Discover how mastering email communication can boost business efficiency, avoid common pitfalls, and ensure secure, respectful online interactions.
Turkey Revenge
The turkeys are pissed this Thanksgiving they are seeking revenge.
Germs Infest 60% of Americas Phones
60% of Americans sleep with their phones, harboring germs. Cleaning regularly with UV sanitizer or alcohol wipes can help keep your phone and bed germ-free.
Smartphone Sanitizing: A Practical Guide
Securely erase personal data from your old smartphone before recycling. Protect your identity from hackers—easy steps to follow.
Why Soft Skills Matter in Today’s Job Market
Boost your career with essential soft skills like communication, teamwork, and emotional intelligence. Learn why they’re crucial for workplace success.
HFCC More Secure Than Most
NYC based security reputation firm SecurityScorecard just released its 2015 Higher Education report (PDF) which has some surprising results. According to ArsTechnica the security startup pegged MIT near the bottom of its security posture list. What the Ars article did not tell us what universities had excellent security postures.
The other surprising result is that Henry Ford Community College, in Dearborn, Michigan has the 5th best security posture in the SecurityScorecard report of 485 colleges and universities.
The report says HFCC is among the best securing their network. HFCC scored well in all phases of the online security studied including:
- Web Application Security,
- Network Security,
- Endpoint Security,
- Hacker Chatter,
- Social Engineering,
- DNS Health,
- IP Reputation,
- Patching Cadence, and
- Password Exposure.
The report explains that each category consists of dozens of security-risk indicators, resulting in a holistic security assessment.
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As an alumnus and former instructor at HFCC, I say well done!
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Back At It
Back from several days of vacation in Mackinaw City, completely unplugged, and enjoyed every minute of it.
Went for a swim in Lake Michigan. The water was 65, the sun was out and 80 degrees, not as cold as I expected for the middle of September.
Sat on the beach with my toes in the sand and a drink in my hand.
Oh well, back at it on the Bach Seat.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Cisco Loves Apple
Apple has announced a new partnership with network giant Cisco. If you believe Fortune, the goal is to sell more iPhones and iPads to business customers. The move is intended to make it easier for businesses to use Cisco products like its video, chat, and web conferencing services on Apple‘s (AAPL) mobile devices. Fortune says that no new products have been announced under the partnership.
In fact, this collaboration seems to be a deal looking for a plan. Rowan Trollope, Cisco’s senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s collaboration technology group, told the author that both Cisco (CSCO) and Apple sales teams would soon meet with business leaders at other companies to discuss their technology needs. The conversations are intended to help give Cisco and Apple ideas about the products they will develop together. He also declined to confirm if any Cisco or Apple engineers are engaged or any timeline for when the new products will hit the market.
Even though there are no plans, the Cisco VP claimed that customers will be able to prioritize mobile traffic on their networks so that workers watching YouTube videos on their iPhones won’t hog all of a company’s bandwidth. Apparently, Cisco and Apple engineers will work on updating iOS Apple’s mobile operating system, to prioritize network traffic from Apple devices, which “would be difficult without a joint engineering project,” according to the article.
Prioritization would be a good start, iOS updates have crushed networks in the past. The number of hoops you have to jump through to make AppleTV’s Bonjour work on an enterprise network is stupid. Just proof that Apple is not ready for the enterprise.
Cisco has tried to create new product lines outside of its core networking and switching businesses to help boost its sales. Sales of its collaboration products are so stagnant that the firm has resorted to 85% discounts on telepresence gear.
Cisco has a history of buying consumer-orientated businesses like Apple, destroying the business, and then jettisoning the remains. Linksys and Flip Video come to mind.
Apple has also buddied up to IBM (IBM). The plan seems to be to add an IBM markup to overpriced Apple mobile devices. And then sell them to firms that have too much money. The combination has developed pushed-based apps that target specific industries, like healthcare or law enforcement.
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The fanboyz are drooling over this deal – Apple Will Change the World (again?) – Maybe if they clean up their proprietary non-routable protocols.
It has been a while since Cisco has done something notable. Maybe new CIO Chuck Robbins will shake things up at Cisco now that King Chambers has mostly moved on.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Back to School Cybersafety Resources
The new school year is here. If cybersafety is not on your “back to school” checklist, it should be. SecureWorld offered up a list of resources to help parents have a meaningful conversation about “cyber-safety” with their children. Parents need to talk with their kids about what they can do to protect themselves from the threats that are lurking online.
There are a variety of resources available that can help parents teach their children about the importance of Internet safety and privacy. Here are some recommended in the article.
In 2009, President Obama asked the Department of Homeland Security to create the Stop.Think.Connect. Campaign to help Americans understand the dangers that come with being online. The program stresses that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. Parents can download a Cybersecurity for Kids tip card (PDF) that offers helpful hints and advice designed specifically for children.
ConnectSafely.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating users of connected technology about safety, privacy and security. The website offers a number of Parent Guides, written by parents for parents, including:
- A Parents’ Guide to Student Data Privacy,
- A Parents’ Guide to Mobile Phones and
- A Parents’ Guide to Cyberbullying.
The National Cybersecurity Alliance is an industry-led group, founded by the likes of Symantec (SYMC), Cisco (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT), and EMC (EMC), whose mission is to educate and therefore empower a digital society to use (rb- their products) the Internet safely and securely at home, work and school.
Parents and teachers can download tips and resources from their website StaySafeOnline.org. The tip sheets are created specifically for different age groups ranging from kindergarten to college students. This site offers resources like:
Free Security Check-Up and Tools – Which has download locations for tools from A to W – Avast to Webroot. (as always use at your own risk).
Tip Sheets for:
The author states that industry professionals are also placing a high priority on preparing children for life in cyberspace. For instance, the (ISC)2 Foundation’s Safe and Secure Online program was introduced in 2006 in conjunction with Childnet International. They offer resources for parents which include Top 10 Tips for Parents (PDF) and the Parent-Child Commitment to Safety Agreement (PDF).
The Business Insider polled and a bunch of industry cyber security experts about what they teach their kids about the internet. The experts working in the field recommend you:
- Start discussing online safety at an early age.
- If you wouldn’t do it face to face – Don’t do it online.
- Once you’ve written something you can’t delete it.
- Not just to tell them the rules but also to spend the time/
You can read the rest of the tips at Business Insider here.
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Good luck, you will need it.
Talk to your students about cyber safety – Staysafe.org’s guide on Internet Safety for Teens: https://www.staysafe.org/
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- Family Cyber Security [Video] (drdonysreviews.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Data Never Sleeps
Domo has created this infographic which shows just how fast data proliferates. The amount of data that can be produced in a single minute is mind-numbing and shows no sign of slowing down. CEO and chairman of the Domo board Josh James blogged; “Since 2013, the global internet population grew nearly 20 percent – from 2.4 billion to 3.2 billion people“. These new users are using new services in an unprecedented number. Domo says that every minute on the web, users:
- Vine users play 1,041,666 six second videos.
- Snapchat users share 284,722 Snaps
- Buzzfeed users view 34,150 videos
- Uber passengers take 694 rides.
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Who is storing all of this information and how are they storing it and the metadata that surrounds it? What kind of information are TLA’s, Marketers, and credit card companies culling out of this data?
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.