Friday, January 29, 2010

W2s Have Been Mailed

The 2009 W2s have been mailed out today. Please give the US Postal Service the next week for them to be delivered to you. If you do not receive your W2 by Friday, February 5th please contact us at our office - (678) 393-9313.

We will reprint W2s starting on Monday, February 15th.

Thank you for all you do.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Don't Forget Referrals!

DISCOVER STAFFING is always looking for good candidates with experience in office support or light industrial jobs. If you know someone who is looking, please refer them to us. Tell them to send their resume to alpharetta@discoverstaffing.com and tell us who referred them. Don't forget, you will receive a $20 referral bonus after they work 40 hours!

Good people refer good people! Do you know someone who could benefit from our services?

Friday, January 22, 2010

Password Protection

The lead story on Yahoo! this morning was this one about Passwords. The information is way to important not to pass on. Everyone needs to protect themselves on the web.

If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe
by Ashlee Vance
Friday, January 22, 2010
Provided by The New York Times


Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was "12345."

Today, it's one digit longer but hardly safer: "123456."

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google's e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like "abc123," "iloveyou" or even "password" to protect their data.

"I guess it's just a genetic flaw in humans," said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. "We've been following the same patterns since the 1990s."

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The trove provided an unusually detailed window into computer users' password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

"This was the mother lode," said Matt Weir, a doctoral candidate in the e-crimes and investigation technology lab at Florida State University, where researchers are also examining the data.

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used "123456" as a password. The second-most-popular password was "12345." Others in the top 20 included "qwerty," "abc123" and "princess."

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

"We tend to think of password guessing as a very time-consuming attack in which I take each account and try a large number of name-and-password combinations," Mr. Shulman said. "The reality is that you can be very effective by choosing a small number of common passwords."

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were "12345," "abc123" and "password."

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

"Nowadays, we have to keep probably 10 times as many passwords in our head as we did 10 years ago," said Jeff Moss, who founded a popular hacking conference and is now on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. "Voice mail passwords, A.T.M. PINs and Internet passwords — it's so hard to keep track of."

In the idealized world championed by security specialists, people would have different passwords for every Web site they visit and store them in their head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper.

But bowing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

"It's like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his buddy," Mr. Moss said. "You just want to run that bit faster."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Stress Management Tips

At DISCOVER STAFFING, we are always looking for helpful tips to pass on to our employees. With the new year upon us and all that we have going on in our lives, we wanted to share this great article that provides some tips on stress management.

Stress Management Tips

All stress isn’t bad. Stress can initiate change, help us focus on the task at hand, and in some cases even save our lives. Yet, when stress builds up, it can result in the opposites— and cause us to spin our wheels, keep us from concentrating, and cause bodily injury and even loss of life.

The first tip in managing stress is to recognize your stressors. The next step is to put each of them in their place. The following stress management tips, based on some old and some new adages, can help you do just that!

Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten—Taking a deep breath or two adds oxygen to your system, which almost instantly helps you relax. In addition, taking a moment to step back can help you maintain your composure, which in the long run, is what you need to work rationally through a stressful situation.

Start with "take a deep breath" and…

  • Count to ten (or more or less as the situation warrants!)
  • Stand up and stretch. Remember relaxation is the opposite of stress.
  • Stand up and smile. Try it! You’ll feel better!
  • Take a short walk. If you’re at work, take a bathroom break or get a glass of water. Do something that changes your focus. When you come back to the problem, chances are it won’t seem nearly as insurmountable.
  • In the book Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara says, “I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.” Good advice!

    Stop and Smell the Roses—
    "Things happen" and sometimes "bad things happen to good people". If we let them, stressful events can build up, wall us in, and eventually stop us from enjoying the good things in life.

    Take the time. Too often we put the pleasantries of life on the back burner, telling ourselves we don’t "have time" or can’t "make time" for them. However, actually, time is the only thing we do completely own. While we can’t "make" a day that’s longer than 24 hours, each of us starts the day with exactly that amount of time. Take a part of your time to recognize the good things in your life.

    Sleep on it. Every coin has two sides and every issue has both pros and cons. List them both then put the list away and take a second look tomorrow. Sometimes "sleeping on" a situation changes the minuses to pluses.

    Every cloud has a silver lining. After all, rain makes things grow! Ben Franklin found good in a bolt of lightning. Find the good in your stressful situation by listing the negative surges and determining what it will take to make them into positive charges!

    "A Man's Got to Know His Limitations—"
    Knowing yourself and your limits may be the most important way to manage stress effectively.

    Dare to say no. One more little thing may be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. It’s okay to say "No", "I can’t", or "Later".

    Acquit yourself. Sometimes events really are out of control and you really are "Not Guilty". Quit blaming yourself.

    Be pro-active in finding peace. Those who unsuccessfully use the crutches of drugs and/or alcohol to alleviate stress often find themselves in a twelve-step program like A.A. where one of the mainstays is the Serenity Prayer:
    "God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The Courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference."


    When you need help, get help. Even Atlas couldn’t bear the weight of the world on his shoulders forever. Whether you need help from kids or spouse in hauling groceries into the house, help from a colleague to solve a work-related problem, or professional help to find the causes of and effectively manage your stress, getting the help you need is in itself a major stress management tip!

    Other Tips
  • Get a good night's rest.
  • Eat healthily.
  • Listen to your favorite music.
  • Exercise, participate in a sport or engage in fun activity.
  • Plan out your time and prioritize.
  • Talk to a friend about your problems, don't hold it in.
  • Get a massage.
  • Take a nap.
  • Take a warm bath.
  • Read a book or watch TV.

    Go to StressManagementTips.com for more information on managing your stress from day to day.
  • Friday, January 15, 2010

    Don't Forget Original Time Sheets

    Don’t Forget Original Time Cards!

    Please be sure to get us original time cards each week. They are due by 1pm every Monday. You can fax them to us to start with, but put them in the mail as well.

    If you do not have any original time sheets, please contact us and we can send them to you.

    Please do not re-use faxed time sheets.

    Thank you for all you do!

    Monday, January 11, 2010

    W2s will be Mailed January 29th

    DISCOVER STAFFING will be mailing out the W2s on January 29th, 2010. If you have had a change in address, please contact the office as soon as possible with the new information. Please call us at (678) 393-9313 to make any changes in your mailing address.