High Concept: The Pen and Automated Teller

A new network of ATM-like touch-screen kiosks automates routine probation interviews for convicted felons.

High Concept

Almost 4 million adults are on probation in the United States, according to the Justice Department's latest figures. Most of them have committed felonies like drug possession, drunk driving, and shoplifting. The courts order them to report regularly to probation officers, who number 50,000 nationwide. That's a ratio of about 80 probationers to one officer. As Law & Order types struggle to keep tabs on the growing probation population, they are turning to the private sector for help.

AutoMon, a 20-person company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has developed an ATM-like touch-screen kiosk that automates probation officers' routine interviews. AutoMon's Michael Mel says that 75,000 people each month report to 150 kiosks located in probation offices, police stations, and courthouses in 16 states. In New York City, monthly probation compliance has improved to more than 80% since the city installed the system in all five boroughs.

The system uses a biometric -- a hand- or fingerprint -- to ensure the identity of the person logging on to make his or her monthly report. The user is asked questions about address, employment, and whatever specifics an officer might add to the script. AutoMon's software conducts the interview using simulated speech (in either English or Spanish) to accommodate users with low literacy levels. If all goes well, the process takes two minutes. But whenever there's an aberrant answer, the probationer is asked additional questions. If he or she admits to a fresh arrest, an instant message is sent to alert the case officer that intervention may be required.

Although probation kiosks are unquestionably convenient for both parties, they do reduce potentially valuable face time between probationers and their monitors. But Mel points out that those who are assigned to kiosks "are mostly people who made a mistake and got into trouble, and their main objective is to comply with the court." Dealing with their cases electronically enables officers to focus on more serious cases, he explains. As Jerrold Alpern, assistant commissioner of New York City's Department of Probation, puts it: "The kiosks don't replace POs. They just enable them to be more efficient."

The probation population is, sadly, a burgeoning market: it grew 65% from 1988 to 1998.

The system is also cost-effective. Alpern says that AutoMon helps his department cope with budget cuts, enabling 7% of the workforce to manage 25% of the caseload. While New York paid AutoMon a flat fee (price of a starter kit: $60,000), some cities have opted for what Mel dubs the "offender pay" model, in which probationers themselves shell out $5 to $10 each month to use the system -- a clever turnabout of the old adage that "crime doesn't pay."

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By: Kate O'Sullivan

Can't Find that Missing Document? Try Your Very Own Search Engine

A weekly look at the latest products and services designed to help you run a better business.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) have partnered to provide a search engine for small businesses.

Using Yahoo's search interface, the engine works within in a business' internal network in order to give small and midsize businesses fast and easy access to their own information.

The engine can be used to search within the company's network, including databases and data-management systems, but also to search the regular Internet.

The service stands as a direct challenge to enterprise search software sold by Google and similar products offered by Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP.

Launched Dec. 13, the basic search engine is free, but IBM plans to charge for advanced-search tools.

Personalized Gift Cards

With holiday season in full swing, MasterCard Worldwide (NYSE:MA) has unveiled a new online service that allows small businesses to personalize gift cards with their company logos.

Introduced Dec. 12 at MasterCardGiftCard.com, the gift cards can also be customized to include the recipient's name and an embossed message, and are available in any denomination from $10 to $500.

"We know that small-business owners are always looking for creative ways to positively showcase their business," Bruno Perreault, the head of MasterCard's Global Small Business and Mid-Sized Enterprises group, said in a statement. The gift cards are a "direct and easy way" to do that, he said.

According to MasterCard's research, 75 percent of small businesses are interested in having their company logo on a card.

Save Energy -- The James Bond Way

BioMETRX, a Jericho, N.Y.-based research-and-development firm, has announced plans for a new finger-activated programmable thermostat, designed for smaller retailers and restaurants.

The smartSTAT Thermostat will prevent unauthorized access to temperature settings.

In a time of rising energy bills, the product is designed specifically to address the problem of tenants or restaurant and store employees turning the heat too high or the air-conditioner too low.

Fully programmable and Energy Star compliant, the product allows an owner or manager to authorize up to 20 users to change the temperature settings.

Available next Memorial Day, the suggested retail price will be $229. By contrast, converting a company's HVAC system into a centrally controlled computerized system can cost thousands of dollars.


By: Peter Hoy

How to Avoid Scammers, Spammer and the Rest of the Bad E-guys

Before anything else, you need to know who the bad guys are and how to keep them the hell out.

The first e-mail message was sent sometime in the early 1970s by Ray Tomlinson, an English computer engineer working for the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Nobody remembers what it said: possibly "testing" or "QWERTY." Tomlinson wasn't thinking about history; he was just trying to create a quick, informal way for a closed universe of research scientists to communicate with one another.

Ease of use was the point, not security. Defense scientists 30 years ago, after all, did not have to worry about armies of malicious nerds with laptops and cable modems. The openness of e-mail, though, the thing that makes it so revolutionary, is also what makes it so vulnerable to viruses, worms, ID theft, denial-of-service attacks, and a host of other threats.

Scammers are constantly cooking up new ways to use your e-mail system against you. Phishing attacks, for instance. Your employees or customers get an official-looking e-mail saying there is a problem with, say, their credit card account. Would they please click on the link below, then type in their account or Social Security number? MessageLabs, a security firm that tracks phishing attacks, says the number of phishing e-mails grew to 4.5 million in November 2004 from 337,050 that January.

Then there's spam. The Radicati Group estimates that 45% of all e-mail is spam; other experts think it may be as much as 80%. According to Ferris Research, an e-mail and communications consulting firm, the worldwide cost in lost productivity and resources devoted to fighting spam will be $50 billion in 2005, more than a third of that coming from U.S. companies. It's not all bad news, though. Anti-spam laws have started to show some teeth. In April, Jeremy Jaynes, who was reportedly sending out 10 million junk e-mails a day, was convicted of felony charges in Virginia and sentenced to nine years in prison. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

As you may have noticed, though, spam, viruses, and the rest haven't gone away. You still have to protect yourself. Which defense is best for you is a function of how big your business is and how much control you want over your security. Many fixes can help not only with keeping your system safe but also with archiving messages and making sure your system complies with your policies and the law. One solution may not be enough. "You cannot expect to buy a single layer of security protection and sleep at night," says Sara Radicati, of the Radicati Group. Your choices fall into three main categories.
Managed Services

Letting somebody else do it is an attractive option if you have a modest (or nonexistent) IT staff. The tradeoff is loss of control: You're trusting an outsider with a key part of your business.

Managed providers offer a range of security services that include spam filtering, virus protection, encryption, mail monitoring for compliance with regulations or company policy, and even archiving. Fees are typically per user, per month or year, and the price generally drops the more licenses you buy. Most vendors offer 30-day free trials.

Postini's Perimeter Manager Small Business Edition (starts at $25 per user per year) includes protection from spam, phishing, and viruses. It also provides defense against directory harvest attacks, in which cyber miscreants try to get your employees' e-mail addresses by bombarding your server with messages sent to every possible address--jfried@inc.com, johnfried@inc.com, etc.--and seeing which ones bounce back. Perimeter Manager handles only inbound e-mail, however. If you need to keep tabs on internal or outbound mail, too, you can upgrade to Postini's enterprise edition (starts at $33 per user).

SingleFin's Global Gateway Service includes e-mail, Web, and instant messaging content filtering, as well as archiving ($12 a month, or free for businesses with fewer than 10 users). A light version of the suite, which simply marks spam and forwards it along to you and also filters viruses out, is free for any number of users. MessageLabs offers anti-virus, anti-spam, content, and policy control services. Pricing is based on company size. A business with 250 to 499 employees, for instance, pays a monthly $3.83 per feature per user. Other big players worth checking out in managed services are Frontbridge, Symantec, and McAfee.
Appliances

Not refrigerators or microwave ovens. These are security hardware systems--literally boxes that contain e-mail watchdog and filtering systems. They are the fastest-growing segment of the security industry, according to the Radicati Group. They are generally easy to install and customize and they leave your own tech people in charge. Appliances are, however, not cheap.

IronPort's C-series comes in four sizes, depending on the number of people in your business. The midline C10 (around $9,000) is designed for companies with up to 1,000 employees and features anti-spam and virus protection, as well as content filtering for policy enforcement and monitoring.

CipherTrust's IronMail appliance (starts at $5,995 for the S-10 model, which is designed for companies with 100 or fewer users) has strong compliance tools. Other companies that make security hardware include Borderware, Barracuda Networks, Mirapoint, and Alladin.
Software

Security software is plentiful and comparatively cheap. Most security experts, though, say this stuff is most effective when used in combination with an appliance or a managed service. They also warn that given the constant evolution of viruses and other threats you (or your IT staff) may be constantly managing patches and updates.

WebRoot's Spy Sweeper Enterprise ($300 for a one-year subscription with 10 licenses) and PepiMK Software's SpyBot Search & Destroy (free) will keep your business computers clean of spyware programs, which can steal your data or even turn your computers into spam-generating "zombies."

Symantec's Norton AntiSpam 2005 ($320 for a 10-user pack) will clean your computer of junk mail; Computer Associates' Server Protection Suite ($1,055 for five users) offers a range of security tools, including anti-virus, anti-spam, and spyware protection; Clearswift's MIMEsweeper ($2,628 for 100 licenses) series has a variety of monitoring software solutions; Sophos' PureMessage Small Business Edition ($2,850 for 100 users) offers protection from viruses and spam; TrendMicro's NeatSuite for Small and Medium Businesses ($59.34 per user for 25 to 100 users) has anti-virus, anti-spam, and content security.


By: John Fried