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On 31 March 2008, Hawaiian Telcom’s Cliff Miyake published an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on how to find business contacts in Google. It’s not that hard to do, especially with the growing acceptance of social networking by professionals.

LinkedIn is another good way to track down contacts. The free service is limited, but most users find that it’s enough to get the job done. I like LinkedIn because its user interface is much cleaner that other social networking sites. No music or video players, no flashy graphics - LinkedIn seems like a better way to make a good impression on professionals.

Have you revealed too much?

As I’ve mentioned before, some people and companies need to address security concerns. Many social networking sites want users to reveal their lives in detail, to create compelling profiles and additional links among users.

But what if a user inadvertently reveals their password on their profile? it can happen. I’ve met people who use their children’s names and birthdays as passwords. Place of birth is a common security question that banks and financial services companies ask as part of a multiple authentication scheme. Social networks also ask for that information - as part of user profiles.

Related posts on billso.com

• 4 April 2008: Get LinkedIn with billso.com
• 14 March 2008: Social media in action
• 3 January 2008: Impression management and Facebook
• 10 August 2007: Forty-somethings flock to Facebook
• 2 July 2007: CXOs face malware email attacks
• 20 June 2007: Facebook vs MySpace
• 11 January 2007: How to create a secure password

Internet search engine Ask.com is thtopwing in the towel, according to articles in CNN, the San Francisco Chronicle and Digital Trends:

Apparently, Ask.com believes its core demographic is women using the search engine to get answers to simple questions; the revamped version of the site will focus on married women as its core demographic, and try to answer questions about health, hobbies, family matters, childrens’ homework, recipes, and entertainment.

Ask.com had kept Google and Yahoo in its sights for years, but the company had problems expanding into new markets. Google and Yahoo continued to add web services and applications. Ask.com simply could not keep up with the pace of competition, and has settled for a narrow niche – married women in the southern and central USA – that has fewer key success factors and smaller revenue streams.

Current CEO Jim Safka used to be the CEO at Match.com, and he is now targeting a large chunk of his old audience with different questions.

From ComputerWorld: IBM security researchers claim that hackers are hiding or masking almost all of their Web attacks. JavaScript is still the tool of choice for infiltrating Web browsers. Most users shouldn’t turn off JavaScript, especially students who use tools like webmail, WebCT and TurnItIn.com. So we rely on antivirus and Internet security software that runs on the client-side to screen out these attacks before they can be executed.

Hackers have added more tricks to their toolboxes, because the potential payoff for evading security software and infecting computers can be huge. Encryption is one such tool - hackers often encrypt their programming code so that software cannot easily identify the attack.

As IBM researcher Kris Lamb states, hackers have stopped targeting the operating system and have moved to a higher level of the application stack that runs on almost any desktop and laptop computer that connects to the Internet - the web browser.

So we come back to good old common sense as the user’s best defense against computer attacks.

1. Hover your mouse over a web link and inspect the URL before clicking.
2. Don’t click URLs in email messages if the links look suspicious.
3. Find, install and use good security software. I recommend the free version of Avast for Windows users who need to protect their residential computers.
4. If you’re not using your computer at home, turn it off. You’ll burn less energy, and hackers cannot access your computer if it’s not running.

See my earlier posts on security software and attacks from 10 June 2007, 13 August 2006 and 27 November 2005 for more information.

The Washington Post reported yesterday on allegations that US Customs agents have inspected and confiscated laptop computers, iPods, and mobile phones during passenger inspections. Passengers claim they were asked to provide passwords and open files. In some cases, mobile phones were inspected and returned with purged call logs. One person claims their laptop has been held for an over a year.

According to this article, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus have filed a civil lawsuit against the Federal Government, based on 20 complaints from Northern California residents. The goal is disclosure of the US government’s boder search policies. One sourse of concern is an apparent pattern of racial profiling, in which agents targeted Asian and Muslim passengers.

The US Department of Justice asserts that electronic equipment falls into the same category as a briefcase, and may be searched and confiscated for inspection.

However, the scenarios described in this article sound more like coercion or out-and-out robbery.

Of course, many corporate travelers have confidential or private information on their computers and phones. The Post article cites a Canadian law firm that sends corporate travelers headed to the United States with “empty hard drives”. There’s an operating system and a web browser on the laptop, of course, but employees access their email and documents through a secure Internet connection such as a virtual private network (VPN). This helps keep confidential data off the drive, as the law firm fears discovery by search more than a hacked Internet connection.

BoingBoing and the Consumerist each had articles about the Post report, although both blogs misidentified US Customs as the TSA.

Sadly, the activities alleged in this lawsuit do not surprise me. BusinessWeek recently reported on Indian IT outsourcing firms that have systematically underpaid IT workers who were brought to the United States on H1-B visas. These workers make tempting targets, as their outsourcing companies can send the workers back home for any reason. By the time some workers determined they would never get their back-pay, they were no longer in the US. It seems that only a few lawyers or client companies will step in to help these guest workers.

According to Reuters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is discussing a possible expansion of his company’s facilities. Malaysia is the most likely location, as that country ranks number one in Google usage in Southeast Asia. The country is also close to Google’s existing offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.