Archive for December, 2021

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Salesforce To Grow & Conserve 500K Native Trees In British Columbia

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 15, 2021 by itnerd

Yesterday, Salesforce announced a partnership with One Tree Planted to grow and conserve 500,000 native trees on Nazko First Nation Territory in the Fraser Plateau in British Columbia.

  • The high-priority region is still recovering from a 2017 wildfire that burned over 540,000 hectares. The impact of this reforestation will reduce recovery time by decades, regenerating the environment and benefitting the communities that live on the land.
  • This is one of multiple Canadian reforestation projects that Salesforce is partnering with One Tree Planted to achieve its 100 million tree goal, and accelerate 1T.org — a global movement founded in partnership with the World Economic Forum, to restore, conserve and grow one trillion trees by 2030.   

In addition, Salesforce also announced a tree equity initiative focused on long-term climate justice in partnership with One Tree Planted in the city of Malton, Ontario. 

  • The program will engage four local schools to teach youth about the historical roots of environmental justice and how trees are a solution for creating equity. They will also plant 720 large trees around the Claireville Dam Restoration Site with them to create more greenspace and address the region’s “urban heat island effect.”

These are some cool projects that Salesforce is involved in which makes Salesforce more than just a SaaS company.

Leave a comment »

Guest Post: More than 40 million people had their health information leaked in 2021 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 15, 2021 by itnerd

When cybercriminals launch attacks on health institutions, it puts in danger not only the organization but also patient lives.

According to the recent Atlas VPN team findings, over 40 million people had health information leaked in the United States in 2021 alone. Furthermore, the number of data breaches and patients affected by them has spiked tremendously.

In May 2021, 6.5 million people were affected by 50 breaches in health organizations. 20/20 EyeCare Network reported a significant compromise in May, leaking over 3 million people’s social security numbers, date of birth, and health insurance information.

In January, hackers stole information of nearly 5.8 million people throughout 29 breaches. Florida Healthy Kids Corporation suffered the biggest data breach of the year (in health organization context), which allegedly affected about 3.5 million people after a cyberattack on its web-hosting platform.

In July, 5.6 million people’s data was compromised by cybercriminals throughout 64 breaches. In the same month, Forefront Dermatology reported about their data breach, which may have exposed more than 2.4 million patient and employee records. 

Throughout August, another 40 breaches occurred, affecting 5.1 million people.

Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN Vilius Kardelis shares his thoughts on cyberattacks against the healthcare industry:

“Healthcare institutions have not prioritized cybersecurity because many of them lack the financial resources to do so. However, as more cyberattacks are being launched at hospitals, they are starting to make changes. Healthcare organizations need to take their cybersecurity to the next level, as keeping patient data safe is their responsibility.”

Worrying uprise of cyberattacks

Health institutions are very lucrative targets for hackers as such organizations store an incredible amount of personal patient data.

In 2020, 15.1 million people suffered from health organization data breaches in the United States. In 2021, this number surged by 177% to the heights of 42 million victims.

The total number of compromises against health organizations also increased significantly from 257 data compromises in 2020 to a staggering 587 in 2021, a 128% increase. 

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/more-than-40-million-people-had-their-health-information-leaked-in-2021

Leave a comment »

Guest Post: Investment in tech hit $670 billion across the globe, what does it mean for innovation in the next 12 months?

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 15, 2021 by itnerd

By David Byerly – VP & Country Manager, Canada

Over the past year, the adoption of technology by businesses around the world seeking ways to adapt to a new way of working skyrocketed. This has resulted in a $678 billion boost in revenue among technology providers, according to a new Citrix new study – The Era of Hyper Innovation. 

Of those surveyed, nine in 10 business leaders say that the rollout and adoption of new, pandemic-inspired work tools have vastly improved the way individuals and teams interact. But business leaders aren’t stopping there. As a result of their investments, 80% say they expect their organization to enter a stage of hyper-innovation over the next 12 months.

What is driving this acceleration of innovation?

Despite the many concerns business leaders had going into the pandemic, we are seeing boosts in revenue, productivity, and innovation. According to Citrix’s study, the biggest factor has been rethinking how we work due to remote work models.

Ninety-three per cent (93%) of those polled stated that increased digital collaboration has led to more diverse voices from across the organization being heard and a greater range of ideas being exchanged. Eighty per cent (80%) said that they, themselves, have had more creative ideas during the pandemic given they have more free time to think.

Innovation alone isn’t enough

While a commitment to innovating how work gets done is encouraging, it’s important to realize the broader impact this will have on employees. Organizations must also put in place policies that create an equitable environment to avoid the potential for a “Digital Divide” amongst their employees. 

The digital divide is a concept that, when implementing a hybrid or remote working model, you may inadvertently create the serious risk that your workplace will be rife with inequity and unfair or unintentional biases.

Since the onset of the pandemic, employees have had equal access (or lack of access, depending on how well managed your business was) to management for support and guidance, as well as their co-workers for collaboration and advice. This occurred through online collaboration tools that everyone had access to. 

As the return to the office continues, some employees are choosing to remain at home as much as possible. The playing field will no longer be balanced. The biggest struggle for businesses moving forward will be to maintain that equity, allowing productivity and employee wellbeing to continue, while ensuring a seamless and successful transition to hybrid working models.

What does this mean for the future of innovation?

As businesses continue to push through the pandemic, the proven success of adopting new technologies will play a large role in their future strategies. Sixty-nine per cent (69%) of the business leaders surveyed say they will increase investment in R&D in the next 12 months. As they do so, businesses must be prepared to succeed and support their team. 

There are technologies specifically designed to do this already. They can empower all of your employees – no matter where they are working from – to be able to equally engage and collaborate in order to drive the growth and innovation your business needs. Now is the time to truly evaluate your organization from top to bottom and begin strategizing for the future of work you and your team want to see in your business.

Leave a comment »

Guest Post: A Record Number Of Data Leak Sites Detected In 2021

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 14, 2021 by itnerd

Falling victim to a ransomware attack is one of the worst things that can happen to a company from a cybersecurity standpoint. No other attack damages the organizations’ reputation, finances, and operational activities like ransomware.  

Getting hit by ransomware means that hackers were able to steal and encrypt sensitive data. Usually, cybercriminals demand payment for the key that will allow the company to decrypt its files. Also, fraudsters promise to either remove or not make the stolen data publicly available on the dark web.

However, the situation usually pans out a bit differently in a real-life situation. Hackers tend to take the ransom and still publish the data. This is commonly known as double extortion.

Atlas VPN analysis builds on the recent Hi-Tech Crime Trends report by Group-IB.

Findings reveal that the second half of 2021 was a record period in terms of new data leak sites created on the dark web.

Researchers only found one new data leak site in 2019 H2. However, the situation took a sharp turn in 2020 H1, as DLSs increased to a total of 12. Similarly, there were 13 new sites detected in the second half of 2020.

2021 is a record year in terms of how many new websites of this kind appeared on the dark web. DLSs increased to 15 in the first half of the year and to 18 in the second half, totaling 33 websites for 2021, a 32% growth YoY.

Record number of companies affected

Last year, the data of 1335 companies was put up for sale on the dark web. However, this year, the number surged to 1966 organizations, representing a 47% increase YoY.

Yet, this report only covers the first three quarters of 2021. Meaning, the actual growth YoY will be more significant.

Organized crime groups to blame

Some people believe that cyberattacks are carried out by a single man in a hoodie behind a computer in a dark room. However, that is not the case.

Ransomware attacks are nearly always carried out by a group of threat actors. For example, a single cybercrime group Conti published 361 or 16.5% of all data leaks in 2021.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/record-number-of-data-leak-sites-detected-in-2021

Leave a comment »

Upgrading To macOS Monterey 12.1 Was A Pain In The A$$

Posted in Tips with tags on December 14, 2021 by itnerd

Yesterday Apple released macOS Monterey 12.1, and I of course tried to install it on my new 16″ MacBook Pro. The thing is, that it seemed that the MacBook Pro didn’t want it. At first, I couldn’t get it to show up in Software Update. A quick look at Twitter indicated that I wasn’t alone in that department:

His experience mirrored my experience. But there were others:

https://twitter.com/RobertoC_73/status/1470764935063883777

In my case, I briefly saw the update. But when I tried to download it and install it, the update failed and then caused my CPU to spike with a service called “NRDUpdateD” chewing up a massive amount of CPU time. And rebooting the Mac wouldn’t fix that. My guess was that my operating system was in some state where it couldn’t perform the update properly because the service in question was going haywire. Thus I needed to take action via reinstalling the OS.

Now the best way to reinstall macOS is via recovery mode. The reason is that the Mac boots to a completely separate OS which makes it way less complicated for the installer application to install the OS as any customizations or applications like anti-virus applications don’t enter the picture. This document details how to enter recovery mode. And once you’re in it, I started the macOS installer.

Now here’s where things get time consuming. Once you get into this installer, it will download roughly 12.5 GB as this installer always installs the latest version available. So you need to have a fast internet connection or you will be waiting a very long time. In my case, it took about an hour to download and reinstall the OS. After that, I was on macOS Monterey 12.1 and everything worked.

I am now starting to do some testing. Specifically, to see if the memory leak issue is fixed. Apple didn’t specifically say so on the release notes. But here’s hoping that it is fixed. I do notice that my MacBook Pro is running slightly cooler with less CPU being used. I’ll follow up on that front and with whatever else I find.

UPDATE: A reader asked if my data remained intact after the reinstall. It did. But it goes without saying that you should have a backup just in case.

2 Comments »

Kronos Gets Pwned And Could Be Down For Weeks [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 14, 2021 by itnerd

Kronos workforce management solutions provider has suffered a ransomware attack that will likely disrupt many of their cloud-based solutions for weeks:

As we previously communicated, late on Saturday, December 11, 2021, we became aware of unusual activity impacting UKG solutions using Kronos Private Cloud. We took immediate action to investigate and mitigate the issue, and have determined that this is a ransomware incident affecting the Kronos Private Cloud—the portion of our business where UKG Workforce Central, UKG TeleStaff, Healthcare Extensions, and Banking Scheduling Solutions are deployed. At this time, we are not aware of an impact to UKG Pro, UKG Ready, UKG Dimensions, or any other UKG products or solutions, which are housed in separate environments and not in the Kronos Private Cloud.

We are working with leading cyber security experts to assess and resolve the situation, and have notified the authorities. The investigation remains ongoing, as we work to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

Their UKG solutions using ‘Kronos Private Cloud’ are unavailable due to a weekend ransomware attack on December 11th.

Ayal Yogev, CEO and Cofounder, Anjuna Security:

“We continue to see that even the most fastidious SaaS companies struggle to protect their business because today’s computing paradigm equates host access with unfettered data and process access.  A new generation of powerful secure computing technologies uncouple this dangerous link that is the enabler of so many breaches today.”

This isn’t a good look for Kronos as a lot of companies rely on their services. And they could go elsewhere which will cost the company both in terms of money, and to their reputation.

UPDATE: Eddy Bobritsky, CEO of Minerva Labs had this to say:

Ransomware attacks are becoming bolder and more sophisticated, using evasive malware techniques to get around regular EDR antivirus solutions. As we can see here, even with quick detection and immediate action, a small ransomware attack can result in damages that can take “up to several weeks to restore system availability”. This is why, despite its difficulty, it is important to start moving towards a prevention approach, rather than a detect and respond one.

1 Comment »

CN Partners with Google Cloud 

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 14, 2021 by itnerd

CN and Google Cloud today announced a seven-year strategic partnership to transform CN’s supply chain as part of digital scheduled railroading, deliver new customer experiences, and modernize its technology infrastructure in the cloud. The companies will collaborate on new services to revolutionize the North American railway system, combining CN’s world-leading expertise in the transportation and logistics industry with Google Cloud’s technology and culture of innovation.

Through this partnership, CN and Google Cloud will set a new standard for the railway system that delivers better experiences for customers across industries–from materials and resources, to manufactured products, to consumer goods. CN’s work with Google Cloud will drive the railway’s ability to achieve continued growth and execute on transformational business initiatives, while supporting its sustainability goals, as Google’s platform is the cleanest cloud in the industry.

As part of the partnership, CN and Google Cloud will collaborate on the following initiatives:

  • Enabling better connectivity and collaboration with customers and supply chain partners: CN will develop an intuitive digital platform, powered by Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools, ultimately giving customers and supply chain partners more visibility into the logistics journey of planning, shipping, tracking and payment.
  • Delivering new experiences for CN’s customers through co-innovation initiatives: This multi-year partnership will combine CN’s industry expertise with Google Cloud’s leadership in data analytics, AI, and ML to deliver new solutions and next-generation experiences for CN’s employees, customers, and partners, such as simplified ordering and automated tracking to further enhance predictive maintenance capabilities.
  • Modernizing CN’s infrastructure in the cloud: CN will gradually and securely move the large majority of its digital infrastructure, including SAP applications, from on-premises to Google Cloud’s always-on global network. Moving to the cloud will allow CN to scale with customer and industry demands, simplify the company’s IT estate, create efficiencies, and reduce product delivery lead times.

CN is a world-class transportation leader and trade-enabler. Essential to the economy, to the customers, and to the communities it serves, CN safely transports more than 300 million tons of natural resources, manufactured products, and finished goods throughout North America every year. As the only railroad connecting Canada’s Eastern and Western coasts with the U.S. South through a 19,500-mile rail network, CN and its affiliates have been contributing to community prosperity and sustainable trade since 1919. CN is committed to programs supporting social responsibility and environmental stewardship.

Google Cloud accelerates organizations’ ability to digitally transform their business with the best infrastructure, platform, industry solutions and expertise. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

Leave a comment »

 7 Cloud Vulnerabilities Are Endangering Your Data Says Kratikal Blogs

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 13, 2021 by itnerd

Kratikal Blogs has released 7 Cloud Vulnerabilities Endangering Your Data, the list includes:

  • Lack of Multi-factor authentication for Privileged Users
  • No Multi-factor Authentication to Join Devices=
  • Open S3 Bucket
  • Incomplete Data Deletion
  • Lambda Command Injection
  • Insecure APIs
  • Failure of Separation Among Multiple Tenants

None of this is trivial if you are using the cloud for anything. Edward Roberts, VP of Marketing, Neosec agrees:

“The move to cloud has certainly highlighted new security issues but not everything is a problem because of a vulnerability. For example, organizations are exposing APIs by design and worrying only about insecure APIs misses the full picture. The abuse of APIs by bad actors is also a growing problem. Because APIs expose your core business, think user accounts for a bank, reservations for hospitality, payment processing for merchants, they are increasingly under attack from bad actors. The crown jewels of data are transmitted by an organization’s APIs. Ignoring the behavior on your APIs is not an option. APIs will be your largest undefended attack surface.”

A lot of companies have moved to the cloud due to the pandemic. That means that they should read this blog and give their cloud environment a once over.

Leave a comment »

Over One-Third Of Canadian Organizations Experienced A Data Center Failure During The Pandemic: CDW Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 13, 2021 by itnerd

As many Canadian businesses continue to conduct remote or hybrid work operations, choosing the right type of data centre and backup recovery solution has never been more important to ensure employees remain agile, flexible and productive at work. 

Released this week, CDW Canada’s latest Market Trends Report, themed Maximize Your Data Centre, examines how Canadian organizations have been managing their data centres and reveals the top data centre trends and workplace transformations that have taken place over the last two years. 

Key findings include: 

  • Over half (61%) of respondents reported their organization invested in data centre infrastructure over the last two years.  
  • Over one-third (35%) of people surveyed reported that data centre failures contributed to major outages for business-critical applications in the past two years. 
  • Data centre failure and public cloud services outages have been attributed to major business shortcomings that impacted bottom lines such as loss of productivity (82%), added costs (37%), security breaches (22%), loss of data (21%) and loss of reputation (21%). 
  • Seven out of ten (77%) Canadian organizations were equipped with a backup data centre or disaster recovery solution. 

For more information, please click see the full Market Trends Report here.

Leave a comment »

 The 2nd Annual TikTok Music Report Is Out

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 13, 2021 by itnerd

Today, TikTok is releasing its 2nd Annual TikTok Music Report, highlighting top music trends on the app this year. The app is now a fundamental part of the music industry, and with the 2021 Music Report, we have the data to prove it.

TikTok remained the top source of music discovery for fans of all backgrounds, paving the way for the next generation of music stars, and helping usher in artists as diverse as Olivia Rodrigo, PinkPantheress, and Måneskin to stardom.

So, which Canadian artists made the list?

And let’s crunch some numbers:

  • Over 175 songs trended on TikTok in 2021 also charted on the Billboard Hot 100, twice as many as last year.
  • Approximately 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok sounds in 2021 – a threefold increase over 2020.
  • The most popular of these songs approach, and even exceed, 20 billion views on videos they soundtrack.

You can find the full report here.

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »