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Posted by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Enterprise

Most businesses these days rely on technology to get their work done. And anyone who’s responsible for that technology — or even anyone who just follows the news — knows that 2013 was a big year for internet security. Of course, security has been a top priority for Google for over a decade. Millions of businesses trust Google to keep their data safe every day -- a responsibility we take very seriously. We focus on protecting our customers’ data from all unauthorized access, whether from common phishing, sophisticated hacking, or state-sponsored intrusions.

Google employs hundreds of full-time world-class security engineers. We were the first to offer important security tools, like free two-step verification, encrypted connections between your browser and our servers, and a handful of other security innovations. As a company, Google uses the same products and services that we offer to our customers. We run on the same infrastructure, in the same data centers.

Before businesses slow down for the holidays, we wanted to highlight a few of the many investments we’ve made and features we’ve launched in 2013 to help keep our customers — and everyone on the web — safe. Of course, there’ll be much more to come next year.

Offering new security tools for Google Apps administrators:

In addition to protecting our customers, Google also makes it easier for customers to protect themselves. For domain administrators, having visibility into and control over how their users’ accounts are working is a big help.

• Suspicious login alerts: A new feature in the Google Apps Admin Console allows administrators to receive email alerts when our systems detect suspicious or unusual login activity in their users’ accounts. This helps admins stay informed of what’s happening in their domain — to a degree not possible with most email systems — and, when necessary, take swift corrective action.
• Android device management: Organizations can manage smartphones and tablets - including Android and iOS - right from the Google Apps Admin console. The Android device management features include the ability to selectively wipe Google Apps account data without wiping a user’s entire device and require the latest version of the Device Policy app to ensure security policies are enforced across all devices.
• Account recovery: A new account recovery process for super administrators helps keep their accounts more secure by allowing each super admin to specify their own recovery email address and telephone number. And the new mobile Admin app lets administrators quickly accomplish the most critical tasks (like suspending users or resetting passwords) wherever they are, using an Android phone or tablet.

Verifying our practices through third-party certifications and regulatory compliance:

When it comes to security and helping our customers comply with specific industry regulations, you don’t just need to take our word for it. Many of our security practices have been reviewed and verified by third-parties in the form of audits.

• FISMA: The Federal Information Systems Management Act includes a rigorous evaluation of the security processes and data protections, and is required by U.S. federal government customers. Google Apps was the first cloud productivity suite to receive FISMA back in 2010, and we renewed our certification again this year.
• ISO 27001: ISO 27001 is one of the most widely recognized, internationally accepted independent security standards. After earning ISO 27001 for Google Apps in 2012, we renewed our certification again this year for Google Apps and received the certification for Google Cloud Platform.
• SOC2, SSAE 16 & ISAE 3402: Companies use the SOC2, SSAE 16 Type II audit, and its international counterpart ISAE 3402 Type II audit, to document and verify the data protections in place for their services. We’ve successfully completed these audits for Google Apps every year since 2008 (when the audits were known by their previous incarnation, SAS 70) and we did so again this year for Google Apps and Google Cloud Platform.
• HIPAA: This year, we started offering Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) to help our customers who need to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) while using Google App.

Improving security for everyone on the web:

Our work doesn’t end with providing security for Google products or even Google customers. To keep ahead of the bad guys, we work with researchers and others in the broader security community to make sure the the web is safe for everyone.

• Updated SSL certificates: To keep users safe, we utilize encryption on almost all connections made to Google, but this encryption needs to be updated at times to make it even stronger. This year, we upgraded all of our SSL certificates to 2048-bit RSA, which will help the industry move away from weaker, 1024-bit keys next year.
• Vulnerability rewards: Since introducing our vulnerability rewards programs in 2010, we’ve rewarded (and fixed!) more than 2,000 security bug reports, paid out more than $2 million in rewards, and been recognized for setting leading standards for response time. And to convey our commitment to security and thank researchers for their important work, this year we increased the maximum award from $1000 to $5000.
• Easier recovery for hacked websites: As a site owner, discovering your site is hacked with spam or malware is stressful, and trying to clean it up under a time constraint can be very challenging. We’ve been working to make recovery even easier and streamline the cleaning process — we notify webmasters when the software they’re running on their site is out of date, and we’ve set up a dedicated help portal for hacked sites with detailed articles and videos explaining each step of the process to recovery. This year, we released additional security tools so webmasters can find information about security issues on their site in one place and pinpoint problems faster with detailed code snippets.

Whether it’s creating easy-to-use tools to help organizations manage their information or keeping customer data safe from prying eyes, we’re constantly investing to ensure that Google earns and keeps your trust. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and (most of all) safe 2014.

Sign up now and you can get six months of free, unlimited same-day delivery on holiday items from stores like Costco, Target, and Google Play. For a limited time, we’re also giving you $10 off your first order.** To get started, visit http://g.co/shopex/holiday10.

Happy shopping!

Posted by Holly Drury, Field Sales Manager, Premier Foods

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Holly Drury, Field Sales Manager for Premier Foods, one of the UK’s largest food producers. Premier Foods include iconic brands such as Ambrosia, Batchelors, Mr. Kipling, OXO, Hovis and more. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Premier Elves is our annual holiday season initiative to help maximise retail sales. In partnership with the major retailers across the UK, Premier Foods is sending out hundreds of elves across various functions from Head Office and multiple sites. Their job is to increase awareness and placement of Premier Foods products in retail stores during the busy Christmas period, drive year-end performance during the holiday shopping season, and share feedback and recommendations with internal teams at this key time of year. All in all, the elves will visit more than 1,000 stores nationwide.

This is the third year Premier Foods has run this successful initiative, but like every successful repeat initiative we always look to make improvements. This year we decided to improve the collaboration and efficiency of Premier Elves and reduce costs and complexity by using Google+.

With the help of Claire Hunt from our internal Google team and our Google partner Appsbroker, the Elves are using the dedicated Premier Foods internal and partner Google+ channels to capture photos of in-store promotional displays, share success stories with other Premier Elves, and collaborate on best practices. With Google+ we are increasing the elves’ efficiency, whilst also improving the customer experience and driving increases in sales.

Being able to capture pictures and context right at the point of sale and share insight across the business and is helping make this year’s holiday season the most successful and fun ever. Thank you to Google+ for making it all work so seamlessly and more importantly, thank you to all the Premier Elves for helping make the holiday season such a success for us here in the UK.

Posted by Hiwa Afandi, Head of the Department of Information Technology, Kurdistan Regional Government

Editor's note: Today, we hear from Hiwa Afandi, Head of the Department of Information Technology for the Kurdistan Regional Government, the official ruling body of Iraqi Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Why did the Kurdistan Regional Government decide to move to Google Apps?
We want to improve our operational efficiency and modernize our technology. We also want to help our 300,000 employees across the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ministries and departments to collaborate and communicate more easily. Like many emerging markets in the Middle East, lack of proper infrastructure and Internet service providers in our region make it very difficult to achieve true “interconnectedness.” That’s why we see Google Apps for Business, and cloud computing in general, as the kind of innovative technology that can help us to achieve our objectives.

What factors did you consider before making the move to Google?
Pricing was definitely a consideration. We are working on several large IT projects that are resource-intensive, including a state-of-the-art data center and government cloud. We like that Google is very price-competitive. But many other benefits – such as ease of use and management, speed, and reliability – were important factors in our decision, as well. We also have full trust in Google’s data security and privacy safeguards.

How many people in the Kurdistan Regional Government are using Google Apps?
About 3,000 employees are currently using Google Apps, including my IT team of 180. Several of the early adopters will be taking the lead in a “train the trainee” program in 2014. One person in each ministry or department will become the Google administrator for that unit and will train other users on how to use Google Apps.

Is there a Google partner assisting with your move to Google Apps?
Our Google partner is BRAMS, based in Dubai. They are helping us to transition both quickly and smoothly to Google Apps from our legacy systems, such as Microsoft Exchange.

How do you see employees using Google Apps after the rollout?
Steve Jobs once said that people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. In a developing country like ours, people sometimes need time to accept and adjust to innovation. I think that once our employees see how easily they can communicate and collaborate with each other – and all from a single platform – they will want to use Google Apps more and more. They will be able to work more efficiently.

What about your IT team? Will the move to Google Apps help make them more productive?
The move to Google Apps has already made our team more productive. I introduced Google Apps to my team as soon as I joined the IT department. It didn’t take long for them to embrace tools like Google Calendar, Google Chat and Google Docs for everyday work. On a broader scale, by moving the entire Kurdistan Regional Government to Google Apps for Business, my IT team doesn’t have to worry about the technicalities of hosting and configuring a complex data center for email and collaboration solutions. That prevents a huge headache. I only have about five people devoted to Google tasks for the entire government. The rest of my team is free to focus on other responsibilities.

I want to emphasize how important that is, especially as the Kurdistan Regional Government pursues a number of other important IT initiatives. In the Middle East, skilled IT resources are difficult to find and retain, and are often expensive to hire. So, we must use our IT resources wisely. Again, that’s why Google Apps and other cloud solutions are so beneficial to us. We don’t have to worry about heavy data storage or processing infrastructure. There is no need to install hardware, implement software or perform complex integrations. We can just focus on our business and on innovation. That is a huge enabling factor for our government.

Posted by Elliot Sanchez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, mSchool

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Elliot Sanchez, founder and chief executive officer of mSchool, a benefit corporation (B Corp.) that helps community centers and schools in the United States open “microschools” to connect children with structured online learning opportunities. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

At mSchool, we want to see every student receive an incredible, personalized education and make it easy for schools to provide that type of learning experience. We also believe in the thoughtful integration of technology into education.

There are many powerful, fantastic tools available today to help students learn, but using them in the right way to get the right results can be a complicated, and often costly, process. We work directly with local community centers and schools to open – in two weeks’ time and for about $5,000 – accredited one-classroom “microschools” staffed with academic coaches from the local area. Through our adaptive learning program, mSchool gathers over 250,000 data points on student learning in each classroom. That data allows us to individualize our curricula to a student's needs and adjust based on each student's performance.

We offer a technology-rich education option for students, grades 3 through 12, to deepen their math understanding and prepare for Algebra I. This includes multimedia content, interactive animations, tools for creating digital graphs and charts, and formative assessments. Chromebooks are now a big part of that experience. In our pilot classrooms, students used a range of devices – mostly donated equipment – including laptops, PCs, Macs, and tablet computers. But when we were ready to expand our program this year from 30 students to more than 200, we needed to find technology that could grow with us. We considered several different options, but Chromebooks really stood out.
First, we liked the web-based management console for managing Chromebooks and user access. We needed the ability to manage the student experience in a quickly growing number of classrooms across the country-- from around the corner in New Orleans to rural South Dakota. We can remotely control which sites students can access which allows us to help them stay on track with their learning. With Chromebooks, students are spending more “time on task.”

Cost was another primary factor in our decision to use Chromebooks throughout our classrooms. We were able to put a Chromebook into the hands of every student we’re working with this year. The low cost of replacement of the Chromebooks also means we can leave them with the community centers at the end of the academic year.

We never want technology to be a barrier to learning. And with Chromebooks, it isn’t. Students are able to access our cloud based adaptive curriculum and work at their own pace. Chromebooks are allowing our students to engage in ways they weren’t able to with pen and paper and static content like printed books. They also help us to instruct students in a personalized way. And they enable collaboration: students can work through problems independently, but when they get stuck, remote teachers can see exactly what they’re working on and help to guide them.

In 2014, mSchool will expand into five states using grant funding we received this year as part of the Teach for America Social Innovation award. And it’s the reliable rollout and scalability of Chromebooks that will help to ensure we can open all the classrooms that we’ve planned.

Posted by Ryan Falor, Google Groups Product Manager

Google Groups makes communicating with a group of people easy through online and email-based communities. Some groups are in high demand and have many active members or receive a lot of messages from external senders. Google Apps customers have told us that it’s time-consuming for group leaders to respond to every message individually. So based on your feedback, we’re launching a new auto-reply feature for Google Groups for Business to help streamline communications.

If you’re the creator or administrator of a Google Group, the auto-reply feature allows you to create up to four different, customized responses for different recipients:

1. Group members from inside your company
2. Non-members from inside your company
3. Group members from outside your company
4. Non-members from outside your company

Imagine your company has a Google Group set up for customer support, and the address is published on your website. If the office will be closed during the holidays, setting up automatic replies could be helpful. For company employees who email the group, you can provide the CEO’s cell phone number in case of emergencies. For non-members, you can add a note instructing them to join the group for updates. And for external customers, your automatic reply can say the company is closed for the holidays but will respond to inquiries after January 2.
To get started using auto replies in Google Groups for Business, go to Email Options under your group Settings.

Dell has a long history of serving schools’ education technology needs. Today, they join the Google for Education family, announcing the new Dell Chromebook 11.

The new Dell Chromebook 11

The Dell Chromebook 11 was designed with schools in mind. The battery lasts up to 10 hours -- enough for a full school day plus homework -- and boots up in 8.4 seconds. It is light and highly portable, making it ideal for student use at home or on the go. And like all Chromebooks, it includes the cutting edge in security features, keeping schools protected from online threats. The device will be available in two versions - 4GB in January 2014 and 2GB in Q1 2014 - both for under $300.

Chrome Apps work offline, update automatically and sync to any computer where you're signed into Chrome, so you can pick up where you left off. Your Chrome Apps on Mac behave and feel just like native software. For example, you can find your Chrome Apps in the Applications folder on the Dock. Search for apps by name in the Spotlight search—just like any other Mac program that you already use. 

To make it even faster to find and launch your favorite Chrome Apps, we’re also releasing the Chrome App Launcher for Mac. Just download a new Chrome App and you’ll see the Chrome App Launcher in your Dock.

Trent Apted and Jack Hou, Software Engineers & Mac devotees

Video review del USB JIG y UBS OTG. Estos accesorios nos permiten realizar ciertas acciones con nuestro dispositivo Android. El USB JIG nos permite acceder automáticamente al modo downloading caso necesitemos flashear una nueva ROM o Kernel en nuestro terminal y no podamos ingresar a este modo de forma convencional por algún motivo en particular, como por ejemplo algún defecto en la tecla home. El USB OTG nos permite conectar diversos accesorios a nuestro terminal como por ejemplo: mouses, teclados, pendrive, gamepad entre otros, toda vez que nuestro dispositivo cuente con soporte OTG.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management