Happy and Safe Holiday Wishes to all of you from Imaging 411
$HARE THE WEALTH - WIRELESS NETWORK SECURITY 101
by: Joe Paradiso
In the October Common Cent$ issue I covered the new wireless 802.11N standard
and the practical use of wireless networks for document management applications.
One concern that frequently comes up with wireless networks is security. A wired
network is secure in the sense that in order to access information on the network,
a person must have access to the physical office space, where as with wireless,
the information is broadcast through the air for anyone to "steal" if the proper
precautions aren't taken.
It is common today for people referred to as "WARDRIVERS" to drive around with
an open laptop in search of Wi-Fi networks. Once they find a wireless network,
the WARDRIVER uses tools loaded on their laptop to "listen" to the data being
transferred and determine if the data is valuable to them. Many stores today use
wireless cash registers and credit card terminals. WARDRIVERS with their
advanced set of software tools are able to capture credit card numbers, PINS, and
any other personal information that's broadcast over an unsecure or minimally
secured wireless network.
Most people fail to secure their wireless networks because they don't know
"WARDRIVERS" exist, consider it too difficult or just don't know what to do. A
wireless network can never be 100% secure, but neither can any PC connected to a
network, so assuming you don't work with classified information, the techniques I'll
cover here will provide you with sufficient protection from 99% of the threats you might
typically encounter.
Change your router or wireless access point administrator password. This is
the first thing you should do, as everything we cover after this can be undone
if someone has administrator rights to your router. Every WARDRIVER knows
all routers default to 192.168.1.1, so if you don't change the default password,
they can connect to your router by typing in that address and entering "admin"
for user and password.
Disable SSID Broadcast, use non-dictionary names for SSID. SSID Broadcast
is what allows everyone with a wireless laptop or phone to locate your wireless
router by name. Once the name is known, anyone can attempt to connect to
the router. By not broadcasting the SSID, most people will not even know your
office has a Wi-Fi router. Set the SSID to something that is easy to remember,
but not found in a dictionary or obvious to your business- it's best to use a
combination of letters and numbers at least eight characters in length so it's
more difficult to guess or hack.
Enable Wireless Encryption. Most new routers offer the options for "None",
"WEP", and "WPA", and newer or more expensive models will have a fourth
option, "WPA2". Always use WPA2 or WPA with AES encryption as it's the
strongest encryption available currently for Wi-Fi routers. WEP is very weak,
and easily hacked, so it should never be used if security is a concern. When
setting the WPA Shared Key, use the same techniques as selecting a
password - non-dictionary words at least 8 characters in length with a
combination of numbers, and letters.
Turn on your routers security features. Wireless routers, depending on cost,
offer varying levels of firewall protection, but even the most inexpensive models
are capable of blocking anonymous internet requests. Turning this feature on
will prevent someone from the internet or an external network from attempting
to connect to your network without identifying themselves, which most
WARDRIVERS and hackers don't like to do.
Implementing the suggestions above will make your wireless network significantly
more secure than if you hadn't. The above tips will prevent your network from being
hacked by most casual and even advanced WARDRIVERS, but there are still more
actions that can be taken to further secure your wireless network which I will discuss
in next months issue.
Imaging 411, The Document Capture Company is a leading provider of document
capture and management products. Give us a call at 866-411-4624 and schedule
a free consultation with one of our Electronic Content Management consultants or
e-mail to sales@imaging411.com
(c) 2009 All Rights Reserved - Imaging 411 Inc
$UPER $AVER OF THE MONTH
Especially in a tough economy businesses look to reduce costs. A good start
is switching to Imaging 411 for your scanner maintenance. Imaging 411 will
reduce the cost of your current maintenance contracts up to 35% of what you're
currently paying. Call 866-411-4624 or e-mails sales@imaging411.com
THAT MAKE$ CENT$ - Unauthorized 3rd Party Maintenance"- Does not have to mean
3rd rate service!
by: Gary Armstrong
Last month we spoke about HOW to choose a maintenance plan that best suits your
needs, so this month I will explore the how and why of choosing a 3rd party
maintenance provider.
Some original equipment manufacturers (OEM) would like you to believe they are your
only service option and "Unauthorized 3rd party" providers (anyone not the OEM) aren't
capable of providing the same level of service as they do. "Unauthorized" is the term
the OEM's throw out to discredit and limit their competition. It's a bogus qualification
since most OEM's do not authorize other service companies to repair their equipment,
if they did the OEM's would have to compete, offer competitive pricing, terms, and
focus more on customer satisfaction. That's not to say all 3rd party providers are up
to the task, so look for those who can prove they are "Certified". "Certified" means
their staff have received training from the OEM or employ trained former employees of
the OEM. Ask the 3rd party provider for customer references on the type of equipment
you have so you can verify the provider's quality of service. Some benefits and
advantages you will find in good 3rd party providers (this varies so ask the questions
when choosing) are as follows
Better pricing- 3rd parties offer better prices not because they offer less service,
but because they are usually smaller organizations with lower overhead and
more motivation to be competitive.
Flexibility- 3rd party companies will normally have more "user friendly" options
like monthly payment terms, ala carte contract options so you only pay for
what you need and not options you don't, and they will pro-rate expiration
dates so you can have all your equipment on one contract expiration date.
Customer service- 3rd party companies are hungry to earn and retain your
business so customer service is important to them. If you have special
requests they can usually accommodate you and not hide behind corporate
policy as an excuse.
Policies- Most OEM's feel they are the only game in town so there policies
are usually very strict and slanted to their advantage, where 3rd parties try
to be fairer. Ask about their cancellation policy, should they not perform up
to the agreed upon standards. Do they let you out of the contract or do they
make you pay them for another 90 days? Do they allow for grace periods or
do they penalize you for any type of lapse in payment or expiration?
3rd Party providers offer many advantages over OEM's and can prove to be excellent
partners in many regards, so consider them next time a maintenance contract comes
due for renewal.
TIGHT ON CASH? CONSIDER A PRE-OWNED CERTIFIED SCANNER
Looking to add scanning capacity to your operation but don't want to pay the
price for a new scanner, consider pre-owned. Scanner Traders certifies all
of their used scanners and offers a 90 day warranty.
Just visit http://www.scannertraders.com
$END U$ YOUR QUESTION$
Have a question you'd like one of our writers to answer?
Send us an e-mail at commoncents@imaging411.com. If your question is
selected to be answered in our e-zine we'll send you gift worth over $50
CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO - Decided that an imaging system might indeed
Make Cent$ for you?
by: Andy Schreck
What to look for in choosing a document capture system.
A complete document imaging and management system can vary greatly from quite
simple to extremely complex. Step one is to understand what a document imaging
and management system consists of. If you break it down, an imaging system can
be segmented into two basic parts:
Document Capture:
The process of transforming paper documents into a digital format or importing
electronic documents and then extracting information from those documents.
Document Management:
Storing, tracking, securing, managing, retrieving and using those documents & data
received from the Document Capture process.
As you read on, I will discuss the basic steps of Document Capture and some info
you will need to look for.
Scan/Import (Capture) - Step one is to bring your documents into the capture process.
This can happen at a single centralized location or from multiple remote locations.
Understand your documents (past, present and future). Documents come in many sizes,
shapes and formats.
Size - Hard copy documents - Letter size (8 ½" x 11"), legal size, ledger size
large format (bigger than 11x17)
Electronic documents - File size, Format, location, etc.
Color - Are your documents Black & White, Color or Mixed? Any old, faded,
poor print quality documents?
Condition - Clean & neat, a wrinkled messed, torn, fragile, thicker or thinner than
normal, etc. Find out.
Volume - How many documents do you have, hundreds, thousands, millions?
Location - Will you scan Locally or at multiple remote sites?
Personnel - How many people will be scanning and in how many locations?
Knowing this basic information about your documents will help you get started in
determining the proper scanners, hardware and software that will properly and
efficiently 'capture' your documents.
Image Enhancement - Once your document is captured you will need to make sure
all looks good. Most of today's scanning hardware and/or software include 'Image
Enhancement' capabilities that can improve the quality of the image to a point where
it is actually more clear and legible than the original.
What to look for?
Make sure that the products you choose include image enhancement capabilities with
such features as de-speckle, de-skew, image rotation, cropping, blank page removal,
color detection, background removal, auto contrast and brightness, character
smoothing, etc. as your requirements determine. Image enhancement will not only
help the image look and present better but will improve automated data recognition
for indexing and data population which will be covered in the next step of the process.
Data Recognition/Indexing - This part of the process would be to identify and index
your documents and data. Once captured and optimized, your images and data can
then be classified and recognized and data extracted from the images can be used to
index your documents or used in line of business applications or databases. Images
are of no value to you if you cannot search, find, retrieve or use them.
What to look for?
At the least, you will need to manually index each document, much like a paper based
filing system, so after you send them off somewhere for storage you can easily find
them. Automated data recognition and indexing can be done in various ways. Look
for Hardware or software that can be used to read Barcodes, OCR, ICR, OMR, Perform
Database lookups, etc. When choosing a Document Capture system understand your
recognition and indexing requirements in great detail and be sure the products you are
looking into can handle your current and future data requirements.
Data Validation and Correction - This is the step in capture the process that will
allow you to check, validate and correct any index or data information that was either
manually or automatically associated with your documents.
What to look for?
Look for products that will have the flexibility to meet your specific requirements.
When you are looking to implement a document capture system it will be important
to understand this process. Validation and Correction are critical. An incorrect index
or data field can create huge problems down the road when you need to retrieve that
document or information. You will need to know what validation procedures will best
fit your requirements, can you automate this process, how many users will be
performing these tasks, and where they will be located. Validation, like scanning
and indexing, can be done locally or from remote locations via internet, web, network
connection etc. Look for existing data within your organization that can be leveraged
to help automate data validation.
Quality Control and Tracking- A document capture system should include features
and tools that allow for quality control, tracking and reporting. Once your documents
have gone through the previous document capture steps, you will need to know that
everything is being sent off correctly and if not, where is that document and what is
the problem?
What to look for?
A lot of today's Capture Software products have features and functionality to
accommodate these requirements, but certainly not all of them. In choosing a product
or products for your document capture system look for functionality that will handle
quality control and tracking within the product. Ease of use and knowing how these
features can help ensure the flow, integrity and accuracy of your documents should be
something to look for. Business process outside of the capture system should be
investigated as well.
Release - This would be the last and final step in the document capture process. Now
that your documents and data have been captured, enhanced, indexed, validated and
QC'd you will need to send them to a repository where they can be stored, managed
and retrieved. A repository can be anything from a windows folder structure or local
database to an extremely complex Document or Enterprise Management System.
What to look for?
The important things to look for here are compatibility, flexibility, scalability and non
proprietary, open architecture. Know that the products you choose will be able to
interface with whatever, wherever and however you plan to manage your documents.
Some products will have prewritten release scripts (programs) to seamlessly integrate
with certain document management products and some will not. Some products will
offer an API (application programming interface) or software development kit that will
allow you to write custom release scripts and some will not. Some will offer billable
services to create those release scripts for you. Know what you plan to do with your
documents and data and that the products have the capability and functionality to
accommodate changes and adapt to new requirements.
This skims the surface on the basics of document capture and hopefully provides helpful
insight on some things to look for. Do your homework, understand your requirements
and know what to look for in a document capture system
"Can you afford not to?"
SCANNER TRADERS DEAL OF THE MONTH
Bell & Howell 8140DCI Spectrum XF Demo Units: $14,995 (Limited Quantities)
The 8140DCI is the workhorse of the industry and Scanner Traders was able to
secure the entire demo inventory from Bell & Howell for our customers.
Call 888-411-1397 or visit http://www.scannertraders.com to order.
Common Cent$ is a monthly email distributed by Imaging 411 and Scanner Traders
Imaging 411
235-O Robbins Lane
Syosset, NY 11791
866-411-4624
Scanner Traders
235-M Robbins Lane
Syosset, NY 11791
888-411-1397
To stop receiving any further emails unsubscribe by following your
unsubscribe e-mail: commoncents@imaging411.com
