What Companies Want to Protect

ome computer users are especially vulnerable to viruses, worms and hackers. Such malicious activity can disable your computer and destroy irreplaceable data. Without protection, hackers can take control of your system. Worse, they can use your system to attack others. In October, the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center released a list of computer safety tips for home computer and small business users. The advice is easy to follow and can protect you in an online world far more dangerous than it appears.

• Use strong passwords. Create passwords that are impossible to guess. Experts say long, random alphanumeric passwords work best. Use different passwords for computers at home and at work. Go the extra mile by varying your passwords for Internet accounts and other online services.
• Backup critical data on a regular schedule. Backup your most important data at least once a day. Each month, check to make sure your backed-up files haven't been corrupted.
• Use anti-virus software and keep it updated. Each computer must be protected by anti-virus software that checks for new threats each day. Set your computer to scan every file on its hard drive on a regular basis.
• Use a personal firewall. This protects your computer from viruses on the Internet. Firewalls are essential software products for digital subscriber line and cable modem Internet connections, which stay on continuously. They can also be valuable for those who dial in to networks.
• Take computers off line when not in use. The National Infrastructure Protection Center recommends that users turn their computers off or disconnect them from the Internet.
• Never open e-mail attachments from strangers. Be suspicious of all unexpected e-mail, no matter who it is from-even people you know.
• Download security patches from software vendors regularly. More than 90 percent of attacks attempt to exploit known weaknesses.

very agency has data screaming for presentation in high-quality charts and graphs. DeltaGraph 5.0 from SPSS Inc., a Chicago company that specializes in developing analytical software, can take budgetary, statistical and scientific data and turn it into stunning images.

DeltaGraph can create 80 different types of charts. They range from simple bar graphs and complex three-dimensional charts to scatter charts and topographic maps. The software can enhance data by performing any of 50 mathematical and statistical functions.

And DeltaGraph is easy to use with its intuitive "wizard" to guide users in creating charts. Users can launch DeltaGraph from within Microsoft Corp.'s Excel, PowerPoint or Word applications and can publish charts and graphs on the Web. DeltaGraph can save images in 13 file formats and features advanced color-matching capabilities for publishers.

DeltaGraph is available on SPSS' General Services Administration schedule for $248. Government employees who already use DeltaGraph can upgrade to the new version for $149.

usiness travelers have decided beepers are a bother, and many have turned in their pagers for cell phones, according to a national travel study by marketing firm Yesawich Pepperdine & Brown of Orlando, Fla., and research firm Yankelovich Partners of Norwalk, Conn.

Only 26 percent of business travelers use pagers, compared with 34 percent a year ago, according to the study. The use of cell phones has eclipsed that of beepers: nearly seven in 10 business travelers carry a cell phone.

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association reports there are more than 123 million wireless phone subscribers in the United States.

The travel study also found that 40 percent of all business travelers carry a laptop computer and 22 percent travel with a personal digital assistant, such as the Palm Pilot or BlackBerry wireless e-mail device.