Anatomy of a Hacked Web Site

Mark Berry June 15, 2011

Today I visited www.dmachoice.org, the web site of the Direct Marketing Association, intending to update my opt-out preferences. I was surprised when one of the pages took me off their site to a third-party page. When it happened a second time, I started looking for signs that the site had been hacked.

Cyberheist Not the Bank’s Problem

Mark Berry June 14, 2011

I’ve recently become aware of a legal case where a company lost a huge amount of money due to a computer virus. Hackers used the virus to steal the company’s online banking password, then proceeded to transfer out over half a million dollars. When the account was empty, the bank advanced over $200K of the company’s line of credit.

Rework

Mark Berry June 4, 2011

Just finished a great little book called REWORK. About 100 pages of nuggets on how to run a small business, especially a small software company. Many of the suggestions are about keeping the product and the company lean, minimizing distractions, and getting work done.

I was inspired to suggest a paragraph for the section on interruptions (below). I emailed it to the book’s feedback address. A short while later I got a thank-you from Jason Fried, co-author and co-founder of 37signals. Wow, that’s pretty lean when the co-founder is still reading random email feedback. Plus it’s a simple example of acting like a human, letting people know you hear them. These guys might be for real.

Filter

Everyone is inundated daily with information. Emails, flyers, magazines, phone calls. Delete, delete, delete. 95% of the stuff you get won’t help your business. Set up a spam filter. Unsubscribe from email lists (you can always visit a web site if you need info). Save a tree: call catalog companies and ask to be removed. Ask business telemarketers to remove your name. Keep the recycle bin next to the mailbox and dump stuff before it ever gets to your desk. Have a favorite trade magazine? Scan the table of contents. If something looks interesting, hold on to it for a few days. If it’s still interesting, read it, else toss it (pack rats, file it so you can toss it later). You may wind up with a desk so clean that you have to do some real work.

The Next Scam: Tech Support Calls You

Mark Berry May 19, 2011

A user contacted me yesterday telling me, “I just got a weird call from someone with an Indian accent saying his company had been getting error messages and they wanted me to go on the computer and have a technician walk me thru steps.” She did exactly the right thing:  “I refused and hung up.” But what is behind this scam? What are they trying to achieve?

Copy Outlook Signatures to New Computer

Mark Berry April 20, 2011

Need to copy your Outlook signatures from one computer to another? Just copy the contents of this folder:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Signatures

That %appdata% code will expand to the correct name for XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Another way to get to that folder from Outlook is to go to Options > Mail Format Ctrl-click on the Signature button. That’s explained in more detail here.

This even works copying signatures from Outlook 2007 to 2010.

Invoices Reformatted by QuickBooks 2010 R11 Patch

Mark Berry April 14, 2011

When you install the R11 update in QuickBooks 2010 Pro, you may find that all your custom invoices suddenly have an extra, blank box at the bottom. This is because Intuit, without your consent, reformats all your invoices so it can display a link to its Intuit Payment Network:

Here’s how to turn that off.

Consolidate Multiple Accounts in Outlook 2010

Mark Berry April 6, 2011

Outlook 2010 allows adding multiple Exchange accounts. But what if you want to save all mail in a primary account, but still send mail from secondary accounts? With some help from Microsoft Partner Support, here is a workaround.

Prevent Outside Parties from Scheduling Your Calendar

Mark Berry January 18, 2011

Ever receive an email with an Outlook calendar item attached, then find that the item appeared in your calendar without your permission? It turns out that by default, Outlook lets anybody in the world add items to your calendar as “tentative” appointments, whether you agree or not. I got instructions from Microsoft support on how to disable that “feature.”