HURRICANE TECHNOLOGY TIPS

1.     HAVE A PLAN - Make sure your business is prepared to run despite loss of power, computers, people or access to your office. If your company depends on data, make sure it is placed in a secure, redundant Data Center facility.

2.     BACK UP - Back up your critical data using an off-site backup service. If this is not in your budget, create a copy of your data on a jump drive or external hard drive, place this drive in a sealed plastic bag, and store it out of harm's way. Be sure to back up and restore your data frequently!

3.     LOAD - Load your business critical contacts into your cell phone or PDA. It is also a good idea to print them and store them in a sealed plastic bag.

4.     KNOW YOUR PASSWORDS - Many people rely on their PC to remember their usernames and passwords. Make sure to memorize or record all critical passwords - including the password to access your e-mail through webmail.

5.     SECURE THE OFFICE - Before leaving, be sure to have all of your computers password-protected. This will help keep unwanted visitors from accessing your data.

6.     USE A UPS - Storm or no storm, you should plug your computer and monitor into a UPS to guard against electricity strikes and potential loss of power. A UPS can give you enough time to properly shut down your PC when a storm threatens.

7.     UNPLUG - Unplug your servers, computers, and other gadgets and move them from the floor and away from the windows.

8.     TAKE A PICTURE - Take a picture of your servers and computers BEFORE the storm hits. This will help if an insurance claim is necessary.

Searcher beware: Bing has twice as many poison links as Google - Neowin

Searcher beware: Bing has twice as many poison links as Google

Tyler Holman

Microsoft prides itself on claiming that Bing gives more relevant results than Google, and a new study claims that it's definitely true - at least if you're looking for viruses. 

Over at Sophos' Naked Security blog, Fraser Howard says that compared to Google users, Bing users encounter twice as many 'poisoned links,' or websites that contain malware and exploits like Blackhole. A whopping 92% of poison links encountered on Bing come from images. Howard says that three out of the six images shown below redirect to malicious sites:

Now, why does Bing have more poisoned links than its competitors? That's a good question, and one that Sophos doesn't offer an answer to. It's possible, though, that it really doesn't have that problem - maybe it's just that a large portion of Bing users are less tech savvy than Google users, and possbily less skilled when it comes to avoiding malware. Since Sophos' findings rely on the number of malicious redirects encountered by their security software, it's not exactly set in stone that Bing has more poison links than Google, just that Sophos users are encountering more malware through Bing than through Google.

More importantly, what can you do to protect yourself when you're searching? Besides buying lots and lots of Sophos products, it's generally a good idea to look at the URL before you click on it, and make sure that you really know where you're going. And most importantly, try not to be stupid.