Posts Categorized: Internet Security

kchopson

Zoom Best Practices Help Keep your Virtual Meetings Safe

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, GDPR and Privacy, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, Virtual Events, What's New.

Zoom

As the Coronavirus pandemic spread and face-to-face meetings became impossible, people flocked to video conferencing products. A massive surge in use was particularly notable in the already popular Zoom video conferencing platform. In just a few weeks Zoom went from 10 million to 200 million users.  People flocked to Zoom because of its free trial, low pricing, great functionality and ease of use. The widespread usage of Zoom has opened up many possibilities for the package, including its use in virtual conferences. However, Zoom’s rapid rise in popularity has made it a target for hackers.  A series of security and... Read more »

kchopson

Seven Ways to Protect the Privacy of your Event Attendees

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, GDPR and Privacy, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Onsite, What's New.

GDPR phone

Privacy is a top of mind concern for many organizations these days. High profile data breaches, the new European GDPR law, and the upcoming California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has made it imperative that all organizations protect the data of their customers. Securing and protecting the customers’ privacy is not just the job of the IT department – it requires the effort of all employees with access to the organization’s data. Meeting planning departments are no exception to making privacy a top priority. As we mentioned in Why Would Hackers Attack Your Conference? there are many reasons why planners can... Read more »

kchopson

GDPR and EventRebels – What We are Doing to Help You Comply

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, GDPR and Privacy, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, What's New.

GDPR Secure Laptop

In our background article we discussed the new European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect on May 25, 2018 and what it means to meeting and event planners. One of the key takeaways from this article is that if you have just one participant who is an EU data subject involved in your event, your organization is impacted by GDPR. EventRebels believes that GDPR is a step in the right direction to protect the privacy of all Internet users. Despite the regulation being created specifically for EU citizens, we are structuring our software to allow... Read more »

kchopson

Will your meeting get hacked?

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

hacker

The widespread release of sensitive information such as credit card and social security numbers has grabbed headlines, disrupting business for several major corporations. Over the past five years, well-respected companies including Sony, Target and Staples have been hacked. As cyber criminals become more sophisticated, the impact of these breaches has spread beyond the general public. Recently, in one of the biggest, most spectacular U.S. cyber attacks, the personal data of 18 million current, prospective or former federal employees was successfully compromised. While it may be comforting to think hackers only go after big-name companies and organizations, it would be a... Read more »

But did you plan for Cyber Security?

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

cyber locks security

The meeting, events, and conference industry is one that hinges on meticulous planning. The level of preparedness we have observed in our three years providing Cyber Security to events has been nothing short of impressive. There seems to be a formal or informal contingency for nearly everything, with an event staff agile enough to handle almost any hiccup. So, why isn’t the same level of attention being paid to cyber threats at these events? “Cyber” is certainly at the front of the headlines, and the public is probably more aware now than they were before major companies in every industry... Read more »

kchopson

Why Would Hackers Attack Your Conference?

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, Onsite, What's New.

Hackers targeting big companies have become part of the regular news cycle. As of last year corporations such as Sony, Target and Staples have become victims of breaches involving personal information and credit cards. Even more recently, the data of 18 million current, prospective or former employees of the U.S. Government was successfully compromised in one of the biggest and most spectacular cyber attacks in history. While it might be comforting to think that hackers would only go after big name organizations, it would be wrong to think that conferences are exempt from cyber attacks. Just recently the Linux Australia... Read more »

kchopson

Tech Tuesday: Put Your Contracts in the Cloud!

Posted by & filed under Contracts, Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, What's New.

Nobody writes contracts like meeting planners. For any given conference, there can be dozen of contracts. These contracts are usually lengthy and quite detailed. Often these contracts are emailed or even faxed(!) to the signing party. This party then signs, copies and then scans or faxes back to the other party for countersigning – and the process repeats. This simple signing process consumes many hours for any given show. Given that meeting planners are usually strapped for time, doesn’t this seem like an easy area to improve? Fortunately, there is great software in the marketplace for making the contracts process... Read more »

kchopson

Why You Should NOT Give Out Thumb Drives at Your Trade Show

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Event Scams, Internet Security, Resources Trade Show, What's New.

No Flash Drives

Giving out thumb drives (aka USB Drives) at your show or booth seems like a good idea. They are small, can be packaged attractively, and the attendee can just stick the device into his or her PC and view your material. And that material can be anything from brochures to a movie to Power Point slides to links to your web site. Sounds great – right? Wrong! This article is written to discourage you from giving out thumb drives and attendees from taking them. This author personally throws away any thumb drive he is given, even if they are in... Read more »

kchopson

Don’t Be Duped into Compromising Your Organization’s Computer Security

Posted by & filed under Credit Cards, Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

Internet Security

Most people think securing your computer systems is the job of your IT department and software you install. Furthermore it is commonly believed that most security breaches are because of “hackers” compromising an organization’s web site. Consequently an organization’s security is not really your problem, but that of your “network gurus” protecting the web site. In fact this perception is quite wrong. One report showed that a staggering 70% (!!) of security breaches were not caused by hackers, but by “internal vulnerabilities.” These include lost or stolen equipment, and accidental or malicious employee attacks. The recent theft of Target store’s... Read more »

kchopson

Keep Yourself Safe with Good Password Management

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

Internet Security

One of the most frustrating aspects of being on the Internet is managing your passwords. Just when you think you have a great password, one of your sites asks you to change it. Even worse, web sites differ greatly in their standards for how “strong” your password should be. The strength of the password defines how hard it would be for an outsider to guess it. In general, the longer the password the stronger it is. However, there are other factors like mixing lower and upper case letters and including numbers. Some sites even require non alpha-numerics like punctuation. The... Read more »

kchopson

How to Safely Surf the Internet

Posted by & filed under Email - How to Use Effectively, Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

Internet

Have you ever typed in an Internet link (called “URL”) you read in a magazine, ad or Email and then suddenly end up at a totally inappropriate web site? Even worse, did that site give your computer a virus which you spent an entire day fixing? I personally mistyped the URL of a web company I know very well and ended up at a site that attacked my computer. Love it or not, but surfing the web can be dangerous not only to your computer, but even to your pocketbook. Here are some basic steps you can take to make... Read more »

lbradford

Protecting Privacy at Events

Posted by & filed under Credit Cards, Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Onsite, Social Media, What's New.

Events no longer exist solely in the physical realm. With event registration forms, websites, apps, and social media accounts, a fair amount of information is being collected and shared online. How will your attendees know that you are taking the appropriate steps towards protecting their privacy? Consider writing a clear and comprehensive privacy policy. Include information about how you plan to collect, use, and disclose your registrants’ personally identifiable information. This article will examine everything you need to consider as you develop your event’s privacy plans. What is personally identifiable information? The first step to protecting personally identifiable information is... Read more »

kchopson

Making Sense of PayPal’s ECommerce Products

Posted by & filed under Credit Cards, Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

PayPal

Are you thinking about how to handle payments online for things like donations and online registration? If you are new to online credit card processing, you will probably need a primer on how online credit card processing works. However, if you’ve done any amount of shopping on the Internet, the service PayPal may be the first thing you think of in terms of online credit card processing. PayPal is the leader in Internet credit card processing. However, they do offer a bewildering set of eCommerce products. One of the most common activities EventRebels staff performs is guiding customers through the... Read more »

kchopson

Afraid to use Internet Technology for Your Meeting?

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Internet Security, What's New.

Internet

Do you want to use the Internet to improve and simplify your meeting planning but someone in your office (maybe your boss) thinks the Internet is too dangerous? Perhaps you live in the world of spreadsheets and that has always worked.  Maybe attendance is down and your budget is getting tighter every year, but any change seems overwhelming. If you fit any of the previous profiles, then you should know that the Internet is not dangerous! Furthermore, if used properly, Internet software will save you time, money and increase revenue and attendance.  Here are some misconceptions that cause meeting planners... Read more »