More Payment Choices

Look first - No lock - no pay

I received an email just today from a trusted organization offering an item for sale. There was a link for payment online. The page where I landed was very simple with fields to complete and a choice to select. The last blanks were for credit card information and a button for "Submit".
I might have actually completed my information if the form had been more "sophisticated". I paused, looked and saw no lock. I knew this payment form had no security to protect my credit card information. With all the other ways to lose my credit card number to thieves, the least I can do is to take a moment to LOOK for the LOCK and NO LOCK then NO PAY.
If your organization needs an easy way to setup a Secure Web Pay that can be customized for your offer and organization then contact us at 800-341-4423 or rona@morepaymentchoices.com
We host the security certificate with both you and your customer receive confirmation by email. Protect your company and your customers.

Every merchant should have a website

You have heard the story - everybody needs a website because everyone looks for yours before calling.
Every merchant should have a website for just that reason. Build a website and host it for a very reasonable investment.
We use Lunarpages.com for hosting our multiple websites and forwarding domain names to existing pages. They are easy to use, reliable and reasonable rates.
What more could you ask?
Find out more about the Lunarpages.com Basic plans

Don’t Text and Drive – Use Jott Instead

I must admit that I stole the headline right from their website www.jott.com

This is so much easier and safer than texting or writing while driving. Just call Jott and state your message to send to yourself, spouse, friend, associate or a group. In less than a minute, they receive an email and an audio file without being disturbed by the phone ringing. You will see many more features such as reminders and web links that you might love as much as I do. The service is free so use it a lot or a little but whatever you do – jott – call 1-866-JOTT-123

Forget the Passwords! – Put them in the Safe

Remember back in the day when you had one password that you used for everything? Then things tightened up for security and the passwords got harder so you added a number. Now the password changes every month and must have a capital a symbol a number. The old standy just doesn’t work anymore. How can you remember them all? I was constantly sending the email for “Forgot your Password?” and wasting time waiting for the reset, plus thinking up a new password.  If you are reading this then you know the story.  I tried the folder on my PC (at least I didn’t name it passwords) but then I would forget to update it. Ok – I knew this was not the best solution. How would it look if our data security person caught me? Even with my “solution” I was stilI was pounding on my keyboard and mumbling as I was trying passwords when one day our data security guy stopped by my desk. The time was right to tell him what I thought! After patiently listening, Halleluja, he had a solution. I don’t know what took him so long!  Now I use this wonderful little tool called Password Safe. I love this one because it only requires one complex password to open it up. I can remember one password.  It’s easy to organize my id, password and the website by groups and names. I can choose to browse to the url, select autotype to put in the id and password then all I do is hit enter. No more mad typing and mumbling or covert unprotected folders. If I need a new password then I just open the folder, select random generator for the password. I don’t have to think about it or add it to the safe. Did I mention that this was FREE! You should make a contribution to support further developments. Check it out for awhile and see if you like it like I do.

How to Reduce Stress and Stay Happy

Last time I talked about the need for data backups. Is there anything you can do to help avoid computer crashes? Yes there is, one important thing is conditioning the power that comes into your PC, printer, or router. The best way to accomplish that is by the use of an Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS. A UPS will not only supply power to your PC when your incoming electricity is out it will also act as a power filter and maintain the AC power to your PC within its acceptable limits. What does that do for you? Maintaining the incoming power keeps the components inside your PC happy. They do not have to deal with and compensate for power that is too high or low, this reduces stress on the electrical components and just like us, it is good to reduce stress; it leads to a long life. 

A UPS can be purchased at your local electronics store or online and the cost is very reasonable. APC is one of the largest manufactures and they have a tool on their website to help you size your UPS to fit your needs. That link is here: http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm . For example, I used the tool to come up with a UPS to protect an average PC. The tool gave me 3 choices, the best value was the BE550R, that gave me at least 22 minutes of run time after a power outage and the price was 59 dollars. It was easy, and what makes it even better, if you already have a UPS you can trade in the old one and they will either properly dispose of it or refurbish it for resell.

This basic underlying protection is the foundation of protecting all of your data. Use it to protect one of your most important business tools, your PC.

Dennis Schmedt

CISSP

More Payment Choices

800-341-4423

dennis@morepaymentchoices.com

www.morepaymentchoices.com

www.collectmorechecks.com

Backups

If you are like us then you have all of your pictures, much of your correspondence, maybe Quicken for your taxes, all on your PC.  It is a great place to keep records.  Modern PC’s are very reliable and you expect it to work every time you boot it up and it does……..most of the time.

You have backups of all of your important data right? So you can just put all your important data right back on your new hard drive. No? It is hard to remember to backup isn’t it? I did manual backups for many years; I would try to remember to keep a copy of important information stored every month. What I found was, even though I had a backup it was always at least several months old, sometimes longer. It was just not something I could discipline myself to do even though I knew it was important. I tried several backup programs, but they were cumbersome to use or didn’t work very well and sometimes both. The really good backup software was expensive. That put me on a mission and after extensive research and trying several different backup programs; I chose Handy Backup three years ago.  It is inexpensive and it WORKS! The setup is easy to understand. It is a very secure system that allows you to encrypt all of your backups with a very high level of encryption.  This is what we use for all of our company and personal backups. Rona and I both know that that the restore function works.  We experienced hard drive failures and hardware upgrades.  We were able to successfully restore the files we had backed up and get back to work very quickly. Off-site storage is the most secure way to keep all of your information safe and ready to restore when you need it. You just set it up and go. You don’t have to remember to do your backups; Handy Backup does it for you. You can buy a copy here: Handy Backup    off site storage here: Handy Backup Storage or if you just want to try it out to see how you like, it download it here: Handy Backup 30 day trial download

Dennis Schmedt

CISSP

More Payment Choices

800-341-4423

dennis@morepaymentchoices.com

www.morepaymentchoices.com

www.collectmorechecks.com