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Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter:
Can Employers Demand Employees
Give Up Their Login Info?
Here's a new question that's being discussed in the courts: Do employers have the right to ask new hires for their username and password to various social media sites? According to the state of Maryland, the answer is: no.
Recently, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation that prevents employers in the state from asking prospective employees for their login information for various social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. If Gov. Martin O'Malley signs the bill, it would make Maryland the first state in the nation to set such a restriction into law. Other states are considering similar legislation, including Illinois and California.
Ironically, this practice was criticized by Facebook, one of the biggest users of personal information to sell advertising to its members. Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, wrote about the issue on Facebook, calling the practice of employers requesting potential hires' Facebook passwords "alarming" and "not the right thing to do." Maryland business groups, including the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that there may be cases where an employer should be able to ask for the login information of potential new hires in order to weed out unwanted candidates. Of course, this bill is just one of many issues being raised between employees and employers using social media. While asking for login information may soon be-come illegal, employers are still free to "friend" potential hires or search online for information about potential employees. Supporters of the bill point out that it's illegal for employers to discriminate based on age, sexual orientation, race or religion; since most social media sites contain this type of information, they feel employers might gain access to a candidate's personal details and use them to disqualify candidates illegally.
What are YOUR thoughts on this matter? Have you ever reviewed a potential new hire's Facebook page, blog or LinkedIn account before hiring them? Do you think it's fair for employers to request this information, or is it a violation of someone's privacy? Go online to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groffnetworks and post your thoughts.
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5 Smart Tips To Know Before Moving Your Data To A Cloud-Based Application
1. Back It Up!
Migrating data to any new location is a mess, and anything can (and usually does) go wrong. Therefore, make sure you have good, recent back-up copies of everything before you make the move.
2. Maintain An On-site Copy
At first, moving to the cloud can be a bit scary. What can help mitigate the risk (and the fear) is keeping a local, on-site copy of your data and network image on a NAS (network-attached storage) device. That way, you have a local on-site copy in addition to the working cloud copy.
3. Have A "Plan B" To Access The Internet
One of the biggest questions about moving IT to the cloud is, "What if the Internet goes down?" To mitigate that fail point, have a business-class Internet connection as your initial and main way to connect, and then also have a second Internet connection service as a back-up. If Time Warner is your main connection, for example, you might consider keeping a Verizon wireless account as a back-up.
4. Use It As An Opportunity To Do Some Housekeeping
You could just copy and paste your files from your local machines into the cloud, but why not take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate the structure and organization of that data? Here are some ideas:
- Re-evaluate and/or update your file-naming conventions and file organization. A good file-naming policy will make it much easier to find files and information. Also, consider re-organizing all the folders into smarter, more efficient categories.
- Consider who will be using what, and what levels of permissions are required to access files. Re-visiting your permission levels will help keep sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.
- Look at old files, and consider deleting them or archiving them, so they aren't cluttering up your server and costing you money for storing and backing them up.
5. Phase The Move
Don't try to migrate everything all at once. Create a transition plan ,and implement it. Make sure you move your files in bite-size pieces so that the changes are easy to digest for your clients, employees, partners and everyone else involved. This also gives you the opportunity to test the water before taking the plunge, and it allows you to put out one fire at a time instead of having all systems down or broken.
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Win Movie Tickets!
Are you out there? Do you want to win a pair of movie tickets? We had no trivia winner last month!
So, here's this month's trivia question...Be the first to answer the quiz correctly, and you will win a pair of movie tickets!
Which of these U.S. Presidents died on July 4th?
a) John Adams
b) Thomas Jefferson
c) James Monroe
d) All of the above
Please note: One prize per entrant per year. Entrants who have won a trivia contest in the last 12 months are ineligible to compete for prizes.
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How Hackers Can Set Fire To Your Office Copier/Printer
In case your copier/printer isn't making you crazy enough with paper jams, ink smears and general issues, here's something new: Hackers are now accessing copiers/printers through an overlooked flaw in many copier/printer systems, particularly older models, connected to the Internet.
Why should you care? Because hackers can use your copier/printer as a way to infiltrate your network and then see and make copies of any documents you are printing, scanning or copying. The security flaw involves the copier/printer's software used to run "embedded systems," which enable both advanced functions and connect the copier/printer directly to the Internet. In one case, researchers were able to hack into a printer and give it instructions to continuously heat up the part of the device that dries the ink after it's applied to the paper, causing the paper to heat up to the point of turning brown and smoking.
The implications of this type of security flaw are troubling, but this problem can be addressed properly and promptly with the right planning. HP is looking into the study for their own line of printers, and business owners should also take precautionary steps to protect already installed devices on their networks.
Of course, all of the clients on our My NetWorks plans need not worry since we're monitoring printers as well as all other devices for these types of attacks. But if you're NOT on our plan, call us at 518-320-8906 about how we can set up network monitoring, care and maintenance to make sure these types of attacks don't happen.
Extra Tip: When disposing of old copiers/printers, take care to erase the internal hard drive. Copiers/Printers store copies of documents printed, copied and scanned; if you don't wipe it clean, the person who purchases or inherits your old copier/printer can easily access all of those documents.
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| Shiny New Gadget of the Month
Big Blue Wireless Bluetooth® Speaker
Wouldn't it be nice to listen to music or watch a video from your mobile device with the same quality sound as a large speaker system? Well, now you can - without the hassle of the big, bulky speakers!
Introducing the Big Blue Wireless Bluetooth Speaker...This little speaker box packs a big punch. Get surround-sound quality with this wireless, Bluetooth-enabled device.
No cords, no apps and no extra parts to buy. The Big Blue conveniently connects to your MP3 player, smart-phone, laptop or tablet, providing crystal-clear sound in just seconds.
The small, compact design makes it a great device to use for travel or to transmit great quality sound for events, indoors or outdoors.
Find this device at Brookstone or online at amazon.com
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The Lighter Side
Summer Weather Edition
First cave man says to second cave man: "I don't care what you say. We never had such unusual weather before they started using bows and arrows."
Nate: "Hey, what's the weather like out there?" Kate: "I don't know. I'll tell you when it clears."
Why did the lady go outdoors with her purse open? Because she expected some change in the weather.
A postcard home: The weather is here. Wish you were beautiful.
Two Viking invaders are trudging up the beach in the pouring rain. One looks sky-wards and says, "So this is England. What's it like?" The other snarls, "Well, if you like the weather, you'll love the food."
A weather forecaster took a job in another part of the country. When asked why she transferred, she replied, "The weather didn't agree with me."
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Employee Profile: Jack
Jack Garrett is actually a John. John Garrett, that is. John Batson Garrett, IV! His middle name was given to the first John B. Garrett in honor of the woman who raised his family after something happened to his parents. He rewarded her by passing the name on to his children. All firstborns in the family, since then, have been male, and the name has been passed on.
Jack first started tinkering with a Gateway 486 at home when he was a kid. That's how he got into computers. He started sub-contracting for Groff Networks in 2006 and was hired as our first employee in 2007. Now, he is Assistant Manager of Technical Services at Groff NetWorks.
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Lauren's Corner
We recently went to Camp Pinnacle to play paintball...
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From left, back row: Lori, Ben, David, Jack. Front row: Jon, Lauren |
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