Sage Computer Associates

May 2008
In this issue

►Greetings
►Security Insecurity
►Flat-Panel Monitors
►Extend Battery Life
►Sage 25 Challenge

To help celebrate our silver anniversary, we offer the SAGE 25 Challenge. Send us an email (or snail mail) with the story of the time our staff provided outstanding service for your company. We will honor three clients with an 8GB Ipod touch. Entries can be in the following categories:

1. SAGE staff going way beyond expectations

2. The implemented solution greatly increased client productivity

3. SAGE pulled our company chestnuts out of the fire (or flood)

We hope you will have as much fun remembering the things we have done for you, as we will have reading about them. In addition, one of our staff members will also be awarded an Ipod based on your submissions. Entries need to be received by May 31st. Please email to info@sagecomputer.com.

Thanks for your support and we look forward to the exciting opportunities the next 25 years will bring.

Lunch & Learn

We invite you to join other SAGE guests for the upcoming series of monthly informational, fun and tasty seminars.

Click here for more information!

1 Computer Drive South
Albany, NY 12205
518-458-9300
info@sagecomputer.com
www.sagecomputer.com

Greetings,

Welcome to the May edition of our Making Business Smarter E-Newsletter!

We are happy to report that summer is finally here!! Take the time to enjoy many of the recreational opportunities that abound in Tech Valley.

The lead article addresses a significant change in the security profile of small and medium businesses over the past few years. SMBs were not high profile targets for hackers, but all of this changed as small and medium business computing power increased and large businesses paid more attention to security. Please check out this article. Then let’s make sure that your network is up to date with current security standards and will keep your information safe.

Our next Lunch and Learn will be on June 19th at our office. The topic is “Re-take Control of Your Email – Understanding What’s Real and What’s Not”. With spam comprising more than 95% of email traffic, you need to return email as a productive tool. This session will review ways to get your employees out of the spam reading business and back into your business.

Finally, this is the last call for the SAGE 25 Challenge. We have received many entries and are looking forward to sharing the winners with you. If you haven’t responded yet, you still have a few days, and an iPod Touch is a very cool prize. If you have responded, Thank you, and good luck.

Security insecurity: How concerned should you be?
Jason Appel
CISSP, CCSP, CSSA, INFOSEC, MCSE
Security Practice Manager
SAGE Computer Associates Inc.
SAGECareSecurity@SAGEComputer.com

Information Security cannot be achieved with just a device or program, but must be embraced as a foundation for building your organization. These days, it’s not only giant multi-national conglomerates that are experiencing security issues with hackers, viruses or breaches. Increasingly, it’s small and medium sized organizations that are being compromised, extorted, and/or breached.

Why? It’s a simple matter of following the path of least resistance. Larger organizations are finally being forced to take notice of information security issues due to increased regulatory rules and oversight. As these larger organizations lock down their internet connections, web sites, and remote access, they become harder and less attractive targets. Statistically, there are a lot more smaller and medium sized organizations, and historically they have been considered low profile targets because their computing base and public profiles were limited. With many smaller organizations, there is a general lack of expertise in the Information Security arena as the skill sets needed to defend against these incursions are highly specialized and technically demanding. All of these factors, as well as the small and medium organizations’ general increase in computing and information assets, leaves previously overlooked organizations, like yours, as the low hanging fruit.

Flat-panel Monitors: 5 Things to Know
by Kim Komando
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

It's hard not to admire the sleekness of flat-panel displays. They are a perfect example of form melding with function to create a superior product.

Is it time for you to trade in your trusty cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor for a stylish new liquid crystal display (LCD) model?

Here's a look at what makes flat-panel monitors appealing. And what might keep one off your desk.

4 Tips to Extend the Life of your Laptop Battery
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

On a recent stopover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, I flipped open my laptop PC, hoping to chip away at the 7,000-some e-mail messages that had accumulated since leaving Anchorage, Alaska, four hours earlier.

"Don't even think about it," my laptop screen flashed back at me contemptuously (I'm paraphrasing the error message a little here). "I'm out of juice."