Ack! My laptop died! So my week started out great! Good round of meetings set up, Brayden and I are started preparing him for his big SSA BMX State Qualifiers this weekend, and generally things were off to a great start. Then.... my trusty AMD Powered Gateway laptop won't start up. OH NOOO! Now before you shake your finger and say I told you so, I do back up and store things on external devices so I didn't loose anything. Well, I did loose a trusty workhorse that lasted for five years. It survived a fall, complete chassis replacement, and numerous bumps, knocks, and slides off the front seat of my truck. So with a saddness I will pull the hard drive and fire up my thecus external drive case so the soul of this little fellow can live on for a little while longer. I am now typing this note on my new 17" HP quad core which so far is handling nicely. We shall see if it lasts as long as the gateway! Wondering what I use to back up my stuff? Here is the list of products and devices I use: 1 Seagate Freeagent GoFlex 650 gigabyte portable drive 2 6 Gig Dropbox account for working projects 3 Drobo NAS raid system for complete backup of email, and other files 4 Commonsense - Don't do things that are
How to Be Compliant Getting Started with PCI Data Security Standard Compliance Let's stop right here for a moment. PCI Compliance while not a difficult thing/concept to understand it is important and can be confusing. So... We're going to break this security stuff down for you. Im going to break it off into bite sized morsels so you know what you're up against. It really is a you against the bad guys scenario and if you're not very careful they will win. PCI Security Standards are technical and operational requirements set by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to protect cardholder data. The Council is responsible for managing the security standards, while compliance with the PCI Security Standards is enforced by the payment card brands. The standards apply to all organizations that store, process or transmit cardholder data – with guidance for software developers and manufacturers of applications and devices used in those transactions. If you are a merchant that accepts payment cards, you are required to be compliant with the PCI Data Security Standard. You can find out your exact compliance requirements only from your payment brand or acquirer. However, before you take action, you may want to obtain background information and a general understanding of what you will need to do from the information and links here. The PCI DSS follows common-sense steps that mirror security best practices. There are three steps for adhering to the PCI DSS – which is not
