Archive for January 26, 2021

Update Your Apple Devices NOW As There Are Security Flaws That Are Being “Actively Exploited”

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 26, 2021 by itnerd

Today Apple dropped a bunch of updates to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS as well as software for the HomePod. And a lot of them have fixes for security issues that according to Apple are being “actively exploited.” You can find details on the issues here:

That pretty much means that you need to stop what you are doing and and update your iPads, Apple Watches, iPhones, and Apple TVs right now. Apple normally doesn’t use words like “actively exploited” in their release notes and security info. Which means that this is a big deal and your devices are at some sort of risk if you don’t update ASAP.

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Commvault Debuts Major New SaaS & Hybrid Cloud Workloads For Metallic

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 26, 2021 by itnerd

Commvault today announced another expansion of its award-winning Metallic Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) portfolio. On the heels of last quarter’s accelerated innovation, Metallic is adding new data protection solutions, features, and enterprise workload support including: enhanced SaaS application protection with the introduction of Metallic Salesforce Backup and Microsoft Teams recovery enhancements; the addition of Oracle and Active Directory to Metallic Database Backup; and the expansion of its hybrid cloud capabilities with the addition of HyperScale X as a fully integrated appliance and edge offering for Metallic.

In addition, Metallic is now generally available in 23 countries in total, announcing support for nine new countries in the EMEA region today, including Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.


New Metallic Solutions

Understanding that businesses across the globe need dedicated protection for their SaaS applications, Metallic has made global availability a top priority, tripling its country availability and doubling its product offerings. Recent additions include hybrid cloud data protection solutions for SAP HANA and Kubernetes, in addition to today’s newest enhancements:

  • Metallic™ Salesforce Backup provides customers scalable, enterprise-grade SaaS data protection for the Salesforce Sales, Service, and Financial Cloud. It offers simple protection for valuable Salesforce data with unlimited retention, unlimited storage, and hardened security controls built-in – helping to meet stringent standards, unique requirements like sandbox seeding, recovery requirements, and SLAs.
  • Metallic™ Office 365 & Teams Backup & Recovery now builds on Metallic’s existing Microsoft Teams capabilities to include in-place restore of Teams conversations and other data. This enables administrators to granularly recover data stored within Teams, channels, and conversations, with better speed and precision while maintaining existing site structures and settings. All new and existing Metallic Office 365 Backup customers will automatically receive Microsoft Teams functionality as part of their subscription – which also provides coverage for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
  • HyperScale X for Metallic offers customers the choice of a fully integrated appliance for single-vendor management of on-premises storage and SaaS-delivered data backup. It enables the Commvault appliance, HyperScale X, to run in edge mode, allowing it to operate as a backup target for hybrid cloud workloads protected by Metallic. This innovative edge offering represents the next step in Metallic’s hybrid expansion, combining the best of Metallic BaaS with the best of the HyperScale X scale-out storage platform. Customers can use Metallic to protect data in any hybrid data protection schema, whether cloud to cloud, on-premises data to cloud with an on-premises copy for fast restore, cloud to edge appliance, and more.
  • Support for Oracle Database and Microsoft Active Directory backup are now offered as part of the Metallic™ Database Backup solution. Providing BaaS database protection for customers’ hybrid world, Metallic Database Backup gives administrators seamless visibility and database protection for SAP HANA, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, and Active Directory on-premises, in the cloud, and in Azure.

For more information about Metallic’s cloud-native data protection solutions and availability, please visit www.metallic.io. 

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Byos Awarded Patent for Cybersecurity Protection Technology for Securing Endpoint Devices

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 26, 2021 by itnerd

Byos, Inc., whose award-winning solutions protect endpoints using the novel approach of hardware-enforced isolation from the risks of home and public Wi-Fi networks, announced the receipt of their Canadian patent, covering its Device and Method for Securing a Network Connection. Byos’ technology is also patent-pending in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

The patent strengthens and validates the Company’s intellectual property advantages, and validates the Byos™ μGateway™ (“micro-gateway”) as the first plug-and-play security product that protects endpoints from threats on local Wi-Fi networks through endpoint micro-segmentation.

Byos has seen escalating demand for the Byos µGateway in recent months, as the work-from-home (WFH) migration has created new challenges and security issues for IT teams. As endpoints are now routinely connected to untrusted networks outside of IT’s control, the potential impacts of malware lateral movement is amplified in these networks as these threats continue to go unobstructed. The patented Byos Secure Endpoint Edge gives back visibility and control over remote endpoints, for real-time detection and prevention of these types of threats.

The patented Byos µGateway provides:

  • Micro-segmentation: providing endpoints with zero-trust access to all Wi-Fi networks, while remaining completely cloaked from other devices and threats
  • Plug & Play Implementation: to support both corporate and BYOD devices quickly and easily
  • Zero Touch Deployment: working out of the box, without additional installation or configuration
  • Secure Roaming: security that travels with endpoints and is not static to a particular environment
  • Direct Connections: traffic takes the shortest distance between two points, with no traffic backhauling, rerouting, or proxies to inhibit connection speeds
  • Cloud Management: for immediate (de)provisioning, centralized policy enforcement, and integration with the organization’s existing security infrastructure (SSO/IAM, SIEM)

Byos is the endpoint micro-segmentation company dedicated to helping organizations protect themselves from the risk of ubiquitous remote, guest and IoT network connectivity. Byos allows employees, contractors and devices to safely and securely connect to any network, regardless of their location or network environment.

The patented Byos solution is a plug-and-play Secure Endpoint Edge, built to provide secure connectivity for the remote/roaming workforce and connected devices. The Byos μGateway™ provides protection from OSI layers 1 to 5, isolating the connected endpoint onto its own protected micro-segment of one within the local Wi-Fi network. It allows administrators to have centralized management across their fleet of remote endpoints, for simple policy provisioning, threat reporting, and security for legacy endpoints.

Byos is backed by leading Silicon Valley investors and advisors, is headquartered in Halifax, Canada, and sources and manufactures all components in North America. With Byos, work from home, traveling and remote workforces are Safe to Connect, and Free to Work.

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Apple Hit With €60m Lawsuit From Italian Consumer Rights Org For Slowing Down CPUs In Older iPhones

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 26, 2021 by itnerd

I bet Apple was hoping #BatteryGate was over for them. But a bunch of Italians have ensured that it will continue for a while yet. Italian consumer association Altroconsumo yesterday announced that it has launched a class action lawsuit against Apple. Here’s what Reuters reports:

“When consumers buy Apple iPhones, they expect sustainable quality products. Unfortunately, that is not what happened with the ‌iPhone‌ 6 series. Not only were consumers defrauded, and did they have to face frustration and financial harm, from an environmental point of view it is also utterly irresponsible” said ​Els Bruggeman, Head of Policy and Enforcement at Euroconsumers. “This new lawsuit is the latest front in our fight against planned obsolescence in Europe. Our ask is simple: American consumers received compensation, European consumers want to be treated with the same fairness and respect.“

The claims relate to Apple’s #BatteryGate issues where iPhones slowed down once their batteries degraded to a point where they could not sustain the performance that the phone required. It’s interesting that Apple who settled with US customers over this issue hasn’t done the same thing in Italy. If they did, they might have avoided this issue. But at the same time Apple’s view of the universe is this:

Apple said in an email that it had never done anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.

It appears that now they will have to prove that in court.

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