SugarSync for business reviewed
March 9th, 2010 - Posted by Kent
We really liked SugarSync's personal backup service when we tested it, so we were eager to see how its SugarSync for Business plan differs. Strangely, the biggest difference seems to be in the price, and not the functionality; from a price perspective, that's a very good thing.
The base price is currently $29.99 per month for three users who will share 100GB of storage. Additional users can be added for $9.99—per user, per month—and an extra 100GB of storage is $29.99 per month. Signing up for an annual plan with give you two months free. This is introductory pricing, and may well go up to $49.99 with subsequent years.
With SugarSync for business, each user can keep the files on their own machines synced to each other, but still separate from other users. For instance, users can edit their work documents from their computers at home; when they come into the office, they'll find the documents updated with the latest changes. Users can share folders with others users, and manage which users are allowed to see which folders.
SugarSync for Business allows an administrator to set up accounts, set storage limits, remove users, and even create other administrators. Strangely, it does not easily facilitate collaboration between users. Really it's like shared disc space, but not a collaborative platform. There are manual workarounds: you can save documents in a shared folder, and two people can work on them alternately. While there's no real management of the collaborative process, you can view all versions of a document. The Mac version does include support for a live Java-based syncing app, which helps the process.
We should say that SugarSync for Business is not aimed at medium to large companies looking to backup their mail servers; organizations that use a service like Gmail, storing their communications in the cloud already, will be fine.
By default SugarSync backs of documents, photos, and your desktop. It will not, by default, back up your email or preferences. You can have it do that by locating these assets on your hard drive and selecting them. It's our one regret about SugarSync; we'd like to see it more easily configurable to those categories.
The other thing you get with SugarSync's business plan is telephone support. The friendly, non-outsourced support is available seven days a week, from 6am to 7pm (PST) on weekdays, with slightly shorter hours on the weekends.The other advantages of SugarSync are all there: an online photo album, music streaming, file sharing via links, all accessible via smart phone apps. We tested the iPhone app on the SugarSync personal plan, and loved it.
So, is SugarSync for Business right for your business? For document backup and sharing coupled with administrative capabilities, it's great. For full backup of your preferences, emails, and bookmarks, it can take a little work. But it's a lot fun to use, particularly if you have a smart phone.
The $10,000 fake ID
March 8th, 2010 - Posted by Robert Siciliano
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
When I was 17, my friend "Baldo," as he was known by all, was the Fake ID Master. He also fixed TV's and still does today. But he didn't actually create "fake IDs," he altered real ones. The technology he used back then is still used today. It's called Crayola Crayons. He would take a Massachusetts ID and heat the laminate over the stove and peel it back. Then he'd dab a premixed batch of liquid aqua green/blue crayon on the left side of an 8 to make it a 3. He'd bust out his heating iron and some wax paper and seal up the laminate. Then a 17-year-old became 22, using the same technology my 1 year old eats. Packy run, anyone?
Today is a little different. It's not so easy to peel back the laminate. Most cards today are treated plastics: PVC, styrene, polypropylene, direct thermal, and teslin hybrids. However, while all that sounds technically challenging, it's really not. Some of the do-it-yourself ID making machines are the size of a shoebox. It is however a tad more complicated than that. Sure you can go to your local office supply and buy ID making materials or simply buy fake IDs online, but will they pass the muster when put in front of numerous technologies that look for tampering?
That's where the $10,000 fake ID comes in. In New York, authorities busted an identity theft ring and charged 22 people with selling driver's licenses and other identification documents.
Among those implicated in the ring are two New York State Department of Motor Vehicles employees, who are believed to have earned over a $1 million dollars issuing more than 200 licenses and other documents over the past three years. The alleged ring leader of the group was identified as Wilch Dewalt, also known as "Sharrief Sabazz" Muhammad' and "License Man." Authorities say he acted as a broker who, in exchange for a fee of between $7,000 and $10,000, served as a one-stop shop for fraudulent documents.
In this case, the clients who were dropping 10G on IDs were people who were hiding from the law in plain sight, including felons, a drug dealer whose claim to fame was once a cameo on "America's Most Wanted," and someone from the government's No Fly List. These were people that: A) could afford it and, B) needed the best of the best in real fake identification.
In the meantime, identity theft is again the top 2009 consumer complaint, the FTC reports. The number of American identity fraud victims rose 12% last year to 11.1 million, with losses hitting $54 billion, according to an annual report from Javelin Strategy & Research.
Protect your identity:
- If you think you're a victim of identity theft, find out how to get a credit freeze. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
- Invest in anti-virus and keep it auto-updated.
- With your iPhone get my book as an App or go to my website and get my FREE ebook on how to protect yourself from the bad guy.
- Invest in identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud. He's also partnered with Intelius to help raise awareness about the growing threat of identity theft and to provide tips on how you can protect yourself.
Unemployed Tax Filing Guidelines
March 8th, 2010 - Posted by Tasha
Being unemployed is more common than not in the current economic climate. And it comes with it's own set of questions about how this might affect your 2009 tax filing requirements. If you spent some (or all) of 2009 unemployed and want to know if you need to file, we break down the basics below.
Federal Filing
1. Do I need to file taxes for 2009? The federal government requires that single persons who made over $9,350 in 2009 file. If you're married, file a joint return, and both of you are under 65 you must file if your gross income was over $18,700. IRS pub 501 clearly lays out whether you need to file federal taxes or not, so check there to see if you need to file.
2. What about unemployment benefits? For 2009, you must include all unemployment compensation you received over $2,400. That means you can deduct $2,400 from the total benefit amount you received, and you only need to pay federal taxes on the remainder. IRS pub 17 (hint: look at page 94) discusses the subject in more detail.
3. Can I deduct job search expenses? The good news is that you can deduct job search expenses, but like everything else in taxland, this comes with a number of caveats. To qualify, you need to be looking for a job that is in your present occupation. You can't deduct first time job hunt expenses (sorry recent college grads!). And you can't deduct if there was a "substantial break" between the end of your most recent job and the time you start looking for another job. You also need to have spent more than 2% of your adjusted gross income. If you meet all these criteria, you're in luck. IRS pub 529 has a complete list of job search expenses you can deduct.
State Filing
1. Do I need to file taxes for 2009? This is a slightly more complicated question, as each state has it's own guidelines. In general, you must file a state tax return if your gross income or adjusted gross income was more than the amount defined by your state's law. Check with the revenue/tax department for your state to see if you need to file.
If you're not an accountant, tax time can be very confusing and there are lots of complicated regulations. Whether you're employed or not, if you're looking to maximize your deductions you'll usually benefit by using an efiling service like TurboTax to file your taxes. TurboTax will guide you through the ins and outs of filing your federal and state taxes, and make sure you're getting all the deductions for which you qualify.
Does Identity Guard accept prepaid credit cards for enrollment?
March 8th, 2010 - Posted by Tasha
The following is an actual reader submitted question:
Q: Does Identity Guard accept prepaid credit cards for enrollment?
A: Currently, Identity Guard does not accept prepaid credit cards to enroll in their identity theft protection services. They do, however, accept both debit cards and regular (non-prepaid) credit cards. If you don't have a regular credit card, using your debit card would be the way to go.
As always, we highly recommend subscribing to a identity theft protection service such as Identity Guard. It's a smart, proactive step to help protect your identity – one of your most valuable commodities.
myFICO turns 9, offers exclusive 30% myFICO discount
March 5th, 2010 - Posted by Kent
Credit report monitoring company myFICO is turning nine years old, and they're giving you a present. Until March 31st you can get 30% off of any of their services including Score Watch, Suze Orman's FICO Kit Platinum, FICO Quarterly Monitoring, and ID Freeze. When our reviewers looked at Score Watch, they found it to be the best way to monitor FICO scores. To take advantage of this 30% discount you must use this link and enter the code myFICOis9. Unfortunately it doesn't come with a 30-day trial if you use the discount code. If you'd like to have a 30-day trial, follow the link from our myFICO review.
Assassin or identity theft victim?
March 5th, 2010 - Posted by Robert Siciliano
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
The assassination of senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has made a little buzz in the States, but over in Dubai, as more details become available, it is becoming apparent to some (depending on which side of the wall you live on) that the real assassins stole the identities of several Israelis who carried foreign passports.
The purported identity theft stems from the accessibility of passport data from Israelis who hold dual citizenship from Israel, Britain, Australia and other countries. "Six more Britons had their passports cloned by the killers of a senior Hamas official," Dubai police said yesterday, as they revealed a total of 15 new suspects in the assassination. One of the victims/accused assassins stated, "I was in total shock. I don't know what's happening—I don't know how they got to me or my information. I haven't left the country in about two years, and I've never been to Dubai. I don't know who was behind this. It's just scary, because powerful forces are involved in this."
The Dubai police went ahead and released information on 26 suspects in the assassination. The pictures of the suspects were also released. One of the accused stated, "Even my mother asked if I'd been abroad."
Freaky Stuff.
I was interviewed in a yet-to-be-released AP story from Jerusalem about how something like this can happen. It seems simple to me. If, in fact, the accused are what I would label as criminal identity theft victims, then we are all susceptible to this type of crime. I've always believed this to be the scariest of all identity theft and if the above story concludes as factual, then it's a perfect example.
In the USA, we have as many as 200 forms of ID circulating, including passports from state to state, plus another 14,000 birth certificates and 49 versions of the Social Security card. These are paper and plastic documents that can be recreated with a PC, scanner, printer and laminator. We use numerical identifiers that aren't physically associated with us. Pictures are attached to some documents that may not look like the document holder, especially if there are changes to characteristics such as eye glasses, beards, hair coloring, hair removal, or weight change. Some identification documents are absent of a photo. This is not effective authentication. Worldwide, the system isn't much more secure.
This is criminal identity theft waiting to happen.
At least you can protect your financial identity.
1. Get a credit freeze if you think you've been a victim of identity theft. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
2. Invest in anti-virus and keep it auto-updated.
3. With your iPhone get my book as an App or go to my website and get my FREE ebook on how to protect yourself from the bad guy.
4. Invest in identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker video hacking P2P getting lots of fun data.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud. He's also partnered with Intelius to help raise awareness about the growing threat of identity theft and to provide tips on how you can protect yourself.
Does Carbonite back up my computer software programs and all my data, documents, and video files?
March 4th, 2010 - Posted by Kent
The following is an actual reader submitted question:
Q: Does Carbonite back up my computer software programs and all my data, documents, and video files?
A: With unlimited online backup storage, Carbonite can back up everything on your computer including your programs. By default, it's not set up to do that, so you'll have to specify that in the preferences. But before you do, consider why it's not initially set up to do that:
- Time: These days, programs are huge. Even though they only need to be backed up once, they will significantly increase the time taken for an initial backup, and likewise a restore (remember, this is all being sent over your broadband connection). If you need to restore any programs after a crash, they will reinstall much faster from disc.
- Functionality: Program installation is a bit of a science, at least on the part of the software. When you install a program, that installation package is busy putting a lot of program components in very specific places. If you simply restore a program onto a clean hard drive, it may not function like it used to, or at all.
So, the best policy is to use Carbonite for all those irreplaceable files like documents, photos, and emails, and use the original installation discs that came with your software for the programs.
When FTC sends a warning, data theft has jumped the shark
March 3rd, 2010 - Posted by Robert Siciliano
Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
When Fonzie jumped the shark, that spelt the end of Happy Days.
The FTC's warning to 100 companies and agencies, that their employees are leaking client and sensitive data on the web via Peer to Peer file sharing (P2P), is the single most pathetic and embarrassing communication to come across the desk of an IT professional. This is old news, and the FTC seems far behind. As Trautman tells Rambo, "it's over, Johnny, it's over!"
The FTC certainly has their hands full with the mess of information security that we call identity theft. I've met some from the FTC. These are smart people who are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. But government is usually the last to be on top of what is new and ahead of what is next. Especially, with technology issues. Generally, they are reactive and fix it after it's broke. They step in when there is a problem and work to fix it so it's not a problem in the future.
How is it that after hundreds of data breaches and numerous articles that all point to leaks via P2P, there are still companies who allow the installation of technology that opens a big hole in your network?It's a hole big enough for a car bomb.
As Byron Acohido eloquently stated, "the Federal Trade Commission today finally voiced concern about the long-known problem of data leaking into criminal hands via LimeWire, BearShare, Kazaa and dozens of other peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks." The operative word here being "finally." Why are we having this conversation?
For the under a rock crowed, P2P has been around since before the days of Napster. Peer to peer file sharing is a great technology used to share data over peer networks. It's also great software for getting your computer hacked.
Last year the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform responded to reports that peer to peer file sharing allows Internet users to access other P2P users' most important files, including bank records, tax files, health records, and passwords. This is the same P2P software that allows users to download pirated music, movies and software.
An academic from Dartmouth College found that he was able to obtain tens of thousands of medical files using P2P software. In my own research, I have uncovered tax returns, student loan applications, credit reports and Social Security numbers. I've found family rosters which include usernames, passwords and Social Security numbers for an entire family. I've found Christmas lists, love letters, private photos and videos (naughty ones, too) and just about anything else that can be saved as a digital file.
Installing P2P software allows anyone, including criminal hackers, to access your data. This can result in data breaches, credit card fraud and identity theft. This is the easiest and frankly, the most fun kind of hacking. I've seen reports of numerous government agencies, drug companies, mortgage brokers and others discovering P2P software on their networks after personal data was leaked.
Blueprints for President Obama's private helicopters were recently compromised because a Maryland-based defense contractor's P2P software had leaked them to the wild, wild web.
Here's how to stay out of the P2P mess:
- Don't install P2P software on your computer.
- If you aren't sure whether a family member or employee has installed P2P software, check to see whether anything unfamiliar has been installed. A look at your "All Programs Menu" will show nearly every program on your computer. If you find an unfamiliar program, do an online search to see what it is you've found.
- Set administrative privileges to prevent the installation of new software without your knowledge.
- If you must use P2P software, be sure that you don't share your hard drive's data. When you install and configure the software, don't let the P2P program select the shared data for you.
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker video hacking P2P getting lots of fun data.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud. He's also partnered with Intelius to help raise awareness about the growing threat of identity theft and to provide tips on how you can protect yourself.
Does Credit Report Monitoring include more than one credit card?
March 3rd, 2010 - Posted by Tasha
The following is an actual reader submitted question:
Q: Does Credit Report Monitoring include more than one credit card?
A. Yes, it does. Credit Report Monitoring keeps tabs on any changes to your personal credit report. Your credit report covers your entire credit history, which includes all credit cards, loans and any type of credit account you open. It also includes public record data such as bankruptcy information, unpaid tax liens, and past due child support.
Basically, credit report monitoring is a convenient and practical way of making sure your credit history is only affected by changes YOU make. It helps to protect you from identity theft, and some services even go a step further and provide tools to help you improve your credit score. Our top reviewed pick is Identity Guard, because it goes beyond other services by monitoring public records for any changes in your name and checking the Internet's black market for any use of your credit cards or other personal information.
If you're interested in your current credit report score, many of our credit report monitoring service (including Identity Guard) offer a free trial. You can sign up to see your score for free and then cancel later at no charge. However, we do recommend you keep the service because we feel it offers real-time monitoring that is almost impossible to achieve on your own and protects you from damage to your credit history over time.
A Windows security alert and it directed me to have a scan of my computer which alerted me to numerous Trojan and viruses and worms—is it a scam?
March 3rd, 2010 - Posted by Kent
The following is an actual reader submitted question:
Q:I received a Windows security alert and it directed me to have a scan of my computer which alerted me to numerous Trojan and viruses and worms. Now I am not able to open any of my computer files or access my virus protection. Is this site legitimate or is it a scam?
A: It depends on where that warning came from. If it came from reputable Internet security software that you installed on your computer, it's probably legitimate. If it came from a website that you came across, it's probably a scam. Either way, it sounds like you probably have a virus, or some other piece of malware on your computer. A good antivirus product would have removed any viruses or advised you on further action.
A good first step is to try running a free scan from a reputable company, such as the one from Norton. This should give you an indication of what's going wrong. Depending on the quality and age of your antivirus product, you may want to consider upgrading to a more robust Internet security software product.
Categories
Blog Archives
Popular Services Reviewed:
Credit Monitoring Services |
Find Us On:
Copyright© 2006 - 2012 NextAdvisor.com - All rights reserved.
Disclosure: NextAdvisor.com is a consumer information site that offers free, independent reviews and ratings of online services. We receive advertising revenue from most of the services we review. Our editors thoroughly research and whenever possible test each service we review and offer their honest opinions about each one. We are independently owned and operated and all opinions expressed on this site are our own.