Microsoft issued a critical patch for Internet Explorer today, described as protection against a "remote code execution" vulnerability. If your computer is set up for automatic updates, you should get the patch, well, automatically. You should also be able to run Windows Update (under Tools in … [Read more...]
Top 10 Threats to Higher Ed Computer Systems
In his article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy titled "Top 10 Threats to Computer Systems Include Professors and Students," Jeffrey Young says Today a growing number of network bad guys are professional criminals, and they're looking to steal real money. They don't just want to post an … [Read more...]
New Book: Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission
You can place your order now for Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders, which will be published in March 2009. The book was edited by NTEN's Executive Director, Holly Ross, former ED Katrin Verclas, and Special Projects Fellow Allison Levine. The authors … [Read more...]
Take NTEN’s Nonprofit IT Salary Survey
NTEN is running a survey on nonprofit IT salaries. They describe it as follows: As a sector, we spend little time considering the investments that nonprofits make in information technology (IT). Yet, no organization today would be successful without any investments in technology. It is an area … [Read more...]
Pew Survey on Cloud Computing
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a study of Americans' use of "cloud computing," in which data and applications are stored online and are accessible via Web browsers. As more and more nonprofits move to using hosted customer-relationship management tools (CRMs) … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Hosted Data
The Pew survey on cloud computing reminded me of a discussion that Aspiration led in March, 2008. The topic was Best Practices for Hosted Data. The recommendations that emerged were: Know where all of your data lives (what Aspiration called "your data universe"). Keep this … [Read more...]
Duplicates in your Database?
There's been a series of discussions on the FUNDSVCS and PRSPCT-L lists about dealing with duplicates in a database, and preventing new dupes from being created. Melissa Graves from The Village for Families and Children suggested the following routine steps: A) Search for a matching record before … [Read more...]
2008 Data Breaches Have Surpassed All of 2007
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, 449 data breaches have been reported as of August 22 2008, compared to 446 in all of 2007. The breaches included consumer data as well as data from nonprofit and educational organizations. Lost and stolen laptops (and other digital … [Read more...]