Win 5 Free Tickets To Canada’s Wonderland

by Felicien | Jul 19, 2018 | Education

New Scam Exploits Visitors to Canada’s Wonderland Theme Park

Canada’s Wonderland theme park in Toronto has issued a warning about a social media scam appearing on Facebook and other sites. This new scheme targets people who enjoy the park’s many thrilling rides, including radical roller coasters, but can’t afford the high price of a ticket. Ticket prices for one day start at $41.99 with season passes starting at $89.99.
How the Scam Works
An ad is displayed that says you can win 5 free tickets to Wonderland Park simply by completing a survey, then sharing the link to get free tickets with friends. A link in the ad sends people to a landing page that contains the survey. The additional instructions say that the link must be shared online with friends before the tickets will be released.
A spokeswoman for Wonderland, Grace Peacock, confirmed that the Facebook scheme is fraudulent. Ms. Peacock advised consumers to purchase tickets only from the authentic Wonderland website or other authorized ticket sellers.
“Canada’s Wonderland takes ticket fraud very seriously. If anyone has any concerns about the validity of their ticket or a dealer, please call guest services,” said Ms. Peacock. “We caution people to be wary of discounted ticket deals from individuals, third-party websites, apps or social media,” she added.
She reminded people that these offers are not sponsored by Canada’s Wonderland Park, confirming that a similar scheme was spreading on WhatsApp. She also said that York regional police have been notified about the ticket scam and cautioned consumers to be wary about responding to ads that seem too good to be true.
Park officials are advising everyone to purchase tickets from Wonderland’s official website or at the front gate. Tickets can also be purchased from authorized ticket dealers including Perkopolis, Costco, and Venngo.
Contents of the Ad:
The ad reads: “Canada’s Wonderland providing 5 Free tickets Per family to celebrate its 51st year of quality service!”
Next, consumers are taken to a landing page that says:
“You have been selected to take part in our short survey to get 5 Free Canada’s Wonderland Tickets! We only have 212 tickets remaining so hurry up!”
Once the survey has been completed, consumers are instructed to share the page and click on the like button. Afterwards, they’re told they will receive five tickets valued at over $100. Wonderland Park officials advised people to call guest services at 905-832-8131 if they believe they’ve been sold fraudulent tickets.

Save Valuable Laptop Battery Life (Tips/Tricks)

by Felicien | Jul 19, 2018 | Education

How Can You Keep Your Laptop Running Longer?
Getting work done in the airport or other remote location where you can’t find a spare plug to recharge your “dying” laptop can be tricky. Battery power only lasts so long on any device, and once it’s used up, you’re stuck hunting down a spare outlet (along with other travelers in the airport lounge).
Luckily, there are some fast and simple solutions to help you gain a bit more battery life. Here are 8 handy tips to try:
1. Turn On The Battery Saver In Your Laptop
Your PC or Mac laptop comes equipped with a way to lengthen your battery life. Adjusting a few settings can gain you some extra juice when you need it. Your laptop can automatically lower the power state for a number of components so you can ration your battery power more effectively. You can change settings to turn off applications you don’t need, shut down processes that aren’t required and adjust specific activities so your laptop consumes less power.

2. Turn Off The Keyboard Light
Do you really need to have the keyboard backlit? This is a power drain you can quickly fix.
On your PC, go to the Control Center. Next, click the Keyboard and Mouse, then Backlit Keyboard to adjust the lighting. Turn off the Backlit Keyboard.
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in setting in Windows 10 to adjust the backlit keyboard settings. However, some original equipment manufacturers like Dell offer their own software for this. They have settings to turn the backlit keyboard on or off, adjust the keyboard brightness, and automatically turn off the backlight after a number of seconds of inactivity. Do some research for your device to learn what options you have. While you’re at it, why not assign a hotkey for this? You may need to do this again in a pinch, and you’ll save some time.
3. Lower Your Screen Brightness
You certainly can’t turn this off, but you can adjust the brightness setting and resolution. Reducing the level of brightness to 50 percent will save you quite a bit of power when you’re running low.
4. Turn Down The Volume
Doing this will save you a bit more power. If you’re desperate for more time, this is worth doing. Lower the sound as much as you can. You can also switch from listening via the laptop’s speakers to a set of earbuds. If you don’t need the sound, turn it off altogether.
5. Disable Ports And Devices
This is an easy way to reduce your laptop’s power consumption. Close down anything you don’t need. Disconnect peripherals you aren’t using like external hard drives or a USB mouse. Some other things that hog power are your Bluetooth, graphics processors, optical drives, and Wi-Fi. Turn these off if you don’t need them.
For Mac users, disable your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the Menu Bar. If you use a PC, go to the Device Manager in your desktop and disable ports you don’t need. This won’t provide a lot of extra juice, but if you’re really lacking power, this is something to try. Also turn off any USB ports that aren’t being used.
To turn off devices on your PC in Windows, go to your Control Panel and look for the Device Manager. All of the devices will be organized according to their category. All you have to do is right-click what you want to disable and choose “Disable” from the drop-down. If you want to turn off your Wi-Fi, you’ll find this in the Network Adapters category. The graphics card will be under Display Adapters, and the optical drive under the DVD/CD-ROM Drives category.
6. Can You Spare Some Apps?
When the power is running low, it’s best to use just one application at a time. If you keep multiple applications and processes running on your laptop, you can say “bye-bye” to your juice. They can really eat up battery life. Turn off anything you aren’t using. On your Windows-based laptop in the System Tray, click the icon that displays hidden icons. Here, you can see what apps might be running in the background. Then go to the Task Manager in the menu, and you can see apps that are open. Turn off what you don’t need.
7. What About Turning Off Certain Computing Processes?
Just like you don’t need all those apps running, you should turn off processes that you don’t require. Anything that’s used to run video players or music can probably be disabled and won’t be missed. Also, turn off your cloud storage services, for now, to get back some precious battery life. You can turn them back on when you can find a plug.
For MacBook users, go to Login Items in System Preferences and Users & Groups. Disable anything you don’t need right now. If you want to see what’s running, hold down the Option key and click on the battery indicator in the Menu or open the Activity Monitor in settings to see what’s running. Select and turn off anything you don t need. Apple OS X has a Power Nap feature that you can turn on. This will switch off email and Twitter feeds so you can maximize your remaining battery power.
8. Finally – Always Keep A Plug Splitter Handy
If you can find someone who’ll share a plug, this is when you need that handy plug splitter. It converts one grounded outlet into three. A 3-outlet splitter is usually rated at 15 amps. You can plug three different devices into it. Just make sure their combined load is less than 15 amps or 1,875 watts. If the people using the plug aren’t so sure they want to share, maybe a free cup of coffee will change their minds. They can recharge from their coffee while you recharge your laptop battery!
No matter how great your remote setup, getting work done in the airport where you can’t find a spare plug to recharge your laptop is a little tricky. I hope these tips helped.
 

Email Marketing Services (Insight/Information)

by Felicien | Jul 18, 2018 | Education

Making the Most of Email Marketing Service Providers

Email marketing provides businesses with the most direct line of communication for connecting with customers and turning leads into sales. It is also one of the most cost-effective marketing methods available.
While you can use any number of methods and a suitable tool to easily acquire subscribers and build your email list, the actual email delivery part comes down to your choice of email marketing services.
An email marketing service provider, or ESP, is simply a web-based service that can help you organize, manage, automate, and track your marketing emails.
Your choice of ESP can make or break your overall marketing campaign. You don’t want to end up shelling out a lot more money for fewer features and perhaps an inefficient delivery system, which could translate into losing money and subscribers.
So, if you’re looking to start using an email marketing service, or if you’re switching from your current provider, here are some helpful facts to jumpstart your research.
What To Expect From Your ESP
Any email marketing service provider will normally offer you a number of essential features. Of course, the level of service varies from one ESP to another depending on the cost.

Spam test – to gauge the score of an email against a known factor or set of factors that would place the email at risk of being flagged or blocked.
Ability to import, create, and manage subscriber lists – these management features usually include list segmentation and customizable fields.
The ability to use templates for sending an email – this often includes testing of the templates for compatibility with emailing apps.
The ability to track and review statistics of emails sent – usually as a way to measure and test the success rate of campaigns.
The ability to send both HTML and plain text emails – these format varieties help to improve delivery success rates.
The ability to dynamically customize the content of emails that are sent out – helps with tailoring personalized and relevant email communication.

Why You’ll Want To Include An ESP In Your Email Marketing Strategy
Using an email marketing service comes with a number of benefits that may be a great boon to your overall marketing strategy. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Preventing intentional (or unintentional) email marketing abuse
These web-based emailing services provide methods that are within legal boundaries, thereby creating natural constraints for marketers to work within the acceptable limits. This can go a long way in ensuring that email marketing campaigns are successful – often by keeping marketers from overwhelming recipients with their emails and risk getting flagged as spam.
Saving time and money
With ready-to-use email templates available in multiple formats, you won’t have to spend time creating emails from scratch each time you want to send one. This, added to the fact that ESPs provide list management and organization, automation, testing, and targeting, as well as tracking and analyzing of emails. These tasks would be very time consuming to perform yourself. An ESP can ensure that you shave tremendous amounts of time off your campaign management duties.
Which Way To Go: ESPs Compared
Often, you’ll have to choose from the long list of email marketing service providers available in this industry. The popular ones today include MailChimp, AWeber, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, GetResponse, and ConstantContact. There are many others.
All these ESPs have their various appeals and relative differences that will determine the best option for your needs. It will help to know what to look for, in order to choose the right one.
Cost and your budget
How much are you willing to pay and what number of subscribers are you targeting with your email marketing campaign? What you need is a pricing structure that fits within your budget and will fit into your email strategy. Charges and pricing terms vary from one ESP to the next, so be sure to analyze the pricing plans and terms from various vendors before settling on one.
Age of the ESP
If you are all about industry experience, then you’ll want to think about the level of experience that an ESP has gained from being in the market for longer. Of the six ESPs listed here, ConstantContact is the oldest, having been founded in 1995. AWeber comes in as second oldest, having been founded in 1998.
List of features and user experience
Various ESPs offer hundreds of different features. More importantly, pay attention to the IP (do they provide a dedicated IP or will you share with other users), email types (automated daily emails, real-time ‘triggered’ emails, one-off marketing newsletters), API database integration, dynamic merge fields, A/B testing capabilities, analytics, and any other feature(s) that you find essential for your business.
Wrap up
With a clear knowledge of what to look for, you can profile your ideal choice of vendor based on your simple list of requirements and go to market assured of getting the best ESP for your email marketing needs. It takes a bit of research but should pay off with better results for every campaign.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (Questions/Answers)

by Felicien | Jul 17, 2018 | Education

New Consumer Privacy Act to Take Privacy Protection in California a Notch Higher
No consumer really knows the exact amount of data that companies collect about them online at any particular time. It is nearly impossible to determine exactly what information is collected and how it will be used. This has always been a sore spot with consumers. Everyone enjoys the convenience of shopping online. Up to now, there has never been a way to control how your personal information is collected, stored, or used.
In California, this is about to change. With the recent passing of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), consumers will now have some control over this.
The law, which goes into effect January 1, 2020, is designed to empower consumers with knowledge about how their personal information will be collected, used, and stored.
To break it down, here are the rights that the California Consumer Privacy Act, also known as AB-375, gives the residents of California:

Knowledge about the kind of personal information that companies are collecting about them.
Knowledge about whether the information collected about them is getting sold or disclosed to some other entity. The law entitles Californians to know the identity of the party obtaining their data from the original collector.
Consumers can refuse the sale or disclosure of their personal information.
They can gain unrestricted access to their personal information in its “readily useable format” that makes it viable for transfer to third parties.
They can still enjoy equal services and prices even when they exercise their privacy rights. Companies can’t charge more or decline services to a consumer who wants to obtain information about how their information will be used.

Working Toward Stronger Consumer Privacy Protections
The creation of the California Consumer Privacy Act is the culmination of a move to address growing user privacy concerns and the continued rise in data breaches in many parts of the country.
In particular, the law explicitly attributes its genesis to the major privacy scandals witnessed in recent months, including the incident where Cambridge Analytica misappropriated Facebook user data of at least 87 million people. It is against this backdrop and other similar news that the law gained much of the political impetus that drove its successful passage.
The passage of this law comes on the heels of episodes of intense negotiation especially from US tech giants and leading internet service providers. The discussions also brought to the table various privacy advocates, a number of technology startups, and other concerned parties.
Many have described this new piece of legislation as a landmark policy that constitutes the most rigorous consumer data protection regime in the US. It is joining the likes of the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which constitute part of a global movement toward greater data transparency and stronger protections around consumer privacy.
What Sets CCPA Apart?
First, compared to the GDPR, which continues to have an extensive influence across the globe, the California law exclusively applies to the State of California and its residents, not the entire United States of America. But considering that California boasts a population of 40 million, it’s only likely that every company involved in collecting user data in the U.S. will be affected by this law.
While GDPR requires that by default, businesses opt out of collecting consumer data unless the consumer gives them the explicit rights to do so, the California Consumer Privacy Act does not impose such a requirement. It doesn’t require companies to seek people’s permission to collect their personal information from the get-go. The legislation is rather focused on empowering consumers to have a say over their privacy and the collection of their personal information.
For the rest of the US, there is a separate bill in the pipeline, AB-2546, that is set to amend California’s anti-spam law in a bid to strengthen its provisions. As it is, this law will not be limited to the State of California, but rather, will have a sweeping effect throughout the United States of America.
Who Is Affected By This Law?
According to the text of the California Consumer Privacy Act, companies that fit the following criteria will have to abide by the provisions of the new law:

Businesses that are involved in brokering data, as well as those that buy the data, sell, or share the personal information of approximately 50,000 or more individuals, devices or households.
Companies whose annual revenue mostly comes from the sale of consumer personal information.
Businesses that have at least $25 million in annual gross revenues.

Failure to abide by these provisions would attract legal action against the errant companies – with the cost of damages stipulated to be anywhere from $100 to $750 or higher. With California law in effect, citizens have the right to bring a civil action against any business that operates in violation of the law.
The law also allows the state of California to bring charges against errant companies directly. In such a case, the fines levied will be $7,500 for every violation that remains unaddressed within a 30-day window.
Wrap up
The cost of violating the California Consumer Privacy Act can be significant. Companies that are bound by this piece of legislation must obey it or run the risk of paying huge fines. Both government and consumers will be on the look-out to see whether companies will adhere to these new regulations or run the risk of being fined. An even greater penalty, companies that refuse to abide by these regulations may damage their reputation and lose the confidence of consumers.

Mobile Computing (Tips and Tricks)

by Felicien | Jul 16, 2018 | Education

Want 7 Great Mobile Computing Tips?

Mobile computing is now the new norm. We’re no longer tied to our desktops like we were years ago. Whether you’re traveling or running from meeting to meeting, your laptop and cloud computing can be your best friends. However, mobile computing also creates challenges for us and our businesses. The following are some tips to keep things under control.
Keep A Plug Splitter Handy
If you travel a lot like I do you can find yourself sitting in an airport boarding area waiting longer than you had planned to. I always take this time to be as productive as I can and get work done on my laptop. But there are times when I need to recharge the battery and I can’t find a spare wall plug because others are doing the same.
This is when you need that handy plug splitter. It converts one grounded outlet into three. A 3-outlet splitter is usually rated at 15 amps. You can plug three different devices into it. Just make sure their combined load is less than 15 amps or 1,875 watts.
Always Use A Secure Server
It’s essential that when you send and receive information from your laptop or any mobile device that you know it won’t be intercepted.  Public WiFi hotspots don’t ensure your data security. If you must use one be sure it’s connected to a secure server.
Look for a locked padlock icon on your browser. This tells you that you’re using an SSL (secure sockets layer)-encrypted session. You can also check any website you access by looking for “https://” in its address, rather than the usual http://.
Encrypt Your Data And Employ Mobile Device Management
Encrypt the data on your laptop so if it’s stolen, criminals won’t be able to access it.  Better yet, ask CCS to implement Remote Management Monitoring and Mobile Device Management on all your computers. Threats can be detected, blocked, and deleted. Your mobile device can be wiped clean if it’s lost or stolen. Otherwise, if someone steals your laptop, they can hack your system, stealing your login and password, then read everything in your files.
Watch Out For Hotel WiFi and DarkHotel
Hotel WiFi is designed for easy access. Just because it’s provided as part of your room charge doesn’t mean that it’s totally private. Typically, public and hotel WiFi don’t utilize WPA (WiFi Protected Access) like you do in your office and home.
Last year, a group of hackers by the name of Darkhotel came out with a new attack, aimed at exploiting hotel WiFi. Their goal was to target business travelers who stay at high-end hotels. They typically use phishing attacks that contain links to Trojan viruses.  Lately, they’ve been using the Inexsmar malware and multi-stage Trojans. The DarkHotel criminals have been stealing data for ten years targeting thousands of businesses around the world via WiFi infrastructures in hotels.
Don’t Take All Your Business Data With You
Don’t put more data than necessary on your laptop. Just store what you need. If you carry all your company files with you and you lose your laptop, or a thief steals it, they have all of your company records and client data.
Better yet, ask CCS to set up a hybrid or private cloud for your business. This way everything is stored in a secure data center and you can access it via the Internet with your private credentials (keep these safe too!).  You can easily download exactly what you need and upload it when you’ve completed your work.
Use Microsoft Office 365
We can’t say enough about this software. You pay an affordable monthly or yearly subscription based on the number of users and it provides email and communication services, document sharing and collaboration, and so much more.  You can work on documents and projects with your teams in real time, and it’s easy because you’re probably already using Microsoft solutions like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You’ll have 24/7 access to all your applications and documents via the Internet. Microsoft takes all the responsibility for reliability and security so you won’t need to worry about this.
Microsoft Office 365 is easy to sign up for, but it’s often a struggle to migrate your existing platforms to it. CCS can help and assist with the transition.  
7. Turn Off Your Bluetooth When Traveling
This is always a good idea. Criminals are now accessing the infrared on our phones and laptops to deposit spam, viruses, and steal data like contact information. This is called Bluejacking and Bluesnarfing.  Whenever you travel, be sure to disable the infrared port on your laptop and smartphone. Also, configure your Bluetooth device to “nondiscovery mode.” This could pose some inconveniences for you, but it will protect your data and privacy.