Archive for April 26, 2022

Guest Post: Tech Support Scams Cause Nearly $350 Million In Damages In 2021 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

Atlas VPN analysis reveals that tech support scam losses increased by 137% in 2021 and caused $347.66 million in damages to unwitting individuals globally. 

Tech support fraud involves a criminal pretending to provide customer, security, technical support, or assistance to deceive unwary victims. Criminals may act as support or service agents, offering to resolve difficulties such as a hacked email account or bank account, a computer virus, or a software license renewal.

The analysis is based on recently made public data by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The figures reflect inspection on a global scale, not only in the US. 

The year 2021 was record-breaking in terms of damages. Losses to tech support scams more than doubled, from $146.48 million in 2020 to $347.66 million in 2021. 

In other words, individuals lost close to 1$ million per day to these types of scams.

Also, the majority of victims (almost 60%) were over 60 years old, and they accounted for 68% of the damages (nearly $238 million) in 2021. 

Yet, last year was not unusual in terms of growth in damages. Losses caused by tech support scams have been rising, on average, by 127% every year since 2017. 

The severity of the issue is clearly seen when contrasting losses in 2017 to 2021. Throughout 2017, fraudsters swindled over $14.81 million from victims globally. In 2021, it took criminals around 15 days to cause that much damage. 

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/tech-support-scam-losses-double-causing-nearly-350-million-in-damages-in-2021

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Two Industry Reports Recognize Trend Micro As An Industry Leader

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

Trend Micro has been recognized as a leader in cyber security solutions by two prestigious industry reports:

  • According to the Forrester Wave Report Trend Micro is one of only three vendors to be named a Leader and have received a five out of five score in investigation capabilities, ATT&CK alignment, extended capabilities, innovation roadmap, and five other criteria. 
  • This recognition is reinforced by the MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations, in which Trend Micro Vision One™ ranked #1 in the protection category after being tested against simulated breaches inspired by real-world attacks to ensure customers can appropriately visualize and address today’s threats.  

Once more, Trend Micro has demonstrated it is dedicated to serving on customers’ current and evolving security needs, by providing comprehensive threat detection and response across the industry.

To read a full copy of The Forrester Wave™: Detection and Response (EDR), Q2 2022 the report, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/explore/forrester-wave-edr

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Bell and Amazon Web Services bring 5G Edge Compute to Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

Bell today announced the launch of the first public multi-access edge computing (MEC) with AWS Wavelength in Canada. Building on Bell’s agreement with AWS, announced last year, together the two companies are deploying AWS Wavelength Zones throughout the country at the edge of Bell’s 5G network starting in Toronto.

Bell Public MEC with AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services at the edge of the Bell 5G network, closer to mobile and connected devices where data is generated and consumed. This enables software developers and businesses to take full advantage of the high speed and low latency of Bell’s 5G network and the cloud with AWS to build innovative, low- latency solutions that leverage real-time visual data processing, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), advanced robotics, and much more.

Network infrastructure is the backbone for Canadian businesses today as they innovate and advance in the digital age. Organizations across retail, transportation, manufacturing, media & entertainment and more can unlock new growth opportunities with 5G and MEC to be more agile, drive efficiency, and transform customer experiences.

Optimized for MEC applications, AWS Wavelength deployed on service providers’ 5G networks provides seamless access to cloud services running in AWS Regions. By doing so, AWS Wavelength minimizes the latency and network hops required to connect from a 5G device to an application hosted on AWS. AWS Wavelength is now available in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, and Japan in partnership with global communications service providers.

Creating an immersive shopping experience with Bell 5G

Increasingly, retailers want to offer omni-channel shopping experiences so that consumers can access products, offers, and support services on the channels, platforms, and devices they prefer. For instance, there’s a growing appetite for online shopping to replicate the in store experience – particularly for apparel retailers. These kinds of experiences require seamless connectivity so that customers can easily and immediately pick up on a channel after they leave another channel to continue the experience. These experiences also must be optimized for high- quality viewing and interactivity.

Rudsak worked with Bell and AWS to deploy Summit Tech’s immersive shopping platform, Odience, to offer its customers an immersive and seamless virtual shopping experience with live sales associates and the ability to see merchandise up close. With 360-degree cameras at its pop-up locations and launch events, Rudsak customers can browse the racks and view a new product line via their smartphones or VR headsets from either the comfort of their own home or while on the go.

Bell Public MEC with AWS Wavelength is now available in the Toronto area, with additional Wavelength Zones to be deployed in the future.

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Review: Sylvania Smart+ A19 Full Colour LED Bulb

Posted in Products with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

As part of the work on my desk setup, which has now evolved into a home office makeover, I wanted to do something about the lighting in my den. Now I have used smart lights bulbs in the past connect via WiFi. But they used a unique app and didn’t talk to HomeKit. Since I have been standardizing all my smart home devices on the Apple HomeKit platform, I decided to make a move towards HomeKit compatible light bulbs. Thus I chose the Sylvania Smart +A19 Full Colour LED bulbs (as I got a pair of them to install in my den).

These are Bluetooth enabled smart light bulbs that speak to HomeKit. The fact that they are Bluetooth enabled creates some challenges if you have a large home, or like me you live in someplace where Bluetooth signals don’t travel too far. In my case, that’s because of the concrete walls in my condo. So just like when I installed this HomeKit door sensor and alarm, to make this work I had to buy a third HomePod to install into my den so that it could connect to the lights and control them. So if you go for these bulbs, you should keep that in mind.

As for installing them, it was pretty straightforward:

  • Screw them into the light sockets and turn them on via your light switch. .
  • Open the home app and click “Add Accessory”.
  • Scan the HomeKit barcode that comes with the light bulb and follow the prompts.
  • Done. Declare victory and have a beer.

So, about that “full colour” capability. What that means is that you can choose from over 16 million available colors and you can adjust the white colour temperature from 2700K-6500K. That way you can get the vibe you want. My vibe is boring, so I just adjusted them to the temperature that you see in the picture. The thing is that you need to do this via the Home app as the Sylvania Home App which is recommended in the instructions is pretty much useless for this, and one other feature which is firmware updates. In my case, I tried to update the firmware for the two bulbs and went through this sequence of events:

  • Open the Sylvania Home App
  • Click On Apple HomeKit
  • Watch a pinwheel spin as it tries to find the bulbs and can’t. Which isn’t a problem as if you flip the lights off and on five times, they’ll pop up and indicate that there’s a new firmware available.
  • You then watch it perform the firmware update and it claims it is successful, but exiting and going back into the app indicates that there’s a firmware update available.

Here’s the thing, the bulbs are running firmware version 1.1.31. I can’t find anything anywhere online if this is the latest firmware or not. Plus this number never changed in my attempts to upgrade the firmware. And Sylvania (or more accurately LEDVANCE who seems to be selling this product) doesn’t have much of a support presence online. So if you run into some sort of trouble with these bulbs, you might be on your own.

Another issue that I tripped over is that a couple of days into owning these, I had to reboot all of my HomePod Mini units to get them to connect to one of them after they started to display the dreaded “not responding” error. I don’t know which one as HomeKit doesn’t expose that to end users, but I assume it’s the one in the den that they are connected to. I didn’t have to do that with my alarm/door sensor. But I will keep an eye on this to see if this is an ongoing issue, or if this is related to my attempts to update the firmware as it might have confused HomeKit in some manner as the attempts to update the firmware power cycles the bulbs, which might have put them into a state where they were not connecting properly.

So would I recommend the Sylvania Smart +A19 Full Colour LED bulbs? I would not for the average user as from what I can tell, these aren’t “plug and play” which is the whole point of HomeKit accessories. There’s just too many rough edges with these smart lights where I could confidently say go to out and buy them. I will be running them for the next little while to see if my experience with them improves. But don’t be surprised if you see me post a review in a few weeks with another HomeKit compatible light bulb that replaces these bulbs. I paid $48.07 CDN for each bulb on Amazon. But if you look around, you might find it for less.

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EnGenius Announces New Wi-Fi 6 Wall-Plate Access Point Features Powerful Multicasting Technology For Hospitality

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

EnGenius Technologies Inc., a multinational networking company, known for delivering future-proof networking solutions for enterprises, today announced the release of its new EnGenius cloud managed ECW215 Wi-Fi 6 dual-band 2×2:2 wall-plate access point.

The EnGenius ECW215 is a sleek, low-profile design for easy concealment that uses Wi-Fi 6 technology to deliver best-in-class wireless experiences to more devices like laptops, tablets, smart phones, and IoT sensors in rooms.  The AP also provides a versatile, built-in 2-port gigabit switch to connect and provide power to wired devices like VoIP phones when cabling or power sources are limited.  The license-free cloud interface allows IT pros to “bulk” register and configure access points centrally, provide advanced client authentication for higher security, and minimize truck-rolls with advanced AP diagnostics for remote troubleshooting. 

Clients will also love the innovative ECW215 smartcasting feature that provides smooth, fast setup and streaming on L2 guest networks for media sticks, game consoles, and other devices for an exceptional, personalized entertainment experience. In addition, upcoming features will add the ability to extend captive portal, splash pages, and security (which are all configurable through the SSID interface) to the extra LAN ports to unify the wireless and wired network onboarding process for a seamless user transition.   

The EnGenius ECW215 is one of only a few state-of-the-art Wi-Fi 6 capable wall-plate access points on the market that will provide exceptional wired and wireless connectivity for superior in-room entertainment in hotel guest rooms, student housing, assisted living, senior living, apartment complexes, and classrooms. 

Key Features

  • Dual-band 802.11ax 2×2 supports up-to 1,200 Mbps (5 GHz) & 574 Mbps (2.4 GHz)
  • Sleek, low-profile design for in-room Wi-Fi & wired connectivity
  • 802.3at PoE+ compliant for flexible installation up to 328 feet from a power source
  • On-board 2-port switch offers VLAN support and PoE to power VoIP phones 
  • SmartCasting (like Chromecast and Apple TV) to stream media from mobile devices to TVs for personalized entertainment  
  • SSID settings that can be automatically applied to LAN ports & provide a captive portal, splash page, & security
  • Mesh wireless support simplifies setup, optimizes signals & self-heals
  • Remotely manage, test, configure, and troubleshoot unlimited number of APs with EnGenius Cloud
  • Advanced real-time diagnostic tools to help admins troubleshoot WiFi networks with channel utilization, ping, traceroute and real-time client information
  • AP connectivity diagnostics, Wi-Fi quality testing, and device configurations
  • Quick-Scan Device register, installation, and remote monitoring & troubleshooting
  • Basic EnGenius Cloud management available free, PRO EnGenius Cloud available with affordable license fee

Shipping for the EnGenius cloud managed ECW215 Wi-Fi 6 dual-band 2×2:2 wall-plate access point will begin May 2022.

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State Of Wireless WAN Report: Businesses Increase Use Of 4G/5G WAN Links With More Growth Predicted

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, today released findings from its annual State of Wireless WAN Report developed in conjunction with IDG. The results find Wireless WAN (WWAN) adoption continues to increase globally, with businesses focused on improving bandwidth and introducing new services. 

Additionally, 5G is definitely top of mind as it continues to roll out across the country: More than half of Canadian respondents (54 per cent) indicated they are familiar with 5G and have researched it, while 34 per cent said they are very familiar with 5G and actively working towards it.

4G/5G Use is Growing
A key highlight of the report is the rapid growth of 4G/5G globally, which grew from 41 per cent to 67 per cent in 2021. In Canada, 64 per cent of respondents indicated they are already using 4G/5G for WWAN.

Overall, the progress for 4G and 5G is projected to continue with 68 per cent of all respondents saying they anticipate an increase in 4G/5G WAN links in the next three years. 

When asked what was driving the change in usage of different types of WAN links, improving bandwidth and preparing for new services were top of mind for most respondents.

There is Opportunity in Canada
In Canada, the findings show there is much opportunity for growth and adoption, especially at the branch level.

Canadian respondents indicated current 4G/5G connectivity use is spread quite evenly across connecting vehicles (50 per cent), augmenting wired links in a location/branch (50 per cent), connecting other IoT (47 per cent), connecting digital signage (47 per cent) and as a failover link in a location/branch (47 per cent). 

In Canada, respondents felt their impediments to deploying 4G/5G were security at 71 per cent (compared to 59 per cent globally) and cost at 65 per cent (compared to 52 per cent globally). Reliability (52 per cent) and complexity (48 per cent) were other impediments cited by Canadian respondents. 

Other findings:

  • In-vehicle networks: In Canada, 72 per cent of respondents expect to see the number of connected vehicles increase within the next three years. Forty-one (41) per cent of Canadian respondents cited “difficult to manage” as a current network challenge in vehicles. Only 14 per cent of Canadian organizations cited network downtime as a challenge, significantly below the global average of 30 per cent.
  • IoT: There is an uptick in the number of IoT connected devices deployed. In Canada, the average number of devices on respondents’ IoT networks is 270, above the global average of 247. The top three IoT connected devices for Canadian respondents are security cameras, sensors and digital signage; and most organizations are planning to add more of these devices in the next 12 months (63 per cent, 46 per cent and 56 per cent respectively).
  • SD-WAN: There is a sizeable uptick in deployment of SD-WAN since 2020 with more to come within six months. Current and planned deployments are up in Canada, U.S. and U.K.; in Canada, the average number of locations/branches provided with WAN connectivity is 251 (compared to 248 globally). Security was cited as the most important feature in SD-WAN at 59 per cent globally.


To learn more and view the full State of Wireless WAN Report 2022, click here. To learn more about the results from Canada specifically, visit: https://resources.cradlepoint.com/ca-en/report-4g-and-5g-for-wireless-wan-becomes-pervasive-canada 

About the Survey
Cradlepoint partnered with IDG to conduct an online survey of 702 IT decision makers in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the U.K. and Australia. The report highlights key findings about what adoption/ implementation of SD-WAN and related technologies looks like in the real world — how organizations considered adoption and how they’ve managed implementation, and results. 

Survey respondents were required to have a title of IT manager or higher and work for a company with 50 or more employees. The respondents represented a wide variety of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, construction, engineering, energy/power/utilities, education and government/public safety. 

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Infosec Institute Adds Sales And Channel Leaders To Their Team

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 26, 2022 by itnerd

Infosec Institute, a leading cybersecurity education company, today announced the expansion of its international commercial business with the appointment of Jeffrey de Graaf as the senior vice president of international sales and Donna Turgeon as head of channel.  

As SVP of international sales, Jeffrey will build and lead Infosec’s global sales organization. Jeffrey de Graaf has more than 20 years of experience as a sales and marketing professional, with a strong emphasis on IT security and channel relations. He was most recently responsible for leading KnowBe4’s operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Ensuring growth aspirations were met, this included the build, growth and maturation of the Channel business, along with all foundational functions such as Sales and Account Management, Customer Success, pre and post-sales Technical support and Engineering, People Operations, Marketing and Administration functions.

In her role as head of channel, Donna will lead Infosec’s channel sales team and indirect go-to-market strategy, operations and revenue globally. Donna brings 30 years’ experience driving indirect and direct revenue, ensuring customer success, delivering global GTM programs, leading corporate Channel and Distribution strategy, recruiting and onboarding business partners, and building effective Global sales and support teams. Donna is a multiple-year CRN Channel Chief award winner. Before her role at Infosec, she built an excellent indirect and direct sales and Marketing organization as CRO of VIPRE Security Group. She has held various senior leadership roles at various companies, including KnowBe4, Tech Data, InspiredeLearning and AccentHealth. 

In 2021 alone, Infosec’s software platforms — Infosec IQ and Infosec Skills — helped millions of learners make the digital world safer by delivering 26 million minutes of cybersecurity training. The company has also received many awards for its online training platforms, Infosec Skills and Infosec IQ, and announced several strategic industry alliances with organizations like Microsoft and Check Point Software.

To learn more about Infosec, visit https://infosecinstitute.com/. 

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