Archive for April, 2022

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

SAP Labs Canada Designated As One Of Seven SAP Global Research Hubs 

Posted in Commentary on April 27, 2022 by itnerd

SAP Canada is proud to announce SAP Labs Canada has been named an SAP Global Research & Development Hub, a designation that reflects SAP’s commitment to driving innovative research in Canada, being a strategic partner to SAP customers and creating a vibrant ecosystem in the tech industry. This news comes on the heels of the company launch of a new, state-of-the-art office in downtown Montreal. This new office showcases all the hallmarks of a ‘Future of Work’ space and is purpose-built for employees to perform a variety of activities when they come on site.  

SAP Labs Canada designated as a major SAP global research hub

SAP Labs are research and development (R&D) facilities located in high tech clusters around the globe that drive SAP’s culture of innovation. SAP Labs Canada – with Labs in Montreal, Vancouver, and Waterloo – is joining the ranks of SAP Labs Walldorf, SAP Labs US, SAP Labs India, and SAP Labs China as part of the Global Hub Network, which also has recently introduced Labs Latin America and CEE Hub – including Labs Czech Republic, Labs Hungary, Labs Poland and Labs Slovakia – to its alliance.  

As the backbone of the SAP Labs Networks, comprised of 21 labs globally, Hubs represent SAP’s most significant R&D locations, in terms of size, who deliver best-in-class solutions across many of SAP’s product portfolios. Hubs influence the development of global programs and receive additional investment to enable regional initiatives.  

With over 2,550 employees across Canada, SAP Labs Canada is leading the creation of the technology that will drive the next frontier of intelligent enterprise thanks to its 35 years of development experience in analytics, database technologies, customer experience. The Waterloo Lab drives SAP’s IoT Edge and HANA Database and Analytics technologies, Vancouver Labs is home to SAP Analytics Cloud as well as SAP Concur teams, and Montreal Labs is innovating SAP CX solutions as well as SAP S/4 HANA Industry Cloud and Quote to Cash solutions  

Employee experience placed front and center in new Montreal office

SAP has always prided itself on being forward-thinking and always putting employee experience first and the new Montreal office is an example of this mindset. 

With just under 1,000 employees in Montreal, the company views the Quebec market as a world-class technology hub. This new office will continue to strengthen SAP’s position as a hub for retail, e-commerce, and industry cloud solutions. 

SAP Canada has always understood that its employees had unique work preferences and patterns – while some people are more productive and engaged in an office environment, others are more efficient when working remotely.  

The new SAP Labs Montreal office demonstrates their commitment to SAP’s Pledge to Flex, allowing employees to build work habits that support optimal productivity all in the interest of creating best-in-class employee experience. The 65,000 square foot office is on the top floors of the Place Ville Marie (PVM) building, located in the heart of Montreal, close to customers and partners. Close to public transportation and in a building rich with amenities, SAP is making it easy for employees to get to the office and an opportunity to enjoy the surrounding culture when they come into the office.  

Leave a comment »

Guest Post: Microsoft Was The Most Impersonated Brand In Phishing Attacks In 2021 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 27, 2022 by itnerd

Phishing actors frequently impersonate well-known brands, taking advantage of consumer trends to scam unsuspecting customers.

According to the recent findings by the Atlas VPN team, Microsoft and illegal streaming sites were the most impersonated brands in phishing attacks in 2021. Furthermore, the retail and government sectors experienced the most significant growth in phishing attacks last year.

Cybercriminals impersonated Microsoft product pages in 36.6% of phishing attacks in 2021. Microsoft has a wide range of products used by millions of users globally who could become potential victims of a phishing attack.

Threat actors imitated illegal streaming websites in 13.6% of phishing attacks. Illegal streaming websites are generally dodgy, as they do not have decent security. However, when cybercriminals put their hands on them, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

COVID-19-themed phishing attacks accounted for 7.2% of social engineering scams. COVID-related phishing websites can be exceptionally deceptive to internet users as they are relatively new.

Cybercriminals impersonated Telegram in 6.5% of phishing attacks. At the same time, Amazon-related phishing attacks accounted for 5.8% of social engineering attacks.

Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN Vilius Kardelis shares his thoughts on phishing attacks:

“Phishing attacks require the user to recognize and evaluate the potential danger. However, people are prone to making mistakes, and a well social engineered attack could trick almost anyone. Therefore, being aware of how phishing attacks work is essential when mitigating threat risks.”

Phishing targets retail businesses and government

Threat actors launch phishing attacks on industries that hold large amounts of sensitive customer information.

The retail and wholesale industry suffered 436% more phishing attacks in 2021 than in 2020. When phishing attacks target retailers, the actual losses are consumer trust and brand reputation.

Phishing attacks on the government sector increased by 110% in 2021. State-sponsored threat actors usually perform cyberattacks against the government.

The finance and insurance industry experienced a 101% jump in phishing attacks in 2021. On the other hand, the phishing rate in the healthcare industry dropped by 59%.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/microsoft-was-the-most-impersonated-brand-in-phishing-attacks-in-2021

Leave a comment »

Review: Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go

Posted in Products with tags on April 27, 2022 by itnerd

So what started out as a revamp of my desk setup has turned into a complete revamp of the den that my wife and I work out of because my wife is redoing her desk setup, and we’re also making some changes to other parts of the den. In regards to what my wife is up to, she’s running two computers. A Lenovo ThinkPad and my old 2015 15″ MacBook Pro. And she needs to have them both on her desk in a way that works for her. To help her with that, I set up her ThinkPad on a Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go laptop riser.

Now this laptop riser folds up into a thin package that allows you to put into your laptop bag and take it with you. It’s made of plastic that feels solid and it appears to be well engineered. This specific one is designed for 14″ laptops or tablets. But Kensington makes a 17″ version of this as well.

You’ll note the colour coding in this picture. This is the unique feature that sets this laptop riser apart from pretty much everything else on the market. These colours allow you to size this riser so that it is ergonomically correct for you. Kensington calls this their SmartFit System.

What you need to do is place your palm on this diagram and see what colour you match up to. In my wife’s case, she was green. That led me to set the stand up like this:

And when you add her ThinkPad to the mix, this is what you get:

For her, this is the perfect angle to view the screen of her ThinkPad. And so far this is working for her. Now one thing that I should point it is this is not meant for you to type on. Which is why she also got this Kensington keyboard from me which she is now using with both this ThinkPad and with her 15″ MacBook Pro as it supports multiple connections. The net result is that this setup is a win for her. The Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go laptop riser has an MSRP of $29.99 CAD and this is an easy recommendation from me whether you are on the go, or working from home like my wife is.

1 Comment »

Apple Launches Self Repair Store…. And So Far I Am Not Impressed

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 27, 2022 by itnerd

Last year Apple announced that they would be starting up a self repair program. At the time I said this:

The bottom line is that this is an optics exercise for Apple. If they really wanted to embrace right to repair, they would go further than what was announced. But they haven’t. So don’t be fooled by this announcement. It isn’t what you think it is, and it’s not going to get the results that you think it will.

Since then we’ve heard nothing from Apple. Meanwhile both Samsung and Google have launched self repair programs that simply destroy anything that Apple said that they were going to do. I guess that forced Apple into the position where they had to do something. And today they did:

Apple today announced Self Service Repair is now available, providing repair manuals and genuine Apple parts and tools through the Apple Self Service Repair Store. Self Service Repair is available in the US and will expand to additional countries — beginning in Europe — later this year.

The new online store offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as the display, battery, and camera. Later this year the program will also include manuals, parts, and tools to perform repairs on Mac computers with Apple silicon.

I went to the Self Repair Store and to be frank, it looks like someone used a template from GoDaddy to create this as it is as far as you can get from Apple’s look and feel without going to another planet. It’s almost as if they don’t want to be associated with this website. Which tells you what you need to know about Apple’s view on self repair.

Apple also did this today:

Also today, Apple published a paper, “Expanding Access to Safe, Reliable, and Secure Service and Repair,” which details Apple’s approach to designing long-lasting products and increasing access to repairs.

This is just spin to make it look like that they are on the good side of right to repair when in reality they haven’t.

I have a bunch of random thoughts on this. For starters, It seems the cost of the repairs via this site are on par with the cost of a repair in the Apple Store – which is odd because you’re repairing it yourself. Thus you think it would be cheaper. But clearly not. I’m guessing that Apple doesn’t want to lose a cent of income here. Second, it seems odd to offer self service on the newest devices first as those are the devices less likely to need to be serviced. An iPhone XS or 11 is more likely to need a new battery than a 2 month old SE or 6 month old 13. I don’t see the logic here unless Apple is doing this to limit the number of repairs. Further to that, digging around the site I found warnings that parts such as a battery and a display require a “System Configuration Tool”. And you need to contact them after the repair to be able to remove the warnings iOS gives about the battery or display being changed. Which implies that you still need Apple’s help after the repair is completed via calling Apple or taking a trip to the Genius Bar. Which doesn’t exactly sound like you’re fully in control of the repair to me.

All of this smells of the same optics exercise that I thought it was when this was first announced. Though an alternate view is that Apple threw this together when Samsung and Google upstaged them with their announcements. Either way I’m not impressed by this launch. And I wonder if Apple will do something to improve this. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: One thing to consider is the credit that you get when you return the parts to Apple. That lowers the repair price a bit.

Leave a comment »

Russian-Linked Hackers Stormous Claim To Have Pwned Coca Cola

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 27, 2022 by itnerd

A group of Russian-linked hackers named Stormous claimed that they have pwned Coca Cola:

A ransomware gang known as STORMOUS has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Russian-affiliated hacking group claims it hacked some of Coca-Cola’s servers, making off with around 161 GB of information without the company’s knowledge. STORMOUS is apparently looking to sell off the data for $64,396.67 or 1.6467 BTC.

Though the group is relatively new — first appearing in late 2021 — this isn’t the first time it has claimed a high-profile cyber theft. Earlier this year, STORMOUS claimed a breach of Epic Games, attempting to sell off over 200GB of data.

It has not yet been confirmed or verified by cybersecurity analysts and experts if Epic Games, nor any of STORMOUS’s other alleged victims, has actually been breached or not.

Coca Cola had this to say:

In response to the claims, a Coca-Cola spokesperson told The Record that the company has informed law enforcement about the possible breach. Scott Leith, the company’s communications vice president released a statement saying: “We are aware of this matter and are investigating to determine the validity of the claim.”

Anurag Gurtu, CPO of StrikeReady had this comment:

Well, time will tell if we are seeing a wave of Russian-backed threat actors compromising big organizations such as Coca-Cola.

Known for its website defacement and information theft, the Stormous ransomware gang represents itself as a group of Arabic-speaking hackers. The group has been active since 2021, and recently announced its support for the Russian government and its intention to attack Ukrainian government institutions. This ransomware provides the actor with the ability to upload custom payloads to the affected server via open-source resources such as Pastebin and remote upload. Since the actor can modify encryption and decryption keys, as well as copy ransom messages in the wild, the actor’s capabilities, which include dropping malware, encryption, and sending a ransom note, can be hard to identify. In addition, the actor’s ransomware is PHP-based, so it is easy to modify on the fly.

This is big if this is true. Clearly what we’re seeing is hacker groups graduate to bigger and more bold activities. And on top of that, this specific group has aligned itself with Russia. Making all of this a bad combination. Potentially.

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

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.

Leave a comment »

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.

4 Comments »

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.

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »