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A monthly gathering of business owners, principals and officers, hosted at Bonefish Grill.

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Tune into "Success in the Heartland" on 1510 AM KCTE today, Tuesday, May 26 at 9:00 A.M. to listen to an interview with PerAspera President Brian S. Pauls.

 

Heather Mergenmeier
Kansas City, MO

In a world of ever increasing technology comes an ever increasing need for security.  The problems come about when those that were smart enough to create the secure system are countered with those who are smart enough to hack it.  Just last week my credit card was shut off and a new number sent to me because they believed their security had been breached.  Lucky for me, there were no true ramifications to the potential breach, but it did get me thinking about the best ways to beef up the security on my technology devices.

 
The simplest method for personal computers is to have a fingerprint scan in order to gain access.  Many laptops have this built in, but for those that do not UPEK Eikon has a USB cabled fingerprint reader that, for about $40, can replace a variety of passwords including your initial log on and web browser passwords.  

What if the data you need to secure needs to be transported?  UPEK Eikon creates a USB drive that incorporates three-factor authentication, meaning that they know the password, have the drive physically in hand, and also can use their fingerprint identify themselves.  For around $75, you can be sure your data is secure from point A to point B.

If you do not feel that the fingerprint scan is good enough, how about a vein scan?  Fujitsu believes their new Palsecure vein-pattern recognition mouse could make fingerprints a thing of the past.  When you place your hand over the mouse, an infrared light determines how your unique veins are mapped within your hand.  With a 99.99% success rate of identifying the correct user the first time, it also has a .00008% error rate of allowing the wrong user, which is a much better stat than fingerprint scanners can offer.  The mouse and software will set you back $430, but depending on the importance of your data, this could be well worth it.

I hope that you take a few moments to contemplate whether or not any sensitive information you have is secured properly, and whether perhaps you need another layer of security like the ones I mentioned today.  Whatever you use to protect your data, remember to always keep it up to date!

source:  http://www.forbes.com

In 2008, Americans spent $43 billion on their pets.  Care to see what some of the newer gadgets are for pets?  Check out this interesting article from The New York Times. 

From the Litter-Robot, a self operating litter box, to the Zoombak, a GPS device that lets you see where your dog has roamed, there's plenty of new interesting devices available to take pet ownership to a whole new level.