By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
In a recent post, , a maker of networked attached storage (NAS) systems for managing unstructured data in high-performance computing applications, and , a corporate strategy and marketing consultant who worked with the Blue Arc team in the mid-2000s.
Rosen talked about how sales for the company had hit a plateau by 2004, forcing BlueArc to evolve its marketing and sales model. It could no longer rely on prospects being able to figure out for themselves how and why the product would be a fit for them. BlueArc needed to talk with key decision makers within its target markets and learn how to relate its products to their needs in a language they understood. It needed to win over those individuals with the influence to champion BlueArc within their organizations.
“The goal is to dissect the brain of the market and know at a conscious level how the market thinks … do that and you have a shot at being able to speak their language about things that really matter to them,†Rosen said.
In 2004 and 2005, BlueArc focused on animation, drug discovery and Internet services, then moved on to the oil and gas upstream exploration, design and simulation markets in 2006 and 2007.
How did BlueArc track and measure the efforts of its sales and marketing teams against results?
“A key tactic was simply identifying key markets as the only markets visible in the CRM system,†Rosen said. “This sounds trivial, but if reps saw that management was only tracking prospects in key markets, it was a strong signal that focus was serious.
“At the same time, pipeline was tracked by vertical market, so it was obvious long before deals closed whether the focus was working. Finally, the marketing team assigned a point person for each market to work with the sales teams. This person was motivated to support reps in closing business in the market and worked with reps to hear what parts of the targeting and messaging were and were not working.â€
As always, executive focus was critical. In a telling moment, a successful, senior sales rep said, “I don’t think I need to know about these markets. I just need someone to get me in front of a prospect so I can ask about their pain.†BlueArc CEO Mike Gustafson and VP of sales Chris McBride responded with a single message: “Sales skills and the ability to do discovery are table stakes. Outselling the competition means our reps walk in the door knowing about key customer challenges, so they can become trusted advisors, not students.â€
What was the outcome?
The result of this focused market segmentation and primary research? BlueArc posted six consecutive quarters of record revenue growth.
Executive buy-in and a shared philosophy were crucial. This, after all, had to be a team effort across the organization that could rely on whatever support it needed, from the front-line sales staff to the engineers.
Rosen remembers his first conversation with Gustafson.
“I began the meeting with, ‘Here’s what I believe, if you agree, let’s talk, if not … we probably shouldn’t go on: If you want to sell to me, you have to solve my pain. And if you want to even discuss my pain, you have to do it in my language.’â€
Gustafson of course agreed.
“To sell to the enterprise market, you have to talk to the audience, ask them what keeps them up at night and listen to how they talk about their challenges,†Rosen said. “The more valuable insights don’t come from asking about what product or feature customers want, they come from asking customers what they do, need, and crave.â€
This entire process can be led internally or with external help such as Rosen, but the challenge of doing it in-house is significant.
“There are two practical challenges: first, if you believe in doing the research, it can be hard for someone in the company to ask questions without selling…and hard for a prospect to open up without feeling like they are in some sort of sales cycle. On the other hand, if you believe you should just hire someone who already knows about your markets, it simply isn’t practical to find someone whose task is to be, and continue to be, an expert on all functions of all the potential markets you can sell into.â€
What were the key lessons learned?
 from his experience at BlueArc into a five-point scale for deciding which target markets to pursue.
To quote:
1. How intense is prospect pain in the area you serve?
If the pain from the problem you solve isn’t setting prospects’ hair on fire, if they don’t think about it almost every day, your sales cycle will be longer. Personally, I greatly prefer customers who use words like “pain†over “need,†but both trump “desire.†Sell aspirin, not vitamins.
2. How well do you solve that pain?
This is where most companies are most comfortable, because it is the most inward-looking question: Do we solve the problem? For too many companies, a “yes†to this question implies “OK, let’s hire the sales force and start advertising!†We humbly disagree. It’s one of five criteria and you’re not likely the only firm solving the problem.
3. How strong is the competition?
This criterion is pretty obvious: less competitive environments ease the sales cycle.
4. Can you actually close deals?
Many companies think about the problem they solve without worrying about whether they can actually reach a decision maker. Maybe he only buys integrated products. Maybe she only buys from Fortune 500 companies. Maybe he hasn’t changed vendors in 10 years because the cost to change is too high. Maybe the ideal market is fragmented and requires a sales channel too expensive for this stage of your development. You have to convert someone whoneeds your product into someone who buys your product.
5. Long-term value of the market
Market selection doesn’t mean you cut your growth aspirations. Far from it. It means you believe the fastest path to growth is by saying something compelling to someone specific. So our final criteria: What is market growth? Will success lead you to adjacent markets ()? Does one market offer better-known references? Does your team have special background that makes success easier?
This is the second article in a continuing series that will feature case studies and anecdotal stories from entrepreneurs, consultants and veteran marketers about their efforts to develop, implement and measure marketing programs to bring technology to market and grow market share. We invite your feedback.
Canadian entrepreneurs don’t fear risk – investors do
Canadian entrepreneurs don’t fear risk – investors do
By Christine Wong
Christine Wong, Staff Writer, ITBusiness.ca
Penny for your thoughts?
Canada’s high tech startups would love to raise some pretty pennies for theirs. The fledgling firms are brimming with bright ideas, but can’t raise enough cash to turn them into reality.
Venture capitalists with homegrown IT firms lately. The result: a Canadian tech sector cash crunch.
Despite this adversity, our high tech companies are faring pretty darn well. Half of the top 10 firms on the newly unveiled – Deloitte’s list of the fastest growing tech companies in all of North America based on five-year revenue growth – hail from north of the 49th parallel. In all, 76 Canuck tech firms made it onto this year’s Fast 500.
This means Canadian tech companies (many of which are still at a fairly nascent stage of existence) are hurting for growth capital, yet still finding ways to ring up sales, run efficient operations and compete with their better funded counterparts in the U.S.
And so, it would seem, Canada’s entrepreneurs are willing to stick their necks out — but our financiers are not.
“The entrepreneurial culture in Canada is not risk averse,†Bill Tatham, CEO of firm NexJ Systems Inc., told me recently after placing sixth on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list. “The financing and venture capital (culture) in Canada is probably more specifically more risk averse.â€
When I recently covered Canada’s poor ranking (down from 10 in 2010 to 12 this year) on the
World Economic Forum’s latest global competitiveness study, Tatham’s feeling was echoed to me by Michael Bloom, vice-president of organizational effectiveness and learning at the Conference Board of Canada.
“We have very large amounts in pension funds and private equity, but we don’t spend a lot on innovation. Why aren’t our capital markets more open to spending on innovation?†Bloom wondered.
“At times it serves us well,†Bloom continued. “(Canadian) banks were less caught in the downturn than some other (foreign) banks. Being prudent is helpful. But there’s such a thing as being too prudent and too risk
averse.â€
The Conference Board has set up a new to study why Canada doesn’t measure up in global competitiveness. It will look at everything from why our capital markets are stingier towards startups, to whether Canadian entrepreneurs themselves just aren’t aggressive enough.
The folks at Deloitte Canada have already taken a quick look at the latter question. After compiling its new list of Canada’s 50 fastest growing tech firms (also based on five-year revenue growth), Deloitte asked the CEOs of the 50 ranked companies if they believe Canadians as a people are entrepreneurial and risk tolerant.
Just over half of the CEOs — only 56 per cent — said yes. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of confidence in … well, our own Canuck confidence level overall.
Intrigued by the somewhat weak response to that question, Deloitte went further and asked the CEOs more detailed questions to test their own entrepreneurial risk tolerance. Deloitte then compared those Canadian CEO responses with ones from American CEOs on its U.S. Fast 50 list.
“Canadian and U.S. executives came up almost identical (in risk tolerance),†said Duncan Stewart, director of technology, media and telecom research at Deloitte Canada.
Although the Canadian CEOs who showed less risk tolerance turned out to be “way less risk tolerant†than American CEOs who also had little appetite for risk in their answers, “(Canada’s) aggressive CEOs are just as aggressive as their U.S. counterparts,†Stewart said.
It’s just one study shedding only a little insight into the minds of Canada’s tech entrepreneurs. But it weakens the idea that they’re not willing to take as many business risks as their American rivals.
When you pair that with their stellar performance on the Fast 500 – even in the face of less funding — it makes me wonder: if Canada’s tech startups are successfully sticking their necks out, when is our finance community going to start doing the same for them?
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Google+ the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of social networks 
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October 27, 2011
Tech jobs that cloud computing will create
Â
I am not one to gainsay Gartner’s wisdom. In fact, earlier this year I wrote about the topic of job losses and cloud computing in a post titled .” The topic seems to be in the air: Another blog I came across this week was titled, “
Â
As I say, I am not one to gainsay Gartner’s wisdom, but I believe the research firm makes a common mistake regarding innovation (aka “creative destruction”
.
Top 10 Bestselling iPhone Headsets
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October 26, 2011
Meet Screenreach Interactive
Meet Screenreach Interactive
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
We first encountered Screenreach Interactive and its founder, , several months ago when we .
Rawlings and Screenreach completed the first cycle of The Difference Engine’s 13-week program in 2010. When we asked Bradford for an example of a successful graduate from that program, he was quick to sing Rawlings’ praises.
“He was not proprietary about his ideas, he was very open to new suggestions, new directions and wasn’t wedded to, ‘Look, this is what I’m doing and I’m not going to listen to anybody else,’†Bradford said.
“I think having an open mind, being able to listen, to react in a positive fashion was probably the making of him. He was also not very selfish about bringing in other team members, making sure he had a good team around him beyond the program itself. One of his mentors (, pictured right in the photo below with Rawlings) became one of his members of staff.â€
There was no doubt in our minds that Rawlings is a man with an open mind. He has, after all, agreed to share with us Screenreach’s evolving story, warts and all, in the hope that there will be insights and lessons learned here that will resonate with other entrepreneurs working to bring their technology to market.
What is Screenreach?
Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows a brand to create a real-time, two-way interactive experience between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. Using Screach, the smart phone can become a game controller, quiz answer pad, a voting and polling tool, a bingo card, a roulette table or a number of other things to engage and interact with consumers.
“The cool thing about it is that it allows you to profile your users to learn more about them and measure your ROI, and to also reward consumers for interacting,†Rawlings said. “It allows you to bring your ad, event, TV program or radio show to life by allowing your consumer to interact with you straight from their smartphone.â€
How did it come about?
Rawlings began his career creating sales order processing and marketing systems for businesses including Burger King and European electronics retailer Dixons. In 2009, he built several Twitter-based businesses, including Twe2, a free SMS provider for Twitter which he sold privately, and a social auction website called Tweba.
When he began work on what would become Screenreach, Rawlings turned to The Difference Engine.
“The ability to get my head down and really focus on the product for 13 weeks was very appealing,†he said. “I knew that being in an environment where I was surrounded by people all working towards the same goal would be very inspiring.â€
Through The Difference Engine program, Rawlings garnered the feedback he needed to refine the product. It was also here that he met his co-founder and COO, Morton.
Rawlings and Morton then connected with entrepreneur Tom Maxfield, who helped build global enterprise software vendor .
“I met Tom at an entrepreneur’s dinner event and he loved Screach, as Tom was one of the original minds behind Sage, we were obviously really keen to get him on board,†said Rawlings. “He became our first investor, investing £250,000.â€
That investment in August 2010 was followed by another .
“Since then, it’s been a whirlwind journey of launching the product to the world and building an ambitious team that can work together and overcome each new challenge that is thrown at us,†Rawlings said.
In March, Screenreach launched Screach to the world at  in Palm Springs, Calif. Screach is targeted at the digital signage, radio, print and live events and broadcast television industries. Screenreach’s client list already includes , ,  and .
What’s next?
Screenreach has grown to 20 staff since its launch a year ago, is generating initial revenue and looking forward to moving ahead at full steam in 2012.
“It’s a year that we believe is going to be even more eventful than the first so we’re very excited to be bringing you regular news of our progress and the challenges we come across on the way,†Rawlings said.
“There’s a general sense of ambition and excitement within the team, our culture is something that’s very important to us,†he added. “We tackle challenges together, irrespective of your skills or role within the company. If something needs resolving we all do it together. I think it has given everyone a sense of ownership; it’s good to know that your product is in the hands of a team that feel as passionate about it as you do. There’s no tiptoeing around a situation, if someone disagrees with something we throw it out there and then decide what’s best.â€
With a number of new clients coming on board, recruitment is going to be a key focus in the next few months along with the growth of the business and the launch of new Screach projects. In next month’s post, we will explore how the startup is dealing with the dynamic of having to rapidly grow its team.
This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of , a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screenreach’s flagship product, Screach, is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
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Sony ericsson mps 100 portable bluetooth speakers $5,000 prize for best dot-ca small business website
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October 25, 2011
October 24, 2011
October 21, 2011
Supreme Court makes non-ridiculous ruling on hyperlinks
Supreme Court makes non-ridiculous ruling on hyperlinks
By Brian Jackson
This week the Supreme Court of Canada decided that it would not make a ruling that would irrevocably harm the Internet, be impossible to enforce, and likely be ignored by all normal people who use the Internet.
To elaborate, the court delivered its ruling in the case of Crookes v. Newton, of which the central question of the case was whether a person could be for linking to defamatory content. It decided that it was not defamation because a link is not really publication, but just a digital reference that allows for someone to reach the original published material. For a more detailed description of the legal implications of the ruling, Michael Geist’s lays out the important details well.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
I’d like to instead imagine an Internet where the Supreme Court had somehow ruled that hyperlinks could be deemed . Defamation is any communication diminishes the reputation of a person in the eyes of those receiving the communication. It serves as a handy way to keep journalists honest, since committing defamation is grounds for being sued. But a journalist can defend against this by saying they told the truth, or even by proving they took reasonable measures to verify that the information was accurate.
So certainly an article can be defamatory, but a link pointing to that article is just a direction on how to get there and it’d be ridiculous to consider it defamatory. Consider this scenario in a non-Internet context: there is a defamatory article printed in a daily newspaper that sits in a box on a street corner. You are talking to your friend and he tells you to go and pick it up so you can read the article because it is really juicy and controversial. You do so and are exposed to the defamatory article – has your friend now also committed defamation? Of course not, they haven’t published anything.
Beyond the real world analogy, if the court had for some reason ruled that hyperlinks were considered defamatory, then it’d be impossible to enforce or even competently handle in the court system. Since defamation is a matter of civil law, not criminal, the police don’t actively chase down defamers. Instead, an individual may sue another person for defamation. That would mean that every hyperlink that points to a potentially defamatory article would be grounds for a lawsuit.
Related Story:
With the viral nature of social networks today, links are rapidly shared by many people. All it takes is a click of that Re-Tweet button on Twitter or Share button on Facebook to repost the link. Would all of the people who retweeted a link to defamatory material also be liable for defamation? You can see how litigation would become a nightmare.
Indeed, if the Supreme Court had ruled differently I believe that mischievous netizens would have quickly concocted some sort of massive link exchange of a defamatory nature, just to show how silly the whole notion of policing links really is. Probably involving anonymously setup social media accounts with names like “URLdefamer,†just to rub it in.
There’s clearly no way that hyperlinks can be considered defamatory. Every reasonable person familiar with the Internet must think so, and its strange the Supreme Court even had to spend its time ruling on the matter. By the way, if you want to share this article with your friends, you can use this link: .
October 20, 2011
3 things you should know before jailbreaking your iPhone
3 things you should know before jailbreaking your iPhone
by Yale Holder
I’ve had a scary experience that I hope no one else has to go through.
Having unlocked phones already, mainly , I thought that unlocking iPhones would be just as easy and not as complicated – boy was I wrong. Here is what I learnt…
The first iPhone I was the iPhone 3Gs 8 GB version. I was told to backup the phone before doing the unlocking procedure which we did. After the unlocking procedure the phone was wiped, no data and it had an earlier version. When we attempted to restore the data, the phone would lock again. So we had to unlock the phone again and lose the data again. There was no way we could find to restore the data we backed up without the phone re-locking, leaving us with a phone with no data.
The second iPhone was an , this procedure was much smoother but it kept losing the network settings, which had to be programmed into the phone twice. And to top it off we are restricted from upgrading the phone further for fair of it re-locking again. What a nightmare!
So here are the 3 things you should bear in mind when unlocking an iPhone:
1. Understand that if you have an iPhone 3Gs that you you may not be able to restore any data to the phone – this depends on the version of your iPhone. But in most cases an unlock means a clean iPhone with no data. So be prepared for this.
2. Limited upgrades. If you have an iPhone 3Gs you will not be able to upgrade your OS or Firmware to later versions. For the iPhone 4, while you should be able to restore your data you may be limited to the current version of the phone. No upgrades to iOS5 or later versions.
3. Connectivity issues. This doesn’t always happen, but its a distinct possibility that you may lose your network settings during the process of the unlock, so you will need to learn how to re-enter the settings in the event that this does happen.
With the now available in Canada, I hope that the unlocking procedures get better and these issues can be addressed. In the meantime, be aware of the risks and do your research to ensure that you are getting the .
Â
Yale Holder is co-founder of  a Toronto-based company that helps cell phone users negotiate wireless plans with independent dealers.
Â
October 19, 2011
3 things you should know before jailbreak your iPhone
3 things you should know before jailbreak your iPhone
by Yale Holder
I’ve had a scary experience that I hope no one else has to go through.
Having unlocked phones already, mainly , I thought that unlocking iPhones would be just as easy and not as complicated – boy was I wrong. Here is what I learnt…
The first iPhone I was the iPhone 3Gs 8 GB version. I was told to backup the phone before doing the unlocking procedure which we did. After the unlocking procedure the phone was wiped, no data and it had an earlier version. When we attempted to restore the data, the phone would lock again. So we had to unlock the phone again and lose the data again. There was no way we could find to restore the data we backed up without the phone re-locking, leaving us with a phone with no data.
The second iPhone was an , this procedure was much smoother but it kept losing the network settings, which had to be programmed into the phone twice. And to top it off we are restricted from upgrading the phone further for fair of it re-locking again. What a nightmare!
So here are the 3 things you should bear in mind when unlocking an iPhone:
1. Understand that if you have an iPhone 3Gs that you you may not be able to restore any data to the phone – this depends on the version of your iPhone. But in most cases an unlock means a clean iPhone with no data. So be prepared for this.
2. Limited upgrades. If you have an iPhone 3Gs you will not be able to upgrade your OS or Firmware to later versions. For the iPhone 4, while you should be able to restore your data you may be limited to the current version of the phone. No upgrades to iOS5 or later versions.
3. Connectivity issues. This doesn’t always happen, but its a distinct possibility that you may lose your network settings during the process of the unlock, so you will need to learn how to re-enter the settings in the event that this does happen.
With the now available in Canada, I hope that the unlocking procedures get better and these issues can be addressed. In the meantime, be aware of the risks and do your research to ensure that you are getting the .
Â
Yale Holder is co-founder of  a Toronto-based company that helps cell phone users negotiate wireless plans with independent dealers.
Â
October 18, 2011
October 17, 2011
Steve Jobs’ greatest product the Apple II, Canadians say
Steve Jobs’ greatest product the Apple II, Canadians say
resulted in a worldwide outpouring of grief as millions came to grips with the loss of one of the top technology visionaries of this generation.
There was intense interest in Jobs’ obituaries in top media outlets around the world, many of which hailed him as one of the greatest CEOs ever and credited him with kick-starting personal technology revolutions. The Guardian wrote that “made an unprecedented impact on the world’s consumer electronics markets with a string of successful products, including the iPod media player, iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet.â€
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
“He changed reality, channeling the magic of computing into products that reshaped music, telecoms and media,†wrote The Economist. And the Wall Street Journal wrote that “The most productive chapter in Mr. Jobs’s career occurred near the end of his life, when a nearly unbroken string of successful products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad changed the PC, electronics and digital-media industries.â€
While many associate the more-recent iDevices launched by Jobs at Apple as the pinnacle of his career, it appears most Canadians don’t consider them to be his greatest achievement. Instead, nearly one-third of Canadians consider the Apple II, credited as being the first personal computer, as having the most impact on society.
Results are based on an ™ poll of 1034 respondents was conducted for ITBusiness.ca. The data was collected from October 12th to October 14th.
Related Story:
The was the next-most important product, with one-quarter of Canadians selecting it. It was followed by Macintosh computers at 18 per cent of Canadians, the iPod at 17 per cent, and the iPad at 7 per cent. So while Canadians no doubt appreciate the mobile devices Jobs helped bring to market, it seems they still view his innovation in the desktop computing area as having more impact. Perhaps because desktop PCs introduced computing to mass society, while mobile devices merely changes how we access computing.
In looking for another technology leader that could step in as the industry’s new visionary, there appears to be a void. Though about one-third of Canadians selected Google Inc.’s chairman Eric Schmidt as the most visionary leader going forward, they were divided among several different possibilities. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was the second-most popular choice with 23 per cent choosing him, followed by Jobs’ successor at Apple, Tim Cook.
Who do you think will be the most visionary leader of the tech industry going forward?
Though Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently was given high marks for his presentation flare when unveiling the (indeed, Gizmodo went so far to proclaim him Ҡfollowing the presentation), only 3.8 per cent of Canadians chose him as the next visionary technology leader.
But the most telling statistic in our survey may lie in the “other†option attracting 5.3 per cent of respondents in this category. In specifying why they didn’t select another leader, many expressed the sentiment that it was just too soon to tell, they just didn’t know, or that no one appeared to be as visionary as Jobs.
While Cook will be Apple’s new leader, and others may eventually step forward to champion the industry as a whole, it seems no one can ever replace Steve Jobs.
â„¢ is a full-service online data collection firm dedicated to helping market researchers gather high quality information from Canadian consumers. We own and manage the â„¢ online research community, and its French counterpart MC, which includes a panel of more than 160,000 demographically representative and profiled Canadians who have opted-in to participate in online surveys that significantly influence today’s leading brands.
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Accelerated: TechStars harnesses the power of mentorship
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October 14, 2011
Cavoukian orders Cancer Care Ontario to implement EMR
What would it take to push forward a sluggish electronic patient records initiative? Â An of gargantuan proportion and one irate privacy commissioner perhaps?
In the case of Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) and Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) Dr. Ann Cavoukian at least that seems to be how things are shaping up.Â
Sometime in March this year, the CCO lost several packages of patient records pertaining to over 20,000 cancer patients. Since then investigations conducted have brought down the number of missing records (originally sent by CCO to various doctor’s offices via Canada Post’s Xpresspost courier service) to just 7,000 colon cancer screening reports. Â
In an unprecedented move yesterday, Cavoukian issued ordered CCO to stop the practice of sending out sensitive patient records in paper format. Cavoukian also gave the CCO until January 13 next year to show proof of compliance and report back to her office on their progress towards adopting an electronic medical records (EMR) system that will transmit the sensitive private data to doctor’s office through the Internet instead.Â
“I needed to give this strong order because the loss of 7,000 patient records is totally unacceptable. It could have been prevented,†Cavoukian told me yesterday. “They better comply with the order.â€Â Â
Nokia Screen Protectors 8 Great Features in iPhone 4
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October 13, 2011
Cyber criminals get more aggressive with social engineering tactics
Cyber criminals get more aggressive with social engineering tactics
by Matt Sergeant
Cyber criminals are more aggressive with their social engineering tactics as evidenced in the September 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report. This month, roughly 72 per cent of all e-mail-borne malware contained aggressive variants of generic polymorphic malware, compared with 23.7 per cent in July and 18.5 per cent in August.
Attackers are exploiting the weaknesses of traditional security preventions by using a variety of strategies to trick users.
With most of today’s printers featuring scan-to-e-mail capabilities, malware authors are becoming more sophisticated in how they target users. Some social engineering tactics are used to send executables in a compressed “.zip†archive through an e-mail that’s disguised as a scanned document from a printer. In some cases, attackers are even able to spoof the sender domain name to match the recipient’s domain, fooling users to believe the message was forwarded from a colleague.
Example of a malicious e-mail disguised as a scanned document sent from an office printer
[September 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report]
In some malware e-mails, cyber criminals are able to change the file extension of an archived file to display it as a “.doc†extension. In other cases, an e-mail subject line is made relevant to the user. E-mail subject lines could read “Banking security update†to “Hello, Erinn online now,†to trick the user into opening the e-mail and clicking on a malicious link.
Examples of subjects used to spread malware
[September 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report]
As intended, these sophisticated and aggressive attack techniques are making it harder to detect malware. Users should always exercise caution when opening e-mails and attachments from unknown senders and flag unusual e-mail confirmations to an IT department, or within applicable e-mail software suites if an option is available to report spam.
To find out more information on what the Canadian government is doing to combat spam, please visit the Web site for the .
-30-
October 12, 2011
LinkedIn founder dead wrong about privacy being just for ‘old people’
LinkedIn founder dead wrong about privacy being just for ‘old people’
Here we go again. Once more, the chief of a major online social network has called into question the relevance of privacy in today’s connected world. This time it is Reid Hoffman, founder of, who recently said that “privacy is an ‘old people’ issue.†Really? He’s dead wrong
What is most unfortunate is that Mr Hoffman, like many of his peers, looks at privacy narrowly, through the wrong lens. He thinks along
Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
the lines of classic zero-sum: you can only have more of one interest, not another. This is nonsense. People need to connect and have moments of solitude, reflection, intimacy – namely, privacy.
Privacy relates to freedom of choice and control over one’s own personal information – that hasn’t changed, despite the explosion of online social media. In fact, the need for privacy has grown in the face of deceptive practices online, such as identity theft and cyber bullying. Privacy has evolved, with context playing a key role. The onus is now on social media platforms to provide users with clear and simple privacy tools to enable user control.
Mr. Hoffman’s comment that privacy is only for “old people†is not only misguided, it’s plain wrong, as demonstrated by the findings of several research studies:
- A 2010 Survey by the UC Berkeley School of Law found that young adults were in harmony with older Americans regarding their concerns about privacy. In fact, 88% of respondents aged 18-24 (compared to 92% overall) believed there should be a law requiring websites and advertising companies to delete all stored information about individuals;
- A 2010 Harvard study by Dana Boyd and Eszter Hargittai: “Our results challenge widespread assumptions that youth do not care about and are not engaged with navigating privacy … our review of the literature suggests that young people care deeply about privacy…â€
- Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report in 2010 that found 71% of Facebook users aged 18-29 reported actively changing their privacy settings, while only 62% of those aged 30-49, and 55% of those aged 50-64, had taken that proactive step to manage their information;
- A 2011 study by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that those aged 18-34 were more likely to be aware of and use restrictive privacy controls compared to older respondents.
Mr Hoffman’s comment reminds me of a from Facebook’s : “privacy is no longer a social norm†(which he didn’t actually say, but that was the erroneous take-away from his comments). Both represent the flawed logic that the strengthening of one interest (connecting online) will invariably lead to a reduction in an “opposing†interest (privacy).
You can reverse this mistaken view by substituting a positive-sum, win-win strategy in its place – one that allows us to interact online and excercise control over our personal information. We can, and must,  have both – the future of privacy … the future of freedom, may well depend on it.
October 11, 2011
October 07, 2011
October 06, 2011
30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part I
The first of
a three-part wrap-up, of what we have learned that every entrepreneur and tech executive needs to know.
Championship: A rising tide floats all ships
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Canadians cautious about mobile payment security
Canadians cautious about mobile payment security
While many Apple observers were disappointed with the debut of the iPhone 4S this week, it’s not the lack of a near field communications (NFC) chip that’s irking Canadians.
Many consumers expected a more major update to Apple’s smartphone, and shrugged off new hardware such as the dual-core A5 processor and 8 MP camera as minor improvements that are simply playing catch-up with some Android competitors.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
Lacking from the iPhone update was the NFC chip included in some Android phones such as the . The chip allows for smartphones to be used to pay at check-out counters equipped with swipe-to-pay readers such as MasterCard’s PayPass.
But according to a poll conducted by Delvinia for ITBusiness.ca, most Canadians aren’t enthusiastic about anyway. When asked if they’d consider using when it comes to Canada, 31 per cent of Canadians said they would “never use it†and 33 per cent said “I may or may not use it.â€
Only one in 10 will use it as soon as it’s available and 25 per cent could see themselves using it eventually. This ™ poll of 1016 respondents was conducted for ITBusiness.ca. The data was collected from September 23rd to September 25th.
We asked Canadians if they'd consider using Google Wallet when it becomes available here.
While Canadians are increasingly buying up smartphones and using more of their features daily, replacing their wallet with their device doesn’t seem to appeal to many. Although many carry a smartphone with them everywhere they go, and it may be more convenient as a payment method in som
e situations, it seems Canucks are still wary about security concerns.
When asked “When you consider using your smartphone to pay for items in this way, what issue gives you the most concern?†overwhelmingly, Canadians said they didn’t trust the security of the NFC chip payment system, with four out of 10 saying this. Another 27 per cent said they “already have enough ways to pay for things†and 17 per cent are “worried about losing my phone.â€
Any time technology has offered a new way to manage money, consumers are wary. Online banking has only in recent years really taken off as being used among a majority of Canadians, and online payment systems such as PayPal have also seen steady growth. Despite initial security concerns, the convenience offered by these tech-enhanced payment methods eventually won over consumers and security concerns subsided.
We asked Canadians about their top concern with mobile payment technology.
Google is aware of the need for security in its Wallet app and NFC-enabled phones. In a recent interview with ITBusiness.ca, Google Wallet engineer Rob von Behren argued that in some ways, smartphones offer a safer way to pay than your wallet.
Consider if your wallet was stolen, you’d have no means to prevent the cash in it from being used or the credit cards from being swiped before you had a chance to cancel them. But if your smartphone is stolen, the Wallet app is still protected with a PIN code to prevent anyone from using it as a payment device. The NFC chip also won’t activate unless it is being powered by the device, so there is no way a crook could remove the battery and still swipe the phone to pay.
Canadians may be more incented to use apps like Google Wallet when the payment method is tied to coupon incentives. The true convenience of smartphone payments is that loyalty programs could automatically be tied to the payment account and triggered when the right purchases are made. That means less cards to carry around in a wallet and less fumbling for the right card to swipe at the cash.
It’s just a matter of time before convenience trumps the wariness of Canadians for mobile payments, but that’s also assuming there’s no major security problems with the payment method as it rolls out into the field.
â„¢ is a full-service online data collection firm dedicated to helping market researchers gather high quality information from Canadian consumers. We own and manage the â„¢ online research community, and its French counterpart MC, which includes a panel of more than 160,000 demographically representative and profiled Canadians who have opted-in to participate in online surveys that significantly influence today’s leading brands.
Car Chargers Is Microsoft winning travel search war against Google?
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