October is Cyber Security month, so Bold Perennial is taking the opportunity to provide our customers with information on how to protect yourself and your business from cyber attacks. Every year, thousands of companies fall prey to attacks on their network and equipment. No one is immune; small businesses, large corporations like Target and Anthem, even one of the largest credit bureaus in the United States, Equifax, have all been hit by devastating cyber attacks. Cyber security threats are a problem which must be taken seriously.
The Scoop on Skimmers
You probably don’t think much about credit card fraud while you are filling up your car with gas. Yet ironically, it’s one of the times where your credit card is most at risk. Because over 37 million people refuel their vehicle every day, gas pumps are a prime target for credit card skimmers, discreet devices inserted into the card readers to “skim” the information for thieves while the transaction takes place. And a single pump with a skimmer attached can net the criminal anywhere from 30 to 100 card numbers per day.
So how do you spot credit card skimmers? It’s not easy to do, but here are some signs to watch for:
New Features of ManitouNEO 2.1 – Part Four
By Toby Prescott, Director of Development
(This is the 4th and final in a series of blogs about the upcoming update to ManitouNEO, and what new features and improvements will be included.)
ManitouNEO was released to customers at the beginning of 2017, and since then, I’ve enjoyed talking to our early adopters to get feedback on both the features they find the most useful and the improvements we can make. From that feedback, the Bold development team has been diligently working on version 2.1, and we are excited about the new features that will be offered in the very near future! In this blog series, I’ve been talking about these features and improvements, so you can get an idea what to expect. In the last three weeks, we discussed Alarm Handling Improvements, Information Improvements, and Video Improvements that are forthcoming. This week is a little different. We are looking at all the other changes that don’t exactly fall into one specific category.
New Features of ManitouNEO 2.1 – Part Three
By Toby Prescott, Director of Development
(This is the 3rd in a series of blogs about the upcoming update to ManitouNEO, and what new features and improvements will be included.)
ManitouNEO was released to customers at the beginning of 2017, and since then, I’ve enjoyed talking to our early adopters to get feedback on both the features they find the most useful and the improvements we can make. From that feedback, the Bold development team has been diligently working on version 2.1, and we are excited about the new features that will be offered in the very near future! I’m presenting this blog series to highlight these features and improvements. Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen the Alarm Handling Improvements and Information Improvements that will be included in the update. This week, I will delve into the Video Improvements that have been made:
New Features of ManitouNEO 2.1 – Part Two
By Toby Prescott, Director of Development
(This is the 2nd in a series of blogs about the upcoming update to ManitouNEO, and what new features and improvements will be included.)
ManitouNEO has been the most dramatic upgrade to our flagship product since its inception in 2002. It was released to customers at the beginning of 2017, and since then, I’ve enjoyed talking to our early adopters to get feedback on the features they find the most useful. From that feedback, the Bold development team has been diligently working on version 2.1, and we are excited about the new features that will be offered in the very near future! Last week, we looked at the various Alarm Handling Improvements that are forthcoming. This week, we are highlighting the Information Improvements that have been made:
New Features of ManitouNEO 2.1 – Part One
By Toby Prescott, Director of Development
ManitouNEO has been the most dramatic upgrade to our flagship product since its inception in 2002. It was released to customers at the beginning of 2017, and since then, I’ve enjoyed talking to our early adopters to get feedback on the features they find the most useful. From that feedback, the Bold development team has been diligently working on version 2.1, and we are excited about the new features that will be offered in the very near future! If you were at the Bold Users Conference, you already got to see a sneak peek of these features and improvements, but if not, over the next few weeks, I am presenting this blog series to discuss what updates have been made to the ManitouNEO product that will be available in the upcoming version.
Top Application Security Threats
by guest blogger, Katherine Palac, Director of Marketing, Column Information Security
Technology moves so fast these days, companies can be forgiven somewhat for doing all they can to keep up with it. This is especially important in the world of apps, where being the first to market can be critical for success. However, businesses that rush through the development process may find themselves not only first to mobile devices, but also to be hacked. In their haste to be ahead of the competition, they might overlook certain crucial security risks. By releasing their products with serious flaws, they make themselves and their customers vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Back to School Safety
Kids across the country are heading back to school this month, so it’s a good time to remind them (especially the younger ones) of safety measures to take as they travel to and from their school. An average of 131 fatalities from school-transportation-related accidents happen each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Here are some back to school safety tips to help your children:
Retail Shrinkage from Employee Theft
Retail shrinkage is mainly associated with shoplifters, and certainly, shoplifting accounts for a large part of it, but in the United States, the bigger problem lies with employee theft. According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer study, dishonest employees account for a staggering 43% of lost revenue, more than shoplifting, vendor or supplier fraud, or non-crime losses. And while all types of retailers are affected by employee theft, discounters, supermarkets, apparel specialists, and drugstores tend to experience a higher percentage than others, adding up to about $42 billion lost each year!
Why We Use Inactivity Timeouts
By Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer
I’ve been to over 100 Monitoring Centers during my time with Bold. They range from small “mom and pop” centers with one or two operators logged in at once, to the very large centers with literally dozens of operators at any given time.
One of the questions I’m commonly asked, whether it’s related to BoldNet (all the versions including the old Silverlight version, and of course BoldNet Neo) or with ManitouNEO, is “why do I keep getting kicked out?” An alternative version to this question is something along the lines of “why do my dealers/technicians keep getting kicked out?”