Archive for July 19, 2022

A Follow Up To Yours Truly Dumping Rogers

Posted in Commentary with tags , on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

After my latest Rogers outage combined with the nationwide outage that they had, my wife and I had had enough of dealing with Rogers. The reason is that my wife and I work from home and reliable Internet and telco services is a must for us. So far, not counting the nationwide outage, we’ve lost Rogers services four times this year. Sometimes for as long as half a day. That doesn’t meet the bar when it comes to reliability. Thus we made the call to go to Bell. Now I will admit that we did have a very negative experience trying to move to Bell recently. But at this point, I was going to try again because staying on Rogers is no longer an option. And I say “I” because this was now my problem to solve as my wife doesn’t want to deal with Bell because what happened the last time.

Now I started out with ordering online again. I chose Internet and home phone as that is all we need, and we’re taking this opportunity to dump TV as we don’t watch TV via Ignite TV anymore. The package would have cost us $167 a month which is a savings from the $220 that we’re currently paying with Rogers. So I put the order in after picking an install date which ended up being this Friday. When I got the email, I noticed two things right away. The first is that the contact number which I typed in was converted to 999-999-9999. Now I know that I didn’t type that in as I screen recorded everything that I did. So clearly the Bell system changed that. The second thing was that they issued a new number for the home phone. That’s a #fail as I wanted my existing number ported from Rogers. Thus I was forced to call into Bell.

Now I am convinced that Bell does this so that you are forced to call in so that they can upsell you to death. So my plan was to get them to focus on sorting out the issue with the order out first, and then deal with the upselling later. That plan worked for the most part. Let me give you a play by play:

  • The person who I got on the line tried to modify my order, but couldn’t do that. Thus he claims he was forced to create a new order. But what sucks about this is that he also couldn’t cancel the order that I put in online, and I would have to call back in tomorrow or later tonight to cancel the order. I question why Bell doesn’t have a way to nuke the order themselves and force the customer to do it. In any case, I’ll be calling them tomorrow and I will let you know how that goes.
  • So once he sorted out the order which included porting my existing home phone number from Rogers, and putting in proper contact info for the installer, the upselling began. He tried to get me to add on TV as well as move our cell phones from Telus to Bell under the guise of the more services that I had with Bell, the more money I would save. Or put another way, they want to get you to spend more of your money and you “save” money. I wasn’t interested in either of those options as we won’t have all our telco services with one provider as I outlined here. What however he did offer was a bump to 1.5 Gbps down/940 Mbps up Internet service for $49.95 a month for 24 months. After that the price goes up to 84.95 a month. This is down from their list price of $134.95 which is the list price on the Bell website. I also went for a better home phone package with North American calling and services like call waiting and caller ID for $56.56 a month.
  • My install date was moved to next Thursday morning.

Total time invested: 44 minutes on the phone call. 10 minutes on the web.

Now there were some sneaky things that Bell did. The first one is that they added on the Bell FibeTV app to the deal. Now you’re likely saying “didn’t you just say that you didn’t want TV service?” I did. But they slip it in as almost a “oh by the way” sort of thing that they are hoping that you won’t notice. But when you look at the email that they send over confirming the order, you’ll notice this:

So the Fibe TV app with Crave TV which is Bell’s streaming service is $30 a month. But you get a $20 credit for six months, and a $4.95 credit for having two Bell services, which means that it drops the price to $10 a month. Why is this important? Let’s look at what I’m being charged for the home phone:

If you look at the two discounts, you’ll see that they mention that these are discounts for having three Bell services. As in TV, Internet, and home phone. So basically they’re forcing you into using the Bell TV app so that you get some “savings”. I guess it helps to boost their TV and Crave TV subscriber numbers and make them a couple of extra bucks. Especially after the six month promo for Crave TV expires. I’ll be nuking the Bell TV app before the new year after I’ve binge watched a bunch of things and I’ll eat the $20.49 in “savings” that I am getting now.

Let’s get to the final price. With all of the “savings” accounted for I am paying $116.51 a month. This is way less than the $222 a month that I was paying with Rogers. But that Rogers price includes TV as I am not “officially” getting TV with Bell. And the price will go up in 2 years time. But at that time I will call in and go through their retentions department to get a better deal.

Here’s a free pro tip: Everyone should call their telco to cut a better deal with them every year or two and be prepared to move telcos if they don’t as that’s the only way to save money on your telco bill.

My take on this is that some of what you see above falls under the category of being sketchy. I say that because the agent that I spoke to is clearly trained to focus me on the price of the package that you get and not look too closely on the details. And if you question anything, they refocus you back on to the price of the package. While I will admit that the price that this guy quoted to me on the phone is what is on the email, the way he got to that price doesn’t sit too well with me. And this is another thing that doesn’t sit well with me is this:

So Bell has the right to increase your price with 30 days notice. Maybe as that part of the above paragraph says “if required”. Thus the way I read this is that Bell will increase your bill at some point. Another reason for me to be ready to call in to cut a new deal if required.

As mentioned above, my install is set for next Thursday and I will update you on how that goes. Along with how detailing how I tie in Bell’s services into my network because there’s zero chance I will use Bell’s hardware to power my home network. At the same time, I have a feeling that Rogers will be giving us a call as we’re porting our home phone number away from them which will trigger them to perhaps call and figure out how to retain us as customers. I’ll update you if that happens as well.

Guest Post: Americans Received More Than 24 Billion Robocalls in H1 2022 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

Robocalls are gaining popularity. Clinics use them to remind patients about their appointments, telemarketers employ them to sell their latest products, and scammers utilize them as a tool to lure out personal information.

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, based on the Robocall Index by YouMail, people in the United States received 24.3 billion robocalls in the first half of this year. 

The last three quarters saw an upward trend in robocalls. In the first quarter of this year, robocalls had increased by 2% to 12.04 billion compared to Q4 2021, when 11.82 robocalls were registered in the US. In March alone, 4.37 billion robocalls were recorded in the US — more than any other month in 2022.

Moving on from Q1 2022 to Q2 2022, the robocalls once again rose by 2% to 12.26 billion. Nevertheless, if we contrast the numbers of the first half of 2021 to this year’s data, we see an 8% drop from 26.44 billion robocalls in H1 2021 to 24.3 billion in H1 2022.

The US states most affected by robocalls

While no US state was safe from robocalls in the first half of this year, some were affected more than others.

Out of all the states, Texas got the most significant share of robocalls. In total, 2.95 billion robocalls were directed at the state’s residents, meaning that on average, each Texan endured nearly 98 robocalls in H1 2022.

California follows Texas with 2.22 billion robocalls in H1 2022 or around 56 calls per person. 

Meanwhile, Florida occupies the third spot on the list. Its residents experienced a total of 1.92 billion robocalls or approximately 87 calls per resident. 

Next up is Georgia, with 1.54 billion robocalls. Despite Texas leading the chart with the most robocalls overall, people in the state of Georgia suffered the most robocalls individually — close to 141 per state resident. Atlanta, Georgia, was also the most affected city by robocalls in the first half of this year. In total, its residents faced nearly a billion robocalls.

New York rounds out the top five list of most robocall-affected states. Its residents received 1.23 billion robocalls (64 per resident).  

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/americans-received-more-than-24-billion-robocalls-in-h1-2022

Guest Post: Commvault and NetApp Deliver Metallic DMaaS for Microsoft Office 365

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

By Bernard Laroche, VP, Global Strategic Partners, Commvault

The Commvault and NetApp partnership is strong – built on a 15 year history of delivering modern data management solutions to more than 1,200 customers. Together, we address customers’ most challenging data management pain points, especially data loss as a result of ransomware, internal bad actors, or accidental deletion.

To combat these concerns and provide a more flexible model for our joint customers, we’ve expanded our partnership with NetApp to offer Metallic® Office 365 Backup as a replacement for NetApp’s discontinued support for O365 backup. Commvault’s award-winning Metallic Data Management as a Service (DMaaS) provides the tools customers need to manage, migrate, access, and recover their data – no matter where it lives – while also reducing cost and risk. It’s everything you’d expect from an enterprise-grade solution, but with the simplicity and cost-savings of SaaS.

Today, the Metallic portfolio works seamlessly across NetApp’s data fabric and brings industry-leading DMaaS to customers’ hybrid workloads. Get a first look at how our solutions work together this week during Microsoft’s annual Inspire event

NetApp’s Only SaaS Backup Solution for Office 365 Data

The addition of Metallic®Office 365 Backup solves one of today’s biggest needs – broad-ranging protection for our customers’ most used Office 365 applications. From Exchange and Teams, to OneDrive, SharePoint, and more, companies rely on Office 365 applications to maintain day-to-day business operations, making the data within these applications critical. And while Microsoft manages the physical infrastructure and network elements of Office 365, the customer is responsible for their own O365 data. With Metallic® 

Office 365 Backup, customers get that extended long-term data retention they need, seamlessly safeguarding their business from deletion, corruption, and ransomware attacks. 

  • Complete Coverage: Metallic offers comprehensive SaaS protection across Office 365 applications, as well as unlimited Azure storage and retention. With granular restore, customers can effortlessly locate active or deleted data, rapidly recover from attack, and easily meet business SLA and compliance requirements. 
  • Hardened Security: Metallic’s multi-layered approach to security meets the most stringent of safety standards. Its built-in privacy protocols and zero-trust access controls, along with the ability to provide virtual air-gapped backup copies, safeguards customers’ most critical Office 365 data from data loss and threats.
  • Seamless SaaS: Metallic® Office 365 Backup removes the complexity of data backup and protection, offering hassle-free deployments, flexible subscriptions, and no maintenance and management requirements. With no hardware, installation, or large upfront capital investments and zero egress fees or hidden storage charges, Metallic has been proven to reduce costs, ensuring customers only pay for what they need.

Commvault and NetApp are leading the way in digital transformation – providing customers with the flexibility and security to manage and protect their data whenever they need it, wherever it resides. Together, we are offering customers the data protection and management strategy that is built to address the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Metallic® Office 365 Backup is available globally on the NetApp price book. 

Interested in seeing the solutions in action? Don’t forget to check us out this week at Microsoft Inspire! We’ll have demos, customer stories, on-demand sessions, and more!

TELUS Investing $220 Million In Edmonton This Year

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

TELUS announced today a $220 million investment across the City of Edmonton in 2022 as part of its $17 billion investment in operations, network infrastructure, and spectrum across the province now through 2026, creating 8,500 new jobs for Albertans and connecting more families and businesses to TELUS’ world-leading 5G and TELUS PureFibre networks. 

TELUS’ commitment to Edmonton extends well beyond investments in operations and infrastructure. Since 2000, TELUS along with its team members and retirees have provided more than $48 million in cash and program contributions, and volunteered more than 1.4 million hours of service in support of charities and community organizations located in Edmonton.

Across Alberta, TELUS’ significant investment of $17 billion now through 2026 also includes:

  • Creating new jobs to support Alberta’s growing economy Hiring 8,500 Albertans with a focus on construction, engineering, and emerging technologies at TELUS and through its vast partner ecosystem now through 2026.
  • Connecting nearly 1 million homes in Alberta TELUS will connect hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses across Alberta including in Airdrie, Calgary, Edmonton, Leduc, Lloydminster, Spruce Grove, and St. Albert. PureFibre is Alberta’s only 100 per cent pure fibre-to-the-home network and currently reaches nearly 1 million homes and businesses across the province. The symmetrical upload and download Internet speeds and nearly infinite bandwidth enabled only by PureFibre means everyone can work, stream, game, or make video calls at the same time. 
  • Delivering 5G to remote communities With the rollout of 3.5 GHz spectrum additions later this year, Albertans will have access to TELUS’ 5G network delivering an ultrafast and reliable wireless connection. Albertans living in some rural and remote communities are also some of the first in the country to access home Internet speeds of 100 Mbps through TELUS’ 5G fixed wireless network, using the capabilities of 5G to provide a powerful alternative to a wired Internet connection.
    • TELUS’ global-leading wireless network was rated the fastest mobile network for the eighth consecutive time by UK-based Opensignal, while also earning the title of North America’s Fastest Mobile Network and being named Canada’s Fastest Mobile Network by Seattle-based Ookla® for the ninth consecutive time.
  • 5G Core and Multi-Access Edge Computing TELUS will introduce its 5G standalone network this year and bring multi-access edge computing (MEC) capabilities that will further advance IoT and industry solutions that will enable important innovations for businesses and sectors, including health, agriculture, energy, transportation, and manufacturing.
    • Our network and crucial investments will support the digitization of the economy, and our transition to a sustainable future, including through optimisation of energy consumption at home, reduction of food waste or intelligent transport systems that result in fewer emissions.
  • Contributing to a greener Alberta and planet As a global leader in sustainability, TELUS’ network infrastructure and investments are helping us transition to a sustainable future through the digitization of the economy, including optimizing energy consumption at home and reducing food waste through its TELUS Agriculture solutions. 
    • The 2021 Sustainability Report outlines TELUS’ environmental, social, and governance strategy and priorities which includes the ambitious goal to use 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025. Moreover, TELUS’ world-leading wireless and wireline networks enable significant carbon avoidance by providing the networks required for TELUS team members and millions of Albertans to work remotely and avoid commuting; access education, healthcare, and social connections virtually; and enable other businesses to take their workforce virtual leading to less energy consumption in office buildings and fewer commuters on the road. 
    • To date, TELUS has planted more than 800,000 trees and by the time its millionth tree is planted later this year, it will have planted the equivalent of 20,000 acres of forest, which is nearly the size of Red Deer. 
  • Supporting Alberta’s Agriculture Industry TELUS Agriculture is investing in integrated data management software, helping to scale animal health technology to deliver valuable insights and enable a more sustainable, responsive food supply chain. With a comprehensive portfolio of grower and advisor solutions, TELUS Agriculture is helping to improve both productivity and profitability for farmers in Alberta, notably with field-specific nutrient management programs aimed at increasing fertilizer efficiency and maximizing yield potential.

Since 2000 through 2021, TELUS has invested $220 billion nationally in network infrastructure, operations and spectrum, including more than $60 billion in Alberta over the past century. The investments announced in this media release are consistent with TELUS’ capital expenditure guidance for 2021, released in the fourth quarter of 2020 earnings release dated February 11, 2021.

#Fail: Feelyou Exposes 70k Personal Emails

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

From the #Fail department comes the story of anonymous mental health app Feelyou who accidentally exposed 70,000 personal emails by failing to require any authentication to access the app’s GraphQL API.

That truly is a #Fail.

The vulnerability, discovered by security researcher Maia Arson Crimew, was patched over the weekend. Which is cold comfort if you use this app.

Yariv Shivek, VP of Product, Neosec had this comment:

“Healthcare APIs carry sensitive data and therefore must be secure. However, without proper automated controls – such as API monitoring – it’s hard to know when you’re providing sensitive information without correct authentication.”

This is really embarrassing for the makers of this app, and hopefully they take this opportunity to make sure that personal info stays secure.

Darktrace Launches PREVENT Product Family

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

Darktrace, a global leader in cyber security artificial intelligence, today announced the launch of Darktrace PREVENT™, an interconnected set of AI products that deliver a proactive cyber security capability to help organizations pre-empt future cyber-attacks. Darktrace PREVENT is the third product area in Darktrace’s delivery of a Cyber AI Loop, the industry-first set of AI capabilities which work together autonomously to optimize an organization’s state of security through a continuous feedback loop.  

The new Darktrace PREVENT product family is based on breakthroughs developed in the firm’s Cambridge Cyber AI Research Centre and the capabilities gained through the acquisition of Cybersprint in March 2022. PREVENT uses AI to ‘think like an attacker,’ finding pathways to an organization’s most critical assets from inside and outside. Underpinned by AI that ‘knows you,’ it continuously analyzes the most disruptive attacks for an organization and feeds that information back into DETECT and RESPOND to support continuous learning and automation to harden systems.  

A number of organizations in the US, UK and Northern Europe are early adopters of Darktrace PREVENT products, including the City of Las Vegas and Sedgwick, a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business solutions.  

Darktrace’s latest product family is set to proactively defend organizations against the heightened volume and sophistication of cyber threats, which is making identification and prioritization of their most pressing vulnerabilities increasingly difficult. In new data published today, Darktrace reveals that high-priority attempts to breach customer systems increased by 49% globally between January and June 2022. Over the same period, Darktrace saw a 138% increase in attempted cyber-attacks targeting customers in government-related sectors globally. In the month of June, the Information and Communication sector was the most highly targeted across Darktrace’s global customer base as it was in the US. In the UK, the most targeted industry was the public sector and government-related sectors.   

At the same time, security teams are contending with an ever-increasing volume of vulnerabilities, and they do not have the resources to fight on all fronts. With the launch of PREVENT, Darktrace provides more predictive and preventative solutions to tackle cyber threats and business risk – rather than waiting for breaches to occur before action is taken. In new data published today, based on external vulnerability data of over 150 organizations, Darktrace reveals that 85% of high-risk vulnerabilities are not patched within one week and 70% are still unpatched after one month. Defenders do not have the resources to fight on every front and they cannot simply be reactive anymore.  

Within Darktrace PREVENT, Darktrace today launches two new products. In addition, Darktrace is announcing major new releases to its existing Darktrace DETECT™ and Darktrace RESPOND™ product families, enabling all products to interact with one another as key components of the Cyber AI Loop.  

  • Darktrace PREVENT/E2E™ (End-to-End) – an outcomes-based approach to managing cyber risk, incorporating the best capabilities from across multiple disciplines including attack path modelling, automated penetration testing, breach & attack emulation, security awareness testing and training, and vulnerability prioritization. 
  • Darktrace PREVENT/ASM™ (Attack Surface Management) – AI performs reconnaissance on a specific target by simply knowing the name of the entity, with zero scope and delivering value across many use cases including shadow IT, supply chain, mergers & acquisitions, configuration errors, and many others. 
  • DETECT, RESPOND FEEDBACK LOOP – Existing capabilities integrated with Darktrace PREVENT/E2E and PREVENT/ASM reinforce one another to create a continuous feedback loop for always-on learning from the threat landscape. 

Many Canadian Organizations Face Significant Operational And Financial Barriers When It Comes To Adopting IoT: CDW Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

CDW Canada just released its latest Trends Report, The Workplace Evolution which examines how Canadian IT professionals are witnessing the digital transformation evolution in the workplace and the different ways they are implementing IoT and emerging technologies within their organization.  

Key findings include: 

  • Nearly all (96 percent) of Canadian organizations value IoT and emerging technologies, however, over one third (37 percent) are not adopting these technologies.  
  • Key barriers to IoT adoption include it not being a company priority (57 percent), lack of budget (34 percent) and lack of employee expertise/talent (30 percent). 
  • Most respondents believe that adopting IoT and emerging and transformative technologies can help improve operational efficiency (76 percent), increase data and information availability (70 percent) and improve the customer experience (68 percent).  
  • Organizations face challenges when it comes to the adoption of IoT. The top three risks and challenges organizations have experienced include increased security threats, such as cyberattacks and ransomware (64 percent), technology failure (61 percent) and maintenance requirements (54 percent). 

For more information, you can read the full report here and blog post here

HP Announces New HP LaserJet Managed E800/E700 Printers

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 19, 2022 by itnerd

Re-imagining the office experience, companies are resettingplans to cater tonew ways of working. Tasked with creating modern, andinspiring workplace environments, CIOs and ITDMs require the right technologies to enable a fast moving, digitally enabled workforce to be productive.

A recent survey by Morning Consult and commissioned by HP, polled 1,000 office workers in the US and Canada to find out what they appreciate (and had missed) most about the office. It turns out, what they really missed was printing. In fact, 57% of office workers surveyed said they missed their office printer more than a free lunch or happy hour.To address the need fora true workplace of the future, HP Inc. today introduced the HP LaserJet Managed E800/E700series, a new portfolio of multi-function printers that support and inspire a productivity-focused hybrid workforce, with intelligent solutions that can make work flow faster.

The HP LaserJet Managed E800/E700 series delivers:

  • Simplified Workflows & Boosted Productivity: The E800/E700 Flow series offers comprehensive workflow solutions with new FLOW 2.0 features, including the ability to make edits directly to your content on the control panel (highlight, redact – even simply sign), as well as customized shortcuts. Innovative Reverse and Retry technology detects and resolves double feed issues and paper jams aiding workflows to be kept at a premium.
  • Powerful, Fast Performance: Get more done faster; up to 70ppm fast printing speed and 300 ipm duplex scan speed powered by HP’s custom designed quad core processor. Utilizing autosensing technology, customers automatically save time with tone andcolor management, two-sided document detection and automatic job separation features.
  • Customizable and Sleek Design: Modern designs include five color panels to match your office decor and HP Flex Build for flexible configurations to meet different business needs.
  • World’s Most Secure Printing: A recent Morning Consult survey, commission by HP,found that 67% of ITDMs believe privacy and security in a flex work environment havebecome more complex, especially when it comes to printer security. With HP Wolf Enterprise Security, the HP LaserJet Enterprise E800/E700 series protects, detects, and self-recovers. These new devices also include HP Sure Start, Connection Inspector, Memory Shield™ active system monitoring and whitelisting.
  • Built-in Sustainability: Supports zero deforestation and help ssave resources with HP’s energy efficient printing.

The HP LaserJet Managed E800 series is expected to be available in North America on August 1 with expanded availability expected in select countries in Europe in October. The series will continue to roll out to additional countries this year and next. The HP LaserJet Managed E700 series is expected to be available in North America in September and select countries in Europe in October. The series will continue to roll out to additional countries this year and next.

For more information about the E800/E700 series, please visit http://www.hp.com/laserjet.