Monitoring Matters

We live in a time when people are up in hypothetical (and sometimes real) arms about protecting their privacy. The hot topic and nearly constant debate of facial recognition … the fact that almost everyone has a smartphone with video and camera at their fingertips … video cameras placed across our cities … and while I appreciate these technologies, there is something coming that I’m not too sure about: Project Aria. Facebook recently unveiled this, labeling it a new...

If you’ve been reading any of my blogs as of late, you’ll know that cybersecurity has been my main focus and for good reason. With more and more of us working from home — approximately 4.7 million in the U.S. — cybercriminals are cleaning up, wreaking havoc on individual’s lives and businesses alike. In fact, IBM’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report” pegs the average cost of a security breach at $3.92 million. However, people across the world are fighting...

Jumping into the nitty-gritty of the six most popular cyberattacks used against U.S. companies, in which cyberattacks shot up 93 percent over the past 12 months, I engaged the help of cybersecurity expert, Rodney Thayer, convergence engineer at Smithee Solutions LLC. Let’s explore what each of the six attacks are and what you can do to help prevent them. But, first, a little about Thayer … “I was a software developer building communications protocols; therefore, I was doing...

When I hear the word “skyrocket,” it always reminds me of fireworks bursting overhead, spraying beautiful, illuminating dots and sparkles of color across a black nature canvas. However, when it comes to cyberattacks, there’s nothing beautiful at all about them; they’re detrimental. Take a moment to really think about these malicious assaults that gain unauthorized access to a victim’s device. Sensitive data can be stolen, computers completely taken over and harmful...

With all the negativity that the COVID-19 pandemic has bred, I find it encouraging and refreshing to see all the positive movement within the industry when it comes to the video surveillance camera market. As you probably heard, Motorola Solutions acquired Pelco, Inc. for $110 million in cash (not a bad chunk of change there!), and ADT and Google partnered to dominate the smart home market, so there’s almost an endless number of video camera applications here as more consumers are embracing the...

The loo, bathroom, restroom, el bano, latrine, water closet, washroom, powder room, lavatory, outhouse, toilet, commode, throne, potty … whatever your special name is for this place, we all know others shouldn’t be “privy” to our private moments here. But, as technology advances and new “smart” apparatuses tempt the must-have-it-all-type of consumer, privacy wanes and cybercriminals find new ways into the more personal parts of people’s lives. Case in point, the smart toilet … Scientists...

I’m always fascinated when I see articles stating that the top passwords of the year were “password” “1234” or “qwerty” or even “abc” in conjunction with the millions of articles about data breaches that offer easy-to-do actions for people to take to protect their personal data, either personal or work. Why are the exact same, weak passwords being used over and over when people know and understand that data can and most likely will be hacked? I recently attended “The Psychology...

COVID has taken the physical world virtual. As stay-at-home orders abounded, and quite frankly, should still be observed, along with wearing masks, social distancing and washing of hands, colleagues, family, friends, clubs and other groups hit the virtual world to do business, stay connected and attempt to have some sort of calmness amid pure chaos. At the same time, threat actors and cybercriminals were at the ready, armed with a playbook of schemes to run interference.  The platform of choice...

I feel like I should start this week’s blog post with “once upon a time …” yet that phrase typically fosters good memories of childhood fairy tales that usually led to happy endings, where the prince and princess live happily ever after. The tale I have for you today, unfortunately, is that of cybersecurity nightmares. Getting right to the point, our very own Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the group that should be outfitted with the top echelon of professionals who seek to serve the federal...

The struggle is real in this COVID-19 world we’re all living in with so many uncertainties, concerns, distracted thinking, working from home … the list goes on and on. A huge concern that employers and employees must realize is that to enable continued, gainful employment and the ability to work from home, technology/hardware has to be protected from threat actors and processes have to be in place to fend off cyberattacks.  First, thinking must shift to that of protection, then the light-bulb...