Archive for March 24, 2021

Byos, Insight Enterprises Partner To Secure Remote Workers’ IT Endpoints

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 24, 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, today announced a partnership with Insight Enterprises, the global integrator of Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™ for organizations of all sizes.

This partnership affords the opportunity for Byos to reach a large bandwidth of customers who, in many cases, may not be aware of the Byos portfolio of security endpoint edge solutions. The Byos portfolio also expands Insight’s industry leading position of security based products offering a truly differentiated solution where virtually no competition exists today.

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 the local 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 network 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 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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Salesforce’s Trends In Manufacturing Report Released

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 24, 2021 by itnerd

For manufacturers across Canada, the pandemic has exposed weaknesses surrounding how we produce goods. 2020 really highlighted Canada’s dependence on the manufacturing sector to keep our economy operational, and thus highlighted the importance of ensuring this sector, including all facets of oil & gas, is at the top of its game.

In this new age, what’s becoming infinitely clearer is that Canadian manufacturers need advanced manufacturing technology to deliver premium products, achieve superior operations and meet our country’s needs.

To help manufacturers navigate the road ahead, today Salesforce is releasing its first-ever Trends in Manufacturing Report, a survey of 750 manufacturing leaders globally (including 50+ Canadians), to help guide decision making around the growing need, and in fact opportunity, to become “future ready”. 

Here are the key points:

he Manufacturing C-Suite is focusing on optimizing processes and adapting demand planning

  • 77% of Canadian manufacturers say digital transformation is their top priority for improving operations
  • Eight in ten global manufacturers (81%) say they need both new approaches and new tools for accurate forecasting. 
  • 95% percent of global manufacturers admit to applying manual approaches to their forecasting, with less than half of manufacturers using mostly-automated tools. 
  • In response, 81% consider moving their planning process to the cloud is a critical or high priority
  • Over half of global manufacturers rely on a primary manual process for generating quotes/proposals, prioritizing leads/opportunities and determining what action to take on accounts
  • Canadian C-suite manufacturing  executives say the following is critical or high priority over the next 24 months:
    1. Increasing process efficiencies (82%)
    2. Demand planning (82%)
    3. Digital transformation (86%)
    4. New service offerings  (86%)

Changes to customer-facing roles are here to stay

  • 31% of global manufactures say COVID significantly changed their need for improved marketing/customer communications and 30% of manufacturers say COVID significantly changed their need for customer service capabilities
    • Over half of manufacturers consider the changes to customer service and sales capabilities to be permanent.
  • Legacy tools and siloed operations are among the biggest hurdles
    • 44% of Canadian manufacturers consider legacy tools and dispersed data serious challenges.

Take a look at the key data here:

  • Trends in Manufacturing Report blog post here;
  • Trends in Manufacturing full report here;
  • Interactive research dashboard w/ Canadian specific data here.

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Another Reason To #DeleteFacebook…. Facebook Guidelines Apparently Allow Users To Call For Death of Public Figures

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 24, 2021 by itnerd

From the “are you kidding me?” file comes the news that Facebook’s own bullying and harassment policy explicitly allows for “public figures” to be targeted in ways otherwise banned on the site, including “calls for [their] death,” according to a tranche of internal moderator guidelines leaked to The Guardian.

Public figures are defined by Facebook to include people whose claim to fame may be simply a large social media following or infrequent coverage in local newspapers. They are considered to be permissible targets for certain types of abuse “because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news,” Facebook explains to its moderators. It comes as social networks face renewed criticism over abuse on their platforms, including of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and of professional footballers, in particular black stars such as Marcus Rashford.Facebook, which also owns Instagram, has changed its policies in response to the criticism, introducing new rules to cover abuse sent through direct messages and committing to cooperate with law enforcement over hate speech. In the detailed guidelines seen by the Guardian, running to more than 300 pages and dating from December 2020, Facebook spells out how it differentiates between protections for private and public individuals.

How does that even begin to make sense? This completely blows my mind. In any case, here’s a random thought. Regardless of what Facebook’s internal policies are, they don’t override local laws. So for those of you who think that this means that this is a free for all for public figures that you don’t like, you should be careful. While Facebook might not mind you calling for a politician’s death, the cops will.

This is something that highlights why Facebook needs to cease to exist as it is becoming increasingly clear that the platform does more harm than good. Thus I would strongly suggest that you #DeleteFacebook and send a message to Mark Zuckerberg that this is not acceptable.

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