Protecting Laptop Data
September 18, 2008
If your small business is among the many that have remote workers, you could be sending sensitive customer data, credit card or Social Security numbers out the door.
Half of all organizations reported a laptop or other mobile device stolen last year. Each customer record may cost a company $150 more in legal fees, notification costs, and other expenses, according to Inc. magazine.
For about $9.95 – $149 per month, you can give a laptop its own GPS system. Free trial is available. If MyLaptop GPS is installed on your laptop, the stolen machine will report its location as soon as the thief connects to the Internet.
Encrypting the hard drive will keep thieves from using the data. The Enterprise edition of the Windows Vista has an encryption feature built into it. Other systems cost from $50 to $120 per computer.
Without encryption or a GPS system, your only course of action is just to report the theft to police. Always keep laptop serial numbers in a handy place. If the unit goes to a repair shop, the police will be notified.
Treat your laptop like a wallet. You wouldn’t leave your wallet in the car or laying around where someone could pick it up.
BlackBerry has great features you may not be using
September 17, 2008
The BlackBerry’s physical keyboard lets you take advantage of many shortcuts. Some are obvious, like using the space bar to page down; and holding Shift at the same time to page up. You can actually move back and forth between applications without navigating back to the screen. Press Alt and Escape, then release Escape and use the trackwheel on the side of your phone to select the desired program. Then press Alt again to select it.
When you are checking a list of emails, hit C to compose one yourself.
Press the left Shift and Alt at the same time to activate the number
lock. Or press the right Shift and Alt for the caps lock. Holding any letter
down will capitalize it. Using AutoText code in email can save time. Type “my
number” to display your BlackBerry phone number; LD for the local date.
Check BlackBerry Support and Services for more tips.
