Advanced Data Protection Frameworks for an Enterprise’s Information Lifecycle

With organizations storing all of the digital information and data on their servers and in the cloud, data breaches are only going to get bigger. Ever growing collections of data, more remote access and the prevalence of crime, such as identity theft; all create vulnerabilities. Businesses face incessant challenges today in protecting vulnerable information, with the advent of new technology. Recent security breaches in both the private and public sector have highlighted the need for organizations to ensure that personal information is processed and stored securely. Data protection has become a top priority for most IT departments, as numerous organizations are falling victim to damaging data breaches.  

As today’s businesses increasingly recognize corporate data that must be protected against a wide range of risks and threats, are making data protection a high-priority objective for the organization. The loss or breach of data, especially personal data of customers and clients can have huge financial repercussions. Enterprises dealing in sensitive data must take adequate care to see that the data is fully protected and is adhering to federal and state guidelines. With cyber attacks more prevalent than ever and insider breaches still a significant threat, it has become crucial for enterprises to formulate comprehensive security policies and implement up-to-date data protection techniques.

While protecting your IT infrastructure and your data may be one of the most difficult tasks your organization faces, it is imperative to deploy a comprehensive data protection framework across the information lifecycle. Many large enterprise data centers continue to grapple with explosive data growth, limited budgets and increasing demand for higher levels of service. To reduce the risk of data loss, businesses can also use secure data protection solutions. One step to curb data loss is to make sure that the operating system and applications do not have vulnerabilities, and if any are detected, it needs to be addressed in a timely manner.

Look for a solution that can help an organization identify and protect confidential information through building a governance framework, data protection strategy and implementation, as well as comprehensive analysis of data flow within and between organizational processes. To ensure continuous data protection for the organization, invest in a solution that is easy to install and use and requires lower level skills and resources to monitor and manage. The solution should ensure that effective data protection policies and practices are in place, combined with vigilance and strong governance at all levels in all organizations.

Also read more on - Information Risk Management, risk management frameworks, privileged identity management

Complete Online Fraud Protection with Advanced Solutions

With the growth of global brands and the Internet, online shopping has gained tremendous momentum. Brand owners face threats from counterfeiters who are constantly trying to generate large profits by illegally producing credible look-alike products to sell at deeply discounted prices. While customers are attracted to lucrative discounts with safe and easy payment methods, making them fall easy prey to counterfeiters. This has led to a dip in profits, loss of brand value as well as reputation for the manufacturer.


With threats to brand security rapidly growing, the need to differentiate fake products from genuine ones is increasing, as well as, the need for more advanced authentication technologies that thwart counterfeiters. Organizations are aware that the internet with its applications has made it easy for the grey market and counterfeit goods selling even easier. And this has forced brand owners to proactively take a closer look at their supply chains and police the whereabouts and authenticity of their products at all times. Every business is aware of these challenges and need to implement effective measures that produce convincing and compelling results. Keeping this in mind it is essential for businesses to invest in online brand protection techniques.  


In recent years, anti-counterfeiting measures have become increasingly complex and bolstered by the installment of different layers of security. Many advanced and robust online fraud management solutions are available that can help companies in becoming more hands-on in reducing the impact of counterfeits on their company. These solutions can aid  in addressing issues of illegal online commerce. To ensure their customers only receive the highest quality and safest products, brand owners have to opt for the best anti-counterfeiting solutions to protect their brand positioning and brand promise. These online fraud protection solutions monitor the Internet in real-time and deliver automated prioritization of suspects to help effectively prevent internet fraud.


The selection of an online fraud protection solution is a crucial business decisions. Choose a solution that offers unmatched visibility into the global open market to search for counterfeits. It must also have the capacity to signal an alert when a threat exists and thereby encourage proactive remedial action. Many of today's technologies are used in conjunction with other security features that work in concert to heighten the overall level of protection of an organization.


Know more on: gray market

Facebook Analytics to Increase Effectiveness Online

Everyone knows the fact that the number one online activity of today’s generation is social networking. And of the different social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, tumbir, the most popular site is Facebook which has more than 900 million active users. The following are some important data regarding Facebook.

 

·         More than 200 million users were added in 2011. (Social Media Examiner)

·         Nearly Three–quarters of Fortune 100 companies have a Facebook presence (Global Social Media Check-Up 2012)

·         47% say Facebook has the greatest impact on purchase behavior (Edison Research)

·         Average corporate Facebook page’s community has increased by 275% since 2010 (Global Social Media Check-Up 2012)

·         23% of Facebook users check their account 5 or more times daily. (Edison Research)

·         Each corporate Facebook page has an average of 6,101 people talking about it. (Global Social Media Check-Up 2012)

·         Companies are creating multiple Facebook pages for brands, geographies, and employee recruitment purposes. The average number of accounts per company on Facebook are 10.4 (Global Social Media Check-Up 2012)

·         Ninety-three percent of Facebook pages are updated weekly. (Global Social Media Check-Up 2012)

 

With the popularity of Facebook, all businesses are now focusing on social media. And social media analytics do prove the fact that social media is beneficial for businesses as it brings about increased revenues, reduced customer service costs, crowdsourcing, and so on. Let’s look at some important business benefits of Facebook.

 

·         Generating brand awareness : Today Facebook is popular amongst various age demographics and thus helps in generating brand awareness.

 

·         Communicate Promotions : It is a great way to inform people of promotions, contests, and events.

 

·         Increase Web Traffic : Facebook helps to increase traffic to enterprise’ websites.

 

·         Discover New Customers :Facebook helps in finding new customers.

 

·         Customer Retention : Through customer engagement, Facebook helps in retaining customers.

 

Doing Facebook analytics help enterprises to measure the success of Facebook campaigns. The following are some of the advantages of using Facebook analytics tools.

 

·         Provide fast results for businesses to track web data and get real-time distribution and engagement Facebook metrics

·         Get immediate feedback on how content is performing, so that the enterprises can optimize products, features, campaigns, content, and interactions faster

·         Social analytics(web) give enterprises the insights to make faster, smarter operating decisions, even across huge amounts of social data

·         Gain faster insights into the key influences on K-Factor and virality campaigns

·         Understand what keeps customers engaged, and uncover the levers that can most influence revenues

Also read about : social intelligence

 

Integrating Social Media Analytics In Your Company

With the entire buzz about “social media” every enterprise today looks forward to integrate it with its business. Though it might appear easy to incorporate social media in your company, there certainly are ways to go about it to yield best results. Here’s how you can handle the task at hand.

 

Research, Implement and Evaluate


The very first step is to do a research on the “social space” and analyzing how it can add value to your company. Try and figure out what people are saying on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Once you have done this you can select the software tool that enables you to listen and participate in social conversations, manage the workflow across the team and evaluate the results. When it comes to listening, your company must decide who or to what to listen. The objective can vary from keeping a tab on the community’s interests to what the market is saying about your company.

 

Publish, Engage and Promote


Once you start listening and measuring it is essential that you start publishing your own content. Your company can join an existing conversation or set up a new conversation exclusive to its own brand name and engage the online audience. This engagement must define the purpose of your social media strategy. As you get the basics right, you can shift to strategic interaction from mere tactical engagements. This is all about imbibing social media into the online and offline campaigns. However, in order to retain the audience interest you have to come up with interesting content on an ongoing basis. All this information gathered through proactive networking is termed as social intelligence that helps you to design  your social media strategy.

 

Community building and evolving


When you start following the above mentioned steps you will notice a community building up. Aim at ways to retain this community by encouraging your online audience to share their experiences. This will also help you to spot the brand assassination as well as potential brand ambassadors. Along with community building you ought to absorb new ways to enhance your goods and services based on the social media feedback and tools such as facebook analytics , engagement analytics ,social media analytics tools etc .  This makes the circle of integrating social media to your company complete.

 

All this becomes easy and well organized for you when you opt in for the advanced social analytics solutions offered by eminent service providers. With the help of these tools you can track the behavior of your online audience and collate adequate data and plan your social media monitoring.

 

Also read about : social gaming market

Implement The Best Data Protection Solution

As Data is the life force on which companies run and they need to safeguard this data,against  data thefts. Sensitive, private or any other kind of data that remains unmanaged and insecure are easy pickings for hackers. Social engineers and phishers are all set with their data attacks to rob you of your vital information.

On the other hand there are organizations that are only implementing data classification, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, digital rights management, access management and data leakage protection solutions. Generally, organization’s concentrate on establishing a “perimeter defense” at every location. They set up security checks to keep third party intruders out and trust everyone within the organization. This kind of set up is effective for those organizations that hardly send any data beyond their perimeter walls.

Today most enterprises and business houses are constantly transferring data from one location to the other for data back-up, disaster recovery and for other essential crucial business purposes. No sooner does the data go outside the organization’s physically owned network their perimeter defenses, anti-event detection services become weak. Hence, forward thinking organizations need to invest in a comprehensive data protection solution that will offer complete security both internally and externally.

Keeping these concerns in mind, service providers of information risk management programs have introduced data protection solutions that work on phased methodologies. They are:

  • Strategy and Design
The service provider during this phase analyses your data security needs and sets up an efficient data classification policy. It further evaluates your crucial data, the way it is used and shared, who owns it and other aspects. Post this, based on this risk assessment data protection framework is set up to address present and emerging trends such as Cloud, BYOD, Mobility and much more.

  • Control and Integration
During this phase the service provider helps you to implement the suitable security and data protection technologies, like database access monitoring (DAM), information/digital rights management (IRM) and data leakage prevention (DLP). In addition to this, they also offer expertise in technical implementation and project management according to the design standard.

  • Sustenance and Optimization
This is the final phase where the service provider helps you to optimize and fine tune the technology execution to remain well aligned to business data movement rules, KPI reporting, minimization of false positives and executing a robust consequence and incident management framework for ongoing vigilance.

Therefore, when you partner with a leading data protection solutions provider you can implement a compact data protection framework all through your data lifecycle. Companies that undertake a holistic and modular approach help you make the most of data security and transform data protection.

Also read more on - Cloud security, Identity access management

Storage Servers Benefits Large and Small Scale Companies

In today’s modern day world computing devices are the most essential and effective tools. Almost every enterprise and business organization depends on a set of techniques that are based on computer along with software engineering processes for saving data and implementing various services and productions.

By using a server, it is possible for multiple computers having a huge central storage unit rather than having several areas of storage. This is what makes it simple to have the access to any kind of data files kept in one unit rather than searching for it on all computers that are connected to the network. In case of small scale business companies, a NAS, known as network attached server is adequate to cater to the requirements. However, its primary objective is to make the data accessible from the computers that are linked to the network. The process is very similar to an external hard disk drive that facilitates access of data for computing devices as well as data storage. Alternatively, a storage server can be designed with a complementary operating system that can possess multiple functions for instance data management, web-based interface and storage reporting.

A storage server is a unique way to share common data from a group of members. These servers are further associated to a network and enable any user connected to that particular network to store data and files on that server. In the past few years, storage servers have become extremely reasonably priced than before. As a result of which, they are not used by huge MNC’s but also by small businesses. Furthermore, for home users and small businesses it is simpler than ever to own their storage server. The benefits of creating and installing a server for storing data has its own benefits, more so if the data is required to be shared amidst multiple users.

 

Today eminent companies dealing in custom computer systems offer innovative storage server solutions that are that are cost-efficient, highly reliable, provides excellent performance and are energy efficient. They are “built-to-order” generic purposes and are appropriate for companies of all kinds and sizes. These service providers efficiently configures the consumers’ operating system and software in order to function at an optimal level and provide any feature that is required for new custom servers. Furthermore, innovative enterprise storage server solutions offered by leading brands also offer versatile blade server with numerous processor and speed combination that are completely optimized for any critical mission data center application and server consolidation.

Read Also On: OEM Manufacturing, Data Centre Solutions

Pointers for Entity Formation in US

Most business owners today have considered the process of establishing an appropriate legal entity for their businesses. Business today refers to the continuity and there is a starting point for continual processes. This point gets started with the incorporation. If you are an American citizen or residing in the US and are aiming for a business entity formation, then you can get categorized under the following types:

* Sole Proprietorships

* Partnership

* Limited Liability Company

* Corporation

For advice and professional guidance on business entity formation in US there are leading tax planning service providers that you can get in touch with. The four kinds of entity formation are discussed below:

* Sole Proprietorship

This is also known as a sole trader or a proprietorship and is owned and operated by an individual.  There is zero legal difference between the business and owner and can be established at an affordable cost. It is easy to to dissolve and generally involves no tax planning.

* Partnerships

This too can be established at a reasonable price. Partnership business consists of two or more people or any business entity sharing the profits and loss that are incurred equally. Each partner involved here has joint responsibilities to the partnerships. Simultaneously, any partner might be held accountable for paying off the total debts of partnership irrespective of his participation in capital contribution, profit or losses.

* Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)

LLC is a highly flexible entity formation type and can be used for several business types. The members here can but does not need to have limited liability. They are free to choose whether to be taxed either as partners or as corporations.

* Corporations

Corporation's are slightly intricate as compared to the other business kinds. A new legal entity is established by forming a corporation that is separate from its owners. Owing to the state law, a corporation can be owned by a single person or can have one officer or director.

This apart tax planning service providers’ in the US offer services like:

* Registered Agency Service

* Application of EIN

* Maintenance of minute books and drafting of resolutions

* Business Licenses & permits

* Bylaws and Operating Agreements

* Certificates of Good standing

* Corporate & Compliance kits

* Registering a Business name

* Foreign Incorporations for operations in multiple states

* Filing of Annual/Franchise tax

* Testimonials

A thorough market analysis indicates that most business functions as partnerships or as a sole proprietorship and need not leverage other advantages that are accessible. These advantages might comprise the crucial components for instance enhanced tax treatment, restricting personal liability or adding a professional touch to the business by adding an INC or LLC.

Read Also On: Foreign Bank Account, llc tax

Prevent Phishing Attacks Effectively with the Advanced Anti-Phishing Solutions

The advancement in technology made the usage of the Internet a widespread and common phenomenon, well connecting the globalized business world. This usage of the internet has way to many cyber crimes, Phishing attacks being one of them. These Phishing attacks are usually ways and means to extract information, usernames and passwords for the unsuspecting public, which are later, used for frauds and security breaches. Most Phishing attacks are naturally targeted towards the ones who are know nothing about fishing and consequently end up paying a heavy price for their vulnerability.


This is why the most effective people control against Phishing is user education. It is important to educate users on Phishing protection and the risks of Phishing, how it happens, how to identify Phishing attempts etc. In the recent past, there have been numerous employee awareness programs and anti-Phishing solutions in order to limit these attacks. To contain the challenge arising from Phishing attacks, businesses in the field of information risk management and security services have designed and developed solutions to protect the vulnerable and difficult areas such as the people and process.


There are a number of solutions prevalent for safeguarding an organization against technology attacks. Protection from phishing attacks require anti phishing tools that can guard the main  target areas, and making use of such diagnostic solution, help organizations to proactively educate the users and help them recognize phishing attacks and avoid being phishing baits. Automated tools installed in the organization's network activate a simulated Phishing attack on the target audience of the organization, thereby the authorities to understand and analyze the social behavior of these target audiences during the attack.


These automated anti-Phishing tool installed in most of the new age enterprises provides statistics on user behavior, measures security awareness among employees, identifies data leakage, assesses Data Loss Prevention (DLP) programs and tests the incident response program. The software helps the organizations to evaluate whether the employees are appropriately updated against social engineering hazards.


Phishing awareness programs are of utmost importance as they not only solve the losses but educate people better about its source and detection. It is best not to depend on end-users to run malware checks and to be able to detect and eliminate these increasingly sophisticated threats. Learn how to identify common Phishing scams and arm your employees against such attacks by investing in a solution that can aid the organization in combating potential Phishing risks.

Protective Measures Against Phishing Attacks

Technological evolution has  helped business houses expand to locations beyond geographical boundaries. The advent of the Internet further makes communication easy and has opened  up avenues for an electronic commerce too. However, the online trade and commerce route along with various social networking sites has been the business route for the cyber criminals too. This widely networked electronic communication channel has made  every internet user prone to cyber threats and Phishing attacks.


Phishing is all about robbing a customer of his identity and financial details . Launched in the form of emails from dubious websites, these are mostly aimed at the organizations  in the wake of aggressive competition to extract business critical information, customer details and other vital information. A tackling Phishing attack, a malicious threat with serious impact on the business is a challenge faced by the techno savvy organization. Organizations however have launched anti-Phishing software as protective measures to safeguard the vital information from Phishing attacks.


Spurious emails that are used for Phishing attacks are hard to differentiate from the genuine ones. These causes serious damages  amounting to vast financial losses both at organizational and individual levels. Organizations thus tend to take up a number of phishing protection measures which include anti-phishing tools,However, the standard phishing protection solutions available today address the technology and the process used. But with cyber criminals targeting the people involved, it becomes imperative for organizations to have a dynamic risk management and control mechanism in place.


Understanding the phishing attacks and educating the employees on their  modus-operandi will help in reducing its  impact. The anti phishing software is a reliable tool that increases phishing awareness in the organization and  alert employees against any unnatural circumstances. Using simulated phishing attack is an excellent method to prepare the employees so as to enable them to handle such  situations during  real attacks.


IT security has become a major concern for the technologically dependent  organizations and business houses. Irrespective of vast technological advancements and innovative applications, the internet based e-commerce, social engineering sites and other networks are still vulnerable to vicious attacks. Leading service providers of IT security solutions have designed and developed anti-Phishing software to help organizations assess their employee awareness levels of social engineering  and the issues prevalent.


The anti-Phishing software facilitates  organizations to :


* Estimate  the probable hazards associated with phishing

* Provides a system of elastic reporting of Phishing attacks which will help organizations to include these for the awareness factor in the performance - indicator framework

* Recognizes the weak links within people, method and technology

* Facilitates  benchmarking and maturity analysis and helps to incorporate remediation methods

* Increases security awareness  and expertise  among employees through proper in-house training  to safeguard business critical data


Besides the various antivirus and antispyware software  used in the networked environment, today's  global and aggressively competitive business demands for an effective solution to protect the organization's vital information related to customer databases, operational strategies from Phishing attacks.

Business Expansion With Enterprise Translation Solutions

Communication is the most important factor for the growth and expansion of any kind of business. Therefore, selecting a suitable communication tool to appropriately convey your business objectives to a global audience is equally important.


With the rapid pace of globalization it is essential for organizations to venture into untapped markets and explore them. This includes communicating with the foreign crowd in their language and keeping intact their language essence. As a result, business or enterprise translation plays a vital role as a means of communication helping companies to inform customers about their products and services.


Any regional language is heavily influenced by the region’s cultural ethos. Hence, precise translation cannot be performed without having detailed expertise in certain phrases, vocabulary, metaphors and the tones of a specific language.


The language barrier can be a tough obstacle to overcome for a corporation or business house operating globally. Language interpreters are generally helpful in company events such as conferences, seminars and meetings where people from various cultures participate. Global organizations, to communicate smoothly across boundaries,need to use enterprise translation services.


In this regard, hiring a translation service is considered as the best option for an organization. Today companies specializing in automated language translation do the needful by offering innovative enterprise translation services. These companies offer bilingual speakers with contextual translation of phrases or words instead of mere sentence-based translations. As a result, it reduces the localization expense by 50 percent and increases the translation speed. Other benefits include:


* Terminology managements helps in maintaining messaging precision and consistency

* The translation memory helps in recycling content through consecutive projects

* A project management dashboard along with instant reporting streamlines team coordination


Furthermore, an enterprise translation service or software allows consumers to operate their servers with the security and flexibility to host their own translation platform. Deploying a premise system of your own would indicate that you have complete control of the overall localization procedure that further enables you in content translation, supervising every step of it as well as cooperating with your community and saving time and money.


In addition to that, innovative enterprise translation software’s are capable of scaling elegantly. This means as your company expands you have the facility to plan your localization process accordingly with the guarantee that the software would efficiently manage the enterprise requirements.


Related links: Translation Network, collaborative translation platform