Noted Internet Security Expert Speaks to MSPs at Cyberoam Partner Conference

Internet security expert Raj Goel  explains what compliance means and how to achieve it at Cyberoam Partner conference.

New York City, NY / Coming to a recent Cyberoam conference on Internet security, cyber security expert Raj Goel was able to approach compliance issues from two directions.

“I am both a service provider (MSP) and customer of Cyberoam. I know the business from both sides and this allows me to see security issues from both directions as well,” he said. 

A world-recognized expert on Internet security and how to secure online systems, Mr. Goel was invited to the Cyberoam conference because of his dual role in such systems.

“As a managed service provider, we provide and advise on security and technology issues. I am in the same shoes you wear. At the same time, I am a compliance expert and I know what it takes to secure a system and how to secure that system,” he said.

The biggest issue, according to the media these days, is financial security. How can companies keep their records secure and away from hackers. Mr. Goel said this is indeed important, but an equal threat is out there and is not receiving nearly the same amount of attention. This threat also exposes companies to a lot more damage than just theft of credit card information.

“A key shift in our industry is the switch from generic me-too MSPs to Compliance focused MSPs.  At Brainlink, we have built a phenomenal SOC (Security Operations Center) and a world-class documentation and process system (SOPToolkit) – both of these are available to our vendors and MSP partners.”

“The fact is, more can be done and more needs to be done. I see this every day. I work with it every day,” he said. “When I go to conferences like the Cyberoam event, I give IT personnel the tools and information they need to beef up the security systems and defeat outside attacks. I’ve had some IT professionals come up to me after I speak at such events and ask if I can come talk with their entire IT department.”

“I am privileged to have spoken at both the Datto Partner Conference as well as the Cyberoam Partner conference, and I look forward to educating at other vendor conferences as well.  MSPs cannot deliver effective security without our vendor partners, and I am heartened to see the investment Datto, Continuum and Cyberoam make in the MSP community”.

Mr. Goel is available to speak worldwide Internet security conferences. He also moderates panel discussions and is available for media interviews on Internet security issues and security compliance.

For more information, visit www.rajgoel.com.

Media Contact:

Raj Goel
Security & Compliance Consulting Practice 
www.rajgoel.com
raj@rajgoel.com
917-685-7731

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Private Webcams Not So Private After All

Security expert warns private webcam hacking another remind to take cyber security seriously

New York City, NY / News that a company had hacked into thousands of supposedly private webcams around the world came as no great surprise to Raj Goel, an Internet and cyber security expert.

A Russian hacker group is posting links to webcams live online where anyone can see what the cam feed is showing. No more hacking is necessary. It’s click and watch, Mr. Goel said.

“What they did was simple. They looked for web cams that either had no security or minimal security. Then, they posted a link to the feed on Insecam. Anyone in the world with web access can see what’s going on,” he said.

Goel was interviewed by New York television station PIX 11, http://pix11.com/2014/11/11/hackers-set-up-live-streaming-website-for-over-100-nyc-private-webcams/. He showed the audience what some of the cams show, including the bedroom of small children who were sleeping.

Beating the hackers takes a little time and ingenuity, he said. The first step is to make sure the feed is as secure as possible over the monitoring lines. That’s as easy as changing default connections in the camera system and setting up protocols to allow access only from certain locations.

“I understand that some people do need to have real-time remote monitoring of their camera system. Talk to the people who install and maintain the system and ask them to set up security protocols to access the system,” he said. “This includes strong passwords and even double verification. Having to go through a multi-step verification to see what the cameras see may be annoying, but i’s better than letting the world see what should be private.”

If remote monitoring is not needed, Mr. Goel suggests setting up a closed-circuit camera system. With no way to access it from it the outside, it cannot be hacked.

The hacked cameras are focused on businesses and in homes, including private places like bedrooms. Whatever the cameras see goes out live to the rest of the world.

“Too many people believe if they install a webcam system, that’s all they need to do. They use the cameras for security, never realizing they are actually increasing their risk tremendously,” Mr. Goel said.

By watching the webcam feed, property criminals can learn when people are present and when they are gone. They can plan a burglary around those times. Mr. Goel said the webcams are also useless because they have been compromised.

“Once a hacker gets access to the system, they can turn off the camera, possibly erase the footage and if the camera’s aim can be remotely controlled, it can be turned to the ceiling to avoid getting images of the thieves,” he said.

Beyond that, the hackers can also watch what goes on. The idea that bedroom activities may be viewed is disturbing to some, but it gets worse.

“They can watch you at the computer. They can see your keystrokes and know exactly what your passwords are or make very educated guesses about your passwords. If they see you access a site and can’t make out exactly what you type, they can count the keystrokes. Knowing how many characters your password has and the approximate location on the keyboard is a massive help to cyber criminals, he said.

For more information about cyber security and the threat of unprotected webcams, visit Mr. Goel online at http://www.brainlink.com 

Media Contact:

Raj Goel
Security & Compliance Consulting Practice 
www.rajgoel.com
raj@rajgoel.com
917-685-7731

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THE VERY BEST Day to Send a NEWS RELEASE

What is the very best time to send a news release? That is probably the most popular questions people ask PR benefits – especially from the people that think PR is just writing and sending releases.

You can ask 100 PR professionals this question and get 100 different answers. At least one-third, and typically this is the most-experienced third, will tell you Monday or Tuesday is the best day time to send a press release . Lots of this stems out of an age where news was primarily printed in writing or broadcast on TV at a specific time each day. I don’t think there is a ‘best’ day time, but that’s just my opinion.

I decided to ask some specialists about this subject via Twitter and acquired quite a few helpful responses from the news headlines wires. PRNewswire suggests mailing news in the center of the week also to stay away from Fridays and Mondays. Business Wire however suggests early in the entire day, early in the entire week for most pr announcements. readMedia, a social media marketing release start-up, sees small distinction in weekdays, but advises against delivering releases on weekends for apparent reasons.

That settles it for me personally. There is absolutely no best time and energy to send a news release. The ‘best’ period varies based on your targets and kind of news. In some full cases, it may not seem sensible to send a news release at all. If your news is strong – timely, related, localized or sensational – you probably don’t need a press release . Just pick and choose up the phone and call the reporter (or shoot them an email ). If your press release is weak ( become honest), why send it out at all?

Assuming you do have some news of value, and decide to go the launch route, you’ll need to figure out the best day regarding yourself. Here are some suggestions that may help you figure out the best time to send your press release:

Figure out where you’d like your news to appear – if you’re targeting every day newspapers in major markets, distribution timing is more essential than if you’re targeting regular monthly magazines.

Understand frequency and creation limitations – so how exactly does the media wall plug produce content frequently? Just how much lead time do they have to create a whole story? Can they distribute a Television crew before lunch time, or should you schedule things weeks beforehand?

Make sure you genuinely have ‘ information ’ in your news release – it may seem you’ve got a ‘ scorching ’ story to talk about, but are you currently a journalist? Browse the release aloud – does it read such as a news tale? Could you imagine reading through the release this way inside the magazine or document you’re targeting? If it doesn’t examine like a news tale, get back to the drawing panel and ensure it is more interesting.

Traffic can be an okay result for a news release as well – you don’t need to often get a couple of push for a news release. If your objective is to get the term on the market on the Internet for the new service or workplace move, send the news release from an SEO-friendly news cable and be finished with it (don’t pitch the launch – simply send it and neglect it). Then again, you need to put the launch on your own website and talk about it across your social media marketing channels once before really ‘forgetting’ it.

Know the news headlines peaks and troughs of one’s industry – find out when everybody else is delivering their information to journalists and send yours at a different day and time. A lot of agencies send their news for 7:00AM distribution on a Monday – how about 10:37AM? Better yet, 10:37AM on a Thursday? If your news doesn’t have to be out there at a specific time, distribute it at off-peak times to improve your chance of getting noticed.

If your news has to be out at a specific time… – if your news has to be out there at a specific time, often due to financial regulations or other compliance requirements, you should know the ‘best’ time to send out your press release.

Email distribution guidelines – most email marketing service providers publish reports on the best times to send email. If you rely on email distribution for your press releases, use these guidelines to improve your open rates.

Ask your wire service – if you use a wire service to distribute your news (like PRWeb, PRNewswire, BusinessWire or Marketwire), ask your account manager what the best day is to distribute your press release. Question them to inform you what peak distribution instances are for your market or geographic segment.

Holidays along with other conflicts – any kind of big holidays approaching? Will there be other seasonal information in your market that may affect your news release pickup? Don’t deliver press releases the 7 days before or after Xmas, if you don’t have timely holiday information.

Use keywords – do key word research. Your press release will appear online in a large number of places. Select keywords folks are looking for. I picked the headline because of this post in line with the amount of searches for “best day time to send news release ” versus “ very best time and energy to send news release. ” This stuff matters if you want to improve your pickup and get more ROI from your PR efforts.

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to sending your press release, but these are a few guidelines that have served me well over the years. I hope this post helps you figure out the best day to send your press release .

THE VERY BEST Day to Send a NEWS RELEASE

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Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Pr announcements were originally designed seeing that a communication device between company PR employees or pr firms and the mass media. However now that online information sites such as for example Yahoo News and Search engines News contain this abundance of news release content material and RSS makes it simple to syndicate news, pr announcements may be used as a primary to consumer communication device effectively.

Not only are pr announcements a highly effective tool for distributing articles to the customers and media, they may be syndicated developing an excellent possibility to attract incoming links simply. Some of the pr announcements our SEO firm optimizes and distributes have gained as few as 30 unique domain name links and some have garnered over 500 – all from a single press release.

Using progressive wire services like Business Wire, PR Newswire, PRWeb and Market Wire simplifies the process of getting news content in to these popular news search engines.

To get an idea of how popular online news search is, comScore has reported that half of all internet users visit an online news site in a given month. Also, of all the online news sites including MSNBC, the New York Occasions, CNN, etc ., Yahoo! News is the number one online news destination.

Realizing the chance news search offers, a lot of company marketers continue steadily to flounder at making certain their pr announcements receive maximum direct exposure. To that final end, here are 10 strategies for maximizing the presence of news release content:

Start with something worthy of announcing. Boring information gets little results regardless of how properly it’s optimized. It’s vital that you focus on a particular topic. An excessive amount of information and concentrating on way too many keywords will dilute the information for both news se’s and readers.

Think also to the left upward. Optimize a news release using website optimization principles and take into account that important keywords have to be near the the surface of the document with important keywords first.

Distribute the release with a wire support like Business Wire and PRWeb or PRNewswire. If you distribute the same release through more than one wire service on the same day, it is very likely that the news search engines will filter out the duplicates. If your story has more than one angle, take advantage of that and mix it up.

Give the reader a reason to click through. A direct to consumer release needs to offer more than an announcement of news. It needs to provide the reader with an action opportunity. Examples include: white paper downloads, free trials, special offers, podcasts, webinars, reports, email newsletters and consultations.

Create a landing page to switch referred news release visitors to leads. You utilize landing pages together with your PPC strategies, don’t you? You will want to use them together with your press release then? Embed links within your release to appropriate resources as a solid proactive approach welll. Alongside giving the reader reasonable to click through, the destination of this link should be made to bring visitors further across the sales routine for regardless of the desired outcome is.

Assemble a listing of mass media contacts for the discharge and email them the release along with a concise, summary. Offer an exclusive if you can and suggesting story suggestions that clearly indicate you’re familiar with the writer’s work can do wonders.

Make it relevant and make it easy for journalists and bloggers to write about your news. Study bloggers that write about the topic and pre-write a summary of the launch for them. In many cases, bloggers will simply copy/paste all or part of your summary and add their own commentary.

Post the launch to the company blog enabled media space. Ideally, the ongoing corporation site includes a blog that may archive pr announcements chronologically and by classification, offers a search functionality, lists previous media publicity, contains hyperlinks to media-centric photos, movie and audio in addition to an RSS feed to create it possible for interested parties, including journalists, a subscription to company news.

Write a post edition of the news headlines and submit to related social media sites. This does not work for all types of content material and you need to be sure what you’re composing resonates with the tradition of the social media networks that you would like to promote to. Do not submit press releases directly to Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Stumble Upon, etc .

Use social bookmark sites as a clipping services. Bookmark pickups of the launch using social bookmark solutions such as del. icio. us all, Furl. net or blogmarks. net. Such services can be linked to from the online media room and many become crawlable links for search engines.

As with any marketing effort, after the content material is distributed, it’s important to track effectiveness. Techniques for tracking news release results include:

Embed monitoring codes in the hyperlinks from the discharge to the website landing page.

Monitor the net analytics of the website the press release hyperlinks to for referral visitors sources.

Setup Search engines alerts to monitor once the release gets found.

Monitor blog engines like google blog technorati and seek out pickups.

Monitor standard se’s for back links and pickups.

Track conversions from news release landing pages.

Press Releases as Marketing Tools

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Press Release Benefits 2014

The most important element a press release provides is exposure. It provides the potential for customers to find information about your business on the internet. Your press release from Bizatomic is search engine optimized and searchable for the best search terms, meaning that someone searching for key terms may find your press release through a search engine. Your press release is cautiously analyzed and optimized around key search terms that increase your visibility on these search engines. This may be why some terms are repeated or re-worded. It is also helpful to have an inbound link from another website. PR web provides an inbound link directly to your website for each press release submitted. The more inbound links, the more relevant major search engines deem your website.

*a. Instant Visibility: *

The brief moment a well optimized and well crafted PR is applied for, we are able to get instant exposure. Because the PR gets found by several news websites like news. search engines. com etc . individuals who seek out the keywords given inside our PR can discover our PR and thus notice our offer/service/ items etc . Each PR remains in the news headlines sites like news. search engines. com for quite a while (around four to six 6 weeks) before they’re moved to the archives along with other newer PRs (from other websites ) reach the top. So instant visitors and visibility from information sites is one main benefit.

*b. Have faith in and Branding: *

People google in regards to a company before they employ the services usually. A properly drafted PR Program will make sure that there are more than enough instances of our firm being discussed in the web press. This is as well as the information that an individual will see on the client’s web site. Usually clients look at alternative party of exterior validations and such PR ANNOUNCEMENTS help reinforce the have faith in factor and escalates the chances of somebody employing the company. The PR ANNOUNCEMENTS remain obtainable on the internet for an indefinite time period. If someone views a vintage PR of the business, he also discovers that the company has been around for a while.

*c. Inbound links: *

Each Press Release is sprinkled with links which point back to the website. Since the PR pages remain on the press distribution sites for a long long time, we continue to get the credit of these good quality links backs. Links help in driving direct traffic to the site and most importantly they help in getting higher ratings on search engines.

*d. Traffic: *

This is a very vital benefit of a good Press Release plan. Apart from all the above benefits, a well optimized PR has the potential to send us good traffic – especially for the initial 1 to 2 2 weeks. This is because a fresh press release ranks pretty high on news sites like news. google. com. Also if it is well optimized, it can even rank on www.google. com for some of the keywords. All this helps in getting us traffic and more visibility in the end.

Press Release Benefits 2014

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Writing an Effective Press Release

If you’re looking to get media protection for your small business, being able to write an effective press release is an essential skill. But how long should a press release be? And what kind of information should you include? Here are some suggestions to help you get started:

Make sure your story is newsworthy

Before you even attempt to write a press release , think about the things you like to read, watch and listen to in the media. Most of us are generally interested in things we haven’t heard before, find surprising or help solve our problems. So before drafting your press release, it’s worth asking yourself these questions:

1 . Is there anything ” new ” in my story?

2 . Is there anything unusual or unexpected about it?

3. Would this be of interest to anyone outside my business?

4. Will anyone actually care?

The last one sounds harsh, but is probably the most important: you might be excited about your new marketing director or the launch of your new product, but will anyone else be interested? If the answer is “no”, hold off on that press release until you’ve got a better story.

If you’re not sure whether your story is newsworthy, read, watch or listen to the publications or programmes you’d like coverage in to get a feel for the kind of stories they typically cover.

Write killer headlines

Most journalists get hundreds of emails every day, so it’s a good idea to label emails containing press releases with the phrase ” press release ” or “story concept “. An excellent subject line is crucial also.

But don’t play the role of clever: most journalists will spend just a few seconds deciding whether something looks interesting. If they don’t immediately understand what your story is about, they’ll move on to the next thing in their inbox.

So if your tale is about the release of the initial financial preparation consultancy for ladies, say exactly that. ” Ladies profit from financial planning” may appear like a much better headline, but may mean nothing at all to an occupied journalist scanning their inbox.

Get your top range in the initial line of your news release

Obtaining a journalist to open up your email is essential, if a first sentence doesn’t get them, they could not read any more – which explains why you need in order to obtain the “top line” ( the most crucial bit) of one’s story correct at the beginning of one’s release. Your first range should be a listing of the tale (in only around 15-20 terms ) and read just like the starting of an information story.

Journalists are usually taught to find as much of the ” 5 Ws” ( who have, what, where, why so when ) in the starting type of news stories, if you want types of great first ranges for pr announcements, search no further than your regular newspaper.

Another trick is to imagine your story is going to be covered on a TV or radio programme. A presenter generally has around 5-6 seconds to introduce each item eg “And coming up next… why a local cafe owner is giving a free coffee this weekend to anyone born in July. ” If your story was going to be featured on the radio today, how would the presenter introduce it? Asking yourself that question should give you the top line of your story.

Be concise

The ideal length of a press release is about an A4 side or about 300 to 400 words ( the length of a short news item). That’s just three or four short paragraphs and a couple of of quotes. If yours is longer than that, you’ve probably got unnecessary waffle that doesn’t add anything to your story.

Don’t be tempted to include background information on the subject of your organization in the starting paragraph. This – alongside any other more information – can continually be contained in a ” information to editors” section by the end (it’s good to perform over to another page because of this ).

Bullet and sub-headings factors can be handy to make information an easy task to digest, especially if you’re including figures or even statistics.

Use quotes to supply insight, not information

Including quotes from people today in your company are a good idea for journalists (and upon regional or industry publications tend to be used, word after word ). A standard beginner’s mistake is by using quotes to supply information, for instance, ” this past year, we employed 100 personnel in 12 different nations and turned over £5m. ”

Quotes ought to be used to provide viewpoint and insight and appear to be a genuine person said them. They definitely must not be filled with jargon or technical vocabulary.

Some more tips…

While it can be an useful background document for journalists, a press release isn’t a story. If you want to maximise your chances of getting press coverage, you will have to tweak your idea, and your release, for different publications or programmes. You can find more information about how to find journalists’ contacts details in this article.

When you send a press release, it’s a good idea to include a short outline of your idea ( no more than a paragraph) and where you think it might fit in the publication you’re pitching to. Paste your press release underneath, as a busy journalist may not bother to an open an attachment. Photos can be helpful if they add something to the story , but avoid sending big files that will clog up peoples’ inboxes.

And finally… aim high, but be realistic in your expectations. Most journalists are swamped with press releases, so it may take you a few attempts and a bit of chasing to land press coverage for your business. Don’t give up though; determination and a willingness to learn can take you a very long way.

Writing an Effective Press Release

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Write a Press Release That Gets Noticed

Think of a press release as your ticket to publicity — one that can get your company coverage in all kinds of publications or on TV and radio stations.

First, be sure you have a good reason for sending a press release. A grand opening, a new product, a record-setting sales year, a new location or a special event are all good reasons.

Second, make sure your press release is appropriately targeted for the publication or broadcast you’re sending it to. The editor of Road & Track is not going to be interested in a new child pacifier you’ve invented.

It sounds apparent, but many business owners make the error of sending pr announcements randomly without considering a new publication’s audience.

To make sure readability, your news release should follow the typical format: typed, double-spaced, about white letterhead with a new contact person’s name, name, company, telephone and address number inside top of the right-hand corner.

Below the given information, put a short, eye- getting headline in bold type. A dateline, for instance, ” LA, California, 10 april, 2010″ follows, leading in to the very first sentence of the launch.

Limit your news release to 1 of two pages for the most part. It must be just long good enough to cover up the six basic components: who, what, when, where, why and how. The solutions to these six queries ought to be mentioned in purchase of these importance to the tale to save lots of the editor period and space.

Don’t embellish or hype the info. Remember, you aren’t writing the article, you’re merely presenting the info and displaying why it is highly relevant to that publication hoping that they will write about it.

Pay close attention to grammar and spelling. Competition for publicity is intense, and a press release full of typos and errors is more likely to get tossed aside.

Some business owners use attention-getting gimmicks to get their press releases noticed. In most cases, this is a waste of money. If your release is well-written and relevant, you don’t need singing telegrams or a bouquet of flowers to get your message across.

Once you reach the reporter on the telephone, remember that he or she is extremely busy and probably on deadline. Be courteous, and ask if he or she has time to talk. If not, offer to call back at a more convenient time.

If the reporter can talk to you, keep your initial pitch to 20 seconds; afterward, offer to send written information to aid your story ideas.

Know exactly what you are going to say prior to you phone the reporter. Own it written down before you — it’s much easier, and you will feel more confident. You shouldn’t be a pest. You may be persistent without having to be annoying easily.

Be helpful and be a resource by giving reporters with info. Remember, they want your story ideas. You can find only so several they are able to come up with independently.

Remember that assistants obtain promoted always. Be great to everyone you consult with, regardless of how low they’re on the totem pole. Once you establish a link, keep in touch; you won’t ever know where individuals shall end up.

Write a Press Release That Gets Noticed

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How to Write the Perfect Press Release

Optimize and Reach Your Audience

Follow these tips to reach all the right targets.

Consistent, Targeted Messaging

The most important rule for writing a press release is to make sure that it’s centered on an individual, newsworthy topic that’s vital that you your target audiences. A discharge that’s in regards to a clearly identifiable subject, and which include phrases and keywords which are likely to issue to your targets, is more prone to be found in lookup, read by your viewers, and shared through the internet sites that boost your lookup ranking with authoritative, gained links.

Write an obvious, Brief Headline

Search engines depend on page titles to find out ranking heavily, and your push release’s headline is it is page name. For proper indexing by information sites, your headline ought to be between 2 and 22 phrases. Search engine results limitation titles to around 67 characters often, so ensure that your most significant information is right in advance in the headline. Maintain it and steer clear of puns or plays upon words straightforward.

Use Subheadlines

While subheads are not included in page title tags, they are a good place to incorporate additional keywords that are not in your headline. They also provide early supplemental guidance to readers as they decide whether to continue reading.

Add Meaningful Links

Use links in your launch to direct your audiences to relevant additional content material: Backgrounders and FAQs for reporters and analysts, product purchase pages and evaluations for customers, campaign- specific landing webpages, and so on. By placing related, context-appropriate links, you’ll push measurable traffic to your own site and enhance the integration of your PR and marketing attempts. Links in press release issued via Business Wire use “no follow” tags per search engine guidelines. So, while the links in your press release may not enhance SEO, they improve user encounter; when used in third party coverage and mentions, do provide earned press SEO benefit.

Use Text message Formatting for Emphasis

Bold, italic, bulleted and underlined text assist emphasize tips in your release, break up your articles into easily digestible sections and offer visible cues for skimmers to quickly grab the gist of one’s news.

Include Multimedia

Multimedia makes your discharge stand out to visitors and reporters, and embedded images boost your release’s reach browsing engines. Google Pictures receives a massive quantity of search drives and visitors readers back again to your release. Optimize your pictures by making sure they will have clear file brands which precisely describe the picture and add a keyword (e. g., ” Essential Product Name. jpg” instead of “DSC_1234. jpg”). Include a descriptive caption for any multimedia asset you distribute.

Include Your Company Logo

Build recognition by including your logo at the top of your release. It’s free with any Business Wire circuit. Your logo is likely to be the first image people find when searching for your brand or business name.

Include Complete Contact Information

Make sure to offer up-to-date phone numbers and e-mail addresses; reporters tell us that omitting these is one of their main dog peeves. Always include a way for media to follow up with any questions. Consider including a Twitter handle or some other social media profile. Do not include contact details for communication tools you do not monitor regularly.

Include Identifiers for Publicly Traded Companies

If your company is publicly traded, include your exchange, stock symbol and International Securities Identifier Quantity (ISIN). These maximize access and research functionality of your press release in monetary databases and news systems

How to Write the Perfect Press Release

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