing and email behavior. This can come about through education promoted by the larger internet players (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple etc.…) and by the widespread adoption of two-factor authentication practices. This new so called 2FA practice is where a user name and passwords are followed by an additional external authentication token passed along through a phone call, email or postcard. This additional token like a pin number, symbol or picture, provides and additional layers of defense. Some even use a special picture or avatar on their websites to provide proof of the website's authenticity. You see this type of authentication being deployed by banks, financial institution and companies like Google, Facebook and others.

We need to secure all internet connected devices. All computers, smart phones, tablets, and game consoles must be protected. Even the new smart TV’s and internet ready video streaming devices are vulnerable. Any device that employs computer technology and is connected to the internet is vulnerable. Securing all devices will move our world towards a safer computing environment. We need to have multiple layers of protection in place. One antivirus program is not enough anymore. We have to monitor our internet traffic and we need to create and implement internet usage policies, both for our businesses and our personal usages.

In this post, I have discussed the overall vulnerability problem we now face because of the growth and widespread adoption of social media networks. We have discussed the cost of this problem, who is being attacked and who is vulnerable. We have discussed the types of attacks being perpetrated and the possible solutions needed to solve this massive problem. If you have  learned something  from this post, pass it on to your friends. If you have, any additional ideas about this subject feel free to share them with our readers. 

Cyber attacks have been increasing exponentially over the last couple of years. Until all internet users implement protective measures, engage in smart and defensive surfing and start to use social media in a more prudent manner, this problem will only grow. I hope you take the FBI’s warning seriously and implement some of the solutions talked about here. Keep protecting what yours. That’s my opinion; I look forward to hearing yours.

 Hector Cisneros is COO of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  You can hear Hector live at 4pm Eastern every Tuesday on his radio show Working the Web to Win.

Next Tech

by Carl Weiss

If you think the World Wide Web has gotten crowded now that everything from tablets to phones are surfing the web, wait until you get a look at some of the next generation technologies.  Soon your wristwatch and glasses will be internet-ready.   There could even be a personal robot and aerial drone in your future.  So if you think it's already a Wild, Wild Web, you haven't seen anything yet.

Watch Out!

Since the advent of the smartphone many people no longer wear a watch.  But if Apple and a number of other companies and startups have their way, wearing a computer on your wrist could soon be consider hip. 

The much ballyhooed iWatch isn’t even on the shelf yet but it has already stirred up a lot of interest.  As of the date of this article, there isn’t even a definitive picture of what the iWatch will look like, let alone the kind of capabilities the device will incorporate, but that doesn’t stop the rumor mill. What it has done is stir up keen interest by competitors and emulators. So much so that there are already competing products available, such as Kickstarter funded Pebble.  While the Pebble looks more or less like a conventional wristwatch at first glance, it is more closely associated with a smartphone than it is with a timex, due to the fact that it is programmable.

The company says on its Web site that "apps bring Pebble to life." The device is "infinitely customizable." This means you can download everything different watch faces to Internet-connected apps that will allow you to use your smartwatch as a fitness tracker, accessing GPS on your smartphone to display speed, distance, and pace data. You can also use the music control app to play, pause, or skip tracks on your phone.  This new smartwatch has a 1.26-inch screen that uses e-paper technology so that it can be viewed even in bright sunlight. The device is water resistant, and it's battery should last a week on one charge.

Wrist This!

It turns out that the wrist isn’t only for watches, if Thalmic Labs has anything to say about it.  Their Myo (pronounced me-oh) armband is designed to control a computer or other device using hand and arm gestures. While the device is not yet on store shelves, preorders are being taken for $149.00, with the expected ship date being late this year.

“Myo fits around a user's arm just below the elbow. Users have access to a range of controls, allowing them to navigate pages by swiping in the air with two fingers, stop tracks in iTunes by clenching a fist, control first person shooters by mimicking a gun, and more. 


Myo's range of gesture controls stems from the device's monitoring of the electrical signals passing through the arm muscles of its wearer. Different arm and hand motions require different muscle movements, and the device's sensors pick up on the different electrical activity, translating it into digital commands.”

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/25/myo-brings-a-new-twist-on-gesture-control-for-macs-pcs

The Digital High Ground

Of course, as anyone knows, when it comes to shooting for the digital high ground, you have to aim high.  This is exactly what Google has done with its latest innovation, called Glass.  While not exactly available on the shelf, Google has made the device available to app creators along with limited numbers of the general public who are willing to shell out $1,500.00 and travel to New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles to pick up their prize.  That’s right, I said prize, because in order to qualify, you need to enter a contest in which you come up with a creative way in which to use Glass. If you are one of the lucky “winners” you will be one of the first to experience the all-encompassing sensation of sporting a wearable computer.

Joshua Topolsky at The Verge tried out Glass at Google’s New York City headquarters and reported that acclimation to the device was very easy. “The privacy issue is going to be a big hurdle for Google with Glass,” Topolsky says. “Almost as big as the hurdle it has to jump over to convince normal people to wear something as alien and unfashionable as Glass seems right now.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2013/02/25/its-official-google-glass-is-here/

Seeing is Believing

While wearing a computer on your head might seem a bit self-conscious to some, when it comes to the next wave in digital technology, the sky’s the limit…quite literally.  What I’m alluding to are personal aerial drones.  While you may have read about or seen the Pentagon’s predator UAV, think smaller when you think PAD.  Literally dozens of companies have created remote controlled miniature aircraft replete with cameras.  Able to hover, these aren’t the toy helicopters you played with as kids.  These are highly sophisticated aerial surveillance platforms that retail anywhere from $300.00 to tens of thousands of dollars.  While units at the high end of the price range are mostly being used by law enforcement agencies, those at the lower echelon are eminently available to the public.

Parrot AR Drone flights (Photo credit: Mike Miley)

“For example, the Parrot AR Drone, has a range of about 160 feet, is controlled by a smart phone app, and can be bought at Toys R Us for $300. It's aimed at teens and adults that want an enhanced video game experience. Parrot said sales have already exceeded 500,000.  3D Robotics makes a $500 drone that flies itself via GPS, scouring fields for information on crop conditions including water levels, pest infestations and other signs of trouble. Currently, Anderson said farmers pay $1,000 an hour for aircraft flyovers, a cost that's prohibitively expensive.”

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/09/technology/drones/index.html

While some would consider these devices as toys, the ACLU is already looking into the ways in which this kind of technology has the potential to infringe on personal privacy.

"The technology of surveillance is becoming retail, and that will pose real challenges to our traditional notion of privacy," said Catherine Crump, an ACLU attorney. With ever-shrinking size and ever better camera technology, the group is concerned that people acting under the assumption that they're in the privacy of their own homes or yards could be wrong. Crump said. "It's not clear that there's anything restricting someone from flying a drone over the property of others."

Sweeping with the Enemy

With everything from the government to search engine data collection  slowly but surely eroding our privacy, you wouldn’t think that Americans by and large would be keen to embrace even more technology into their lives.  And you would be wrong.  At least you are when it comes to eliminating mindless routine and thankless chores from their lives.  While the personal robot isn’t exactly going to emulate Rosie the robot from the Jetsons (not at least you have a spare $400,000 lying around), the market for these devices is clearly a growth industry.

English: iRobot Scooba 380 floor washing robot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes, Virginia, there are currently robots that will do everything from cleaning your floors (Roomba) to mowing the lawn (Robomow).  They can also clean the gutter (Looj), the pool (Verro), and even wet mop your tile (Scooba). The Cadillac of domestic robots is without a doubt Willow Garage’s PR2, a unit that is capable of shooting pool, baking cookies and even fetching and opening a beer from the fridge. (You can’t make this stuff up.  See video  at the link below.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57555752/personal-robots-moving-closer-to-reality/

Like any technology, robotics can be a two-edged sword.  What could be a time saving device could eventually cost people jobs. Check out the description of Sears RoboMower:

Work Smart, Not Hard This Summer With The Right Lawnmower

Whether you wish to spend your free time basking in the warm summer sun, working on important summer projects or heading out to the beach, take a tedious task off your plate and spend more time the way you want to. Add the RoboMower robotic lawn mower to your tool collection and make an effective friend that'll keep your yard in order week after week so you can get out and enjoy life in the sun.

Moving at .5 meters per second, this Robomower makes short work of standard yards while giving you a neat uniform cut and depositing mulch, giving you a thicker, healthier lawn without all the work. 

Tell me this technology isn’t going to reek havoc with the wallets of every enterprising teenager in town.  Of course, then there is the flip side of the coin where most teenagers would be more than happy if they ever again had to mow a lawn.  In essence this is the meme of technology; that some will benefit, others will be supplanted and inevitably when it comes to technology, we will all need to adjust our personal comfort zones. 

Carl Weiss has helps clients deal with technology on a daily basis.  He is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  He also owns and operates Jacksonville Video Production, a digital video production company.

Leveraging LinkedIn

by Hector "The Connector" Cisneros

If your company is a B2B entity that is trying to use social media without all that much success, leveraging LinkedIn could be the solution.  If you are an executive who wants to climb the corporate ladder but you really don't know where to start you could also benefit from LinkedIn In this article we will explore the following three areas:

1.      What it takes to use LinkedIn in order to maximize your exposure.

2.      The built-in tools that maximize your connections.

3.      How to put together a cohesive strategy to get the biggest bang for your efforts.

Social is Not Selling

Social media is not selling, t least not in the conventional sense. Social networking is more about connecting, sharing  and following. The closest thing to selling in social networking is word of mouth. The marketing part comes into play when a friend family member, co-worker or customer sings your praises. These testimonials are priceless and here is where you can strike gold with LinkedIn.

Make sure you provide testimonials and referrals for those who do the same for you. LinkedIn has a built-in mechanism that allows you to effectively provide testimonials and recommendations for others. It also automatically asks the recipient to reciprocate. Be generous but honest with your responses, compliments and testimonials. Being courteous and active will get you a long way.

Recommendations are listed under the “Profile” navigation link. In fact, this is where you should start. Make sure your profile is as complete as possible. Leave out sensitive information like your social security number, children’s names, home address etc.… but be thorough enough so that anyone reading your profile will feel they are getting a good look at whom they are dealing with.

Help is Just a Click Away

If you’re just starting out, know that LinkedIn has a very good built-in help directory. The “Help Center” is located under the “More” navigation link. The “Help Center” provides just about everything you would ever need if you got stuck. On top of that, LinkedIn provides many wizards to help you walk through setting up your personal or business profile.  If you're still stuck, you can always go to YouTube and do a search on LinkedIn and you will find hundreds of free training videos to learn from. Just make sure they are current.

It’s Not What You Know

Your contacts are the people you have connected with within LinkedIn. Connect provides a way to invite people to connect with you. You can invite people by importing a contact list from Gmail or a CVS file you have created in Microsoft Excel. You can also invite people to follow you if you see them listed in a people search via the search bar.  You can also organize your connections by categories you create.  These are called Tags. Tags allow you to create categories like friends, college buddies, BNI members etc…  Profiles allow you to organize connections from saved searches of people you may or may not be connected to. This is a great tool for salespeople. However it’s only useful if you have the pro version of LinkedIn. More on this later.

The Inbox

The Inbox lists messages you have received and have sent. It also allows you to send invitations to people you may know. This list is based on the 2nd and 3^rd tier connection possibilities of people to whom you are already connected. Just remember that when you click on the “Connect” button, you need to know the person you're attempting to connect with. Inviting people you don’t know is considered spam mail in LinkedIn. You do have more flexibility with the Pro version, but even there you have to use common sense. If you join “Groups” you are considered connected with the members of the group. It’s considered OK to invite these people. They can always choose to ignore you anyway. One last thing on the Inbox and connecting. You don’t have to connect with everyone. Read a person’s profile and make a decision based on whether it seems right for you.

News Feeds

When I refer to news feeds I am actually referring to two items in LinkedIn. One is under the “Home” navigation link on LinkedIn and the other is under the “News” navigation link. Your “Home” page lists post from all the people you follow and are connected to. When they or you type something in the “Share an update…” box it goes out to everyone you're connected to. A similar box is available for any group you are a member of.

The other part of the “News” feed is under the “News” navigation link.  This provides access to LinkedIn’s online news feeds that it considers tailored for you. Here you can customize your news feed so that it provides news items in which you are interested. This is a great resource if you use other social networks like Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus. These quality articles can also be used as content that you can post to your other social networks.

Search and Connect

LinkedIn has over 200 million subscribers of which 500,000+ are executives. If you are in sales,  you will love the capabilities of the Search tool.  You can search by a person’s name, company, industry, location, title, Groups, relationships, Seniority Level, Interest, function, language, company size and ranking on the Fortune 1000. Here is where having the Pro (meaning paid version) of LinkedIn pays off. The Pro version allows you to contact anyone (between 10 and 50 per month depending on which level you have purchased). It allows you to create premium filters, save profiles you have created and much more.

Regardless of what level you use (free or pro) the search feature is very powerful. It can save you a lot of time and money when you’re trying to connect with a business owner or decision maker. If you don’t have the Pro version you will have to use an intermediary to connect with someone. LinkedIn always shows if you are connected to someone by someone else you know. Once you determine that a connection exists, ask your friend, co-worker or associate to make the introduction for you. One they introduce you get connected and send an invitation invite to meet with you or offer to help them in some way.  Don’t always go for the throat and try sell to them. Remember that social media is about building trust and credibility through word of mouth, not direct selling.

There’s Strength in Numbers

To join a LinkedIn group, click on the “Groups” navigation link. Groups are a little like clubs that are virtual where everyone connect through posts and messages. They all have their own rules and most groups usually have a somewhat narrow focus.  Joining a group gives you access to the members of the group. You will be able to participate in the online conversations and topics that take place. Being active in a group is a great way to connect with like-minded people. It can also be a great way to connect with potential clients. As mentioned earlier, by joining a group you gain access to its members and are allowed to invite them to connect with you and join your network.

Don’t see a group with a focus you like? Create your own group where you are the moderator and you set up the focus and rules. Click on the “Create a group” link in the “Groups” section and answer the questions to create your own group. Once you set up your group you need to invite people you are connected with to join. You can also invite people from other groups you are a member of. LinkedIn will even help from time to time once it determines what your group’s focus is. It will invite people who show an interest in your focus by sending them an invitation to join.

Company Pages

Any business owner can and should create a business profile on LinkedIn.  Just like an individual profile, a business profile needs to be complete.  This is the place to list mission statements, unique selling propositions, product profiles, service listing, brochures, videos, and testimonials. It’s very important that you use the proper “keywords” in your profile. These profiles rank in the top search engines. Leaving out important information will get you left out of the search engines. To add a company, look for the link just below the Search Box when you click on the “Companies” navigation link. The “Companies” link also allows you to search for companies by name, keyword or industry. It also lets you to follow specific company posts to see what they are saying and doing.

Need a Job?

If you’re looking for a job or you’re looking for employees, this is the LinkedIn tool for you. By clicking on the “Jobs” navigation link you can choose to; “Find Jobs”, join “Job Seeker Premium”, “Post a Job”, “Manage Your Jobs,” or use the Talent Solutions“ feature. This is another LinkedIn tool that I could write a whole article on. Needless to say, if you’re looking for a job, you can find lots of jobs here. Generally these will be top career jobs not entry level positions. These jobs will be from around the world and cover every aspect of employment. If you’re looking for a good paying career position, you may want to look into using their paid Job Seeker Premium service. It allows you to contact executives and decision makers directly (up to 10 a month). This $40 a month investment could help you land that position you’ve always dreamed about.

If you’re on the other side of the equation and are looking for talented people, LinkedIn “Jobs Posting” and paid “Talent Solutions” functions can be very powerful tools. The free post allows you to list positions and get connected with job seekers. The “Talent Solution” is a separate, full featured, paid, recruitment system.

LinkedIn Ads

Like most other social media venues, LinkedIn is monetized. One of the ways they make money is by selling advertising space on their site. This includes the side panels of all pages, and at the top of the page via a text ad. LinkedIn can be a very cost effective advertising medium, primarily because you can target your audience. It is also a great place for A/B testing of ads. The Ad wizard will walk you through creating your ad or A/B test and it will provide what the minimal cost per click will run. You can also run ads based on either a pay per 1000 impressions or pay per click. Your ads can contain a picture, can point to something in LinkedIn, or to most websites, or even a blog. If you're selling a tangle product or service, this is one of the low cost leaders in pay per click, especially if you sell B2B.  The LinkedIn PPC system works well and is worth looking into.

Who You Gonna Call?

Have a question you need answered?  Want to know what skills you need for a specific job or line of work. Then the “Skills & Expertise” function is for you. This function is listed under the “More” navigation link and allows you to “Discover the skills you need to succeed”. The search box here provides you with indirect access to professionals who list themselves as experts in their chosen fields. It also allows you to add skills to your profile so that others can endorse you as having those skills. In this section you will also see featured professionals and be able to click on their profiles to learn more about them. You will also be listed in search when someone is looking to add a specific skill or expertise to their profile.

LinkedIn Articles

LinkedIn scours the web for breaking news along with the best and most informative articles that business people are interested in reading. As I mentioned earlier, you can choose the subjects that interest you, follow specific leaders and comment on the best business content the web has to offer. I love reading the articles from LinkedIn and I suggest you read them too.  It has provided me with tons of useful and informative content to share with my many followers. Since social networking is all about connecting, and sharing useful, educational, or entertaining content with others, these articles will help you do just that.
LinkedIn Pro
If you are considering the pro (paid) version of LinkedIn, in my opinion they are worth it if you use it. I have been a member of LinkedIn since late 1994. I have signed up for the pro version off and on several times over the years. If you’re in sales, spending the $39.95 a month to get the pro version should not be a hardship. If you need to contact more people per month or have greater needs they offer several levels to expand your ability to increase the number of contacts while narrowing the focus of your searches.
LinkedIn, like any social network, requires dedication to learning its feature, actively using it and proactively engaging others. It is useless if it’s not fed on a regular basis. Social networking requires consistency and dedication. For some business people, using LinkedIn is a business way of life. For others it’s a complicated maze that just seems like too much trouble. Take it from me, it’s worth any amount of trouble since it can provide a substantial payoff.  If you are looking for a way to break out of the herd and increase both exposure and results, you owe it to yourself to Leverage LinkedIn.

Hector Cisneros is COO of W Squared Media Group, a company that specializes in online marketing for the 21st century, including social media.