Find Quality Computer Repairs And It Services In Brisbane And Gold Coast

Find Quality Computer Repairs and IT Services in Brisbane and Gold Coast

by

Nathan Horrocks

With the turn of the decade, we have seen the rise of numerous computer repair stores and IT services in Brisbane, Gold Coast as well as other parts of Australia. Computers have become so common these days that it is quite easy to find these services quite easily. However, before you go for computer repairs Brisbane or computer repairs Gold Coast, there are few things you can do from your side as well. First and foremost, figure out if the problem you are facing is hardware related or not. This will make it much easier to find the right kind of computer repair store.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UtIfJpnCbs[/youtube]

Finding IT support Gold Coast; or for that matter any other computer service in Australia is not that difficult. Just run a search for the best computer repair services and stores in your city and you will get a long, detailed list of these service providers. In fact, many of these websites also rate these computer repair stores and IT services according to research. This is a good enough pointer if you are looking for a decent service. These websites also provide phone numbers, addresses, email ids and various other details about these stores. However, just settling for the first name that pops up is not good enough. If you are looking for the best IT support and computer repairs Brisbane and Gold Coast, make sure you take a close look at more than a couple of websites. Pick the names that appear to be common and also read a few testimonials and reviews about these stores. This will give you a better perspective of how good or bad the store is. Make sure these testimonials sound genuine and not made up by the review website itself. Many websites do this because they may have not spent any time actually researching the service. Once you zero down on the service, make sure you speak to someone from the company before going for repairs. The following are a few details you can get before selecting the service: — Find out if you have to take your system to the store for repairs or can they send a technician to your home or office to fix the problem. If they agree to send a technician, enquire about extra service charges. — Try and get a clear idea of what exactly the problem is before you give you system for repairs. — Find out if they will be required to replace any parts or not. If they do have to replace a part, find out how much it will cost you. Make a few online comparisons for the part before you commit to anything. — Try and get a rough quote of how much the services will cost you. Make sure you get the best possible deal. Once you do your part in this respect, you can be rest assured that you will get good quality services. A certified and reputed service is also a better pick in this case. For more info please visit : http://www.monsterit.com.au/

Finding

IT support Gold Coast

or for that matter any other computer service in Australia is not that difficult. If you are looking for the best IT support and

computer repairs Brisbane

and Gold Coast, make sure you take a close look at more than a couple of websites.

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com

Hype In Online Business

Submitted by: Rami Doleh

Once upon a time when Earth did not commercialize the internet invention, someone published an ad in a national newspaper saying “Send Me $1 and I will show you how to become a millionaire”

People from all the over the place sent their $1 dollar bills waiting to get the secret recipe to become millionaires. A few weeks later they received the following note “Repeat what I have done and you will become a millionaire. I have just become one from the same ad you responded to”

I believe that this person has set the ground for most of today’s business ideas that we find on the internet. The idea includes all the usual hype that we read in many sales letters today:

1 – A simple task that does not require much of your daily time.

2 – A simple system to copy.

3 -No sales

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7VREIEiVW4[/youtube]

4 – No phone calls

5 – No sponsorships

6 – Takes 30 minutes to implement.

7 – You can repeat it as many times as you want

8 – Start earning thousands within a couple of weeks

9 – A minimum investment

As you can see that the idea and the copy did not make a single lie, yet do you think that the ones who received the note appreciated the clever business idea?

I am sure that their disappointed was great although their loss was one single dollar. Now that person was lucky since he did not want to make a business out of this idea. It was a hit and run operation.

The online business world today acknowledges the fact that such an activity is completely unacceptable. But the contradiction between what is known to be as unacceptable and what we are seeing actually happening even from some of the prominent names in the industry is very evident.

We are still seeing messages such as “Start earning immediately,” “Start cashing within a couple of weeks.” I know that many will have examples of people who actually hit gold within days of their experience, but can we actually take those experiences and make the audience expect such results for any person who ventures into online business.

Today e-mail inboxes are full of messages regarding the importance of building lists. We all know that this activity alone does not happen either over night or in a couple weeks. So how can we start suggesting to a new person that he/she should be expecting to earn money within days?

The funny thing regarding the List Building sales letters is that they are now promising that their systems would help generate massive lists within days as well.

The Mortar and Brick business world is struggling today to become customer centric organizations. Yet all they do is concentrate their resources on developing efficient processes for cost cutting purposes without any consideration to the customer. The dilemma that the offline business world is living today with regard their truthfulness in becoming customer centric organizations is manifested in the online business arena through the wish of avoiding hype.

What I cannot understand is that every single person who is involved in online business is aware of the negative bottom line effects that hype has, still they cannot avoid being involved at least partially in providing hyped promises.

Whether selling to the end user or encouraging affiliates to sell products, a hyped message will dramatically affect business continuity. Therefore, the online business today has a void for a combined offering that has both a solid product/program and realistic and hype-free promises and claims. The first to fill this void will reap huge benefits in the online marketplace.

A well established name in online business will have a better opportunity at filling this void and reaping the benefits than a new person who is still starting in this marketplace. Yet the challenge for those who are well established to change their ways from partially hyped messages to a complete hype-free environment is tremendous. Accordingly, someone who is new to the industry but committed to providing a consistent and continuous hype-free messages, might be able to surprise the well established.

I hope that this article does not come across as an accusation to prominent online business people that they are promoting hype, yet it comes as a red flag to all involved in online business who are shaping the environment and culture of this marketplace.

About the Author: To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit:

BusinessFountains.com

Source:

isnare.com

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Suggested Topics For Dissertations And Thesis Research Projects In Information Technology Security, Services And Governance Frameworks

By Sourabh Kishore

The fields of IT Security, IT Governance and IT Services Management are excellent grounds for academic researchers to undertake their dissertation and thesis research projects. The researches can result in very practical outcomes given that the standards, frameworks and best practices pertaining to these fields are widely implemented in organisations across the world.

The dissertation/thesis projects in the fields of IT Security, IT Services and IT Governance shall essentially comprise of studies on world class standards, frameworks and best practices that are widely accepted and implemented in organisations. Students may like to conduct case studies in organisations where these standards, frameworks and best practices are implemented or else conduct interviews or surveys among thousands of IT security professionals across the world that are connected via community groups on social networking websites (Like Linkedin, Plaxo, Google Groups, etc.). The culture of sharing knowledge in the world of IT security is excellent because the security controls, threat management and best practices can be established effectively by practicing organized knowledge sharing only. The IT security, services and governance consulting companies support academic researches whole heartedly to prepare the young minds for the future challenges such that the acute shortage of human capital in these fields can be addressed. In this article, I recommend the following standards and frameworks in which hundreds of topics pertaining to dissertations and thesis research projects can be developed.

(a) NIST (US Department of Commerce) Recommendations: As per NIST recommendations, all the critical IT systems should be categorized at the first place such that the risks to these systems can to be identified, assessed and recorded. Thereafter, appropriate mitigation actions can be taken to reduce them to acceptable levels by either reducing the vulnerabilities (applying controls), by avoiding the risks (disallowing activities that can cause risks) or by transferring the risks to third parties (like outsourcing the controls to specialist security agencies). This entire process has been termed as IT Risk Management by NIST which is now regarded as the baseline for the industry. It requires management commitment and assignment of security roles to strategic business process owners in the organization. NIST recommends that the key roles that should contribute to IRM should be Senior Management, Chief Information Officer, System/Information owners, Business Managers, Functional Managers, IT Security Officers, Security Awareness Trainers, and Internal Auditors. The risk assessment recommended by NIST is a nine step structured analytics procedure that should be carried out by the key roles such that the outcome can be collated to form an organization wide risk registry.

(b) ISO 27005 Standard: The ISO 27005:2008 is the formal replacement of ISO 13335-3 & ISO 13335-4:2000 which essentially recommends a 100% metrics based evaluation of all the steps of risk assessment described in ISO 13335-3 using quantitative techniques. This standard considers Risk Management, Configuration Management and Change Management as part of an integrated framework to deliver IT security in an organization. The risk management framework recommended by this standard can be viewed as a model comprising of “concentric spheres” with the information assets placed at the core of the model, vulnerabilities prevailing at the sphere above the core, controls applied over the vulnerability sphere and threats prevailing at the periphery of the model. This model was originally part of ISO 13335-3 that represents an environment of threats changing continuously thus changing the risk baselines (residual acceptable risk level) of the organizations. Hence, periodic assessment of the effectiveness of controls is required such that the vulnerabilities are not exploited by the emerging external or internal threats to affect the information assets.

(c) ISO 27002 Standard: The ISO 27002:2008 standard was formerly known as ISO 17799:2005 code of practice for information security that was used as the supplement document of ISO 27001:2005 standard which is the largest framework of standards describing Information Security implementation in an organization. The ISO 27002:2008 standard recommends the practices documented in ISO 13335-3 which essentially is a wider framework of Information Security because it covers the impacts in terms of confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability, authenticity and reliability. Unlike “system characterization” recommended as the starting point by NIST, this standard recommends “asset characterization” as the starting point which includes tangibles as well as intangibles. The asset characterization is carried out by assuming that anything that is critical for the business to produce the products & services and retain customers as well as market share is treated as critical asset for the organization. It may be the systems (IT Systems, power systems, admin systems, etc.), people, documents, records, databases, applications, intellectual properties, etc. thus forming a much wider coverage of subjects on which the risks analysis needs to be carried out. The threat & vulnerability analysis is carried out employing steps that are similar to NIST recommendations but the impact analysis is carried out based on multiple business impacts categorized by the business stake holders – like financial loss, business loss, customer loss, market share loss, key people loss, premises loss, intellectual property breaches, regulatory breaches, productivity loss, inventory loss, etc. Protection against such losses is the direct interest of business stake holders and hence the topmost priority of the risk management teams. The final stages of risk analysis, control analysis, and control recommendations are similar to those of NIST recommendations. This framework also recommends periodic control effectiveness testing which is recommended by NIST in their special publication 800-115 released in 2008.

(d) The COBIT Framework: The COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) framework is developed by IT Governance Institute which is a community of expert developers and reviewers from IT governance field that have contributed to the framework to arrive at the best practices published in its current form. The IT Governance Institute comprises of board of trustees, IT governance committee, COBIT steering committee, advisory panel and affiliates & sponsors. The framework is a wonderful effort of putting together all the best practices of IT governance & Risk Management which organizations can adopt to support their Business Governance & Risk Management frameworks effectively. The COBIT framework helps in effective alignment of IT systems & processes with business requirements such that the business risks due to IT enablement can be effectively mitigated.

(e) CRAMM Framework: CRAMM is the Risk Management Methodology developed the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) which is based on qualitative methods of risk analysis. In this mechanism the steps called ‘asset identification & valuation’, ‘identification & assessment of threat & vulnerability’, ‘identification of security measures’, ‘identification of risks’ and ‘identification & assessment of risk mitigation’ are carried out using structured questionnaire defined by the CRAMM framework. Each question has either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer and the scores are collated by counting the numbers of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses which is done automatically by the CRAMM system. If the target respondents of the CRAMM questionnaire are selected very carefully (like asset owners, IT administrators, application engineers, database administrators, etc), then CRAMM can result in accurate identification & mitigation strategies of IT risks.

(f) OCTAVE Framework: OCTAVE is the abbreviation for ‘Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation’ which is a model developed by Carnegie Mellon University. This framework takes into account operational risk, security practices and technology and leverages the existing knowledge of vulnerabilities within an organization. The assessment is carried out in three phases – ‘development of asset based threat profiles’, ‘identification of infrastructure vulnerabilities’ and ‘building security strategies & plans’. The first phase requires an organizational view whereas second phase requires technological view. The OCTAVE assessment criteria is self driven without the need for external experts to guide the organization. Just like CRAMM it is a self guided process but is carried out by few experts in the company that have extensive knowledge of IT systems in the company whereas CRAMM is carried out by all asset owners of the company. One good aspect about OCTAVE is that it captures the knowledge of threats to business and internal weaknesses from the people at all levels and then uses the knowledge to develop the asset based threat profiles. This ensures that the risk assessment is very close to the people’s perspective of threat exposures of the business and not based on some kind of threat database purchased from external consultants.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzDzQ3-Vfbs[/youtube]

(g) FRAP Framework: Facilitated Risk Management Process (FRAP) is the framework which essentially takes into account prioritized threats and asset vulnerabilities that can potentially cause maximum damage to the business. This again is a qualitative approach and is popularly known as “four hour risk assessment”. FRAP is not accepted by many organizations because the threat perceptions do not allow scaled down list of assets, threats and vulnerabilities to be addressed. However, this is an effective framework given that the 80-20 rule applies in risk management as well – i.e., 20% threats cause 80% of the damages.

(h) ITIL version 2 and version 3 Frameworks: ITIL versions 2 and 3 are publications by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) UK. They are end to end IT service management frameworks that can effectively align the IT services of an organization to business requirements at the operations level. ITIL version 2 is very popular due to its wide implementation base across the world in many countries. It has two major disciplines – IT Service Support and IT Service Delivery. The IT Service Support discipline comprises of the Service desk function of an organization and five management functions – Incident management, Problem management, Change management, Release management and Configuration management. These management functions are also included in ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 standards as well as in COBIT framework. The IT Service delivery discipline comprises of five management functions as well – Service Level management, Capacity management, Availability management, IT Financials management and IT Business Continuity management.

The ITIL version 3 is much wider framework compared to ITIL version 2. It comprises of five disciplines as against two in the version 2: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. There are many new management functions included in ITIL version 3 in addition to the ten functions recommended by ITIL version 3. This is a new framework and hence the global roll out is evolving gradually. The students can find vast opportunities of research in both these areas in the form of Phenomenography or case studies.

(i) Val IT: This is the latest framework developed by IT Governance Institute that can be seamlessly integrated with the COBIT framework. This framework can be implemented to tangibly demonstrate the value of IT investments to the Business. This framework has not yet been researched by academic researchers and hence offers an entirely new world of opportunities.

(j) ISO 27001: This is the mother of all standards in Information Security Management System (ISMS). No standard possesses such wide coverage as offered by ISO 27001 in the field of IT Security. The purpose of ISO 27001:2005 is to guide an organization on the level of ISMS implementation feasible as per the business needs. It guides the organization to implement a structured Information Security Management System with an approach of Risk Assessment & Business Impact Analysis that incorporates world class best practices in management of the existing systems running in the organization in the form of a structured Framework. The Framework includes:

— Adequately documented and implemented Security Policy(ies) and Procedures.

— Asset Master comprising of ALL critical Information Assets.

— Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis Worksheets.

— Risk Treatments Plans and Reports.

— ISMS Management and Operations Group with detailed roles.

— ISMS Operating Manual with Statement of Applicability.

— ISMS Operating Procedures, activity log-sheets and reports.

— ISMS Security Procedures pertaining to every operating area.

— Access Control Policies and Procedures for all the Information Processing and Storage Facilities.

— Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Configuration, Capacity & Availability Policies and Procedures.

— Detailed Implementation of the 133 Normative controls as defined in Annexure A of BS ISO/IEC 27001:2005.

— Internal and External Audit Procedures, audit sheets and corrective/preventive actions.

— Information Classification, Transit, Storage and Destruction Policies & Procedures.

— Disaster Recovery Plan and Procedures.

— Business Continuity Plan and Procedures.

About the Author: The Author is an IT Systems, IT Services/Governance, Information Security, and Telecommunications Research Analyst. Interest Areas – WiMax, LTE, WiFi, LBS, Cloud Computing, Virtualisation, Intrusion Detection and Prevention, Ethical Hacking, ITIL v2 & 3, COBIT, Val IT, MoF, Risk IT, etc.

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