Why E-Mail Can Be A Gateway to Destruction
Leadership Trenton Honors Charter Class
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These articles were prepared for the
December 11, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Part-Time Job: Big-Time Perks
How does this sound: A 16-day cruise from Miami to South
America for $420. Or maybe a four-day cruise to the Bahamas, for $50.
In either case that would work out to maybe 25 to 50 percent of the
cost of staying home and eating fast food.
“This is what just came on my fax,” says Marie Gallagher,
owner of IT Travel at Research Park. “I’m looking at it now.”
The deals are for travel agents, and there is a wonderful wrinkle.
Part-time travel agents — even those working two hours a week,
or less — can pack and go right along with full-time agents. In
fact, given the fact that they are not tied to a desk, the part-timers
often take advantage of far more of these deep-discount, last minute
trips, says Gallagher.
In the it-just-keeps-getting-better department, Gallagher says
virtually
anyone can become a part-time travel agent. She gives a seminar laying
out how to do just that on Thursday, December 12, at 6:30 p.m. at
her offices at 1 Airport Place in Research Park. There is no charge,
but call 609-921-6300 for reservations.
“I ran these seminars before, years ago,” says Gallagher.
“I got 20 outside agents.” She explains that an outside agent
is an individual who develops his own customer base and is in complete
charge of his own schedule. Most outside agents run into the agency
to grab brochures and are quickly on their way.
The job of outside agent is not a road to riches in most cases, and,
in fact, is not something to count on when the mortgage comes due.
A part-timer can expect to make between $10,000 and $25,000 a year,
says Gallagher. “And part time,” she adds, “can mean
working
two hours a week or 20 hours a week.”
Outside agents do not make their money on plane tickets, but rather
by selling cruises, tours, vacation packages, group travel, and
specialty
travel such as golf trips. “Someone who belongs to a country club
and has lots of friends? Perfect,” says Gallagher. “Someone
in a retirement community? Perfect.”
Retired people, with their business savvy and networks of friends,
many of whom may well have the time and money to travel, can be ideal
outside agents. But, really, Gallagher emphasizes, anyone is a
candidate.
One of her outside agents was employed full-time. While she couldn’t
take advantage of as many trips as could her retired counterparts,
she did have a big pool of potential customers in her co-workers.
Stay-at-home moms like the flexibility of the job, says Gallagher,
and teachers often find it ideal. “They’re off at 4 p.m., and
they have summers off,” she says of the latter group. They also
enjoy a cohort of co-workers whose extended vacations make them good
travel candidates.
As far as training goes, Gallagher says research is the main job
skill.
Travel agents need to know how to find the best tours at the best
prices. She provides training disks, and is willing to give in-house
lessons to give serious, highly-motivated candidates a good start.
Beyond that, most training is supplied at brunch, lunch, dinner, and
cruise information seminars given by airlines, cruise lines, tour
operators, hotel chains, and travel destinations.
Outside travel agents are eligible for the deep-discount trips after
one year, but, says Gallagher, this requirement can be shortened
significantly
— often to about three months — with a letter from a manager.
At that point, the outside agent is issued an IATAN card, which
identifies
him as an accredited travel agent and serves as the magic key to
fabulous
vacations at more-than-affordable prices.
Gallagher says the opportunities to take these trips, which often
are offered only at the last minute, are limitless. As a preferred
travel agent, a designation earned through volume and through
affiliation
with a network of travel agents, she receives these offers all the
time.
Cruise anyone?
Top Of PageWhy E-Mail Can Be A Gateway to Destruction
In a clear case of it-only-happens-to-the-other-guy,
small businesses say their biggest computer headache is the damage
wrought by viruses downloaded from E-mails. “Lots of people are
getting viruses,” says Alicia Clay, whose job at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) involves teaching
companies
how to avoid computer problems. “It’s by far our biggest
complaint.”
Clay speaks on “Computer Security is Good Business” on
Thursday,
December 12, at 8:30 a.m. at a seminar at Raritan Valley Community
College’s Small Business Development Center. Call 908-526-1200, ext.
8516.
Clay says awareness of computer security is a little better than it
once was. People don’t often tape their passwords to their monitors
anymore, she gives as a for instance. Still, a lot of needless angst
— not to mention high-price-tag damage — enters offices
through
their ubiquitous computers.
A look at NIST’s website (www.nist.org) is a window into the
dimensions of the problem. NIST is a federal technology agency
chartered
in 1901. With a mission to help companies of all sizes to develop
and use new technologies, NIST also maintains laboratories in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland, and in Boulder, Colorado, to research better ways to measure
basic quantities like length, time, and temperature, and to develop
standards and test methods.
Through more than 400 not-for-profit centers nationwide, NIST links
small manufacturers with a network of manufacturing and business
specialists.
The agency, through its Advanced Technology Program (ATP), also
bridges
the gap between research and the marketplace by sharing early-stage
research costs for new technologies. Companies conceive, co-fund,
and execute ATP projects in partnership with academe, other research
groups, and federal labs.
Among NIST’s many programs is the one on computer security. A quick
run down its menu conjures all sorts of computer horrors. The focus
appears to be on thwarting hackers. There is lots of material on
encryption,
a cryptographic standards toolkit, and an automated security
self-evaluation
tool. There are also authorization management and advanced access
control models, information on mobile computing security, and a Smart
Card security section.
Through a link on the security menu, anyone can plug the names of
their software programs into NIST’s ICAT metabase. Under a banner
showing an alert grey cat and a fearless-looking white mouse, there
is a plug-in menu that gives all the known risk factors for software.
Type in the name of a program and find the ways in which it can be
hacked, whether the type of damage than could result.
All of this up-to-the-minute techno-information comes from an agency
that got its start when urgent messages were sent by telegraph, not
by E-mail. Now that communication via the Internet is instantaneous,
global, and available to virtually everyone in every office, small
businesses need to be aware, says Clay, that the computers on their
desks can be the innocent-looking gateway to all manner of havoc.
Here are some of her suggestions for cutting the risk.
Install anti-virus software. It’s inexpensive, and itcan save your files, your hard drives, and your good name. Hackersare roaming free in a wilderness with absolutely no borders. Onceinto your system, they can store their files on your server, corruptyour data, wreck your hardware, gain control of your address books,and even send out obscene E-mails that will look like they came fromyour business.Keep that anti-virus software up to date. As busy as mostsmall businesses are, it is easy to feel virtuous about buying andinstalling anti-virus software. It is also easy to then forget allabout it. But, says Clay, it is vital to keep adding the latestpatches.One businessman with whom she recently spoke updates his anti-virussoftware every single day. His business is entirely on the Internet,she explains, making a high degree of caution a necessity. Anotherbusiness, she says, might update only once a week, or even once amonth.Instruct employees about downloads. Let every employeeknow that he is to be extremely careful about opening attachments.There are levels of care that an employer might decide to mandate,says Clay. Some bosses issue edicts forbidding downloads from anyunknown person. But this is not foolproof. “Hackers are gettingsmarter,” says Clay. It is now common for them to create subjectlines strongly suggesting that they do know their targets, somethinglike “John, here is the information you requested.” To guardagainst this sort of ruse, some employers tell their workers todownloadonly files that they are expecting. It is possible to go another stepdown the road to protection, she adds, by installing software thatautomatically blocks all E-mail containing executable attachments.Erect firewalls. With DSL, cable, and other high-speedInternet connections employees are often wired all of the time.”Butjust because you can be online all the time, you don’t have tobe,”says Clay. In fact, she suggests unplugging when not actively surfing.The reason? “Leaving the computer on all the time is like leavinga window open,” she explains. There are hackers roaming the vastneighborhood that is cyberspace looking for a way into computers.An open Internet connection is an easy way in.Guard those passwords. No, passwords are not often foundtaped to monitors anymore, but Clay finds they often are written downand placed near the computer. Choose a complex password — notyour new baby’s name — and do not store it near the computer.As a further protection, do not sign on to the computer and then leavefor a three-hour meeting, followed by lunch. Use a pass-protectedscreen saver, Clay advises, and turn it on when you step away fromyour computer.Be careful what you share. It is common for supervisorsseeking a little help from a subordinate on a project to just forkover a password rather than transfer the file in which the neededinformation is found. Let loose at a higher security level than heusually enjoys, the underling may well have fun reading performancereviews or checking what his office mates earn — and thengossipingabout same at the water cooler.Consider purchasing advanced entry systems. While it isall well and good to advise storing passwords away from the computer,with the number of passwords the average information worker needsto navigate through the day, it is oh-so-tempting to keep them allclose at hand — and in plain sight. A solution, says Clay, isa fingerprint identification system. “Prices have dropped,”she says. “You can now get one for less than $100.” ThefingerprintID technology can be set up not only to get a computer user loggedon to the main system, but also to “memorize” all of hispasswords.This means he can cruise through his day, switching from databaseto database without ever having to remember and type in all of hisdifferent passwords.Beware the computer guy. Small offices tend to entrustall things computer related to one person. What happens if he quits?asks Clay. Or worse, what if he needs to be fired? It is prudent,she suggests, to have at least one other person trained to take over,and to have pre-set procedures for locking either one of them outof the system.Many times, the result of a security breach can be mitigatedby prior planning. Back-up files regularly, for example, and afile-corruptingbreak-in will not do much damage. Likewise, using encryptiontechnologywill lessen the harm done by any theft of sensitive material. Beinghacked or compromised by an employee is no fun, but, says Clay,”Itdoesn’t have to be the end of the world.”Top Of PageLeadership Trenton Honors Charter ClassRoland Pott of Trenton Works and Conduit and JohnHarmon of the Metropolitan Trenton African American Chamber ofCommerce are among the 35 fellows of the Leadership Trenton charterclass to be recognized at the Lafayette Yard Marriott Conference Hotelon Thursday, December 12.Leadership Trenton is a collaboration of Thomas Edison State college,the John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, and the Partnershipfor New Jersey. A statewide program, it stages monthly seminars onpublic policy issues that are critical to the state.The Watson Institute was established by Thomas Edison State Collegein 1996 as a center for community partnerships to serve communitiesin the state. It offers applied research, technical assistance,programdevelopment, outreach, and other assistance.”The information and experience acquired by our charter classexemplifies the importance of investing in leadershipdevelopment,”says William A. Watson, executive director of the John S. WatsonInstitute for Public Policy.This year’s Leadership Trenton class has 41 people. Among them areJune Ballinger, director of Passage Theater; John D. S. Hatch,of the architectural firm of Clarke Caton Hintz; Jon Nelson,director of mental health services at Capital Health; and PeterC. Wise, director of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.”The graduates of Leadership Trenton will do extraordinary thingswith their initiative, talent, and drive to make Trenton a betterplace to live and work,” says George A. Pruitt, presidentof Thomas Edison State College.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
