A report published I read this week really surprised me, or did it?!  When I think about Internet privacy I imagine my parents who are too afraid to use Facebook or do heavy amounts of online banking or shopping.  They don’t have any kind of presence on the Internet, and they want to keep it that way.  However, some new research has led to some intriguing results.

Mary Madden and Aaron Smith of Pew Internet and American Life Project published a very interesting report, Reputation Management and Social Media, that really put my mind into a spin.

• 44% of young adult Internet users say they take steps to limit the amount of information available about them, compared to 33% of users ages 30 to 49 and 25% of those ages 50 to 64.
• 71% of younger social networking site users actively change their privacy settings to limit what they share with others online, compared to 55% of those 50 to 64.
• 41% have removed their names from photos of them posted by others, compared to just 18% of those 50 to 64.

So what does this say about the state of privacy?  I believe the younger generation is more willing to share their life online and engage in socialmedia.  However, they want to know their in control of the information.  They want the say in what is streamed out, and what is not.  Rightfully so I might add.  A larger portion of the younger generation have an online presence because it truly is “norm” for them.  So even the privacy conscious feel compelled to be on these social platforms; however they really take note of their privacy trying their best to lock it down tight.

Older generations are either with it, or they are completely against it.  If they feel okay with having their information online, they are generally very “open” type people.  They have nothing to hide and don’t fear what others may know about them.  These types of people are much less likely to be overly concerned about privacy.  They don’t change privacy settings and they don’t un-tag photos of themselves.  Those in the older generation didn’t grow up with it so they could take it or leave it, it’s not viewed as a “necessity”, like it is to some of our younger generation.  In essence, the adopters of technology in the old generation are truly comfortable with having their indentity online.

These reasons are why Mary and Aaron received the results they did.  I wouldn’t call them overly surprising, but more so highlighting the generational divide in technology adoption and the varying principles between the two.

Do you ever think just how important the Internet is these days?  Its reach is enormous.  From our nations power grid to playing PS3 with your friends across the country.  The Internet has quickly integrated into our daily lives; some integration we don’t even realize.  A common tactic to flame the fire is the idea of the Internet literally collapsing.  But, is that even possible?

The Internet is not one giant pipe that can be severed.  The nature of the Internet is that it’s split it a spider web of networks all interconnected.  If your data can’t get from A to B because someone maliciously severed a connection somewhere, the traffic could be routed from A to D to C and then to B. The key point in that sentence is the data still gets from A to B, just in a different manner.

So, could the Internet be taken down?  In terms of logical ways to sabotage it, no.  The Internet is gigantic; it would take a massive attack, and I mean GIGANTIC ATTACK, both of hardware sabotage and network/packet sabotage to Internet backbones around the world.  This coordination would be a huge logistical task and highly improbable.

If an attacker severed an “Internet backbone” as their known, traffic disruption on the Internet would occur.  In 2008, fiber optic cables on the sea floor were being cut with no culprits ever being found.  Some have theorized the attacks were government entities testing the waters on how the public and private sector would respond to disruption.  Cutting large cables on the sea floor is no cheap task, I have no doubt it was some kind of professional operation by someone.

So could your e-mail and Netflix suddenly vanish because of no bandwidth some day?  Surely, but don’t expect the flow of information around the world to cease at the flick of a switch or slice of a giant scissors.  You may be able to slice a chunk of the network out, maybe even a few, but no person or organization could take down the entire Internet.  No one.

When many people hear the word Zappos, they think about shoes.  That is partially correct.  Zappos is a major player in the shoe game online, but their company thrives and is centered around one thing, customer service.

So much of our economy is centered around chasing revenue and meeting market expectations etc.  While having capital to continue operating is important, caring about your customer is more important.  Customers don’t want to be a number or just another face in the crowd.  They want to feel close and cared about by the brands they love.  Your customers keep you in business, care about them, not their money.

Zappos has used strategic moves to serve their customers to the fullest.  Zappos operates their warehouse in Kentucky 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Running a 24 hour warehouse is not the most cost-effective.  It would be cheaper & more efficient to let orders pile-up and let the picker gather a larger number of orders.  However, this practice slows down delivery.  Zappos picks your shoes when you hit the “Submit” button.

The next key in their strategy is Kentucky.  You may be confused like, what, Kentucky… What the #&$^?!  The Zappos warehouse is located just 15 minutes away from the UPS hub located in Louisville, KY.  If you’ve shipped UPS, chances are your package went through the hub in Louisville.  If you order a new set of Crocs at 10:59 p.m., Zappos can have them picked from inventory and on a UPS plane before midnight and you’ll have them the next morning!    Oh, did I mention they will upgrade you to overnight shipping without your knowledge just to surprise you for free.  Zappos calls this the “wow” effect.  They want you to say, “wow!” with every aspect of their company you deal with; ordering, customer service, delivery, you name it.

Zappos by nature is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.  Take a look at this real customer feedback:

I don’t purchase a lot of stuff on the Internet, but you guys really changed my mind into doing more. I was going to purchase my shoes with another online store, but I decided to go with you because of the free shipping both ways. So, I placed my order at 4:45am on Thursday. And you did not disappoint! You upgraded my shipping to next day for free, and I am wearing the shoes as I type on Friday at 9:40am. That is what customer service is all about! Thanks, you just earned a lifelong customer by doing the little things right! Again, Thanks

It’s all about doing the right thing.  A recent computer glitch at Zappos caused their prices to be incredibly lower than what they should be listed at.  The funky pricing only lasted about 6 hours.  There were $1500 items selling for only $50 on one of their associated domains.  Orders came in at those prices and Zappos honored that price.  Zappos ended up losing $1.6 million dollars on this 6-hour glitch.  But without even thinking, they honored those prices.  Why scorn their customers when it was their computer glitch that caused the problem, right?  They may have lost out big on those products, but what will that choice do for them in the long-term?  Lots!

Zappos is a perfect cultural atmosphere to study and try to model any business after.  It’s about doing the right thing, caring about your customers and doing the little things.  Little things go a long way, in the long run. Zappos isn’t worried about this quarters revenue; Zappos is concerned about the long-term impacts of their actions.

Don’t sprint, you’re running a marathon.

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Want to learn more about Zappos?  I suggest this 10 minute Nightline segment produced by ABC News.  It really captures what Zappos is all about

British Airways is in the midst of a strike by its crew members causing major havoc for the major airline .  Just in case you are still in the dark, here is a short passage from the Sydney Morning Herald on the current situation.

British Airways cabin crew enter the final stage of a three-day strike Monday, in a dispute over planned changes to pay and conditions that has caused travel misery for thousands of passengers.

After a weekend marked by fierce disagreement over the strike’s effects between the airline and the Unite union, which represents its 12,000 cabin crew, the workers staged a final day of industrial action.

And unless a solution is found to the standoff over attempts by loss-making BA to downgrade its employees’ pay and perks packages, among the most lucrative in the industry, the staff will walk out again for four days from March 27.

Now the chief executive of British Airways, Willie Walsh, came out on YouTube expressing his stance on the strike.  Now what made this move such a great one for British Airways?  Let me explain…

People have great bull sh** detectors built-in.  We as people are not stupid and can read people and situations quite well.  Genuine thoughts and feelings come through and people can sense that.  British Airways could have just issued an official statement and left it at that .  Howver, it would have been carefully crafted by the BA public relations office and consumers would have just ignored it after the first sentence or two, and not given one thought to British Airways stance.  People would have said,”Well they must be doing something unfair to their employees, they are scared to even address head on?!”

Instead of this approach BA came out with a YouTube video showing chief executive Willie Walsh standing in a casual office setting.  No script, no carefully worded sentences.  The video showed Willie’s stance and what the companies feelings are towards the situation.  People want to interact and feel personally connected with their brands.  This is a great example of British Airways personally connecting with their consumers and critics during a rough time.

Great move British Airways,  great move.

Google is acquiring companies like I acquire candy on Halloween.  This raises some big questions like; is Google getting too big for itself?  They seem to be on a path to become another Microsoft or Apple, yea that big!  Let’s take a look at their latest reason to salivate, Yelp!

Yelp! is a community of restaurant/food fanatics who upload user reviews of eateries and restaurants.  From Bob’s Steaks just down the road to the most classy restaurants in New York City.

• Larry Dignan at ZDNet. Dignan predicts a dark scenario if the deal goes through: “See where this is going? Google is your friendly neighborhood local business gatekeeper. Google is already the gatekeeper for the big guys. The Google is a local content Borg. Resistance is futile. So is innovation. Any threat these days gets acquired.”

Larry brings up a valid point.  Google is becoming such a dominant force could it stifle innovation in the areas they are involved in?  Any start-up with any promise that could run with the big boys gets sucked up and purchased by Google.  Does this sound familiar?  Microsoft anyone?

David Coursey of PC World even published an article inserting the idea of Apple and Microsoft teaming up to take on Google.  I’m not the only one seeing the GOOG as a threat, am I?

I will be the first to admit I love Google.  They are one of the biggest and best tech companies in the world bar none. Their innovation, products, business ideals are all fantastic.  I use many Google products including, search, e-mail, maps, docs, wave, voice etc.  You name it, I probably use it.

Do we blame Google for their dominance and great business sense to this point?  Or do we blame everyone else who can’t step up and compete with Google?  I’m not sure which way the tide would go on that question.

Everyone is worried about the H1N1 flu this season.  This already in addition to the regular flu strain that kills thousands every year.  Google developed this trending product to track the spread of flu worldwide.

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together. We compared our query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in different countries and regions around the world. — Google Flu Trends

How accurate is it?  Good question.  I’ll let this graphic speak for itself.

This should be an interesting year to track the flu.  It is worth a bookmark in your browser.

Check out Google Flu Trends

Securing wireless networks has been a headache for broadband users for years now.  I wanted to write a short blog on how the average home user or small business can secure their wireless network and keep moochers and even more malicious users at bay.

Your Not Secure Out Of The Gate

Most users think just having a router is an automatic shield after listening to various media stories praise routers for their firewall abilities.  This is not the case.  Most routers you purchase at your local electronics store (Best Buy, Wal-Mart etc.) is not secure when you first plug it in. Routers are normally pre-configured to be open wireless access points.  This means anyone within its range will be able to use your connection, no questions asked.  This is done to make setup easy and compatible with most operating systems.  The only problem is it leaves your network open to attack.

The very first thing you’ll want to is login to your router’s administration panel.  This is done by typing in a 192.168.x.x address into your browsers address bar.  The actual number varies by router manufacturer, look in your user guide or online to find the local IP address for your router.  Linksys for example is 192.168.1.1.  The manufacturer sets very easy non-secure passwords.  These are easily found online as well as in your user guide and if left unchanged will make your network exceptionally vulnerable.  You’ll want to change the password to your router right away.  Make sure it is a secure password of at least six characters and preferably with upper and lowercase letters and numbers.

Bad Advice From GeekSquad

Local sales associates at places like Best Buy are often clueless on network security and sometimes offer up misleading advice.  Here are some steps that aren’t harmful, but mostly just a waste of time because they don’t secure your network.

• Turning off your SSID broadcast. - The SSID (Service Set Identifier) is an identifier broadcast by a wireless router.  You might know this as your network name.  Most routers default SSID broadcast is the manufacturers name (linksys, netgear etc.)  Turning this off does nothing to protect your network.  With the proper software, a malicious user could easily spot your networks presence even with the SSID off.  It is a false sense of security.   Changing the network name won’t make you more secure either, though I would recommend doing it.  Just make sure you SSID isn’t identifiable making it easy for outside users to know where the network is located (i.e. last name, home address are all no no’s)
• Turning DHCP Off - This in theory is a good idea but really doesn’t make you more secure.  It is easy to detect the method in which ip addresses are being assigned and make a request matching that method.
• Filtering MAC Addresses – Filtering MAC addresses is a good practice to get into, but for most households and businesses it causes more headache than what it’s worth.  For homes with many devices on the network like game systems, multiple computers and cell phones, filtering MAC addresses simply isn’t practical.  That being said, a malicious user with easily attainable monitoring software can replicate a MAC address and still penetrate your network.  This method has some value for keeping the average user off the network but will crumble with ease against advanced computer users.

What You Should Do

The easiest thing you can do to secure your network is protect your wireless access point with encryption.  There are two different kinds of encryption you can use.  One is known as Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP. This encryption is better than nothing but it does have a huge problem.

Beginning in 2001, several serious weaknesses were identified by cryptanalysts with the result that today a WEP connection can be cracked with readily available software found online within minutes. — Source:  Wikipedia

WEP can be easily cracked within minutes therefore it should not be your first choice, though it is better than having no encryption at all.  It will keep your pesky neighbors with no computer skills from using your bandwidth, but even the most novice 13 year-old could brute force their way into your network.  You want something with a little more ‘umph’.

You will want to use Wifi Protected Access, otherwise known as WPA,  for your wireless encryption.  WPA was designed after flaws were discovered in WEP that led to its demise.  Recently, researchers have found a way to crack WPA-TKIP connections, though it is still tougher than cracking WEP.  Since this has happened, you’ll want to make sure your using WPA-AES encryption to remain secure.  AES stands for Advanced Encryption Standard and the encryption contains three block ciphers.  It has been adopted by the U.S. government as their standard for encrypting sensitive networks and has yet to be cracked.

WPA2 is an even newer advance in WiFi network security.  If you have an older router or a computer older than 3 years old you may have compatibility issues.  For less headaches and still secure network, stick with WPA-AES unless you have all ‘newer’ hardware.

Conclusion

The simplest thing you can do to protect your wireless network is still encrypting it.  There is no need to cause yourself more trouble by turning off DHCP or hiding the SSID identifier. It will only give you headaches and nightmares down the road.  Most need for securing your WiFi comes from nosey neighbors or passer-by’s looking to score free Internet.  They don’t want to steal your credit card info or read your e-mails bur just score free interwebs. However, there are individuals who go around looking for easy targets to steal sensitive information from.

I found this from my girl Julia Roy.  I love these videos because they are so mind provoking and really make you think on a macro level.

I found these particuarly interesting:

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers.
This illustrates the shift occuring in our society right now in the U.S.  —  The older generations are falling out of power in business and society and Gen Y is taking over!

Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web.
Didn’t think I’d ever see this happen!

1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum.
I am included in this 1 in 6 students.  UW-Stout is a leader in online curriculum.  In fact, most classes I take in a year are online.

You see an old high school friend while shopping for your next pair of underwear.  You stop briefly to catch-up on ‘old times’ only to find it’s almost like you never were apart.  Sherri had a baby and John just had a killer bachelor party, yadda yadda yadda.  This phenomenon is known as ‘ambient awareness’.  Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made following your friends, families and co-workers daily lives effortless.

Many non-early adopters ask, why do I care that Matt ate toast this morning or thinks that AT&T is an epic failure as a wireless provider?  With occasional browsing the updates seem really boring, perhaps even absurd to even waste time reading.  Keep following those status updates and tweets, soon a digital picture begins to emerge in your head.  You begin to tune into the flow of your friends daily lives and know their day-to-day triumphs and tribulations.  This is known as digital intimacy.

Digital intimacy is increasing on a monthly basis with the evolution of ‘real-time’ platforms.  Thousands of users squawked when Facebook updated to their freshly designed home page with information popping up in their users feeds faster than ever before.  After a few months most adjusted to the new speed of information and the ground swell subsided.

So with this new ambient awareness of your network, you will find yourself feeling strangely close to your friends even though you rarely see them.  When you do stumble across them you pick up your conversation where it left off online.  This is not an unproven theory, I catch myself doing it all the time.  The more I scan my networks the closer I feel digitally to my friends.  But sometimes too much digital digestion can be a bit stressful.

This stress has led to many digital mavens to start adopting convergence tools like FriendFeed or simply skimming on the platforms they currently use when they have ample time.

Users who create more content are much more likely to have more digital visibility and are also more likely to have digital awareness of their network.  Content creates conversation and will foster more time spent digesting and engaging in the conversation.  This closeness drawn from conversation and interaction will foster more digital awareness of their network, especially those who engage with that users content.

That begs the question, are you in the conversation?

So many of us do it daily, but hardly anyone does it efficiently.  E-mail has rapidly become as important as checking your physical snail mail box outside your home.  Nothing annoys me more than having to wait more than 24-48 hours for an e-mail response unless they have auto-reply turned on notifying you otherwise.  My gripe to people I know who do that is, “would you check your physical mailbox every three or four days?”  They always reply with the common answer, no.

Here are some guidelines for effective e-mail

• Don’t Ramble! -  When people sit down to check their e-mail they often have lots of messages and little time.  Don’t tell your life story only to get to the point in the very last sentence.  KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) often works well for e-mail.  No more than five sentences, that’s it!
• Be Careful With E-Mail Directories and pre-defined mailing lists - I’ve seen people I know make this terrible mistake.  When loading up multiple recipients or using a pre-defined mailing list make sure you know who it’s going to!  Double check and re-check the recipients you’ve selected or know who the mailing list contains.  You could send information and have it seen by users who you definitely don’t want seeing it.
• Don’t E-Mail Angry - Sometimes you will receive a message that angers you or maybe your upset for outside reasons.  Never, ever send an e-mail while angry.  Just leave it sit till the next day and approach your e-mail with a calm and collected mood.
• Respect Privacy – I’m not terribly strong on this point, but some people are really hypersensitive about their e-mail address.  I am personally not one of these people.  When sending an e-mail to a group of people consider using the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) option.  This will mask everyone who receives the message so none of your recipients know who else received the message.
• Have A Good Signature - Signature are important and everyone should have one.  Often times they are over done and sometimes down right distracting.  Don’t use photos in your signature as it will increase the likelihood of being caught by a spam filter.  Don’t put any kind of quotes in your e-mail, they could end being offensive or confusing to your recipient.  Use eight lines to compose your signature, anything more is just too much.  Only include what you want recipients to know!  I know it is kind of obvious but if you don’t want business calls at home, don’t include your home phone number.  Lastly don’t get flashy and fancy, keep it simple.  Your not designing a poster, use easy to read fonts.
• Check It Often - As I described above, nothing gets under my skin more when someone does not check their e-mail daily or respond in a timely matter.  Check your e-mail at the bare minimum once a day, I recommend checking it twice a day.  Don’t just read, respond!   Techno geeks like myself have e-mail on constantly with push notifications to our mobile devices.  When you send me an e-mail I get it within a minute or two.  If it is critical i’ll respond within minutes, not days.  You wouldn’t let your physical mailbox outside your home go unchecked for days, would you?
• Don’t Use HTML - Don’t use HTML to link to your website or blog or anywhere else on the web.  (i.e. “My Website”)  Actually spell out the address. (i.e. http://www.techization.com)  You never know what kind of e-mail client the recipient is using and how it could display or not display your address.  This leads to a distraction within the message and could result in a lost opportunity if your link doesn’t work.

And for goodness sakes spell check before you send!

Did I forget one of your e-mail etiquette pet peeves?  Have another good point?  Leave a comment below!