Archive for February, 2021

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Guest Post: Atlas VPN Says UK’s Cybersecurity Firms Hit Over $12 Billion In 2020 Revenue

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 23, 2021 by itnerd

Cybersecurity has never been more important, as the pandemic forced many people to shift towards remote work. Also, most entertainment venues are closed, so people use the web to fill up their free time. This situation is a great opportunity, and cybersecurity companies did not miss the chance to capitalize on it.

Atlas VPN research team found that in the 2020 financial year, online security companies in the UK raked in nearly 8.88 billion GBP which is equivalent to 12.51 billion US dollars, a 7% increase from last year’s 8.3 billion GBP (11.69 billion USD). 

Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, shares her projections on UK’s cybersecurity firm earnings in 2021:

“We project that cybersecurity firm earnings in the United Kingdom in the year 2021 will surge past the 10 billion GBP (14.08 billion USD) mark without much trouble, as the digital threats online are projected to thrive amid home working and improving hacking strategies. 

Therefore, cybersecurity firms will potentially sign a significant amount of new contracts as companies will shift to seek proper digital security solutions for their businesses.” 

Data reveals that nearly three-quarters (74%) of the online security earnings go to large firms, amounting to almost 6.6 billion GBP or 9.3 billion USD in 2020. Large enterprises are those with 250 or more employees. 

Cybersecurity businesses by size

In 2020 1,483 companies provided cybersecurity products and services. Compared to last year’s 1,221 businesses, this is a 21% growth. 

Looking at the broader perspective, the number of digital security companies jumped by 85% from 846 firms in 2017 to 1,483 in 2020.  Let’s delve deeper into the size of registered cybersecurity firms in the UK within the most recent financial year.

In 2020, there were 144 companies with 250 or more employees, representing 10% of the grand total number of businesses.

To read the full report, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/uks-cybersecurity-firms-hit-over-12-billion-in-2020-revenue

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TikTok Canada Announces Self-Serve Platform + TikTok Marketing Channel In Shopify App Store Are Now available in Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 23, 2021 by itnerd

Today, TikTok Canada has announced that the Shopify integration with the Self-Serve Platform and TikTok marketing channel on the Shopify App Store are now available in Canada!

This partnership was part of a global effort previously announced in October 2020 and the updates are now available in Canada. This is great news for business owners of all sizes in Canada, as it is now easier for Shopify merchants to connect with and be discovered by TikTok’s highly engaged users.  

Self Serve Advertising Tools enable advertisers of all sizes and budgets to easily and efficiently use the TikTok advertising platform to place ads on their own. Introduction of new tools and features designed for small businesses that make it easier than ever to get started such as fast set up, flexible business, and creative tools to easily design engaging creatives. Key highlights include:

  • Creative tools: TikTok has a suite of creative tools that enable every marketer to embrace the creativity and authenticity of the TikTok community. Everyone has the opportunity to tell their story, and TikTok’s creative tools help brands represent the most authentic version of their brand.
  • Flexible budgets: TikTok Ads Manager was designed for fast set up for every level of expertise. Flexible budgets allow businesses to adjust their spending at any time.
  • Performance targeting: Intelligent targeting enables businesses to get discovered by new engaged audiences.

Through the TikTok channel, Canadian merchants can access core functions of the TikTok For Business Ads Manager all from within Shopify. Highlights include:

  • New, “1-click” pixel: Shopify merchants can install or connect their TikTok Pixel with the click of a button, making it quicker and easier to track conversions.
  • A One-Stop-Shop for TikTok Campaigns: Merchants can create campaigns, target audiences and track performance in one place.
  • Creative Made Simple: Everyone has a story to tell on TikTok, and the TikTok channel enables Shopify merchants to create native, shareable ads that resonate with the community. TikTok’s intuitive creative tools help turn merchants’ products into high quality TikToks in minutes.
  • Advanced Matching: This new TikTok Pixel feature enables Shopify merchants to send hashed customer information to more effectively track conversions from TikTok ads and retarget audiences while maintaining user privacy. 
  • Ad Credits for Merchants: Eligible merchants who spend $27 in 14 days will receive $132 in ad credits to jumpstart their first TikTok campaign.

For more information, please visit TikTok’s Newsroom Blog Post.

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Primus Permanently Removes Data Overage Charges On All Internet Plans

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 23, 2021 by itnerd

Following the recent acquisition of Primus Telecommunications by Distributel Communications Limited, comes more good news from this award-winning independent service provider: Primus is permanently removing data overage charges on all of their capped internet plans.

Earlier this year, Distributel brought together the strength of two prominent Canadian telecom companies through their acquisition of Primus to build an even stronger brand. The acquisition not only brings customers greater access to residential and business services, but it also continues the great traditions that Distributel has established – ones that offer fairness and greater value to Canadians from coast to coast.

Primus temporarily removed data overage charges in March 2020, but today they join Distributel as the only large ISP to make this decision permanent, thereby eliminating all internet overage fees. 

This decision will help Canadians who are working from home, learning from home or staying connected from home without ever worrying about the costs associated with their internet plan. 

This change is effective immediately across all capped plans, and no further customer action is required.

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Canada In Top 20 For COVID-Themed Threats Detected By Trend Micro

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 23, 2021 by itnerd

Trend Micro Incorporated today announced that Canada accounted for 153,584 of total COVID-themed cyber-threat detections last year, placing it in the list of Top 20 countries at the eighteenth spot.

Globally, the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network (SPN) detected nearly 16.4 million threats, consisting of malicious URLs, spam, and malware, over the course of 2020. The vast majority of these (88%) were email-borne spam threats. Examples of this include phishing attempts using COVID-19 as a lure in an attempt to steal personal and financial information.

Canada ranked ahead of Croatia and Turkey on the list of Top 20 countries, and behind Uruguay. The United States has the highest amount of COVID-themed cyber-threat detections with over 6 million. 

In total, Trend Micro blocked over 62.6 billion cyber-threats in 2020, a 20% year-on-year increase. Attacks on home networks globally surged 209% to reach nearly 2.9 billion as cyber-criminals adapted quickly to the mass shift to distributed working caused by the pandemic.

Trend Micro’s 2020 Security Roundup report also revealed the detection of over 175 million phishing URLs during 2020 as attackers sought to target distracted home workers using potentially unsecured devices and networks.

To read the full report, please visit this link.

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ScienceLogic Raises $105 Million In New Financing To Accelerate Leadership Tn Growing AIOps Market

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 23, 2021 by itnerd

ScienceLogic, a leading provider of AI-driven monitoring solutions for hybrid cloud management, announced today that it has raised $105 million in growth financing. Silver Lake Waterman led the company’s Series E round with participation from existing investors Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital and NewView Capital. The investment will support the company’s continued innovation in the AIOps market and further broaden ScienceLogic’s position within the $30+ billion IT Operations Management software market.

Companies across the globe are adopting cloud strategies and tools more than ever amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with massive demand for digital services and scalability. We believe ScienceLogic is poised to meet that demand as organizations look for hybrid-cloud toolsets from trusted partners to securely harness business agility, cost savings and innovation. 

The funding is intended to accelerate ScienceLogic’s product development and engineering leadership, supporting the company’s broader expansion plans and the reach of its flagship SL1 digital infrastructure monitoring platform. Funds are expected to  be allocated toward recruitment efforts and product investments aimed at cloud-native technologies including microservices and container solutions, AI/machine learning, and hybrid cloud operations that transforms digital experiences and enhance security. 

Some of the largest global enterprises, federal agencies and managed service providers trust ScienceLogic’s modern platform to ensure availability of their applications and business operations across hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud deployments. The scalable SL1 monitoring platform helps IT operations teams ingest hyperscale data volume in real-time across disparate hybrid-cloud architectures, while its patented discovery and automation technology improves agility, accelerates incident response and drives productivity by strengthening application health, resolution time and user experience. 

The funding news comes after a recent announcement from the company to expand its product development, engineering and sales and marketing staff. ScienceLogic’s AIOps market leadership also was recently highlighted by the Forrester Wave, which included ScienceLogic as one of only three firms highlighted as AIOps Leaders – honors that further cement the company’s forward momentum.

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NurseryCam Pwned After Security Shortcomings Reported To The Register

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 22, 2021 by itnerd

This is a bit complicated so hang with me in a bit.

Daycare camera product NurseryCam was apparently hacked late last week. The BBC reported the news on the weekend and the company has shut the service down to lock it down. But here’s where things get interesting. The company was contacted by a security researcher who discovered flaws in the service. And according to The Register….. :

El Reg reported on the company’s security shortcomings last week after its inappropriate attempts to strongarm an infosec researcher into deleting a Twitter thread detailing vulnerabilities in its FootfallCam product.

When companies do that sort of thing, it never ends well. This incident was no exception:

A hacker contacted El Reg on Friday to say they had obtained real names, usernames, what appeared to be SHA-1 hashed passwords, and email addresses for 12,000 NurseryCam users’ accounts – and had then dumped them online.

Although this person claimed to have “redacted” those details, the redaction was so poor it was trivial to figure out the real names and contact details of NurseryCam’s parent users. El Reg, together with IoT security expert Andrew Tierney, verified that the credentials were genuine before notifying NurseryCam of the breach. The company began emailing parents the following day after taking its cameras offline.

This is likely now under investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office and this might not end well for the company behinds this service. Especially since warnings about the lax security of this service have been floating around for years. It sucks to be the company behind this product.

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Your Guide to the Rainbow Six Esports Season 2021

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 22, 2021 by itnerd

It’s time to leave the 2020 season in the dust and look towards an exciting fresh 2021 season of Rainbow Six Siege in Canada! With the Six Invitational and the 2021 NA League season on the horizon, it’s time to start blocking time off in your calendar to watch the action.

AN UPDATE ON THE SIX INVITATIONAL 2021 & THE MAY 2021 SIX MAJOR:

The Six Invitational 2021 will happen in May 2021. It will replace the Season 2021 Six Major of May. The 20 teams currently qualified for the Six Invitational will retain their slot and the prize money of the event will remain unchanged, with a prize pool cap set at USD $3,000,000.

NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE 2021

With the merger of the US and Canada Divisions, 10 teams will be joining for the 2021 Season of the North American League. The 2021 Season will be broken down into 3 Stages and will be played offline at The Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The health and wellbeing of our pro players, partners and staff is the main priority, which is why, throughout the season, work will be done to ensure the set up and respect of strict sanitary measures.

Where to watch:

English: Twitch.tv/Rainbow6

English: Twitch.tv/R6EsportsNA

Information on other regions can be found here.

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Traeger Grills Expands Digital footprint With Grilling Industry’s First Apple Watch Control

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 22, 2021 by itnerd

Traeger Grills, the innovators behind the original wood-pellet grill, today launched its new Apple Watch app. A first-of-its-kind offering for the grilling industry, Traeger’s new Apple Watch app provides users with WiFIRE® compatible grills the ability to monitor and control their cooks anywhere, anytime from their wrist.

Following the relaunch of its immersive mobile app for Android and Apple last March, Traeger is now  expanding the possibilities of mobile connectivity between cook and grill with the Apple Watch app. Paired with the Traeger mobile phone app, the new Apple Watch app offers a handful of features built to help monitor meals and grill status. Features of the new Apple Watch App include:

Grill Temp – Users can monitor and control their grill temperature in real time and make adjustments from anywhere, be it from the kitchen or the ski slopes.

Probe Temp – Cooks can set a desired internal temperature and monitor their progress without ever lifting the lid.

Keep Warm Mode – Once the recipe on the grill is complete, but the rest of the dishes in the kitchen needs some additional prep, users can set their grill to “Keep Warm Mode” to reduce the grill temperature to XX degrees and ensure the food is ready when you are.

Timer – Alerts notify the cook when its ready to sauce, check, or pull your food.

Pellet Level – The pellet sensor will display current pellet levels in real time, so users know when to re-load the hopper and keep the stoked fire burning.

Super Smoke Mode – This feature allows users to blast their food with 100% hardwood smoke between temperatures from 165 up to 225 degrees. Users can adjust the grill temperature between the mode ranges, and turn on or off.

Traeger’s mobile app is packed with features and benefits, and serves as a digital epicenter that unites and expands the “Traegerhood,” connecting like-minded Traeger owners and die-hard grilling enthusiasts around the world. In addition to creating a profile and setting palate preferences, app users can make and share notes on recipes, creating a truly personalized digital experience and mobile grilling community.

Available now in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, the all-new app serves as an extension of Traeger’s overall brand experience. Learn more about the digital experience and shop Traeger Grills by visiting www.TraegerGrills.com.

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Martello iQ Wins Top Marks In TechGenix Product Review

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 22, 2021 by itnerd

Martello Technologies Group Inc., announced today that its iQ software solution has received a 4.5/5 rating in a product review by Microsoft MVP Brien Posey, published on TechGenix. Martello iQ is a digital experience and IT analytics platform that consolidates and analyzes data from multiple monitoring, IT services management and business applications for a more comprehensive view of how critical services and applications, such as Microsoft 365 are performing.

TechGenix, which provides content and reviews to millions of IT professionals globally, published the ‘gold star’ review this month, highlighting the tool’s unique value to enterprise IT professionals. The review cited several factors in determining the Martello iQ product’s score, including the dozens of integrations it supports, ingesting data from all of the disparate tools that an enterprise class organization is likely to be using. The solution’s multitenancy is another critical capability highlighted by Posey, allowing IT teams to monitor multi-cloud environments such as multiple Azure subscriptions. The Martello iQ software’s ability to not only ingest but also perform root cause analysis dramatically reduces the time required to solve problems, by reducing the complexity that is inherent in monitoring hybrid cloud resources. This can help organizations increase the availability of critical IT services.

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands uses iQ: “Martello’s solutions have grown with us and helped us manage our multi domain and hybrid cloud environment more effectively,” said Willem Bouwman, IT Specialist, SQL Database and Monitoring Engineer in the Information Technology and Digital Innovation department of Leiden University Medical Center. Read the Leiden University Medical Center Case Study.

Here’s a video that gives you an overview of Martello iQ:

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Aptum Panel Discussion: How Business Leaders Can Stay On The Offensive In Challenging Times

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 22, 2021 by itnerd

Recently, Susan Bowen, CEO and President of Aptum, hosted a panel discussion on “How business leaders can stay on the offensive in challenging times” with Philbert Shih, Managing Director of analyst firm Structure Research; Jack Danahy, Former SVP of Business Development and Chief Evangelist with managed security leader Alert Logic; and Mark Vivian, CEO of Oracle Managed Services provider Claremont.

During the discussion, they touched on these topics:

  • Business Strategy – How the pandemic has impacted business, and strategies to grow in the face of challenge
  • IT Security – Security in the new business landscape, and its impact on the IT environment
  • IT Infrastructure – The immediate impacts IT infrastructure can have on business success
  • Remote Work – Strategies to keep remote workers engaged and maintain (or even build) productivity

A defensive business strategy is often the fallback approach for organizations in turbulent times. Over the past year the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many organizations to adopt this mindset. Putting new remote work strategies in place, shifting budgets to compensate for unpredictable revenue and trying to maintain a ‘business as usual’ stance has consumed senior executives across all industries. To grow their customer base and revenues, businesses must now be on the offensive.

The panelists all agreed organizations looking to be more aggressive need to have a solid cloud strategy. Toronto-based Philbert Shih at Structure Research has followed the cloud and data centre market for 20 years and noted that like the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the pandemic has spurred interest in cloud and outsourced infrastructure. 

As businesses shift more of their infrastructure to the cloud, security will play a key role. For example, the increase in employees working from home creates different security dynamics, Alert Logic’s Jack Danahy noted. IT infrastructures that were once managed on-site now need to be managed remotely. And with more devices being used for both personal and professional applications, new security processes need to be explored. 

Technology isn’t the only factor organizations need to address to take a more offensive business stance post-pandemic. Remote work is here to stay and ensuring employees feel connected to one another and the company will be more important when they’re not in regular face-to-face contact.

All panelists believe over the next 12 months, more organizations will turn to the cloud to boost scalability, efficiency and security.  

Please see Bowen’s full blog here: https://aptum.com/blog/how-business-leaders-can-stay-on-the-offensive-in-challenging-times/

The roundtable recording is also available here.

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