PSPINC Official Company Blog

Social Media Security Concerns

Jul

26

With the influx of data over the past few years, it’s only become more widely available. With it, security concerns online have only amplified. While social media and the internet have been greatly beneficial in numerous ways, it’s also opened the door for hacking opportunities. Most internet users today know to take precautions like setting up a firewall, but it doesn’t prevent cyberattacks. The intimate atmosphere of social media makes it even easier for hacks to occur. Users are less likely to proceed with caution because people feel they’re among friends on social media.

Over-Sharing Information

a man taing a selfie of himself standing on a balcony that overlooks the ocean

Among friends, it can be very easy to share personal details. But many users are unaware they’re opening themselves up to online scams. But sometimes, users share their private information entirely by accident. For example, users sharing pictures of their home renovations may not realize they might be inadvertently sharing their home address. The general rule of thumb when posting on social media is not to publicize your email, phone number, or location.

Phishing Scams

two hands coding on a laptop with green text on the black laptop screen

Even though phishing scams are more associated with email, it's gotten big on social media too. And targeting people on social platforms is even easier for hackers. All they have to do is create a post tailored to users' interests and include a link. With so much personal information readily available, users will most likely click on it. This type of phishing scam is called spear phishing and can be very effective. Spear phishing can also happen after creating fake accounts. Social media users frequently accept friend requests from people they don’t know, making it easier for hackers. After the user accepts the friend request, scammers can send a link via a direct message and because you’re friends, many users will click on the link.

Staying Safe Online

a girl taking a selfie with a boy while they both holding up peace signs

However, it's one thing to be aware of these potential hacks but even better to take precautionary measures to prevent them. Apart from being wary of what you post online, you can also enable 2-factor authentication (2FA), a feature available on almost every mainstream social platform. 2FA requires you to answer a question or enter a code after entering your password. This extra signup step makes it harder for cybercriminals to access your account. And it’s why many password managers use it to secure your passwords, Pass Wizard included.

But even if you take all the necessary precautions, hacks can still happen on social media. Not just from individual hackers but also from big corporations as everything you share is public. And advertisers can sell, buy, and use your data, whether you realize it or not. So, while the friendly nature of social media is attractive, it invites plenty of security risks. However, we created our new social platform, DENREI, with cyber security in mind. Unlike traditional social platforms, your data is never sold or shared, making all the information you share private.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#2fa #advertisers #cyber #cybersecurity #data #denrei #hacking #hacks #online #onlinesafety #passwizard #phishing #privacy #safetyonline #security #sellingdata #socialmedia #spearphishing #tech #technology

Announcement: Spoof Filtering Update

Jul

21

As we announced earlier this week, we have been working hard to fix the issue of email spoofing*. We are happy to announce that we have updated our spoof filtering within our email hosting service, Dreamersi. To enable this new spoof filtering update:

screenshot of spam filtering in Dreamersi

1. Login to your Dreamersi account
2. Click "Spam Filter"
3. Click "Sender Filter"
4. Check "Spoof Filtering"
5. Click "Save" at the bottom

Once enabled, spoofed emails (which appear as emails sent from you but are actually sent by others) will go to your spam folders. You will then see them in you Spam Summary as shown below:
screenshot of spam summary with spoof filter enabled

screenshot of spam summary with spoof filter enabled

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. and Dreamersi for your hosting needs.

*Email spoofing is a form of cyber attack in which a hacker sends an email that has been manipulated to seem as if it originated from a trusted source. Email spoofing is a popular tactic used in phishing and spam campaigns because people are more likely to open an email when they think it has been sent by a known sender. The goal of email spoofing is to trick recipients into opening or responding to the message. (source: techtarget.com)

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#announcement #blog #dreamersi #email #emailhosting #emailspoofing #pacificsoftwarepublishinginc #pspinc #spam #spamfilter #spamsummary #spoofing #tech #technology #tutorial #update #webhosting

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 125 "Starting a Business"

Jul

21

Starting and building a business isn’t always the easiest thing to do. But it’s easier if you start with one thing first. For example, Pacific Software Publishing Inc. (PSPINC) got its start introducing already-established U.S. software to Japan. Since then, we’ve expanded to create our own proprietary software. And now, PSPINC sells products and services all to help small businesses grow online. And that initial focus has also given us a specialty in localizing software for our customers in Japan. And we’re not the only company that’s done this.

Take Amazon for example. Customers can find almost anything on Amazon nowadays. But did you know it actually started as a small bookstore? Slowly, over time, Amazon started selling other products until it became what it is today. Focusing on one thing allows your business to build up a loyal audience, which will make your future marketing efforts easier in the long run.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #branding #business #businesstips #digitalmarketing #dreamersi #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #products #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #services #smallbusiness #tech #technology

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Jul

20

Dear valued customers,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in sending emails for a few seconds during the time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Daylight Time
- July 21st (Thu) 9:00 - 9:30am

* Japan Time
- July 22nd (Fri) 1:00 - 1:30am

PSPINC provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

Announcement: Spoofed email filtering fix in progress

Jul

19

Recently we have seen an increase in email spoofing* occurring with spam emails being delivered to inboxes.

Within the Dreamersi admin panel in the Spam Filter > Sender Filter settings we have a feature called "Spoof Filtering" to prevent this issue. However, we have noticed that spoofed email messages are bypassing this filter. We are actively working on a fix to ensure the filter is catching these emails before they reach your inbox.

In the meantime, if you receive any suspicious emails that appear to be from a trusted source, please take caution and avoid opening or interacting with them.

If you have any questions, or are experiencing issues with email spoofing within your email account please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or by email at support@pspinc.com.

We are standing by to help you via phone and email.

Once issues with the spoof filtering feature are resolved we will make another announcement, as well as include steps on how you can enable this feature if you are not currently using it.

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. and Dreamersi for your hosting needs.

*Email spoofing is a form of cyber attack in which a hacker sends an email that has been manipulated to seem as if it originated from a trusted source. Email spoofing is a popular tactic used in phishing and spam campaigns because people are more likely to open an email when they think it has been sent by a known sender. The goal of email spoofing is to trick recipients into opening or responding to the message. (source: techtarget.com)

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#business #email #emailhosting #emailspoofing #pspinc #spam #tech

What is “Big Data”?

Jul

19

Big data is exactly what it sounds like: an enormous, exponentially growing amount of data. Data versus big data really comes down to three factors known as the three V's: volume, velocity, and variety. Volume refers to the sheer amount of data. Velocity, however, looks at how fast it generates. Lastly, variety includes structured (numerical data), semi-structured (machine-generated documents and data in a no-SQL database), and unstructured data (text and image files). But over the last few years, two more V's have emerged: value and veracity. They involve determining how accurate your data is, how much you can rely on it, and what kind of value you can gather from it.

The Benefits of Big Data

a business woman pumping her fist int the air while holding a piece of paper sitting in front of a laptop

Big data is, like the name suggests, big. But it means nothing if you can’t derive value from it. Cleaning, curating, and preparing data for clients takes up a significant amount of time. But in the end, valuable data remains prime for companies to use to their advantage. So, it’s no surprise that data is behind some of the world's biggest companies' success. Those companies have figured out how to use their data to develop products better, improve customer experiences, and drive innovation.

For example, Spotify and Netflix look at what their customers listen to or watch and use that data to determine what else they might like. Then, they can recommend content based on predictive models created from collected data. Businesses can also gather an immense amount of data from social media, website visits, call logs, and other customer actions to analyze how they interact with the company. Then, they can use it to see where they can improve. And that includes enhancing their overall efficiency and identifying new ways to drive innovation.

How Big Data is Changing

a finger pointing at a dark screen with a bunch of numbers

As great as big data is, the real challenge comes in keeping up with it. Year after year, newly developed technologies emerge to help store all that data. But data volumes continue to increase exponentially. Because of that, organizations struggle keeping up with the accelerating pace. And it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. But when businesses can find relevant meaning behind all that data, that can lead to true success.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#bigdata #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerfeedback #customerservice #data #innovation #marketing #netflix #smallbusiness #socialmedia #softwaredevelopment #spotify #tech #technology #update #web #webdevelopment #websites #webtools

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 124 “Simplifying Sales Cycles”

Jul

14

When selling products, it’s essential to always think about the sales cycle from the customer’s point of view. Many content management systems (CMS) have built-in or additional features that make it easy to set up a payment portal. But you can still inadvertently make the purchasing experience complicated or too invasive. For example, if users have to get through too many pages before they get to the end, they’ll likely bail midway. Or if you’re asking for personal information that customers don’t think is necessary, they won’t be willing to share it. Instead, they'll shop elsewhere.

While the purchasing stage of the overall customer journey may seem simple to you as the business owner or developer, it doesn’t mean it’s easy for the customer. If you’re unsure how easy it is to purchase something from your site, try it out! Act like a customer by going to your website. Then try purchasing your product. If there are too many steps in the process, get rid of some. If the questions are too personal, take them out because, odds are, you probably won’t need them. So, when selling a product on your website, pay special attention to how the customer will go through the sales cycle. Then, eliminate everything that could cause a customer to abandon the process and simplify it everywhere you can.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websitebuilder

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Jul

13

Dear valued customers,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in sending emails for a few seconds during the time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Daylight Time
- July 14th (Thu) 9:00 - 9:30am

* Japan Time
- July 15th (Fri) 1:00 - 1:30am

PSPINC provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Jul

12

Dear valued customers,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in receiving emails for a few seconds during the time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Daylight Time
- July 13th (Wed) 9:00 - 9:30am

* Japan Time
- July 14th (Thu) 1:00 - 1:30am

PSPINC provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

Creating a Digital Presence for Your Business

Jul

12

Today, your business can’t afford to stay offline. Especially with so many small businesses out there. In this regard, it’s hard to believe that about 28% of small businesses don’t even have a website, according to survey data from 2021. And if those businesses don’t have a website, they probably don’t have social media pages either. But not taking your business online can be a real disservice because many people research online before purchasing. It can be the simple act of searching what the best product on the market is or how to get to your physical store, but it happens all the time. But creating an online presence doesn’t have to be hard. At the very least, a business should have both a website and social media pages.

Building a Website

a woman looking at a website on her laptop with a mug of tea on the left and an iphone on the right

With so many web hosting options and website builders today, starting a new website for your business couldn’t be easier. And it's even easier if you’re just using it to provide potential customers information about your company. Basic information includes ways to contact you (a phone number and email) and your store’s physical location (an address). Additionally, you’ll want to add what your business is selling, how much each product is, and how people can purchase them. And you can easily add other pages to your website like an "About Us" section and a blog.

If you want to make it possible for customers to buy products directly from your website, you’ll have to build out your e-commerce site a little more. Features needed for a great e-commerce site take a little more time and effort, but they can be well worth it. But if building a professional website still feels like too daunting of a task, you’re in luck. PSPINC has a great support team that can help you out.

Creating Social Media Pages

a woman open to facebook on her laptop with 2 notebooks, a pen, and 2 small succulent plants placed beside her on the desk

Social media is a great tool to increase overall brand exposure and direct users toward your website. And it’s an easy and inexpensive digital marketing tactic if you don’t want to invest in paid ads. Each social media platform has a purpose as well as its own audience. But the one platform every business should be using is Facebook. Facebook is the largest with about 2.93 billion active users as of March 2022 according to Statista. Therefore, it’s also the most widely used. The immense number of active users alone is enough to argue that every business should be using Facebook to increase awareness online.

But to effectively use social media to your business’s advantage, you’ll need to figure out what kinds of content you’re going to post and how often you’re going to post. The content you post will depend on what kind of business you run but there is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to social media content. There should be a good mix of promotional and non-promotional posts. That way you won’t just sound like a pushy salesperson. As for your posting frequency, each platform has different recommendations, but the important thing to remember is to stick with whatever schedule you decide to use.

While creating and maintaining a digital presence for your business may seem daunting, it is essential to effectively compete with other small businesses. But if this all still feels like too much work, contact our amazing support team if you’d like our help in growing your business online.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.