HSL Musings
News from HSL Musings
Freedom Mobile Data Breach
Freedom Mobile confirmed Tuesday it had a data security breach from late March to late April 2019, but the wireless carrier said only about 15,000 customers were affected — far fewer than an outside research firm’s estimate. The Calgary-based company — which operates networks in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia — was apparently warned of the breach by researchers at vpnMentor, which announced it to More »
Letting your face be your password
Facial recognition has been around for a short time. Apple users can use it to unlock their iPhone. Many airports use facial recognition. I have seen facial recording at the self checkout areas at many retail stores. Facial recognition isn’t a futuristic dream, it’s already here in a big way. New doorbells on the market can recognize familiar faces to tell you who’s come calling and More »
Grand Theft 2
McAfee has released its latest report “Grand Theft 2”. Here is a link to the full report here https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/assets/reports/restricted/rp-data-exfiltration-2.pdf The results were from a survey of 700 IT and security pros who worked at organizations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As the graph indicates, compared to 2015, intentional breaches by employees have dropped from 30 percent More »
Musing 2015 #2 – Windows 10
So, by now most people have heard that Microsoft is giving away its next generation operating system, Windows 10, for free. No, there is no gimmick, there is no catch, it is free. However, as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch, or am I looking a gift horse in the mouth? All old sayings aside, yes, the upgrade is More »
Musing 2015 #1 – Disaster Recovery
In Musings 2014 #2 we talked about disaster recovery. Let’s talk about actually having to use the plan. HardSoft Systems Ltd has been in business since 1984 and we have had many experiences with client disasters of varying degrees (unexpected server issues, a water tank bursting right above a computer room, a natural gas leak making a client evacuate their building for a day), however, More »
Musing 2014 #3 – Sum of the Parts
Today, we will talk about leveraging the overall Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and a change in thinking. The traditional view of IT (people, equipment, services, etc) has to change. Computers are not a necessary evil, they are a tool. The more ways you can use a tool, the more utility you get from it. So, for example, if you use a computerized accounting system, and More »
Musing 2014 #2 – Extreme Weather
We have all seen the effects of extreme weather and it seems like there has been more of it in the last few years. Regardless if there is more of it or if we just hear about it more due to our hyper-connected world, it is something we need to be aware of. But, you may be asking yourself why are you reading about extreme More »
Musing 2014 #1 – Cautionary Tale
A Cautionary Tale of Low Prices Recently we heard a sad tale. A client had gone with a *VERY* low cost hosting company ($5.00 /mo) instead of our ‘more expensive’ offering ($30.00/mo). She recently found out the high cost of the low cost solution. Let me explain. The service was $5.00 /mo and as she has now found out, pretty much anything other than hosting, More »
Musing 2013 #3 – Unified Communications
You may recall in Musings #1 that we talked briefly about Unified Communications (UC), well, it is a concept that I would like to delve into more in this issue of Musings. As mentioned before, email, smartphones, etc have evolved and are integral to our lives and it seems like the humble office phone is being left behind. However, with UC the office phone has More »
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