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Tips For Handling, Storing, & Disposing Of Confidential Documents

In the past 10 years, over 10,000 new regulations have been placed on the books by local, state and federal agencies pertaining to the handling, storage, and disposal of confidential client, patient, and employee documents.

A few examples are:

  • SEC Rule 17a-4 Electronic Storage of Broker Dealer Records Graham-Leach-Bliley Act
  • Financial Services Modernization Act
  • Sarbanes-Oxley Act
  • DOD 5015.2 Department of Defense
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • Fair Labor Standards Act
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Act
  • Payment Card Industry Data Security (PCI DSS)

No matter how small your business is, you are surely going to be affected by one or more of these new government regulations. Naturally some industries are more regulated, such as financial or medical, but all companies that hold information such as employee social security numbers, credit cards, financial statements (credit applications, bank statements, order forms) fall under these new regulations.

While we cannot cover every single aspect of protecting your company, here are a few tips that will go a long way in making sure you don’t end up fined, sued, or with a bad reputation for not securing your clients information:

Seek professional help. If you think you are holding confidential information that should be secured, ask a qualified attorney who specializes in data confidentiality in your industry about what you must do to meet new government regulations.

Shred all documents that contain confidential information. A good shredder should do a cross cut or diamond cut versus a simple strip shredder to make it more difficult for someone to piece together a shredded document.

If you have to keep a copy of contracts or other documents that contain confidential information, contact a high-security document storage facility like Iron Mountain (ironmountain.com) and they will store your documents in a high-security location.

Keep a fire-proof safe with a lock and key for employee documents you need to keep onsite.

Make sure your offsite backups have 32-bit encryption (ask your provider).

Also make sure the facility where the information is stored is under lock and key with security camera and access-controlled security.

Tired of Dumping Money Into Your Network?

Read On To Discover How You Can Make Those Darn Things Finally Pay Off!

If you ask most business owners why they invest in computers and technology, you will hear things like “to increase employee productivity,” or “to improve customer service” or even to lower operating costs, make information more accessible, and give them a competitive advantage.

But the question is, are the computers in your office actually contributing to your productivity, or do they act as a money-sucking stumbling block to your businesses success?

In this dog-eat-dog world, you cannot afford to have anything slowing you down or interfering with your day to day operations. Especially the tools you rely on in your computer network. If you want to learn how we can help you experience fewer interruptions, problems, and downtime, AND lower the overall costs associated with your computer network, then you’ll want to know about our “Experts Total Support” plan.

This program was designed specifically for small business owners that do not have a full time IT staff taking care of their computer network.

For a small, fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure all systems are running at peak performance. We’ll also make sure critical network maintenance such as security and virus updates, backups, and system optimization happens when it should to avoid bigger, more expensive problems from happening.

Our Free 60 Minute “Technology Tune Up” May (Finally) Make Your Computers Pay Off

To introduce this new program to all of our clients and prospects, we are offering a free, 60-minute “Technology Tune Up” to the first five businesses that contact us this month.

In less than 1 hour, we can come in and examine your computer network, talk to your employees, and provide a very revealing analysis of all the under utilized or overlooked capabilities being wasted in your current computer system. We’ll also look for security loop holes, check your system back ups and virus protection, and look for other hidden problems lurking in the background, waiting to turn into bigger, more expensive disasters.

After doing this analysis, we can not only advise you on how to improve the speed. reliability, and security of  your computer network, but also on ways you can improve your overall office productivity.

Normally we charge $297 for this type of service but we are giving it away FREE as a special promotion this month to demonstrate our “Experts Total Support” plan. To secure your spot, simply call our offices at (734) 457-5000 or e-mail us at info@MyTechExperts.com and we’ll schedule a convenient time for us to come out and conduct this tune up.

No Risk, No Obligation, No Hassles

You will be under zero obligations to do or buy anything if you sign up for a FREE Technology Tune Up. This is just our way of introducing our new network maintenance program to you and we certainly don’t expect everyone to sign up.

So what are you waiting for? Call us right now while you’re thinking about it. Remember, we are only giving away five tune ups on a first come, first serve basis so call now while there are spots left!

This offer will expire as soon as we have five companies signed up, or on August 29th. Call today!

Local Community Action Agency Says “Our Network Is Running Better Than Ever Now!”

MCOP Counts on Tech Experts For A Problem-Free Network

Monroe County Opportunity Program (MCOP) is one of Monroe County’s most successful community action agencies, serving thousands of residents every year. The agency relies on Tech Experts to keep their computers and network problem-free.

Founded in 1965, MCOP’s mission is “To enhance the quality of life and reduce the effects of poverty by providing opportunities, services, and collaborating with community agencies to foster self-sufficiency.”

They do this by administering programs such as Homeless Prevention, Homebuyer Rehab, Weatherization, Specialized Transportation, Utility Assistance, Food Programs and assistance for Seniors with lawn mowing, home making, unmet needs and resource advocacy.The agency uses computers and technology extensively on a day to day basis.

“We use Microsoft Office applications for spreadsheets, presentations and word processing,” explained Larry Hansen, MCOP’s fiscal director. “MCOP also uses a specialized software package, designed just for non-profit agencies, for general ledger, payroll accounts payable, etc.”

“Also as a nonprofit serving the low income population, MCOP uses an in-house Client Tracking software program,” Larry continued. “We also access web based systems that are utilized by various agencies within the community. These are communication tools that are required by the government agencies that provide MCOP’s funding.”

When it came time to upgrade MCOP’s network, Technology Experts installed a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server system along with Windows Terminal Services. Terminal Services allows users to connect to the server using thin client terminals, decreasing the need for individual computers on each employee’ desk.

Another advantage of employing a Terminal Services environment is that older computers can be used as clients without slowing down the computing performance of the user, since the applications run on the server instead of on the client stations. “Even though there were many changes that took time to get used to,” Larry said, “the entire process was a success and our network is running better than ever now.”

When asked what MCOP liked most about Tech Experts service, Larry was quick to answer: “The timeliness in responding to our calls for assistance. Help is usually on site the same day and many times within minutes.”

Monroe County Opportunity Program:  1140 South Telegraph Road Monroe, Michigan 48161 (734) 241-2775 www.monroecountyop.org

How to Declare Freedom from Slow Computers, Downtime, Viruses, Hackers, and Computer Problems Finally and Forever!

Are you sick and tired of worrying about the security of your network against the latest spyware, virus, or hacker threat?

Would you like to have peace of mind knowing that your backups are working properly and storing your data in a secure, easy to restore format?

Do you want your network to always be “up” and running fast?

Then we have a service you need to know about…

It’s called our Experts Total Support plan. This program gives you fast, 24-7 computer support, maintenance, and monitoring for one low, fixed monthly rate without any surprises, hidden costs, or the expense of a full time IT staff!

Why Do you Need This?
Having a secure, reliable computer system is no longer a luxury for businesses today. If you can’t access your e-mail, financial information, client database, or other critical data, you’re OUT of business.

Plus, you must keep your data secure from corruption, loss, and theft; if you don’t, it could not only cost you dearly in downtime, but it could also cause your reputation harm when customers find out your network (and their data) has been compromised, stolen, or lost forever.

How Does It Work?
The concept is simple. For a fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24/7, 365 days a year. We will make sure your anti-virus, spyware, and security patches are up to date. We’ll monitor your network for looming problems that could turn into downtime or data loss such as hardware failures and disk space problems.

We’ll also watch your backups to make sure they truly are running and not giving you a false-positive reading, and we’ll constantly optimize the health and overall speed of your network. After all, nothing is more frustrating than a slow computer!

Last (but not least!) we’ll be able to provide remote support through a highly secure Internet connection to provide almost instant support whenever you need it. No more waiting around for a technician to show up!

FREE Network Check gets you Started…
If you want to find out how our Experts Total Support plan can help your business, call us for a FREE Network Health Check. At no charge or obligation, we’ll come onsite and…

  • Look for incorrect network configurations that show up as unexpected downtime, application errors, printers not working, e-mail problems, etc.
  • Assess your current security against data corruption, theft, hardware failures, power outages, computer viruses, worms, hacker attacks, spam, and even employee sabotage.
  • Scan for spyware that is secretly stealing your company’s bandwidth, jeopardizing the speed of your computer system, and embezzling confidential information about your company.
  • Check your data backup system to ensure it is working properly and accurately backing up all of the critical information you NEVER want to lose.
  • Diagnose slow, unstable PCs and perform a quick network “tune up” to make programs load faster.

When we’ve finished, we’ll give you a network ‘report card’ that will reveal any weaknesses in your security or trouble spots on your network that could lead to bigger (more expensive) problems.

Normally we charge $297 for this, but if you call during the month of July, we’ll give it to you for FREE as our gift for introducing our Experts Total Support plan. Again, you are not obligated to sign up for this program or pay us anything for this service—but you have to hurry!

To get signed up now, call 734-457-5000 or go online to www.ExpertsTotalSupport.com.

Secrets About your Customers Hidden In your Company’s Website Reports

No matter who hosts your website, it’s almost certain that you have website traffic reporting. These reports can tell you a LOT about your customer and who is visiting your web site IF you know how to read them. Here’s a quick less on how to decipher them…

Hits V. Unique Visitors
Its’ been said that “hits” is short for “How Idiots Track Sales.” That’s because “Total Hits” is a deceptive number: it counts every single graphics file, style sheet, and script a visitor pulls for each page. A single visitor on a single page could easily pull a dozen files or more.

The only number you should watch is “unique visitors” or “unique referrers.” This is your best indicator of how many individual people are actually visiting your site.

If your number of unique visitors is extremely low, you’re probably not marketing your website properly; but it could also be a sign of a technical issue. Occasionally a site is so far off the beaten path that it’s never been indexed by the search engines. Sites built in Flash or that use images instead of text are also difficult for search engines to index and, therefore, will get very low rankings and traffic.

Browsers
Your reports should give you a list of web browsers your clients are using when coming to your site. Most people use a recent version of Internet Explorer, but you may also see Firefox, Safari, or older versions of IE. Bottom line, you need to make sure your site works in all the browsers being used by your visitors.

Exit Page
Have you ever heard the term “website conversion?” It’s a measure of whether a visitor has done what you wanted them to do on your site. A conversion can be a purchase, an enrollment to your company’s e-zine, or a completed “contact us” form.

If the most popular exit pages correspond to your conversion pages, congratulations! If not, take a closer look. Why are people leaving? There may be a technical issue, a bad headline (or no headline), no offer, slow-loading graphics, or confusing copy. Something on this page is making your visitors leave abruptly.

Maybe it’s not clear where they should go next, or how to find out what they need to know. A few departures are expected, but if there’s a trend, you must address it. Experiment with various headlines, offers and designs until you find something more successful.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases
Keywords and keyword phrases are a list of words people type into search engines to find you.

This is very important information to have because it will allow you to further optimize your website to attract customers AND help you when using pay-per-click search engine marketing.

Browse this list regularly. If the words and phrases are not ones aligned with what you sell or whom you sell to, try changing the content on your site to be more targeted and specific.

Errors
Check out the error list from time to time to make sure you aren’t experiencing any technical issues. The most frequent error you’ll find is a “404” code, which means “document not found”—also known as broken links.

Broken links are caused by deleted pages, new page names, or links to other sites that may no longer exist. These errors should be corrected to keep your site current.

Another good tip is to have a custom “404” page that shows up instead of the stock standard “file not found” page that contains your company name, phone number, and a way to report the problem. Your web master can set this up for you.

Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for Building a Phenomenally Successful Business

Sam Walton, the founder of the Wal-Mart chain, had 10 rules for building a business that he adamantly believed in. According to the Wal-Mart website, the following are the principles that have enabled the company to experience more than 40 years of outrageous success:

1. Commit to your business. You have to believe in it more than anyone else. You have to have passion. Love your work and do it the best you can every day.

2. Share your profits with all your associates and treat them as partners. This will make the people who work for you perform beyond your wildest expectations. Behave as a servant leader.

3. Motivate your partners. You have to constantly think of new ways to motivate your partners.

4. Communicate everything you possibly can to your associates. The more they understand, the more they’ll care.

5. Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.

6. Celebrate your success. Have fun. Find humor in your failures. Loosen up.

7. Listen to everyone in your company. And more important, try to get them talking. The ones who really talk to the customers are the ones who really know what’s going on.

8. Exceed your customers’ expectations. Give them what they want–then give ’em a little more.

9. Control your expenses better than your competitors. You can survive a lot of mistakes if you’re efficient.

10. Swim upstream. Ignore the conventional wisdom; find your niche by going another direction.

Take Caution Before Opening your Next e-greeting Card

According to a new article in PC Magazine, cyber criminals are now starting to exploit e-greeting card sites in an attempt to steal confidential information.

In 2007, nearly 1/3 of infected e-mail messages contained a phishing scam, while 7 percent of such e-mail messages masqueraded as an electronic greeting card and directed the target to a malicious site.

Here’s how it works: Hackers place a malicious hyperlink in the e-mail greeting, which first sends the user’s web browser to an exploit server that checks to see if the user’s machine has the most up-to-date security patches.

If it’s unpatched, the server silently force-downloads a rootkit and a keylogger onto the user’s computer before redirecting the web browser to an authentic Yahoo greetings card.

On the user-facing end, the victim clicks the link to view the card. However, the card does not let them know who sent it. The victim closes the card and goes about his business without realizing arootkit was delivered to his PC before he even picked up the card.

How do you avoid this from happening to you? First, never open emails from unknown sources. Second, make sure your PC/Servers always have the most up-to-date security patches. And finally, always maintain an active, up-to-date anti-virus software.

Lights Out?

Not For Local Manufacturing Company Who Turned On Tech Experts’ Disaster Recovery Planning Services

When spring storms rolled through the area and took out power to her company’s offices and plant, Sue Brey, Complete Packaging’s controller, knew she had to make two phone calls right away.

“My first call was to the power company,” she explained, “and my second call was to Tech Experts. I knew they’d have our computer systems handled.”

Complete Packaging is one of the industry’s leading suppliers of just in time inventory and specialized “total-solution” packaging products, working primarily in the automotive and glass industries. Because of the unique nature of their businesses, Complete Packaging’s clients require accurate and on-time deliveries of their packaging materials.

Sue’s first call, to the power company, didn’t go well. “Our power went out on Monday, and they told us it wouldn’t be restored until Friday,” Sue said. “We were in crisis mode.”

The Tech Experts support team sprang into action immediately, calling Complete’s telephone service provider to have the company’s main phone numbers transferred to staff member’s cell phones.

“Things were touch and go for a few hours,” Sue continued, “but when it became clear our power wasn’t coming back on, we had to get our office systems up and operational.”

Tech Experts relocated Complete Packaging’s server and several office workstations to spare office space in it’s building, and set up Complete’s phones to ring at the temporary desks.

“We moved right into the Tech Experts office,” Sue explained. “And they had our systems up and printing on their printers in less than an hour. We were able to print out orders, send and receive e-mail, and get production documents completed for the factory.”

Complete Packaging’s maintenance crew was able to get much of the factory running on generators, so the company was able to ship orders. “We have performance clauses in a lot of our contracts,” explained Sue. “If we didn’t ship our orders on time, we could have lost tens of thousands of dollars in business. Thanks to Tech Experts, we were able to fulfill our commitments to our customers.”

The Tech Experts Disaster Recovery service is part of the comprehensive management and maintenance program offered to every Tech Experts client who is a service agreement subscriber.

Three easy Steps to get Seven Years of Hassle Free Service From Your Laser Printer

Printers – the necessary evil of every office. From paper jams and error messages, to problems like smearing, misfeeds, and ghosting, printers can really make your blood pressure rise.

Plus, it’s easy to sink thousands of dollars into maintenance and repairs. If you want to avoid common printer problems AND save yourself a small fortune on replacements and repairs, follow these 3 easy steps:

Keep It Clean
There is no faster way to gunk up a laser printer and cause printing problems than by letting it get dirty.

On a monthly basis, use compressed air to blow out the inside of the printer. Remove the toner cartridge for better access, and don’t forget to do the back if it is accessible. It also helps to take a vacuum to the outside. If you print labels or use any other type of specialty media like transparencies, use rubbing alcohol to clean the rollers inside the printer.

Do Your Maintenance
You can almost infinitely extend your printers lifespan by doing the regular maintenance suggested by the manufacturer.

This includes replacing rollers, filters, and occasionally replacing the fuser (the printer’s internal furnace.) Here’s a little money-saving secret: you only need to do this type of maintenance at 1.5 to 2 times the manufacturer’s usage recommendation.

So, if the manufacturer says to replace rollers every 100,000 pages, you really only need to do so every 150,000 to 200,000 pages.

Use a Surge Protector
Nothing will send your printer to the bone yard faster than an electrical surge caused by lightning or other issues on the power grid.

When internal components are fried, it is often cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to fix the existing one. It is easy to protect yourself with a $25 surge protector. DO NOT plug a laser printer into a UPS or other battery backup system. The printer’s power draw is too much for a battery to handle.

Has Your Computer Been Taken Over By a Bot?

David Perry, global director of education for security software provider Trend Micro, was recently quoted in PCWorld as saying, “An unprotected [Windows] computer will become owned by a bot within 14 minutes.”

A bot is an automated program that takes over your computer and uses it as a spam machine, to copy your personal information, such as credit cards numbers, or something equally as evil.

One way to spot a bot is to be aware of network activity when you aren’t on the Internet. You can put a network status light in your system tray. If you see it blinking when you are not using the Internet, there might be a problem.

Do this: In Windows XP, choose Start, Control Panel, Network Connections. You will see an icon for your network connection. Right-click the network connection and select Properties from the popup menu. Check “Show icon in notification area when connected,” and click OK.

Remember, lots of unexplained network activity can mean your computer is “owned” by a bot.

Double check by going to one of several free scanning sites such as McAfee Free Scan or Trend Micro’s House-Call. Then buy antivirus software, install a firewall, and never open e-mail attachments from unknown sources.